Dear All,
Today's was a significant session and one which clearly demonstrated to the ensemble where we are at and how far we have come in 6 weeks. It was also an important session in terms of progressing the ensemble's identity further. New liaisons emerged and bonds were created. Also significant, was the progress of the emotional narrative of the piece.
We would like you then to respond to the following questions:
1. Discuss the importance of the open play section at the beginning of the session before we went on to create new material. What opportunities did this throw up? Was it useful?
2. What was it like to visualise the opening from the audience's perspective? Discuss briefly how your perception of Porto has changed/moved on from your starting perceptions of the concept.
3. Do you see the development of any traces of narrative in Porto through the material we have now? Discuss with reasons for your answer.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Royona
Bahok, Akram Khan Dance Company
Exploring Liminality
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Blog Assessment - Task 2
Deadline: Wednesday, 11th March 2009, 5 pm
Task:
- There are 3 questions you need to answer as part of this task.
- The questions relate to the last 5 weeks of Porto’s development through the ‘R’ phase of the RSVP model of devising
- Conduct wider independent reading and use quotes and examples to support your views.
- Present your writing in academic language with Harvard Referencing and a Bibliography presented alphabetically at the end of your post.
Questions:
- What are the key strategies of devising that have been used through the first 5 weeks of creating Porto? Reflect briefly on how these strategies have enabled the growth and development of both individual characters and the ensemble’s idiosyncrasies. (200 words)
- Analyse the growth of your own character from the beginning of Porto to where you are at in the process now. State the reasons for its development/change/refinement. (200 words)
- Identify your character’s physicality through detailed analysis of its body language. (For example describe your character’s use of spine and its relationship to gravity, its shift of weight in the pelvis and even the repetition of a key gesture) (200 words)
If you have any questions please contact me directly and in good time for the deadline. Looking forward to reading your answers on your own blogs.
Royona
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Traces of Narratives? - 25th February 2009
Dear All,
For those of you who follow and reply to the blog, an absence of a post last week was deliberate and was designed to help you focus on the blog assessment task at hand. Now that that is completed, here is a post for this week. As always we welcome your thoughts and value reading about your progress.
Today was a big day in a sense.
1. We witnessed all the different range of material we have already created (albeit in rough stages) and became aware of the varied emotional qualities that were running through the sections.
2. We ended the 'R' phase of the RSVP model of devising and although we will continue to generate resource and research movement/gestures and physicality through our bodies, we are soon to move onto the 'S' phase of the model where we start to 'score'.
3. We also extended and refined the opening ensemble section, giving it specific focus at times to emphasise the building of a loose structure/narrative. We re-evaluated certain characters and made one a perpetual part of Porto, while another an outsider, even to the new community that has just entered the space. This necessitated her late entrance.
In the light of the above, address the following questions:
1. Describe your response to witnessing the range of material we have generated and gathered over 5 weeks of the devising process. Did it give you any vision about Porto - even early images?
2. How do you think the 'resource' phase of devising has been beneficial for the company?
3. Has your character developed/changed/intensified emotionally and or physically over the last 5 weeks? Discuss
4. Discuss the potentials/opportunities that are beginning to emerge in Porto as a result of the two characters who don't quite fit into the community for different reasons. What do their presence do to the community?
Royona
For those of you who follow and reply to the blog, an absence of a post last week was deliberate and was designed to help you focus on the blog assessment task at hand. Now that that is completed, here is a post for this week. As always we welcome your thoughts and value reading about your progress.
Today was a big day in a sense.
1. We witnessed all the different range of material we have already created (albeit in rough stages) and became aware of the varied emotional qualities that were running through the sections.
2. We ended the 'R' phase of the RSVP model of devising and although we will continue to generate resource and research movement/gestures and physicality through our bodies, we are soon to move onto the 'S' phase of the model where we start to 'score'.
3. We also extended and refined the opening ensemble section, giving it specific focus at times to emphasise the building of a loose structure/narrative. We re-evaluated certain characters and made one a perpetual part of Porto, while another an outsider, even to the new community that has just entered the space. This necessitated her late entrance.
In the light of the above, address the following questions:
1. Describe your response to witnessing the range of material we have generated and gathered over 5 weeks of the devising process. Did it give you any vision about Porto - even early images?
