We will be having workshops with the Jasmin Vardimon Company on Friday 16th January at the Drama Department!
Details to follow….watch this space!
Royona & Paul
Bahok, Akram Khan Dance Company
Exploring Liminality
Friday 28 November 2008
If music be the food of Physical Theatre...play on - 27th November 2008
I would like this opportunity the express out thanks again for the mature way in which you handled the fire alarm situation and the speed and efficacy of your return to a state ready for work. Although not a blog question, it may be worth reflecting on your level of commitment to the process now and how you might have reacted to this morning’s situation three or four weeks ago.
As always the way with this genre of work, there is a need to explore fully during the process section of the work all those elements that impact on the performance phase.
Hence this morning’s session which in some ways pulled the rug from under your feet – and it won’t be the last time this happens!
Hopefully you now have a better understanding of the correlation between music and movement and perhaps recognising that in the past you may have had an instant response to a sound, rhythm or beat, but one based on hearing rather than listening – and we all do that at some time. Maybe now you will respond in a different way. Some of you will know that in the guise of a crazy man in Scenography 1 I told you to open your eyes – I’m now asking you to open your ears.
Bob Fripp, the guitarist with King Crimson, the first band we heard, in an interview in Melody Maker in 1974 said of his playing technique and of the sources he draws from:
"I needed music, and music needed me. If you accept that I needed music, then this also involves responsibilities. Because of what I received, I have responsibilities, and I can discharge these as a player." Retrieved from "http://www.elephant-talk.com/wiki/Interview_with_Robert_Fripp_in_Melody_Maker_%281974%29"
Each of these kinds of music (His sources, jazz, rock and so on) exist on different levels. There's the particular kind of feeling associated with each of them, and there's the separate vocabularies needed to express those feelings. What my guitar technique will do is enable is enable musicians to move more freely from one form of music to another since, in learning the technique, his personality will be put under sufficient stress that he will not only develop emotionally and mentally, but the feelings involved will change his personality. In other words, it's not so much a guitar technique as a way of life.
Fripp in Melody Maker; 1974
In the same music paper, Mike Giles the drummer adds:
"[…] everybody had been doing things which were unsatisfying... and somehow we created an opportunity to do what we wanted. And that wasn't, really, to play anybody else's music. So we didn't go for music that sounded like blues, or jazz, or rock, or... Led Zeppelin, or Rolling Stones... We didn't want to be like any of the other bands. We wanted to find out what *we* were like, what we could create [...]"
Giles;Melody Maker 1974
Both have resonances with our ways of working with the body.
You were also required to work practically in a different way today; with a set task but without direction, self – supported, and with an end product for audience consumption. It was interesting to watch the pieces evolve and to note the techniques beyond the strategy taught to you that you as large groups employed. The following quote from notes about devising on Stan’s Cafe website may help you evaluate and reflect on your own practices:
"The clever thing is to spot what has potential and to follow it up, refine it, expand on it and make it into something great. You must be realistic and you mustn't be down hearted. You must give good feedback to each other, this means honest and constructive criticism. Remember, if you think what you're doing isn't very good, the chances are the audience won't either; sort it out!"
Stan’s Café; 2007
Please respond to the following:
1.Comment on your responses to the music and to the task of listening rather than hearing.
2. How did the relationship between the music and the task you were set affect the way you worked and the performance you made?
3. Comment on the devising process, how you managed the task and how creative that process was.
4. What was your response to having to use pedestrian movement as opposed to the more stylised work we have dome to date?
As always the way with this genre of work, there is a need to explore fully during the process section of the work all those elements that impact on the performance phase.
Hence this morning’s session which in some ways pulled the rug from under your feet – and it won’t be the last time this happens!
Hopefully you now have a better understanding of the correlation between music and movement and perhaps recognising that in the past you may have had an instant response to a sound, rhythm or beat, but one based on hearing rather than listening – and we all do that at some time. Maybe now you will respond in a different way. Some of you will know that in the guise of a crazy man in Scenography 1 I told you to open your eyes – I’m now asking you to open your ears.
Bob Fripp, the guitarist with King Crimson, the first band we heard, in an interview in Melody Maker in 1974 said of his playing technique and of the sources he draws from:
"I needed music, and music needed me. If you accept that I needed music, then this also involves responsibilities. Because of what I received, I have responsibilities, and I can discharge these as a player." Retrieved from "http://www.elephant-talk.com/wiki/Interview_with_Robert_Fripp_in_Melody_Maker_%281974%29"
Each of these kinds of music (His sources, jazz, rock and so on) exist on different levels. There's the particular kind of feeling associated with each of them, and there's the separate vocabularies needed to express those feelings. What my guitar technique will do is enable is enable musicians to move more freely from one form of music to another since, in learning the technique, his personality will be put under sufficient stress that he will not only develop emotionally and mentally, but the feelings involved will change his personality. In other words, it's not so much a guitar technique as a way of life.
