Dear All,
A very focused and concentrated session this week with a lot of effort and hard work put in. The results of this could clearly be seen in the last fifteen minutes or so of the session. However, in order to get to the point at which it became possible to initiate the play session, the technique had to become familiar and safe which you achieved to a high level. One thing that was really evident was the ease with which contact is now being made and the level of trust and sensitivity and these were key elements in the way you worked today. It enable the technique to be effective. Without the understanding of the new technique and a real feel for the practice of it, the work at the end would not have been such a delight to witness and so developmental in the execution of it; it was a committed and thoughtful piece of work.
The move from technique to play, to a more performative approach to the work was quite clear. It was very interesting to watch the body memory begin to emerge and past techniques and exercises form part of what you were producing.
Thus the body began to tell stories, to build relationships and to start to express emotions.
We would therefore like you to comment on the following:
1) To what extent did you recognise or experience the shift from the demonstrative body to the articulate body? What part did body memory play in this?
2) Did an emotional layer come into your work and if so how did that manifest itself? If not, then how do you think emotional content would affect the work you did today?
It is also important for me to go away and reflect on my own work today and on why it was that I was unable to relax sufficiently for that one demonstration.
And as a final thought:
How do these two numbers, 50:4, relate to each other?
Looking forward to your comments.
Paul
Bahok, Akram Khan Dance Company
Exploring Liminality
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22 comments:
Firstly I would like to say a very big well done to everyone is the group today as I felt the level of focus was immense today. I am not as aching as the previous sessions but I think that is because my body has adjusted to the level of physical work that will be taking place.
I noticed a change in the demonstrative body quite somewhat today. For me, body memory helped me lots today mainly for a few reasons. I believe that I found it instantly helped me from the second we lay on the floor because I knew that my body was not positioned well and managed to correct this straight away through the process of body memory because we had ran the exercise for a few weeks therefore my body knows what is right and what is wrong. When working with Lizzy I found it very interesting also to apply the skills which have been taught to us through the 4 sessions and this also had a large impact on my body memory because I think I would be able to work with someone else and apply that knowledge instantly.
An emotional layer came into play for me at the end of the session when I allowed my memory to run wild with me. I think this was apparent for my work because I remained 100% focused even when Lizzy dropped my on my head I just got on with me and moved on, I think being dropped brought another emotional layer to the piece for me as it represented someone beating me up and I went and found myself another partner, this was not simply because I did not trust Lizzy because this was not the case because I did. It was simply because I wanted to show what happened to “my story” with another partner and I think this became applied when I was working with Leigh-Anne.
After today I feel like I am ready for anything which Royona and Paul throw at me so I cannot wait for next week’s session.
In relation to 50:4 it made me instantly think of today’s attendance as that was a big issue for myself and the rest of the group.
Hi all, Thanks for a great session today. I think its safe to say we all took a leap in our journeys today, however high that leap may be.
Firstly I would like to comment on my spine. Before todays session, I haven't been entirely sure whether the maximum area of my spine has been in contact with the floor, but after todays session it's quite sore and I've got red marks down my back. I think this has a lot to do with the movements we were manipulated into doing (the loosening of the spine caused friction between my back and the floor) but even though it may not be the best way to discover if my positioning is right, I now know that the majority of my spine is in fact in contact with the floor.
1) What stood out to me today was how relaxed and in control I automatically felt today once I lay down. I felt I didn't have to think about the warm up and the neutral position at all, and my body lead me into it. Obviously I was more aware of the new additions to the warm up, but I instantly noticed that I had already done the first part without thinking about it. It was almost as if I 'woke up' and was in neutral, only vaguely aware of going from laying down and so on.
This is proof to me that the techniques have imprinted on my body, and they are even affecting my everyday movements. I sit on the floor a lot at home as I've always found it more comfortable, but now I don't just stand up. I seem to go through a process of tucking my legs around me to under my bum and getting up that way, which is quite strange!
