WEEK 3
The form of a dance or improvisation can change.
The form can change by
Shape – What body part to move (eg: nose or hip) or what shape to make with the body (eg: an ‘S’ shape or writing your name,
Dynamic – sharp, slow, flowy, fast, continuous, disjointed
Space – having a large studio space, small space, gaps between people, upstage or downstage
Pace – the speed of the movement or if you have been to perform it in a certain way
Rhythm – a set beat you’ve been given eg: 1,2,3,4,and 5, and 6, 7, and 8 or a piece of music that you have been given.
Today’s session taught me that even most simple of tasks need 110% concentration and commitment. As simple as walking through the feet is, executing a walk properly and going heel toe is hard when thinking about it. We taking walking for granted, but walk in the studio with controlled breath and correct posture and alignment, it’s like running a marathon. Whilst walking, the constant thought of breath, filling the space so there were no gaps, working as a team, how your external body is held was running round my head, and then combined with collectively starting and stopping as a group made my external senses and my peripheral vision work harder. Not leading the group on when to start and stop was the hardest as you needed to sense others around you and their movement, as though you all shared one mind. Watching others, I could see they wanted to perhaps stop but then also did not want to lead. Team work was essential in this task and taught me that even walking, jogging or running takes a mass amount of team work. Because people were concentrating on when to stop or start, the feet became heavy footed and people did not run properly, there was more noise which means less concentration and more space was revealed as no one concentrated on filling the gaps. Multitasking was also key in this task, and the more things to remember the more that it was evident that it needed work, however I felt I was more engaged and under control this week- also more confident and comfortable.
Flocking.
This was a task for the whole group and worked on experiencing the sensitivity to other people’s body. As an observation it was beautiful to see the ricochet of movement from front to back and also the small moments of unison from the people for example, at the front and could sense what was coming next. The movement needed to be slow, simple and was often gestural, therefore the movement was easy to follow and easy to keep in time- which was the intention. Some movement was tried but was too difficult to do in a small space with everyone being close together for example, going down to the floor or leaning far to the side.
“Do you intentionally repeat the failure and use that as anew movement to explore?” (Spain K, 2014, 69)
Some leaders of the movement used their own style to determine the movement they decide to do and sometimes it would not portray properly onto others, but whatever the outcome, was used to create the next movement- thinking about tracking which was from last week’s session. (I feel a huge improvement with noticing to track movement).
Splitting into 2 groups to made it easier to perform the movement such as going on to the floor or lunging out to the side or performing faster movement. There was some movement that ended up in counterpoint and was truly mesmerising to see and experience.
Pairs A and B.
The key words for this task was “continue”, “change” and “develop”, all relating to the movement in which you did. I noticed that all the movement was fast and not internal as such. It was not as habitual as the previous weeks however the speed and the body parts used could have been varied. When told to develop the movement, it became repeated which links back to Spain’s reading and how you could make a mistake a new motif when repeated. All first thoughts of movement started with an arm gesture of some kind. Instructions were given to change the shape and dynamics of the improvisation. This was useful as then the movement was new and original and not habitual. Some instructions were…
- No arms
- Then the arms back
- Leading from the elbows
- 5 walks every 10 seconds
- Leading from the nose
- Super slow movement
- Fast forward
- Leading from the back of the knee
These instructions helped everyone’s movement stray from habitual.
Score Relationships.
This final task was to work on the relationship with others and how to form a solo, duet, trio or a quartet, based on the rules and the idea of creating relationships in mind.
The rules…
The sections highlighted in blue are the only sections of space allowed to move in at that given time.
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
- In stages 1 and 2 you can only walk, run, fall, kneel, stand and turn.
- In stages 3 and 4 you can do any movement
- In stages 1 and 2, the key words are continue and change
- In stages 3 and 4, the key words are continue, change and develop
-To also, wait around the edges of the room before stepping into a certain section.
-Move on the sound of the alarm in the music.
At first this felt a little hazy as I felt like there was lots of instructions, however after the first few people had the guts to go first everyone loosened up. Sometimes it was hard to multitask and concentrate on creating the relationships as sometimes doing a movement would not catch on with someone else, therefore you felt like had made a mistake. But rolling with it leads to other opportunities that enabled you to follow someone else to form another relationship that you probably wouldn’t have tracked or thought would happen.
“I mean, I think it’s where really good improvisation ensembles make or break their world, how the ensemble deals with conflict or with mistakes or with misunderstandings.”(Spain K, 2014, 71)
Moments of pause and silence helped refresh the body. The slow pace of the group helped also with the tracking and internal thought process of keeping clam. I found it helpful to watch others and see the magic be created right in front of me. When the entire space was being used by the whole group, many duets and trios formed and created patterns such as going up and down onto the floor which created contrast and also complimented movement going on around the room.
This class helped me to understand ensembles and how simple movement can look effective in large groups. Also, how to remain calm in situations when bombarded with instructions. I can feel myself loosening up more and relaxing from week to week and the movement is becoming less habitual, I still need work but… Bring on next week!
Bibliography:
Spain, K. (2014) Tracking in Landscape of the Now: A Topography of Movement Improvisation. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.