Fripp in Melody Maker; 1974
In the same music paper, Mike Giles the drummer adds:
"[…] everybody had been doing things which were unsatisfying... and somehow we created an opportunity to do what we wanted. And that wasn't, really, to play anybody else's music. So we didn't go for music that sounded like blues, or jazz, or rock, or... Led Zeppelin, or Rolling Stones... We didn't want to be like any of the other bands. We wanted to find out what *we* were like, what we could create [...]"
Giles;Melody Maker 1974
Both have resonances with our ways of working with the body.
You were also required to work practically in a different way today; with a set task but without direction, self – supported, and with an end product for audience consumption. It was interesting to watch the pieces evolve and to note the techniques beyond the strategy taught to you that you as large groups employed. The following quote from notes about devising on Stan’s Cafe website may help you evaluate and reflect on your own practices:
"The clever thing is to spot what has potential and to follow it up, refine it, expand on it and make it into something great. You must be realistic and you mustn't be down hearted. You must give good feedback to each other, this means honest and constructive criticism. Remember, if you think what you're doing isn't very good, the chances are the audience won't either; sort it out!"
Stan’s Café; 2007
Please respond to the following:
1.Comment on your responses to the music and to the task of listening rather than hearing.
2. How did the relationship between the music and the task you were set affect the way you worked and the performance you made?
3. Comment on the devising process, how you managed the task and how creative that process was.
4. What was your response to having to use pedestrian movement as opposed to the more stylised work we have dome to date?
Saturday 22 November 2008
Building Our Palette - 21st November 2008
Dear All,
Many apologies for the delay in putting up this post. Some of you have emailed me to enquire after it and the truth is Blogger was not letting me put up the post for most of Friday for some reason. So, again, apologies. Happy to know that some of you miss it when it isn't up!
A good session with a great amount of techniques and skills learnt and applied creatively to practice. The progression of the table work from the knee reliant horizontal position to the raised pyramid position to the standing vertical position was a great deal to cover in one session. But you achieved this with a good sense of focus and determination. This lent the final section of 'play' a great deal of dynamism and excitement.
Questions for this week then:
1. We would like you to reflect on the challenges faced and excitement experienced in your individual transitions your bodies underwent as it traced its journey through the different table positions. Through this, particularly when the tables were allowed to respond and move freely, what did you start to learn about the technique and its creative potential?
2. The play sections are becoming an integral part of our Friday mornings. The palette starts to expand each week and gets richer and more dynamic. What are the main purposes of these open play sessions? What do you as an individual and the ensemble as a whole gain from these sequences?
Looking forward to reading your thoughts this week.
Royona
Many apologies for the delay in putting up this post. Some of you have emailed me to enquire after it and the truth is Blogger was not letting me put up the post for most of Friday for some reason. So, again, apologies. Happy to know that some of you miss it when it isn't up!
A good session with a great amount of techniques and skills learnt and applied creatively to practice. The progression of the table work from the knee reliant horizontal position to the raised pyramid position to the standing vertical position was a great deal to cover in one session. But you achieved this with a good sense of focus and determination. This lent the final section of 'play' a great deal of dynamism and excitement.
Questions for this week then:
1. We would like you to reflect on the challenges faced and excitement experienced in your individual transitions your bodies underwent as it traced its journey through the different table positions. Through this, particularly when the tables were allowed to respond and move freely, what did you start to learn about the technique and its creative potential?
2. The play sections are becoming an integral part of our Friday mornings. The palette starts to expand each week and gets richer and more dynamic. What are the main purposes of these open play sessions? What do you as an individual and the ensemble as a whole gain from these sequences?
Looking forward to reading your thoughts this week.
Royona
Friday 14 November 2008
Turning the Tables - 14th November 2008
A mixed session today with some really good practical work but a real loss of the discipline and control shown last week. I wonder why that was, and both Royona and I would welcome your reflections on this.
Watching the play session it soon became apparent that many of you were unconsciously applying a wide range of techniques acquired over the weeks and using them in a creative way. Furthermore, this in turn brought about the beginnings of real physical and emotional narratives. The fact that so many of you commented on your engagement with the play element this week and found it stronger and in some ways easier than last week is a significant move – there was some lovely work. See how effective such a simple thing as being a table can be? In the technique it seemed easy and perhaps without purpose, but put into not just a performance context but one that had a purpose and an emotional content, the table becomes something else. We now need to build on this and really let the body do the remembering, the technique become sharper but at the same time driven by emotion rather than the need to repeat a move. As Royona said – we’re getting there!