2. How do you think the 'resource' phase of devising has been beneficial for the company?
3. Has your character developed/changed/intensified emotionally and or physically over the last 5 weeks? Discuss
4. Discuss the potentials/opportunities that are beginning to emerge in Porto as a result of the two characters who don't quite fit into the community for different reasons. What do their presence do to the community?
Royona
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Interactions & Catalysts - Wednesday, 11th February 2009
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
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
Friday, 6 February 2009
Blog Assessment - Task 1
Deadline: Wednesday, 25th February 2009, 5 pm
from
Keefe, J & S Murray (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader London: Routledge
- Discuss the key features of the genre of ‘physical theatre’ as explored in the module content of Process and Performance. (200 words)
- What does Ana Sanchez-Colberg imply by the ‘hybrid character’ of physical theatre? Is physical theatre a hybrid performance genre? Discuss with reasons for your answer.
- Identify a contemporary British performance company whose practice falls into the remit of ‘physical theatre’ as you have defined in the above two answers. Discuss briefly the key features of their practice that makes them a physical theatre company. (150 words)
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Building a Community - Wednesday 4th February 2009
Dear All,
Thank you for a hard working, patient and productive session this morning. We got a lot done, once again in a reasonably short space of time. The pace at which your are working and the discipline and intelligence with which you are completing the tasks we set is commendable. Please keep this up - it has promising implications for the work as we journey on.
Today we moved from notions of the individual to notions of the communal and what drives these moments in a group. We would therefore like you to:
1. Comment on the creative process we undertook today to allow the final coming together of the section we were aiming for.
2. Comment on the function of isolating some members from the larger community. Why were they isolated at first? What makes them move in and out of isolation and conformity?
3. How were gestures used to differentiate between 'anxious waiting' and 'not willing to confront the audience' in the two sub groups?
4. Finally, how was repetition used today as a choreographic strategy achieve today in order to 'construct' and 'deconstruct' the whole?
Looking forward to hearing from you. Your first blog assessment task will be up on this blog by this Friday, 6th February.
Royona
Thank you for a hard working, patient and productive session this morning. We got a lot done, once again in a reasonably short space of time. The pace at which your are working and the discipline and intelligence with which you are completing the tasks we set is commendable. Please keep this up - it has promising implications for the work as we journey on.
Today we moved from notions of the individual to notions of the communal and what drives these moments in a group. We would therefore like you to:
1. Comment on the creative process we undertook today to allow the final coming together of the section we were aiming for.
2. Comment on the function of isolating some members from the larger community. Why were they isolated at first? What makes them move in and out of isolation and conformity?
3. How were gestures used to differentiate between 'anxious waiting' and 'not willing to confront the audience' in the two sub groups?
4. Finally, how was repetition used today as a choreographic strategy achieve today in order to 'construct' and 'deconstruct' the whole?
Looking forward to hearing from you. Your first blog assessment task will be up on this blog by this Friday, 6th February.
Royona
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Entering Porto - Wednesday 28th January 2009
Dear All,
What a great start to the new semester and to the creative process we are about to immerse ourselves into! I want to thank you all for your immense focus and discipline today. It enabled us to work quickly, efficiently and professionally. Some tiny amounts of distractions can still, further, be done away with. So let's keep working at it.
What we were really happy to note today was how quickly and clearly you were able to translate our tasks into material, with the minimal of questions asked. Ask yourselves what has brought about this change towards a professional mindset. It was also pleasing to see so many constructive ideas from you to ease us through the process. In almost all cases we took your advice on board and went with it. It worked.
A note on the use of music. Music is chosen with care and considered reasons. They are not random choices on our part. The track we used today is by an Icelandic group called Sigur Ross and is called Gobbledygook. The choreographed chaos of the stage movements, reflect the choreographed chaos of the sound that supports it. The effect is a bit like bits of jigsaws that at times come together and then melt away towards discord. That is exactly what a space like Porto would initially inspire. A chaotic environment of charged nerves and calm artificial silences. So, just as we did today, we will rarely put the music aside if it becomes an awkard track to work with initially. Instead we will devise strategies to make it work. Our approach won't be defeatist but constructive-ist. You all did well to cope and be patient. And it worked. So, remember this lesson for future reference.
