Dear All,
Thank you for a productive morning and for your patience and discipline in delivering and working with our tasks. It was a different session for many reasons, but one that provided the opportunity for individual growth, reflection and development of your characters. For some of you it meant finding your character for the first time, for others it meant a total new discovery or change to the character you were working with and for other still, perhaps a slow growth and reflection through the work you did today. Regardless of how you developed, it would be worth reflecting on the following below:
1. What did the introductions of catalysts or interactive opportunities do to your characters who have so far been working on individual journeys? How did you respond to this physically and emotionally?
2. How did you go about devising material today? Talk through the stages not just describing them, but also analysing them.
3. What did you learn from the session today about devising processes within Physical Theatre?
4. Discuss the balance you achieved between pedestrian movement patterns and stylised technique work.
Looking forward to your responses.
Royona
Bahok, Akram Khan Dance Company
Exploring Liminality
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2 comments:
1. When we started devising our material today we started off by just talking about if we should just have a play session to begin with. Once we started our play session Royona came over and was saying some ideas out loud which helped us begin to move, interact and become emotionally attached to the piece of work which we were beginning to devise.
My character has evolved emotionally and physically in the way in which he carries himself. At the beginning of the piece my character is lonely and very unstable. However, when we began to devise the material something happened which made me feel like I needed to make friends with other people within Porto which was very surprising to see because I originally though that I would not want to communicate with anyone inside Porto but this has now changed.
I responded to this by allowing people to move over me and process my feelings when this was happening. The movement of the character has not changed drastically but has changed since we first started working on Porto.
2. As said above we began devising when we were given a starting point, we sat and spoke for it for a few moments before deciding that we should begin to play to see what we come up with. Once we initially started devising I found it a bit of a struggle to move without having an impulse but this changed as soon as Royona gave us initial ideas.
Once we have been given these all of the bodies in the space began to interact with each other but in a way in which questioned who each person was. The characters began shy and possessive of each others photo’s, added this with Leyna’s flash this made our characters move depending on how we felt about having our photo’s taken. Once we had moved around after we had our photo’s taken we then began to interact with each other because the camera gave some characters a motive to move.
3. Today from devising in Physical Theatre I leaned that anything can happen and you need to be prepared to scrap any work which you might have because it doesn’t fit, doesn’t look good or simply doesn’t feel right.
Luckily we didn’t have to do that today but it felt like we had lots more to show than we actually did when we performed to Paul and Royona.
4. All of the bodies in our group started off very pedestrian with everyday movements before moving into physical movements. A lot of the characters began to move physically by executing lifts rolls and close physical contact.
Emma said that it looked to physical and that we didn’t have a motive to move, I know from that session that my character needed to move because his feelings had changed since we started devising.
For some people it looked that way because once we had broken from the chairs it did become very physical in such a short space of time but this did not hinder my character in any way, it simply allowed room for more emotional expression.
1. I felt that the ability to interact came at the right time. Even though I was able to relate to other people, I was able to stay true to my character. It did change slightly in the respect that I became more confident on my journey, which starts out apprehensive. In my letter, this was the idea of my character anyway-to be someone making a journey they know they must undertake for themselves, but feeling apprehensive about leaving everything behind. This worked perfectly for me in the last session, as I felt like my character was beginning her journey and events were beginning to happen. Emotionally, I feel I responded true to my character, and felt closeness between her and myself. Physically, I found it easy to relate my character to the stimulus we were given.
2. To begin, we started off very constructively. We set up the space with the help of Paul and Royona, but then we just entered the space as we felt the time was right. We used the same tactic as when we first entered the space with our bags, and were asked to enter the space when we wanted to. We did this a number of times before we realised a few things had to be set into place. Once we started, we just did it; it was amazing to realise how much work we could complete in a short space of time.
Like Alison Oddey says in Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook: “Devised theatre can start from anything. It is determined and defined by a group of people who set up an initial framework or structure to explore and experiment with ideas…” showing how much can come from a small idea.
Obviously we encountered our problems, needs to talk and getting irritated by things, but I believe this is as much part of the devising progress as anything. It is difficult to work as part of a large group, but when you reach the end product, it becomes clear that none of that was important.
3. I feel I learned a lot today. The main reason being, this was the first time we were really trusted on our own to create a piece that would be part of something. We knew that this would become part of Porto so I think it was an honour to be able to create it on our own. We had to learn how to be focused and disciplined. At one point, everyone was talking at once and we were all in positions waiting to start. Somebody raised their hand, and we all followed-within 10 seconds we had started and were silent. This showed me that we really do have discipline, and if we put that into practice, we can get such a lot done!
The actual devising process taught me how fast work can be put together and edited. We decided to enter the space when we wanted, and then things began to happen. When we put all these together, we realised there was too much happening at once. So, we ran it through again and someone was to shout stop when they felt it got out of hand. So, we managed to edit very efficiently and the piece cleared up as a result.
4. We were advised to start off with pedestrian movements when we began this work. We stuck to this rule and had begun to create an everyday space where people are confined and uncomfortable. The more we got into the piece, the more abstract it suddenly became, but it worked so well. The beginning shows simple movements such as someone placing a bag on a chair, or throwing something, or squeezing into a small space. It then became about physical relationships, and how people feel confined in these spaces. So we began to work on how much space is ‘too much’ in everyday life. To watch Marie and Amy, you may think it is abstract, but it started from a pedestrian movement of one falling asleep on the other, and it moved into an example of consuming someone’s personal space. We went with impulse a lot, which resulted in things like Lizzi being hung upside down or Marie and Amy rolling on each other. It all ties in with the original idea and represents it in a way that says ‘what if these everyday spaces were exaggerated?’
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