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?
Bahok, Akram Khan Dance Company
Exploring Liminality
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10 comments:
Firstly I would like to say today’s session was great apart from the few disruptions.
I would like to say that it feels like some of the group want to 'progress' and change the style of their performing when not asked to. What I mean by this is taking activities one step further even when some of the group are struggling with the task at hand. I find this disheartening not for myself but for the group as some of us cannot grasp everything therefore feel embarrassed and venerable because people are racing ahead and not giving other people a chance to really get what they want out of the session.
That aside, when I began the play section I found eye contact to be a great start with Leigh Anne as it made us connect and put forward our mood and where we wanted to go with this. We then began working on the floor which soon turned into the table exercises which we had been doing prior to this. I think this was a great place to start because it was fresh in our minds and the leaping also added another dynamic to the work at hand.
We turned the technique from the table to a performance with exploring our limits within our partners. For me Leigh Anne was so caught up in the moment she was not scared to experiment and explore which was great for me, this was because I felt a connection working with her and put me at ease when it became my turn to explore the 'table'.
It became dynamic when we applied all techniques learned through the journey so far and also when also explored stuff which we had not covered in the sessions so far.
Overall I really enjoyed today’s session and the play gets more and more exciting from one week to another even if I did find it a little more difficult than last weeks.
The reason for making contact with your partner was to build the relationship and to create characters for each of you. At the very beginning of the play section personally I didn’t understand where my both my character and relationship (with my partner) could go, so the movement produced was to see where it could lead and how it would develop both mine and Sean’s characters. I believe once we had been in and out of the circle, our characters became much clearer and the movement wasn’t confined to the skills we had learnt in that session. We broke down the barriers enabling us to build on our relationship a lot more. As I said in the discussion afterwards that play section was the only time where I have felt a connection with my partner and I think its down to the fact that we didn’t restrict ourselves to things we could do, we basically let the bodies go and letting them do what they wanted.
Obviously when we were first told how to do the exercise we looked at it as a technique and wanting to get it right. Once we had established the right technique we allowed our bodies to explore the space of not only the back but everything around it. The exploring allowed us to transfer from one movement to another without actually thinking about what we doing. And once we allowed our bodies to take over our mind the movement turned into something dynamic rather then techniques being performed one after another.
Paul B says:
It is really important to recognise that in this kind of work people will progress at vastly different rates and to different levels. Some people may take right up to the closing stages of the performance preparation before they get to where they feel they want to be. The important thing is not to let frustration impact on your own work and not to stop your own progress because you feel you are slipping behind. It is such a personal and individual process at times and we must let it take its course. Having said that, we will stop people from going too far and have in fact already done so.
In the play section of the lecture I tried to make contact to various things such as my two partners and the floor, as Paul B said 'not to let frustration impact on your own work and not to stop your own progress '. I missed the lecture last week so I could relate to the fact that I was frustrated with parts of my progress seeing as in the Play Section I felt more frustrated working in a group of 3 and did try my best. Finding that contact with my partner was hard because they already had done it in the previous lecture so sometimes I tried to follow what they were doing, but instead ended up trying to do something different. I felt that the exercises I did in this session especially me being a table has made me realise that you can feel like an object if you are being treated as one, also the way you have contact with your partners, like being pushed/pulled and held by them determines how the story with your partner in the Play Section would be. I felt that Eye Contact really did help for me being nervous for the first time, it helped me block my thoughts with other people watching me, and focus more on my exercises, which I found more challenging than any other session we have had in Process and Performance so far.
When trying to make a connection in the play section Leyna and I struggled at first to develop an emotional connection to the work we were trying to create. You would think since we had been partnered before that it would be easier to work with each other but that was far from the truth. Both wanting to work on different skills created obstacles and we worked with this frustration to create an emotional link and formed characters almost through this. My character wanted to create, and make sure Leyna was ok, which became an annoyance to Leyna’s character that frequently moved away and pushed me off her. This was a very effective piece of work for us both I feel as we turned a struggling demonstration of skills into a story which I hadn’t experienced before in previous lectures.
From working in tune with partners the previous lecture, by using pressure and eye contact, it was a big change to go to a one sided relationship with a partner. I found it a challenge to transform the techniques into a dynamic piece of work as there was no give and take. I tried too hard to keep going rather than savouring the moment. During the play section, at the end of the lecture, I was the table and when Leyna left the circle I felt abandoned which lead to the desire to make more work with Leyna at that time. It was powerful to go from the use of eye contact and body contact to lack of communication and I was so focused on building that impossible conversation that I ignored everything else around me.
1) I think that being the person who was the table lead to impulse. For the first time, there was a part to take on where we had to remain stationary and let our partner use us to move. We have got used to making contact together and using each other rather than just supporting. The session before, the eye contact exercise and contact exercise gave us so much to play from, that we wanted to revisit that.
Body memory plays such a big part in the way our play manifested itself. Being the table, naturally our body memory allowed us to remember how it felt to both be in movement and in contact. This lead to the movement becoming a mixture of all previous sessions, as our body naturally yearned to revisit that feeling.
2) Learning the table exercise was literally taking on a new technique. One of us supported the other to explore and move. I think being confined like this (especially knowing what we were capable of from last week) meant that in the play, we let go. The impulse to not just be a table and a support, but to mirror or work with your partner was strong. There was a feeling of ‘this would be so much more effective if I could just…’ and when we actually put this into action that is when the technique became dynamic.