So questions for this week:
1. What, if any, in your view is different about this method of devising to your previous experiences of the devising process? Discuss with examples.
2. As we continued to repeat the sequences it appeared that the characters' urgencies to communicate through the body was growing visibily. Comment on your connection between the gestures/movements you chose and the emotional commitment behind them.
3. As an aesthetic, what can repetition achieve in a performance, apart from perfecting a routine, which is usually how it is used in conventional movement practice?
Start reading up and using some quotes as you answer these questions, so you can get a trial run for your blog assessments which start soon and which will be introduced in the next session to you all.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Royona
What a great start to the new semester and to the creative process we are about to immerse ourselves into! I want to thank you all for your immense focus and discipline today. It enabled us to work quickly, efficiently and professionally. Some tiny amounts of distractions can still, further, be done away with. So let's keep working at it.
What we were really happy to note today was how quickly and clearly you were able to translate our tasks into material, with the minimal of questions asked. Ask yourselves what has brought about this change towards a professional mindset. It was also pleasing to see so many constructive ideas from you to ease us through the process. In almost all cases we took your advice on board and went with it. It worked.
A note on the use of music. Music is chosen with care and considered reasons. They are not random choices on our part. The track we used today is by an Icelandic group called Sigur Ross and is called Gobbledygook. The choreographed chaos of the stage movements, reflect the choreographed chaos of the sound that supports it. The effect is a bit like bits of jigsaws that at times come together and then melt away towards discord. That is exactly what a space like Porto would initially inspire. A chaotic environment of charged nerves and calm artificial silences. So, just as we did today, we will rarely put the music aside if it becomes an awkard track to work with initially. Instead we will devise strategies to make it work. Our approach won't be defeatist but constructive-ist. You all did well to cope and be patient. And it worked. So, remember this lesson for future reference.
So questions for this week:
1. What, if any, in your view is different about this method of devising to your previous experiences of the devising process? Discuss with examples.
2. As we continued to repeat the sequences it appeared that the characters' urgencies to communicate through the body was growing visibily. Comment on your connection between the gestures/movements you chose and the emotional commitment behind them.
3. As an aesthetic, what can repetition achieve in a performance, apart from perfecting a routine, which is usually how it is used in conventional movement practice?
Start reading up and using some quotes as you answer these questions, so you can get a trial run for your blog assessments which start soon and which will be introduced in the next session to you all.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Royona
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Jasmin Vardimon Workshop Photos
Dear All,
I have tried to capture the best I can the excitement and vibrancy of the workshop from last Friday. I hope you will all enjoy them. Feel free to comment.
Royona
I have tried to capture the best I can the excitement and vibrancy of the workshop from last Friday. I hope you will all enjoy them. Feel free to comment.
Royona
Saturday, 17 January 2009
Experiencing the Jasmin Vardimon Repertoire - Friday 16th January 2009
Dear All,
Apologies for the delay in this week's post. Here it is now anyway.
What a truly exciting and enriching session this was! Paul and I felt how valuable it was to have a professional company's contribution to our palette; so much of the material was a re-evaluation or an extension of much of the material we have explored in our own work and yet so much of it was new and refreshing. Particularly valuable was the insight into the creative process of JVC and the importance of 'layering' within choreography and composition. The work of characterisation will be very significant as we prepare to move into our own exploration of Porto.
What is important for all of us to remember is as a company we must explore and establish our own creative process and while this may borrow from others', it would be wrong to assume that our own process will become a complete emulation of another company's processes. Each company has its own needs, its own priorities and it's own vision and the approach it takes reflects all these unique circumstances.
This week we would like you to answer the following questions:
1. What elements of the workshop made you re-evaluate or extend your own experience/understanding of specific skills/techniques already learnt on the module?
2. Discuss what you took away about the working methodology of JVC towards creating material and comment on how this can be used in the making of Porto.
3. Did you find anything difficult about the workshop? If so, reflect on what it was and why you found it difficult. Can you think of ways to overcome it?
4. Discuss the importance of 'layering' as a creative and choreographic strategy.
Looking forward to your responses.
