The Body on stage

what do we see? (signifer)
What does it mean?


Nothing comes without a meaning
Always interpret
We interpret someones expressions and body language to help us understand.


How do they feel?


We read his/hers state of mind
An actor shares there experience with the audience


Jacques Copeau a famous theatre practitioner believed in, Theatre = Communication. 


He believed in actors opening their minds and being objective about work to help convey a message. 


I agree with these statements as i know as a performer and an audience member i always look for a background story and i always try think the way the character is thinking to help me understand or re-create the story. 

Rolling down Technique: 


What is it used for? 


Taking your time to roll down through the vertabre to help lengthen the spine. 


Helps us to start thinking about the spine moving bone by bone. 


How is it done?


Standing feet hip distance apart in parallel.


Inhaling to prepare and lengthen through the spine, to start releasing the head downwards, allowing the weight of the head to lead, rolling down, letting the knees to bend and the arms to hang. 


The first couple of times i did this movement i had an image of a puppet in my head being pulled down but the strings, starting from the head slowly going down. 


  

The video and images below is me jumping in parallel position then turn out. The video and images focus on my feet and the articulation through the toes, which i tend to struggle with sometimes, I've got flat feet could this be the reason? i'm not sure but i'm working on it, i find it harder in parallel and sometimes causes cramps in the middle part of my foot. 

What do you think i could improve on?

Running into/ through space


I realised when I first start i think about my running,  sometimes I decide to run through a particular space, or pause but then other times i let things happen without thinking about it. 
Is it about letting go of your thoughts? 
I think its better when i ran without thinking, so I'm going to try leave all my thoughts at the door before walking into the studio and start with a fresh blank page each time. 





When i was observing i realised patterns and images emerging and also relationships starting to form between different individuals. 

My Free Writes: 


A constellation of patterns can be.. 
various things, patterns within space using the body, objects/props e.g. starts, planets etc. 
Stars make patterns in the sky without planning or purpose. Patterns can also be in anything like wallpaper, socks, clothing, carpet, objects, images etc. 


Between people there is...
different relationships or connections. For example a teacher and a student relationship would be limited in the way you wouldn't share your personal and private thoughts, feelings or situations with them, not like a bestfriend or a partner. 
Different individuals feel comfortable with different people to share thoughts, feelings, problems, emotions etc with. 


When i am part of a group..
I feel i have to keep contributing my ideas or images or experiences i have or had to relate to the work we are doing to help create something unique and unusual. 
I also listen and picture in m y mind what other people contribute to help one whole image come to place. My ideas are usually artistic, creative and i always try think outside the box. I never know if my ideas are any good or if others will understand them but still i try to convey them. 


As an individual...
i like to explore varies way of creating a dance or theatre performance. I like to look at other practitioners or artists to influence my work. I like to use costume to help, explore movement but also add in gestures, speech and props. 


I feel ..
tired today and a little drained because i went out last night, and i got home late. I think if i didnt have this lesson id still be asleep. 
I'm going home tomorrow, which im looking forward to but i'm dreading the long journey, I'd prefer to fly home so i can feel relaxed and free. 

Augusto Boal (16 March 1931- 2 May 2009) 


Augusto was a Brazilian theatre director, writer and politian. He created an unusual theatre form used in education. 


He argues that the Tragi-drama, a formulaic drama style which could be considered similar to soap operas, helps the State promote its continued existence.
Boal also created Invisible theatre in which an event is planned and scripted but does not allow the audience to know that the event is happening. Actors perform out of the ordinary roles which invite audience to join in or sit back and watch.
Boal's ideas aimed to wake up the passive audience, inviting them on to the stage to act out their real-life problems, turning them into what he called "spect-actors", and empowering them to find strategies for personal and social change.


His famous, well known books: 
Games for actors and non actors.
Theatre of the Oppressed. 
The rainbow of desire. 
Legislative Theatre. 


Watch this video which he explains more about his work and let me know what you think? 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOgv91qQyJc

Voice


I learnt I always have to support my voice using my breath, and vocal and physical warm ups are very important also. 


We had to get into groups and make up words or say words by focusing on the vowels and consonants. 
My group words were: 
Sacsuma 
Talula 
Batsuma 


We found we had to take our time to pronounce each letter correctly and we had to make sure we all support with our breath. 

Research on Eva Hesse- Visual Artists. 
(Jan 11, 1936- May 29, 1970)



The German,Jew, American sculptor, was known for using unusual materials such as latex, plastics and fiberglass. 


Hesse created a very unique piece in the mid 60's. She tangle rope and dipped it in latex, which was shown in a gallery hanging from the ceiling. " Don't ask what it means or what it refers to." Hesse said. " Don't ask what the work is, rather, see what the work does." I agree with what she said and I think this particular piece looks like a 3D version of a dipping painting, clearly breath taking. 



 
 

Exploring costume ideas.

What would symbolise my theme of melting, spirits and my personal experience the best? 
Any ideas?


I've taken my idea from my research I done before on melt Noemie Lafrance. 
I would love to have the melting costumes but I'd want the wax to be glow in the dark because I want to use a UV light for the performance and one shining, bright spotlight in the corner ( the Light/ Heaven)  so if the dress was melting and glow in the dark it would compliment the movements well and convey the soul escaping the ephemeral body and disintegrating into the light. 
These costumes are made from sculptural beeswax and lanolin .