It was a useful way to learn, because it teaches you how strong your body memory is. The confinement of having to stay as a table, or to work with your partner not responding makes you yearn to move together. By the time Royona said we could let go, it was as if you wanted to do as much as you could.
The stories that were created as a result of this were very strong. Personally, I felt more experimental and my play with Nat was more dynamic as a result. I felt very comfortable and secure to be more than I am through movement.
1)I think that when you are sitting with eye contact looking at your partner whilst you are waiting to go into the circle, you can begin to pick up what kind of relationship you will have in the circle. Then I felt that your moves come out of that. The contact made between me and Rian led into other points of contact, which then led into a different technique. This was not intentional, but I do think that my body memory works at its best once we have learnt a new technique and my body is relaxed. And then it all encorporates into one performance.
2)I found with the table exercise that it was a little more challengingo find a purpose and reason to move and make contact, as it was a one way conversation. However this can also be used to your advantage because if your table is stirdy then you can let your body explore more challengng thing. however when encorporated in the play section you could build up better relationship as you are not only doing one exercise. You can explore all the things you have learnt and weave that into the rest of the techniques.
Indeed last session used contact again. I believe that in physical theatre, there has to be some form of contact, whether its physical or not.
From learning the technique of being a blank table and supporting the other, we was able to by the end of the session, create a narrative and play with this skill learnt.
Learning the new skill, I did have a little difficulty. Whether it was because of my balance, having the right center or maybe even both, it stunted my progression of the learning. (As a young child I never could ride a bike, I never had the right balance to keep the bike steady or the center rightly positioned, this may be why I didn't get the technique right at first). However as a determined person I am and through my partners encouraging quality; I kept going and practiced until I achieved what needed to be done.
From this new technique then layered the go to play. At the end of the session we had a chance to once again play, with what we learnt. In this play my partner and I used contact rapidly throughout. Even when not in the circle we would still have that connection even when not looking directly at each other, we knew how the other felt. This I found powerful and really fun to do. Just through contact we found our piece came from an adult strong relationship of a love and hate friendship to a pair of children disliking each other. This was successful and found to be a dynamic journey from the blank table of support to two individuals with a fun but emotional performance.
During the play section it was important that partners had some kind of ‘contact’ whether physical or through the space. The contact enabled the improvisation to lead up to a narrative, as though contact we were able to act upon our own impulses as well as our partners. Once achieved, I understood this to be almost like imaginary contract between the two bodies, agreeing that development can be experimented to the fullest. It is at this point when true emotion and movement driven by impulse is truly brought to the foreground, as the movements become less thought out, less mechanical or repetitive but more risky, meaningful and unique.
Personally, knew when I had that connection between Amy and I not necessarily through visual contact, because I wasn’t always able to see her, depending on where our bodies were in the space, but I was able to tell through an awareness of my own body. What I mean by that is, by me being totally grounded, regardless of our shapes and sizes, I was able to understand the structure of hers, knowing where my knee for instance, could and couldn’t go when she was the table. Although on the floor, neutrality still played when we were asked to be a table, as knew when adjustments needed to be made with either myself or Amy because the outcome of what we attempted to achieve wasn’t successful.
Unlike last week I didn’t feel as emotionally driven but I still felt the activity was of use. I think I felt limited with the table and struggled a little to be extra ordinary, but it hasn’t hindered me just made me more determined. I think its key to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and that some times because of the demands of this module, you will be hitting your peak and other times you won’t and it does take a mentally strong mind to accept and see ways through our personal obstacles. Due to my general passion for this work I often find that I want to do more because I know my limitations, but what struck me was the fact that others may feel uncomfortable with that. Let’s not forget that this work is based on impulse, and that it is something that cannot sheltered especially if the work is to be true. Nick Moseley’s quote sprung to mind in thought of this,
“[..] acting, like real life, relies on you trusting your body and conscious mind to do most of what has to be done, so that the conscious mind can be focused on the moment.”
First part of entering the play section is contact with the surface, literally the floor which I find quite essential. Later on, it is quite natural that being performers of such a specific theatrical form as physical theatre, we are looking for partners for our own small pieces, to create a story. Sometimes it is quite egoistic but we are lloking around to find a ‘perfect’ partner to interact with. Then, there it this specific moment – looking into our partner’s eyes and analysing his or her reaction. It could be the impulse – immediate reply and sudden beginning of a story of bodies, or on the other hand, it could be a longer process of each other reaching of two bodies. The reasons for making contact can be a few, e.g. a will to react to another performer’s movement or wanting to create a story with a partner. It manifests itself in the mentioned above specific impulse in our body which transforms into specific stances, at the beginning our own, and later on, after having a full contacnt with our partner, into shared, united movement. Then the story between the bodies is being written, the first impulse, the will to interact or react is fructifying in specific, unique (because attained between two unique bodies) movement.
First of all, when we were enriching our palette with table exercise it was simply technical stage of repeating and mastering this stance. However, later on, in a performance area, this movement has revealed its hidden emotional and creative, physical opportunities. As far as I am concerned, the performance atmosphere (namely play section, in our case) is needed to make the table exercise a basis for bodies’ stories and baggage of emotions. This magical moment has shown that this posture can be used in many various, artistic and unique ways, alike by us or our partners. I think that this journey from a still stance to the emotionally moved body can be accompanied with Pina Bausch’s words: ‘Not how people move (or what poses they use) but what moves them’. (quotation taken from the handout for Process & Performance module)
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