2) Whereas other people commented on feeling emotions such as betrayal etc, I personally felt a playful type of emotion whilst working with Nicola. To me, it felt more like we were using each other as lego, or playdoh in a way (I know that sounds strange-its the only way I can explain!) It was all about experiment and seeing how far we could go with each other. There was a certain level of emotion there, but it was on more of a playful, curious level for me.
As Daniel has said, 50:4 automatically makes me think of the number of students missing from today. It was a large chunk of the class, and although it may sound selfish, I feel that the only way it will affect me personally is if I have to work with someone who has missed out and who isn't prepared or ready to go onto the next stage as then it will be unsafe for me.
As I've said, and I don't wish to come across as selfish, but at the end of the day it's their journey they're messing up, not mine and if people don't feel committed enough to attend then it really is them who are missing out.
Todays session showed how far we've come in 4 weeks, not only as individuals but also as a group.
I know I've written a lot, but I'd just like to say that Paul's struggle with relaxation today was kind of a reassurance for me. I don't mean it in a funny way, just that Paul and Royona are actually in the same boats as us in a way - no matter how much experience they have, they're still constantly learning too. I do think it had a lot to do with Royona catching Paul by suprise and altering the lesson, but it just goes to show - They're human too!
Thanks everyone, I really enjoyed today! See you next week.
Thanks to Paul and Royona for a great session on Friday.
With reference to the move between demonstrative techniques for the body and articulating them into movement .Body memory came for me without even realising it at this stage, it kind of felt instinctual. However with the warm up at the start of the session when Royona said we got into position wrong and for those who knew they did it wrong to redo it, I struggled greatly as I had no idea weather the way I was doing it was right or wrong in the first place.
Emotionally speaking I felt a great connection with Elle for most of the time when we were doing the movement to music at the end of the session. However there were still moments when my concentration slipped and I belive that although I have progressed quite well over the last few weeks in my opinion, I am still nowhere near close to overcoming my inhibitions. This said its a nice feeling to know that I am making steps toward it.
As for the link between 50:4 ,I believe that four goes into fifty twelve times with a remainder of two.
Alex
I really enjoyed the session on Friday,and like Daniel I'm not aching as much this week but again I think my body is adjusting to the work, as I am using more muscles and parts of my body each week. I think getting back into the habbit of stretching again has also helped.
1)Every week I have enjoyed using the demonstrative body learning new things that i never thought I could do, and I think we all took this to the next level this week. For one on the intimacy of the work, how freely we have been able to learn the techniques which entail so much body contact. I honestly thought it would take longer to break down the barriers of everybody, but how we have come together as a group is amazing. And I think everyone felt a sense of release when the switch from the demonstrative body and articulate body came into play.
. It was really interesting how, without realising, my body memory came into play when practicing the articulate body, as I just started to recall all the things I had learnt, and that time round didn't hurt my legs as much, thankfully!
2)For me personlly I think the style of music enhanced everybodies emotions, which were reflected in the play, I think that the music subconsiously set the tone for the play. I don't think it that important that it dominated the work but I do think for me that it influenced the tone of piece. The movements we had learnt, to me felt quite harsh and and the music backed up this feeling. However I didn't really feel a story emerge just emotion. But i was that wrapped up in what we were doing I didn't notice that other people were not just doing the work with there partners, so in way I feel like I missed out on that part as there are more options when your not just working with one person.
When doing the rolling exercise with crystal during the 15 minutes at the end , I think that was when Royona commented on our work, I didn't feel like i was just doing an exercise, I felt like I had a sense of meaning, and that for me was the most emotional part of the session.
As for the 50:4 im really not good with numbers so I pressume it may be something to do with attendance, but only because the other guys have written it on the blog. But I don't know how 50:4 relates to the number of people missing in out session??? Thats actually a puzzler, but I'm so thick with maths it's probably something really simple. If it does relate to attendance can someone tell me how please???
xxx
I really enjoyed the last lesson so much. I feel that the more I do the more physically and mentally I am growing as an actor.