Royona
Apologies for the delay in this week's post. Here it is now anyway.
What a truly exciting and enriching session this was! Paul and I felt how valuable it was to have a professional company's contribution to our palette; so much of the material was a re-evaluation or an extension of much of the material we have explored in our own work and yet so much of it was new and refreshing. Particularly valuable was the insight into the creative process of JVC and the importance of 'layering' within choreography and composition. The work of characterisation will be very significant as we prepare to move into our own exploration of Porto.
What is important for all of us to remember is as a company we must explore and establish our own creative process and while this may borrow from others', it would be wrong to assume that our own process will become a complete emulation of another company's processes. Each company has its own needs, its own priorities and it's own vision and the approach it takes reflects all these unique circumstances.
This week we would like you to answer the following questions:
1. What elements of the workshop made you re-evaluate or extend your own experience/understanding of specific skills/techniques already learnt on the module?
2. Discuss what you took away about the working methodology of JVC towards creating material and comment on how this can be used in the making of Porto.
3. Did you find anything difficult about the workshop? If so, reflect on what it was and why you found it difficult. Can you think of ways to overcome it?
4. Discuss the importance of 'layering' as a creative and choreographic strategy.
Looking forward to your responses.
Royona
Friday, 9 January 2009
"I've been here and, I've been there and, I've been in between" - 9th January 2009
Thank you all for your mature and controlled attitude to this morning’s rather disrupted session.
We now have a starting point, a concept and an idea of how the work may develop within that. The notion of liminality ran through the entire morning’s work. Think about the connections made and the journeys travelled.
Firstly in the Gardzienice workshop. The space between you and your partner, the transference or journey of the energy and the responses to the impulses all had an element of existing in an undefined and inexplicable space. There were starting points and end points but what happened in between was personal, unpredictable and intangible. You were liminal subjects in a liminal space. You are in this work transformed and it is what happens in this transformation that happens in the liminal state.
The visualisation exercise took you from a comfortable but totally imagined space, with you, as a liminal subject, at its very centre to another imagined, less comfortable space. You made a journey through the liminal space from a concrete albeit imaginary space to………well, only you know where, and it is the exploration of such a space we embarked upon today.
Reflect on your experiences of:
1. The Gardzienice warm up. How did it affect you as both the manipulator and the manipulated?
2. How did the visualisation exercise affect you and in what way did it help you to make connections with the introduction of the concept or indeed with past exercises and workshops?
3. Comment on your understanding of the concept and the potential for a way forward for you as an individual.
Thank you,
Paul & Royona
We now have a starting point, a concept and an idea of how the work may develop within that. The notion of liminality ran through the entire morning’s work. Think about the connections made and the journeys travelled.
Firstly in the Gardzienice workshop. The space between you and your partner, the transference or journey of the energy and the responses to the impulses all had an element of existing in an undefined and inexplicable space. There were starting points and end points but what happened in between was personal, unpredictable and intangible. You were liminal subjects in a liminal space. You are in this work transformed and it is what happens in this transformation that happens in the liminal state.
The visualisation exercise took you from a comfortable but totally imagined space, with you, as a liminal subject, at its very centre to another imagined, less comfortable space. You made a journey through the liminal space from a concrete albeit imaginary space to………well, only you know where, and it is the exploration of such a space we embarked upon today.
Reflect on your experiences of:
1. The Gardzienice warm up. How did it affect you as both the manipulator and the manipulated?
2. How did the visualisation exercise affect you and in what way did it help you to make connections with the introduction of the concept or indeed with past exercises and workshops?
3. Comment on your understanding of the concept and the potential for a way forward for you as an individual.
Thank you,
Paul & Royona
Friday, 12 December 2008
Difficult times
A really challenging and difficult morning and I am not going to dwell on the problems – that is for you to do as part of this blog. What is interesting though is that all of you seem to have lost sight of the fact that despite the problems encountered you all managed to produce work, you all created a performance to show, and that is worth reflecting upon.
Work in larger groups will get easier and Royona and I will employ strategies to enable you to engage with small group work in a less stressful and more organic fashion.
What you must not do is to take today’s session out of context and judge the whole semester’s work on the basis of what went on today. You have worked incredibly hard thus far and with great commitment and you have to have the confidence in yourselves to take this into semester 2.