    

Verbal Improvisation with Tom


Remembering your day in 3 ways, helps with communication skills and using imagination. 
Used to listening - glass cobra, feeling the person and coming back together, helps concentration and awakening the senses. 
Pen and keys warm up game, helps concentration. 
script work- Learning how to convey the words on the page.


I really enjoyed this workshop as I felt it was different to everything else we have done and I felt I learnt so much, some of them being: 


- If your sitting still your still doing something. 
- Its not what your saying its how you say it. 
- Instead of saying what it is, reaching and creating a new scene with it and also transforming it by adding gestures, different pitch, volume and freezes. 


This workshop opened my eyes and interests to the use of text, so I started thinking widely about what I could do to explore my IPP themes through text. 


Because I chose a personnel experience of a very close family members death, I chose to explore the poem we read out at her funeral, it was a very emotional experience for me but I found it bought me comfort and determination to carry on with the assignment more, so I read the poem out a couple times using different pitch and volume and I discovered I liked whispering and repeating it, slowly just letting the words flow and fly out my mouth. 
The image I had in my head was words with wings. 


 


Then I come up with a conclusion my image fits in perfectly with my theme and I decided to mix and explore my movement with text using different pitch and volume. 

 My Research for my IPP project: 

Ghost Dance- Christopher Bruce (1981)


- Spirits of death who took people away
- Naive skeletons
- religion, simple images
- passing
- reflecting on life


My related words:
-Climax
- Unison
- Free
- Canon
- Sharp
- Sensitive
- Folk 
- Gestures


Christopher Bruce shows the  issue of political oppression in Chile. Bruce shows his desire to highlight the plight of the ordinary people as the reason for focusing on the images of skeletons and skulls. From the time of the Spanish conquest many people were tortured and killed for being too outspoken.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRcdlqAyIps


Have a look and tell me what you think of this amazing, creative dance piece? 

After doing my research on the word Melt and finding the creative performance dance piece from America I wanted to take my research further as it caught my interest. 
Definition of Melt: 
To dissolve
To disappear
To be changed from solid to a liquid state.
To merge into something else
To become softened in feeling 


Relate words:
Reuse 
Fade
Blend
Warming
Fuse 
Soften
Weaken 


After discovering the definition and related words i found the word Melt could link in with my theme for my IPP project, Spirits, the definitions of both the words could blend together well and are actually very similiar. 


Melting = Departing 
Wax= Pure 
Warming= Connection  
Fade= Soul 


I've chosen to use these words to help me develop a motif. 

In this lesson we focused on objects, how to create an image and how it feels to move with the chosen object.


We followed certain instructions to help us indiviually and as a group to think creatively:


1. Pick 3 objects- mine were a ticket, cds and a book.
2. In groups put all the objects together and move an object to re-create an image.
3. Move to a different group/image, then repeat task 2.
4. Move all objects at the same time.
5. Ensemble- 2 people at a time create a whole image by moving an object.
6. Everyone join in to move/create a new image.
7. Pick 1 object then focus on how it feels and moves- Mine was a deodrant bottle.
8. Move with the object around the space, interacting with others.
9. Then put all related objects together to generate the final image.


I really enjoyed this task because it was very contrasting to the other classes we've had, and its helped me think 'outside the box' and use my creative mind.
I also enjoyed it because it links in with other perfetions i'm interested in- textiles and art.


BEST LESSON EVER! :)

At the beginning of the class we felt sponges, then we were asked to move like sponges. 

I liked the fact of feeling the sponges before hand then imagining my body as a sponge, it made me realise what it felt like and helped me use my creative imaginative mind to imagine my bones, joints and muscles like sponges.

I found my  movement was very relaxed, soft and unthinkable. 

        

Tuning Score


Workshop with Susanna Recchia 


BEGIN 
PAUSE
END
REPLACE
REVERSE 


I found this score very interesting and useful, I enjoyed being an observer as we never have the chance to. I realised as the score went on the movement development,  influenced movement from each other and relationships being formed between us whilst improvising. 


Participating in the score i found movement freely developing and i also found contact improvisation developing easily, which i found hard before. 


This is the company she works with: 


http://www.lapsuscorpi.eu/


Check it out, and let me know what you think? 

Definition of balance:


An even distribution between weight, helping someone or something to remain upright and steady.


Definition of Equilibrium: 


A state of physical balance, which could be influenced - breathing, vision, vestibular ( fluid in ears and brain), muscular skeletal system and Kinesthetic  physiological function without seeing. 





The exercise of balancing and shifting weight with a partner, was difficult for me, as i couldn't take her weight completely, but it was nice to feel some support on my back and share equal weight. 

Mathew Bourne - Edward Scissor hands. 

I love this performance, film and Choreographer.

What do you think?

MELT


Over Christmas i had to research the word MELT.
When you think of MELT what comes to your mind? 
Melted chocolate? Melted ice?
I did my research and found a site-specific dance piece by Noemie Lafronce which was called MELT and i found it very eye opening;
The production took place in New York in 2010.  The dancers were perched on the wall in costumes which were made from beeswax and lanolin, the costumes slowly, melted away as the out standing performance went on. 

This dance piece inspired me not just by the energetic, edgy movements but by the set, costume and the feel of the performance.