1) In Fridays lesson was the first time that I had manage to physically see and feel the difference between demonstrative and articulate body. Even thought I have only been to three lessons I can also feel my body memory developing, by this I mean I am finding it easier to get in to certain positions with out having to repeat the same routine over and over again to get it right.
2) For the first time in doing these sessions i felt a strong emotional layer. I could feel this emotional layer through out the rest of the group. I felt very focused and put a lot of effort time and concentration into the lesson, so much that after i felt emotionally drained.
I feel that it is very important for us to go away and reflect on our work. Not just only in this lesson but in every thing that we do for us to develop and go further and develop as individuals it is very important for us to recap on the things we do.
I also do not really understand the 50:4. But in regards to what other people have commented about I also was not impressed by the turn out in Fridays lesson, thing really need to change.
Natalie McCalla
1) This session I left feeling amazed as to how far we'd come as a group. I don't believe that I actually noticed the shift between the demonstrative body and the articulate body until the final section of the session. When we started in our pairs recalling via body memory things we'd learnt, Leigh-Anne and I weren't just demonstrating the skills our body had learnt over the past month, we were telling a story. Body memory played quite a dominant role in enabling each of us to perform specific movements without one person telling their partner what they were going to do. It also enabled the movements to be conducted safely entirely resulting from body memory. If our bodies hadn't learned and remembered how it felt to hold someone's weight correctly, or how to fall feet first and catch ourselves with minimal stress to the body, there would have been more than one accident when we began allowing ourselves to create a relationship and story using just our body memory.
2)An emotional layer definitely came into my work this session. After last week I think everybody that came today were much more focused and as a result, the work today was far greater than it would have been otherwise. I think this level of dedication from those who actually turned up helped us all to become emotionally involved with the stories being told around us as well as the relationship with our partners.
I think the emotional layer has been beginning to manifest over the weeks we've been doing Process and Performance. The trust exercises and the manner in which all of us are becoming less inhibited by social or personal boundaries or limitations and are challenging ourselves each week is making it mush easier to allow emotion into our work.
With consideration to today's work, the exercise to relax the spine with our partners jolting our knees and then positioning their weight on us helped me to trust my partner more. I also think it helped to relax her as the exercise entailed communication on both parts via the body. This was beneficial in the final part of the session where we became a 'couple'. overall I feel that the emotional content made the work produced much more powerful than it may otherwise have been. I also feel that by allowing emotion into the work, the stories being created were more plausible as there was clear expression and meanings that could be read by any audience.
50:4, how do they relate? Literally, as Alex pointed out 50 is 4 multiplied 12 times with a remainder of 2. HOwever, as we're discussing the body, is it something to do with the vertebrates of our spine that we have and the amount we use most often? Or the muscles on the back and the amount we actually use on a day-to-day basis.
If it's none of the above, I'd conform and say that it's the ratio for attendance.
Speaking of which, I agree that I am angry at the lack of dedication by some students and have been discussing today how I wouldn't feel safe working with people who've missed lessons. I think the thing to realise is that this is a degree, our degree and it affects each of our futures. The people who miss lectures know this as well but they choose to miss the lecture. I think the measures Paul and Royona mentioned taking after November will be really effective. However I am worried that there will be people who've missed most of the introductory sessions who turn up after November and think it'll be fine to perform when their body has missed so much work.
Aside from my query over attendance, I thoroughly enjoyed this session and am surprised myself at how flexible my body is becoming and how much it has developed in just a month! I left the lecture feeling elated! See you all Friday,
Michaelauk
hello everyone,
Once we moved from the demonstrative body to articulate body the movement began to flow much easier. I found that body memory had a key factor in this as I didn’t need to analyse what I was doing my body just did it and the movement flowed.
The music used helped me connect to the movement and there fore an emotional layer was created. However, when the music changed it had no effect on my emotions developed and my pace remained the same.