This week then, can you reflect on the following:
1) There was a sense of you falling into bad habits – what are those habits that you relied on and how do they contrast with the good habits that you should have been employing?
2) Why do you think you relied so much on discussion when we have spent so long working on reaction and impulse?
3) Having gone through the process and produced a performance, evaluate that performance in terms of its strengths rather than its weaknesses.
Work in larger groups will get easier and Royona and I will employ strategies to enable you to engage with small group work in a less stressful and more organic fashion.
What you must not do is to take today’s session out of context and judge the whole semester’s work on the basis of what went on today. You have worked incredibly hard thus far and with great commitment and you have to have the confidence in yourselves to take this into semester 2.
This week then, can you reflect on the following:
1) There was a sense of you falling into bad habits – what are those habits that you relied on and how do they contrast with the good habits that you should have been employing?
2) Why do you think you relied so much on discussion when we have spent so long working on reaction and impulse?
3) Having gone through the process and produced a performance, evaluate that performance in terms of its strengths rather than its weaknesses.
Friday, 5 December 2008
Body memory, Movement and Message - 5th December 2008
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”?
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”?
Friday, 28 November 2008
Breaking News - Very Exciting!!!
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
Details to follow….watch this space!
Royona & Paul
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
Friday, 31 October 2008
Video Links
Here are some video links to inspire your visual, physical and intellectual understanding of the genre we are working in. These will hopefully be useful especially having had the history and context related lecture today.
Please copy and paste links below onto browser to watch and remember to turn the sound on!
All comments welcome:
1. Pina Bausch's Cafe Muller
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqrqjERhkQ
2. Pina Bausch's Masurca Fogo
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DD8ragxwOMI&feature=related
3. Vincent Dance Theatre's Broken Chords
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-5_OxPlBvxY
4. Jasmin Vardimon's Showcase
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6iunk83-TNk
5. Jasmin Vardimon's Justitia
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VtW_H5Y4aGw&feature=rela
Please copy and paste links below onto browser to watch and remember to turn the sound on!
All comments welcome:
1. Pina Bausch's Cafe Muller
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqrqjERhkQ
2. Pina Bausch's Masurca Fogo
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DD8ragxwOMI&feature=related
3. Vincent Dance Theatre's Broken Chords
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-5_OxPlBvxY
4. Jasmin Vardimon's Showcase
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6iunk83-TNk
5. Jasmin Vardimon's Justitia
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VtW_H5Y4aGw&feature=rela
History, Context & Aesthetics - 31st October 2008
Dear All,
It was a tough session today for several reasons. I would still like to think that the session was appropriately timed and that the content delivered was vital in order for you to have a holistic engagement with the genre. It is also essential to remember and accept that theory and practice in this genre are inseparable.
We considered the influential roots of physical theatre. We looked at its features from 'theatre' and what it owes to 'dance'. We considered the notion of a hybrid performance language; a third entity that arises from the mixture of dance and theatre. We considered the practice of key practitioners and their creative approaches. We viewed clips ranging from the professional world to our own student archives; demonstrating where the work is at and where it is able to journey.
Questions for this week then:
1. What is the relationship between Physical Theatre and the theoretical frameworks of 'gender' and postmodernism'. Consider the overlaps between the study on Investigations 2 and the content we looked at today in P&P.
2. How is the history of changes in early 20th century western dance and theatre evident in the current practice of Physical Theatre. Please use key examples to answer this question.
Looking forward to your answers. Please remember these questions are designed to make you think intellectually about your practice and are also examples of questions you will be graded on in semester 2. Use quotes and reference them.
Let's all hope for a consistently positive journey beyond today's session with equal focus and commitment on both practice and intellectualising the practice.
Royona
It was a tough session today for several reasons. I would still like to think that the session was appropriately timed and that the content delivered was vital in order for you to have a holistic engagement with the genre. It is also essential to remember and accept that theory and practice in this genre are inseparable.
We considered the influential roots of physical theatre. We looked at its features from 'theatre' and what it owes to 'dance'. We considered the notion of a hybrid performance language; a third entity that arises from the mixture of dance and theatre. We considered the practice of key practitioners and their creative approaches. We viewed clips ranging from the professional world to our own student archives; demonstrating where the work is at and where it is able to journey.
