Again a slightly different approach to the work today and again a different response in the end product.
The focus and concentration was really very good this morning and I think it is worth your while reflecting on your own journey through today’s session from the minute you walked in to the minute you left and try to analyse what is was that you personally contributed to the overall levels of focus.
Falls and catches can for many people be intimidating and scary techniques even at the most basic level and yet as a group these tasks were well executed and practiced.
The way in which the final work was devised was also impressive, the urgency to work and not discuss was just the correct way of moving work forward and I hope you can now see the disadvantages of too much discussion – too much talking about what you might do rather than working through what you can do. It may be worth considering in the future just how you can take the work that you have made and not rehearse it in the more accepted meaning of the word but rather refine it. By this I mean take the work created in a short space of time and then see how far you can take the one idea, see what messages the piece can communicate. There needs to be a recognition that the communication of a message or feeling can be done through the interaction between bodies and the movement rather than the need for mimetic reproduction of actions or overt and unnecessary facial expressions.
"The need to communicate is really powerful. But you can’t control it once its left because you never know how it’s going to be received. When we were making the work we were looking at all these tenuous connections between a bunch of characters and the messages that get passed from one to another that get misunderstood."
Kevin Finnan in Article 19
"I work, a lot, with task orientated techniques so I would give [the dancers] a task and see how they react to my idea. I like [the] process of digging in and not choosing the first things that comes out. [I] always try to go further and create the antagonism then go back and see how things happen after you create [that] antagonism in people, to look at many different options [within] a specific theme or specific movements and various styles of presentation before I decide how I want to present it."
Jasmin Vardimon in Article 19
Reflect on the following:
To what extent in the devising element did you and your partner work instinctively – how much of the work was initiated by the body’s instinctive reaction and to the impulses received from your partner?
Was there more than simply a matter of trust that allowed for the intensity of work whilst learning the falls and catches? How did these techniques translate into elements of the emotional journey in the final piece?
Was there an intended message in your piece? It is difficult to know if this transmitted successfully or not but you may like to reflect on how well you feel you managed to transmit your message. Did you fall into the trap of resorting to facial gesture and “acting”?
Bahok, Akram Khan Dance Company
Exploring Liminality
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7 comments:
When we were first given the task you told us to take two minutes to discuss what we intended to do, myself and Blake didn’t do this. Blake just said “Shall we play?” And that’s what we did; we used the technique of allowing our bodies to perform whatever felt natural. And even though you told us to do about two minutes, I think me and Blake did about 10 because it felt natural to just carry on. Saying that though we were able to stop and discuss what we were going to include within our performance only but it was only until we had finished playing.
I worked with Gina and immediately when we saw Royona fall onto Pauls arms, she looked at me as if to say No way! But by seeing her do this, it made me feel more inclined to do well and push both of us to do it successfully and when Gina finally got over that initial shock, we worked really well together and managed to complete the trust exercises just as well as everyone else. When it came to the performance I worked with Blake so at first we had to allow ourselves to adjust with the different partners but I think because the group as a whole has got tremendous trust we were able to perform the task just once and then carry on and include it within the performance without any second thought of actually I don’t trust this person, it was in fact we allowed each other to do whatever we pleased.
Like I said previous I and Blake didn’t discuss what we wanted to achieve or what we wanted to portray, we just went ahead and did it. But as our play progressed I think both of us felt the relationship progress and fully understand where our characters were heading. I don’t know whether the audience understood where we were going with our performance but personally I felt when we performed it to the audience the piece had more intensity and was the best we had performed it. So all in all I feel today’s session went fantastically well. And regarding the acting I don’t think we fell into that trap, yes at times we did use facial expressions but I feel they added to the piece and we weren’t using them because we couldn’t think of what to do with our body.
And yes im the first person to have commented! Go Me!
Firstly I would like to say how much enjoyed today’s session and the amount of focus from the group was very impressive compared to last weeks session. Today’s the devising element was kind of initial ideas of how we wanted to work but then it changed through the process for the better. The body’s reaction I found was to follow movements which we did in previous sessions because that is how our bodies learned the movements but this did not happen during the devising process although I felt it needed to. Working with Richard was enjoyable as I have a lot of trust for him so therefore I felt safe in everything which we did today and would of carried on even if we did something wrong and it hurt. As brought up in discussion the trust has grown largely within the group and this was also clear to see during the performances which we watched at the end of today’s session.
Trust was something which was needed for today’s session to take place productively and with a certain level of focus. As said above the trust has grown and you can see this. Firstly I thought I was hurting Richard when I was falling onto him because I kept hearing a thud on his chest when I kept falling back. After we spoke he said that it wasn’t hurting and I had 100% trust in him for ensuring I was safe while taking part in the activity. I think nearly everyone used the grabbing and dropping movement because for some reason I don’t know why people must of thought the need to do it. Me and Richard decided to do this to try and communicate it was a love/hate relationship and this was a very emotional way of showing it. I felt that when it was executed correctly you could tell that you had successfully shown what you wanted. For example when Royona got half the class to execute the move it was very moving, this was clear by the reaction from the rest of the class sitting down.