For me Fridays session was by far my favourite sessions of them all purely because we were able to put into practise the skills that we had learned and watching them being put into a performance made me realise that such a small exercise can go a long way.
With this part of the question I’m not 100% sure on what it means, but I’m still going to have a go at answering it. The way I understand it, is from when we transferred from simply doing the tasks set into when we put them into our performance at the end of the session. If it is that then for me there wasn’t a great shift but I felt a greater sense of achievement with actually putting the skills learnt into practise and to actually see other people doing them as well. Without giving a complete disregard to the previous sessions I enjoyed putting on a performance because individually as well as with other people we were able to show how we would use the skills learnt.
If my answer was completely going in the wrong direction then please let me know.
For the second part of the question I think yes. From a personal experience I was working with David, where normally we have a laugh and a joke with each other but immediately we both knew that there wasn’t any need for that and that we needed to step up a gear and build on our characters roles a lot more. The emotional layer began to grow all through out the performance and when it ended I felt so involved with mine and David’s relationship I didn’t want it to end.
With regard for the 50:4 personally I don’t have a clue, sorry.
Zara's Comments:
Hi to all,
Friday’s lesson was abosolutely phernomanal, for me the best lesson yet! The sessions just keep on getting better.. I’m looking forward to next week.
I think I am feeling this way partly due to how you now can start to see where all the learning techniques come in use and how you are able to look slightly into the furture in a wierd way. Where all the hard work in the lessons beforehand of the warm ups, learning cartain techniques and body movements all emerge and helps to create a final performance.
What I found interesting was how our play with the movements became a strong piece to watch whilst atcually being unaware.
For myself at the end of the lesson, where we was given the freedom to explore our bodies and recall past movements learnt.
I found it theraputic. I enjoyed the fact that I didnt have to really think, but left that process to my body and what it remembered.
There where times where I didnt succeed in doin a particular movement ie, the fall. Which at times did knock my confidence, but then I carried on and tried it again.. until I succeded. However when did succeed I didnt just stop but did it again and again so that my body would get used to the move and reconise the right and wrong way to move.
Whilst in the play session I did feel emotion. I felt vulnerable, manipulated and controlled by my partner.
I know some people in the class where thinking and developing charcters in thier head of who they were, what they were doing, and where they were going next.
I didnt find myself doing this, my mind really didnt play a big part in my moves, however still conscience of what I was doing and the thought that I felt a certain way; my body did the communicating.Therefore am not to sure how it atcually looked if was to watch it as a audience member.
Early on in the lesson, we had a task where our partner would push us slightly on the floor and when ready roll them unto themselves.
In this excercise you was meant to be realxed, however I was to relaxed and felt out of it not really aware of my surroundings and in some words ready to go to sleep and out of this world. However Royona made clear that it’s good to be relaxed we must as actors be aware of whats going on ready to do the next thing.
Which I felt I captured and got right in the play session at the end.
The numbers 50:4
When I looked at this I felt that they do not relate at all, which makes them relate becuase of its unrelatedness.
1.Body memory played a definite part in this shift. I see the demonstrative body as just a trained body, watching something and then demonstrating it back, but to transform into the articulate body it goes beyond the task, beyond just copying a movement. When working on Friday, within the last 15minutes or so, I felt the shift into articulate body as me and Marie started to do exercises from the previous lectures – exercises that once took us all lesson to complete, now could be done easily through body memory. We took those exercises further than we had done in the lecture, therefore moving away from just demonstrating, adding our own layers for the articulate.
2.I think me and Marie could have pushed our emotional layer. At the time I don’t think we were aware of what other people were doing, but after hearing about how far some people had pushed it, it would have been good to have really added some different emotional layers like anger or betrayal etc Also, some people swapped partners, and I would have liked to experience what this was like as I think Marie and I had become very comfortable working with each other and therefore I felt we were more set in our comfortable ways. Saying that, when we were asked to add this emotional content, a playful relationship did seem to naturally emerge, which neither of us would have predicted. I think that’s why I am interested to see what would happen with someone else, as I think something different would manifest each time.