Contact was again the key element of the work today, the pressure on the pelvis in the roll-over and the swivel exercise, the balance on the back and to a certain extent, the correct contact with the floor for the most beneficial execution of the leap.
How , then, in the play section, did you explore the reasons for making contact, how did this manifest itself and how did this in turn lead to a different movement?
Reflect on the table exercise – how did you make this journey from a technique to something that was dynamic?
Watching the play session it soon became apparent that many of you were unconsciously applying a wide range of techniques acquired over the weeks and using them in a creative way. Furthermore, this in turn brought about the beginnings of real physical and emotional narratives. The fact that so many of you commented on your engagement with the play element this week and found it stronger and in some ways easier than last week is a significant move – there was some lovely work. See how effective such a simple thing as being a table can be? In the technique it seemed easy and perhaps without purpose, but put into not just a performance context but one that had a purpose and an emotional content, the table becomes something else. We now need to build on this and really let the body do the remembering, the technique become sharper but at the same time driven by emotion rather than the need to repeat a move. As Royona said – we’re getting there!
Contact was again the key element of the work today, the pressure on the pelvis in the roll-over and the swivel exercise, the balance on the back and to a certain extent, the correct contact with the floor for the most beneficial execution of the leap.
How , then, in the play section, did you explore the reasons for making contact, how did this manifest itself and how did this in turn lead to a different movement?
Reflect on the table exercise – how did you make this journey from a technique to something that was dynamic?
Friday 7 November 2008
Contact and Communication - 7th November 2008
This morning’s session was perhaps the best yet in terms of focus, not only great focus and concentration when active in the work but also when engaged as an observer outside the action, or an observer in the action. These moments of immersion in the work will increasingly become more and more significant, more and more intense and more and more a key part of the growth of the ensemble.
Some very expressive and beautiful work also today and creating work that once again Royona and I could feed off and build from, and change plans accordingly! Well done all.
But what of your reflections of the morning? For these we would like you to focus on the following:
“Contact Improvisation is mostly performed as a duet….with dancers supporting each other’s weight while in motion. (…) Contact Improvisation uses momentum to move in concert with a partner’s weight, rolling, suspending, lurching together. They often yield rather than resist. Interest lies in the on-going flow of energy rather than on producing still pictures. The dancers in contact improvisation focus on the physical sensations of touching, leaning, supporting, counterbalancing and falling with other people, thus carrying on a physical dialogue.”
Sharing the Dance: Cynthia Novak (P8)
1) How has your understanding and experience of contact transformed through the sessions we have had so far? You may want to think in terms of how it has changed from the first session to the latest, or how it may have changed from the beginning of one session to the end and developed from that moment, or a combination of these.
2) Through the means of contact, a dialogue is created: Reflect on the ways you communicated through the physical (pressure) and through the non-physical (eye-contact).
And just so that we do not loose sight of one of the key, identifying factors of our work, we will leave you with this quote from Jasmin Vardimon, given in an interview as part of the programme for Yesterday.
“….A journey into a memory, a body memory. Being a dancer I learned to trust my body’s memory. In Yesterday I look at the things that my body – my muscles and my bones – remember, but my conscious brain does not always remember.”
Jasmin Vardimon
Some very expressive and beautiful work also today and creating work that once again Royona and I could feed off and build from, and change plans accordingly! Well done all.
But what of your reflections of the morning? For these we would like you to focus on the following:
“Contact Improvisation is mostly performed as a duet….with dancers supporting each other’s weight while in motion. (…) Contact Improvisation uses momentum to move in concert with a partner’s weight, rolling, suspending, lurching together. They often yield rather than resist. Interest lies in the on-going flow of energy rather than on producing still pictures. The dancers in contact improvisation focus on the physical sensations of touching, leaning, supporting, counterbalancing and falling with other people, thus carrying on a physical dialogue.”
Sharing the Dance: Cynthia Novak (P8)
1) How has your understanding and experience of contact transformed through the sessions we have had so far? You may want to think in terms of how it has changed from the first session to the latest, or how it may have changed from the beginning of one session to the end and developed from that moment, or a combination of these.
2) Through the means of contact, a dialogue is created: Reflect on the ways you communicated through the physical (pressure) and through the non-physical (eye-contact).
And just so that we do not loose sight of one of the key, identifying factors of our work, we will leave you with this quote from Jasmin Vardimon, given in an interview as part of the programme for Yesterday.
“….A journey into a memory, a body memory. Being a dancer I learned to trust my body’s memory. In Yesterday I look at the things that my body – my muscles and my bones – remember, but my conscious brain does not always remember.”
Jasmin Vardimon
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