When we were told to start our work I instantly said to Richard I think we should do a love/hate relationship because I felt the moves which we learned today expressed love and hate to a certain extent. We only briefly spoke about what we wanted to do before we begun crafting the piece. It was difficult to see if you had portrayed the meaning because its hard to focus on the audience when you are doing lifts and you need to remain focused on your partner and visa versa. I didn’t find we were acting but it was easy to do this because I did feel that I wanted to add more facial expressions into the piece than I actually did. However I thought my body movements were enough to speak my mind to the audience while delivering the piece.
Sidebar, I was not first to post tonight due to the fact that virgin internet was down till 10pm! Haha
It was good on Friday to utilise more techniques that we have learned in a more constructive manor. Me and leanne started out with rehersing some of the things we learnt a few weeks ago. This quickly developed into a narrative. I liked working with Leigh-Anne because she wasnt scared to tell me when she thought something wouldnt work and this was good for me as sometimes i get a bit carried away.
As the piece developed eye contact became a major factor and I felt the times that the lack of eye contact in places was as important as when it was maintained in others.
With reference to the falling, Phsycologically I found this immensly difficult as I have always had huge issues with trust, however Edward was really good to work with as he was possibly more nervous than me and this allowed me to accept that it was natural to feel the way I did and that my insecurities werent going to get the better of me.
Hey
This sisn't my blog post for the week but an invitation to catch up on the last lecture for those who didn't attend or were late.
I have booked MC209 on Monday morning from 10-11:30 (as there is no Directing 2 Class). Would be really great if people could come as last lecture was vital to the progression of the course. Also anybody who is willing to come who participated in the lecture it would be really helpful to have you there.
Hope this will give people a chance to catch up.
Sarah
Hi Everyone,
There is another rehearsal tomorrow Wednesday 10th Dec in MA209 from 3.15-5.00.
Please let me know if you are interested in coming to Nicole.Dixon@wlv.ac.uk
Thank you
During the pairs work, I worked with Emma and the majortiy of it was all instinctive. We began with Emma teaching me lifts that I had missed out on learning due to absence and I taught Emma some of the weight-manipulation moves she had missed out on. Following this we both seemed to think 'Where can we go from here?'. We began with what we had just learnt and consequently incorporated moves that seemed to fit with the move before it and without realising, we developed a narrative. The only discussions we had really were on each of us ensuring we were performing the new moves we'd just taught each other safely and effectively. We felt comfortable enough with one another and confident enough with the task given to just do whatever our bodies seemed inclined to do. I was quite impressed at how easily both of us approached new moves considering the reactions that we would have had only a few weeks ago to new stimulus for our body to learn. I am also quite pleased with how mcuh the group as a whole work together. There seems to have been a transition, a progression from us being taught by Royona and Paul to teaching ourselves and leading our work.
I had a few difficulties with the falls and catches and found that it wasn't due to a lack of trust in my partner (Blake), but a lack of trust in myself that resulted in me being less professional and us as a duo unable to succeed in completing some of the falls/catches. Blake is taller than me and I felt the height difference made me anxious as to whether I'd e able to balance my body weight well enough to hold him well and not drop him. I feel that if I were to approach the falls/catshe again, I'd do my best to adopt a more professional attitude and have more faith in myself. Hopefully this would produce better and more intense work. The techniques learnt here prepared us all for an emotional journey, particularly as it was a pair work for the final piece. During the trust exercises, we all faced fears of falling and being dropped or not catching somebody and had to put immense trust into somebody we might not ordinarily trust. This opened up our emotional barriers and allowed us more freedom to explore our bodies and how they can work together during the final performance.
Emma and I did not set out to give or convey any specific message. As I mentioned before we did quite simply do whatever our bodies felt right. We'd been told that there should be a clear relationship and a clear end and as such, tried to ensure that when it felt right, we would stop the interplay that formed our piece. I will admit in one section I know that both of us used facial gestures but this was not until the final performance of it. I think we did this more to support our narrative than to tell it.
I had the catch up session the next Monday, and doing it instead of watching it, I realised how much harder it was to put your trust in someone and just fall straight to the floor and hope they catch you.
My experience with Anna was very different, maybe because I have never worked with her before, or I can say that about most of the class anyway. My comfort level was different from how I work with Pete, me actually working with someone different 'finally', has actually made me feel what everyone was feeling weeks before when they were trying to grow some sort of trust and comfort with the person it is like a journey and that was my major process on Monday with Anna. The people watching said me working with Anna was like I have worked with her plenty of times before. That is one of the key things I have learned in P&P, to just let body do the communication and I think if I start working with more different people and push my body to its limits I can see where it is I am going wrong in the exercises and work on it.
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