And as for the numbers...very cryptic of the lecturers this week! Im not sure at all, 50 people has been the mean average over 4weeks?
Brilliant lecture everyone, look forward to seeing even more stuff we can do!
Nicola
Missing Fridays lesson due to illness has made me feel like i have missed so much already, from reading the comments it looks like everyone has developed even further and im looking forward to the session on Friday.
With regards to the question, i felt in the last session in particualar i am beginning to use my mind and brain less and less when it comes to my movements. Especially movements and techniques we have demonsrated over the last four weeks. I feel this is when my body recognised the shift between the demonstrative body to the articulate. Body memory is beginning to register, remember and recognise movements extrememly quickly compared to when we began the module. I feel we are not only learning techniques of how to move across the space using our bodys and others, but we are also training our body to speeden the process of body memory. I feel that the shift to the articulate body will become more defined as we go further in the process.
For myself personally i felt my emotional layer did come into the session but only during the last 15 minutes, when we were able to express ourselves. I feel to let your body do this your emotions need to come out.In my opinion my emotional layer only came into my work towards the end of the session due to as when we are learning techniques we are all very focused and making sure we get it right aswell as being neautral. but when it comes to putting these movements together especially with a partner i felt using the relationship and closeness of the certain person you are working with this makes it easier to let your emotional layer come through.
1) I noticed a significant shift in the body between the demonstrative and the articulate. Through the demonstrative exercises and the repetition of technique my body memory had developed to the point that it could participate in the physical play that emerged from the final performance exercise.
I noticed that depending how i moved in relation to my partner that my body realised it was in a position to perform a certain technique. It is almost as though my body memory had constructed a series of 'reference points' that led to the initiation of technique.
However, this developed further as the exercise continued and I felt that my body was learning to play with the idea of these reference points, it would travel up to the point but then explore different ways to continue. I found this led to a more interesting and organic nature to the work.
2) In regards to an emotional layer to the piece, I must confess this didn't really happen for me during the session. This was because early on in the session I had aggravated my bad knee which was causing me a lot of pain throughout the rest of the workshop, therefore I found any emotional consciousness was being drawn towards my knee (those emotions being predominantly anger and frustration towards it).
Hopefully, my knee injury will calm down and i will be able to continue to develop.
The numbers 50 and 4 are both even, have common factors of 2. Other than that I am not sure exactly of the relationship between the two numbers.
The concept of ‘body memory’ is a term that personally, I find, has quite a cryptic and versatile sense of explanation and purpose, only in the sense that throughout our lives we have rehearsed our movements, gestures and habits to a point where we do not see them as a part of our physical psyche but as an entity that merely exists without a particular sense of being. This is exactly the same feelings I have towards the expression of ‘demonstrative’ and ‘articulate’.
When trying to embrace the concept of neutrality, demonstration and articulation should be detached due to the fact we should be doing rather than concerned with the idea of thinking then moving then performing an exercise in a demonstrative or articulated manor. Only this is not possible, things must be demonstrated and we must rehearse as this is the only way we can learn, like we learn to read and write through rehearsal this is exactly the same with body memory.
Personally, my body began to articulate the tasks from quite an early point throughout several of the workshops, but I was surprised to find how much of the theory and practice my body had retained when placing weeks worth of physical activity into such an instantaneous scenario.
The manifestation of emotion is so difficult to discuss due to the debate regarding music as a factor on the piece or as a stimulation of what our bodies are now capable of. During the final exercise, I tried to maintain a sense of neutrality try to simply allow someone else to take me on a journey, not so much the music. This proved really interesting, not just the movement and emotion within the physical activity but the trust that I placed in each person, no one no more or no less, simply allowing them to invite me into their journey.