Questions for this week then:
1. What is the relationship between Physical Theatre and the theoretical frameworks of 'gender' and postmodernism'. Consider the overlaps between the study on Investigations 2 and the content we looked at today in P&P.
2. How is the history of changes in early 20th century western dance and theatre evident in the current practice of Physical Theatre. Please use key examples to answer this question.
Looking forward to your answers. Please remember these questions are designed to make you think intellectually about your practice and are also examples of questions you will be graded on in semester 2. Use quotes and reference them.
Let's all hope for a consistently positive journey beyond today's session with equal focus and commitment on both practice and intellectualising the practice.
Royona
Friday, 24 October 2008
Body & Technique - 24th October 2008
Dear All,
Apologies for the delay in putting up this post.
Thanks again for a very productive session. It is now clear to us that your focus and commitment is beginning to grow week by week. With a near full class this morning, a lot of bodies to manoeuvre and a lot of discipline to maintain, we were pleased that you all did so well. Yes, talking and giggling did break out, but you seemed better at controlling yourself with the discipline. It was also clear that often discussions about the work were taking place in a productive manner. This is helpful, but can be distracting too. So keep this under control as much as you can in the future.
We worked on some significant techniques today. All of them were based on the following key principles:
1. Key points of contact
2. Reading bodies through these key points of contact
3. Distribution of weight
4. Pelvic centre of gravity
5. Carrying body weight
What is beginning to happen now with all of you is an inner understanding of how a technique is carried out is developing, over and above how 'good' or 'easy' or 'difficult' something looks.
So, questions for this week then:
1. Can gravity become our friend? If so, how can we achieve this? Once we befriend gravity how does our relationship with it change? How many of you feel you are being able to achieve this slowly and surely?
2. Analyse the quote below from Ken Martin on a key aspect of contact improvisation that we have started to slowly discover in our practice, and discuss it in relation to your own growth in the work so far.
"Contact improvisation [...] is a forum for discovering who we are beneath our skins. It is a place where our self concept is questioned […] It makes us compromise our reality – pushes the boundaries of our self awareness."
Ken Martin. Contacting the Soul, available from: http://nurturedance.org/contactimprov.htm
Looking forward to your responses. The questions are challenging so really think before mechanically responding and make your comments rich and reflective. Remember, so spelling or grammatical errors and no casual mode of expression. Keep it formal and of a high academic standard.
Royona
Apologies for the delay in putting up this post.
Thanks again for a very productive session. It is now clear to us that your focus and commitment is beginning to grow week by week. With a near full class this morning, a lot of bodies to manoeuvre and a lot of discipline to maintain, we were pleased that you all did so well. Yes, talking and giggling did break out, but you seemed better at controlling yourself with the discipline. It was also clear that often discussions about the work were taking place in a productive manner. This is helpful, but can be distracting too. So keep this under control as much as you can in the future.
We worked on some significant techniques today. All of them were based on the following key principles:
1. Key points of contact
2. Reading bodies through these key points of contact
3. Distribution of weight
4. Pelvic centre of gravity
5. Carrying body weight
What is beginning to happen now with all of you is an inner understanding of how a technique is carried out is developing, over and above how 'good' or 'easy' or 'difficult' something looks.
So, questions for this week then:
1. Can gravity become our friend? If so, how can we achieve this? Once we befriend gravity how does our relationship with it change? How many of you feel you are being able to achieve this slowly and surely?
2. Analyse the quote below from Ken Martin on a key aspect of contact improvisation that we have started to slowly discover in our practice, and discuss it in relation to your own growth in the work so far.
"Contact improvisation [...] is a forum for discovering who we are beneath our skins. It is a place where our self concept is questioned […] It makes us compromise our reality – pushes the boundaries of our self awareness."
Ken Martin. Contacting the Soul, available from: http://nurturedance.org/contactimprov.htm
Looking forward to your responses. The questions are challenging so really think before mechanically responding and make your comments rich and reflective. Remember, so spelling or grammatical errors and no casual mode of expression. Keep it formal and of a high academic standard.
Royona
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)