Choreographing

The central part of the film was a dance sequence. During the dance, roles and balances were inverted, psychologies revealed, and power exposed. In theory, that was all very nice. I have no experience in choreography, neither have Joy or Nghi. So we recruited a choreographer, on starnow. Two people answered our call, but Flic was a clear favorite from the start. She had recently arrived in Melbourne, and I felt she would soon be a star on the scene. She exuded professionalism, sympathy, clarity, something warm, efficient, and passionate.

I called her after a week and another interview, just in case, to confirm that we would collaborate. Enthusiasm on both parts. I quickly ran through the idea again in a mail - how the dance evolved, and what it had to achieve. And then we organized a meeting, one morning, to run through it.

I arrived at a random cafe down an office building on Queen's road with Joy. Flic was giving a class there afterwards, and had asked us to come and meet her there. She was extremely busy, but willing to see us all the same. I immediately liked her for that. She quickly exposed her ideas about the dance sequence. It was in line with what I wanted. Tango inspired footwork, entangled arms, torso pushing, a mock-fall, a chase. We sectioned our minute of 'dancing-fighting' into 6 units of ten seconds approximately, with a focus on heads, or legs, or arms, or torsos in each of them.

And then Flic ran off to her dance class, while Joy and I tramed back to our respective jobs in the city. Relieved, happy, thrilled! We knew where we were going now; and knew Flic would take us there.