Moving on from this mass waffle and the academic bit…trust, you can’t build it with people who aren’t actually there and probably aren’t evening reading this but those people might be a little shocked when people don’t want to work with them simply because they don’t want to feel unsafe and secondly, you’re holding them back on their own journey. 50:4? Out of Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Eastenders and Hollyoaks (4), how many characters roughly find out who their real Father’s are? Just a thought.
1) In the last 15 minutes of Friday’s session our movements became a performance, but it wasn’t until the session was over, and I reflected on what I had just done, that I realised the shift from the demonstrative body to the articulate body. I was so focused at the time that every move I made seemed to come surprisingly naturally to me, and flow without much effort at all.
For me this showed that my body memory was doing all the “thinking” for me. All the techniques that we had learnt at the beginning of the session and in previous weeks came back to me with no thought at all. When I was in a certain position my body knew exactly where it could go from there and how each muscle had to work to achieve this. My movements had become articulate and I can imagine from watching us working, it would be easy to pick up some sort of narrative.
2) During the last part of the session I really felt that an emotional layer came into our work, but it surprised me how unforced and spontaneous it was. After the session some people commented on how they felt as though they were being “cheated on” when their partner left them during the exercise, or when someone else came along they were “having an affair”. I have to say I quite didn’t get this while I was working. I definitely felt different emotions, but there was no narrative or pretend storyline attached, it just didn’t enter my head. I suppose because I didn’t find myself thinking about it, the emotion became more organic and real.
For example when Michaela walked away and left me halfway through the exercise, I genuinely felt very vulnerable. Then at the end when she came back to me I felt a sense of relief, it was as though she had saved me from being alone and I was content again. Again, I’m sure a story could be developed from a spectator’s point of view, but as the performer all I had were my emotions.
I think the numbers 50:4 must relate to attendance as we discussed this at length at the end of the session. Maybe only 50 people have attended all 4 weeks, but I can’t think if there are that many people in the module, so perhaps only 50% of the class have attended all 4 weeks, if so that’s pretty poor. Having said that though, it is only their progression they are affecting, if there is no genuine reason for not turning up then it is their choice, and they are missing out (apologies to people who have had genuine reasons). It has been said, and I agree I wouldn’t feel entirely safe working with someone who has missed so much, also I wouldn’t feel I could push myself in the way I have been so far and I really don’t want my development to be restricted.
I don't feel I'm able to comment in depth about the transition from the demonstrative body to the articulate body. I grasp the concept of it but physically I was in a lot of discomfort last session. I tried to shut out the feeling of discomfort but in order to do so I switched off any emotion I really had to let through. This is something I know I will have to work on.
Emotions were hard for me to find last session I think as time goes on I will be able to apply that pain I felt to an emotion and let it out that way. I couldn't get relaxed enough to do that. This is all such a shame as I feel I really missed out on the session given everyone else comments.
What I find remarkable is that given how I feel like I missed out a lot and now feel behind in the work - how must the people feel who missed the whole lesson?
I've been thinking about the 50:4 ratio for a few days now I can honestly say I didn't have a clue until we got the email this morning so I would guess it means 50% of the class have attended 4 lessons.
At first, during the performance at the end of the lecture, my partner and I were struggling to get around the floor as we felt we should keep with the pace of the music and the added pressure of little space was challenging. We could do the exercise where the weight was distributed enough to push Leyna across the floor, when reversed it wasn't working well so we had to come up with other exercises to do. The music change helped the progress of the piece as I stopped wondering what to do and just played with what we both knew. This I felt was when we stopped trying to show what we could do and just moved together. I found it really effective when Leyna lifted me off the floor onto her lap as I was fully relaxed (which didn't happen in the exercise). Unfortunatly this level of articulation didn't last long as I soon started to wonder what to do next. I couldn't just switch off and enjoy the movements because of the health and safety risks. I felt body memory was significant in this because I noticed that we could do certain exercises fine but when the partnership was reversed we struggled. I'm guessing this is down to an unequal amount of time spent with me holding Leyna's weight than her holding mine. Resulting in a lack of body memory for us both when the roles were reversed.
Emotion was key to this piece of work, and although the music helped this, it could've been established in silence. Leyna and I were trying too hard to get things right that it didn't flow which came through in the emotions of the performance. We both got frustrated but were determined to make things work. When the music changed we were at a point where we felt more comfortable with the exercise and the emotion came through well as we weren't trying to demonstrate any more.
When Amy came into the space and started working with Leyna I felt isolated, betrayed almost, because I had worked all morning with Leyna and all of a sudden was pushed out. I hadn't realised until then that a lot of people had changed partners. The emotion surprised me as I didn't think I had a strong connection to Leyna.
As for what 50:4 mean i'm guessing 50% of the class have been absent for at least once over the past 4 weeks.
Also I didn't feel any pain this week - I'm not sure whether that is because I had been to the gym more or whether I didn't put as much effort in.
See you all on Friday
Sarah
When faced with this question I didn’t know what a Demonstrative or Articulate body was; so having looked up the two words in the dictionary I was able to transfer my understanding of the words to how they would relate to the body and movements.
Demonstrative: ‘adj tending to show one’s feelings unreservedly’ (Collins 2000)
Articulate: ‘adj 1 able to express oneself clearly and coherently’ (Collins 2000)
At the end of last session, I felt as if my body was moving with more meaning. This may be due to having complete freedom of expression; or it may be due to the shifting from my demonstrative body to my articulate body. In elaboration I feel as if my personal journey is growing, more so in the last session, as, in the last 15 minutes of the session I felt as if I was having control over my movements, and everything my partner and myself did was done with a purpose. It may not have been vocalised as to why we were doing what we were doing, but there was intention to what were we doing (articulate body). In comparison to the first two sessions where we had freedom to move with our partners, but it wasn’t controlled, and all movements were done without thought and reason (demonstrative body).
Body memory played an important role in working in the last session. But I didn’t actually think about it until I saw this question. I think some things like lying on my back on the floor, are becoming an automated response and part of my bodily norm.
As said in the discussion after the session, for the first time in this module, I felt emotionally vulnerable. I didn’t think this was possible being only a couple of weeks into the module, and also as we were just asked to put on a performance between partners but ‘Emotion in theatre and in life is the same thing, although the means of conveying this emotion are different.’ (Drain 1995) I think I have found a weakness in myself that I didn’t know was there. Even though I like to spend time by myself, when my partner left me lying on the floor, even though there was a class full of other bodies, I felt as if I were the only person in that space and I felt emotionally torn, at the fact that I had just been left alone. When my partner returned I was just hoping that he wouldn’t leave me again. I have never to my knowledge felt vulnerable in a situation, but those last 15minutes, I felt a lot of things that I haven’t experienced before.
I also believe that music played a key role in my emotions, because when the music came on, and was then changed, the context of our ‘performance’ changed. It was as if the music became a means of communication between partners, it aided in the creation of a story.
I saw these numbers when Paul wrote the blog on Friday. This is probably one of the reasons why it has taken me so long to complete my response. I have tried so hard to try and find a connection, I have asked people, I have searched the internet, but I am completely stumped. It has been like an itch that I cannot scratch, this 50:4 has bugged me all weekend, because I don’t like being faced with a question and not being able to answer it. I think that’s my stubbornness. I bet it will be something really simple like there’s 50 weeks of this module and we are on our 4th. But that would be wrong because there is only 52 weeks in a year.
Bibliography
Collins Pocket Dictionary. (2000). 4th edition. UK: Harper Collins
DRAIN, R. (1995) Twentieth-century Theatre: A Sourcebook. London, Routledge
I must add to my post. In regards to the numbers 50:4. After reading through everyone’s posts. I must agree with Leanne, having read Royona's e-mail she sent today (I don’t know how it didn’t click when I read it). I think its 50% of students have attended all 4 weeks. This, I agree really disappointing, because this is a module that you have chosen to do. If you don’t feel like coming to the lecture, why choose it. Obviously some people have genuine reasons as to why they were not there. But some people haven’t and must understand how much you miss, by not attending one session, some people even more than that. It puts us at a disadvantage and more so it puts you at a disadvantage. For me last session I progressed so much in my personal journey, and obviously everyone progresses at different stages, but I feel as if people have missed out on that opportunity to develop themselves more. I look forward to seeing you all in Friday’s session.
1) In my opinion a demonstrative body is the one which is trying and slowly adjusting to a new technique. It is the body in the early stage of the work. This body becomes the articulate one when it is ready to easily repeat and present a motion from a new, learnt technique. A fresh move or a stance or a sequence is added and mastered by body memory. Body memory is the key element of this body shifting process. The more efficient, the better, the body memory trained is, the faster it learns. But I think that reaching this level of experience is a long distance to go. As far as I am concerned, I could find substitutes of the articulate body during the last fifteen minutes of the session when I remembered about one of the exercises from the earlier meetings. I mean the task with bending down and thrusting legs back before palms land on a floor. It was an impulse, I just thought about the exercise and I think I did it correctly. In my opinion, my body memory has known this motion already.
2) Honestly there was not a deep emotional layer in my work on last session. I was just focusing to make a stance, task in the right way. However, the presence of music somehow made my body more excited, ready for a challenge of trying different poses from earlier sessions, not only repeating the last one. I did not feel lots of emotion inside my body and I did not create a story with it. Maybe if I swapped my partner or move to another part of the room I could have felt more emotional. I will try it next time.
I have already read the e-mail from Royona so the relation of the numbers 50:4 is that 50% of drama students have attended all 4 sessions so far. It is not a satisfying result. I am sure that we can do better than that because this is a really important, enriching module for us, future performers.
1. I stayed fully focused on what Royona and Paul were demonstrating and actually tried my best this time, this is because in the previous sessions I had a lack of focus, I always felt so self-conscious. My Body in the past couple of weeks has not engaged in the activities as much as everyone else, probably because Ive had such a barrier with most of the people in that particular class, but this time i felt my body was really getting comfortable with the work demonstrated and automatically it blocked that barrier of self consciousness and what other people were thinking of me. I felt that my back automatically knew how to position itself on the floor in a certain posture, this felt weird and good at the same time, because the excersises felt less painful.
2. There was no emotional layer in the previous sessions but in the session just gone I did feel as if I emoted in some sense. The feeling of aggravation took over me because I wanted to get things right and not mess up, but that led me to being rigid, one example is when Royona came up to me in one of the exercises and Gavin was doing the pull and push technique, whilst I was on the floor and Royona had picked up my forearm and it felt heavy. I was making Gavin pull false weight and this is what I need to overcome, I need to be more relaxed.
Great session guys. I absolutly loved every second of it.
I'm sorry guys but absense is really bothering me. Turn up guys, you have no idea how important it is, and what you are missing out on.
1. I beleive that my body shifted gradually throughout the session from demonstrative body to the articulate body. For example, the first few times me and my partner would do the 'supporting' excersise I would think about it, then execute it a few times. Then again but concentrating more on just letting go of tension and nervousness. We then tried it with our eyes closed which was quite emotional and amazing, this was when I noticed the shift in to the articulate body. Body memory was so important thoughout this shift. As letting your body remember rather than your mind, means that you can feel such emotion in your actions.
2.As I have previously stated, my body memory let me feel such emotion in the class. I beleive that I got more and more emotional throughout the lecture. When we did the laying on the floor excersise with our partners, I actually felt like my partner was really looking after me. My emotion grew greater and greater as the lecture went on, especially in the last 'performance' we did. I felt so comfortable with the whole of the group which meant that all my mind was focused on was pure emotion. As my body memory was looking after my actions.
50:4
That ratio reminds me of school. Maths lessons and how difficult I sometimes hated them.
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