Thursday, 8 November 2012

Day One- Intensive

Monday was our first day working with Marina on our performance project. I'm glad we have had the opportunity to work with Marina in our phrase class since the start of the year because it has enable us to get to know her a little and understand her style of dancing.
 
I did not know what to expect because obviously its the first day and we do not know what ideas the choreographer has. From the readings we were given, I assumed we may be working with sounds and the head. From the questions Marina asked us to answer, I thought she just wanted an insight into why we dance.
 
To begin with, we spent a lot of time talking about the questions we were asked and our individual responses. It brought back emotional connections to things that had happened in my dance career previously. Things that I probably didn't want to talk about and things I had forgotten for a while. However, listening to everyone elses answers, I feel my opinion has also changed. We then began to move:
 
 
Task 1
  • Warm up.
  • Openness.
  • Material about your joy of dancing.
  • Music changes.
  • Changing energy.
  • For the first time this year I felt I was moving how I wanted to move. I found my contemporary style again.

 

Task 2
  • Openness with a witness in the space.
  • 2 types of open- being open in your movement and being open as a person.
  • There is a difference between reaching and opening.
  • Open, widen, expand, creating space, opening the heart.
  • I was open in my movement whereas Kate wasn't, she was more reserved.
  • You need to close before you can open.
  • Moving into new spaces.


 
For myself
  • Embrace whats new, what I've come to study.
  • Tone and quality in voice, "I wasn't supposed to be here." Express that in movement.
  • Difficult being here. Showing both positive and negative.
  • Lack of fulfilment.
  • Desire.

Task 3
  • Reflection.
  • New beginnings.
  • Listening to the body.
  • What happens happens.
  • You can look back on the past but you can't change it, that's why I need to move on.
  • Bringing all that I've learnt in the last year to my movement.
  • As one door closes, another opens. That's what has led me to where I am today.
  • New paths.
  • I can add more strings to my bow. I am learning new things.
  • Realising how my body should feel.



Things to carry forward from Task 3
  •  Keep the phrases, hands on back stuff, nodding heads, rises.
  • Move on from the phrases into positivity.
  • Its ok to be obvious between positive and negative.
  • Interruptions of negative.
  • Make negative moments more of a snapshot/ flashback.



Task 3 (Round 2)
  • Continued to work with nodding heads, rises and hands on back however did not progress them any further.
  • Movement was more free this time rather than 'static' classwork.
  • Flash backs worked well although I couldn't always the define them from the positive.
  • Thinking of phrases but not necessarily taking notice of them.
  • Thought of positives more than negatives this time.



Task 4
  • Softening.
  • I felt sometimes obvious and literal in my movements.
  • Rocking backwards and forwards.
  • Relaxing.
  • Trust.
  • Skin touch.
  • Heaviness.
  • Communication.
  • Relying upon someone to support you.
  • Meeting of two bodies.
  • Disorientated when standing.
  • I felt I had to breath more deeply.



To do list for Thursday
  • Make a story board. Based on improvisation task think about making a phrase of movement. Not directly set but have an idea of what you're doing.
  • Book recording equipment to film skin.
  • Listen to John Tusa interviewing Anthony Gormley (BBC 3).
  • Ask about the possibility of blending sound scapes.
  • Get more interviews.
  • Take a quote from the days experience.
  • Record the sound of the wind.


The Lungs

Wednesday 24th October
Experiential Anatomy with Polly


In this lesson, we spoke about the lungs and felt the breath of another person. It seemed quite a simple lesson but also quite complex at the same time. Although it is easy to feel someone breathing, the respiratory system is so complex. I drew a picture of the lungs so that I can have a better understand of whats inside them and how they work.

My Arms

Thursday 11th October
Phrase Class with Marina Collard

Today we briefly focused on our arms during the warm up. We've done work like this since last year but today it really made sense to me. Marina talked about reaching from the shoulder blades along the arms and out through the little fingers. This all seemed so clear to me now and I could really feel it. Since this lesson whenever we do work with our arms I immediately think of what Marina taught us.

Here is an image I drew in my journal as a reminder of how the movement felt.


Wednesday, 7 November 2012

17th October

Last lesson, we had to find a neglected space within Ellen Terry to observe and make notes about. Our homework was to find neglected items to bring into our next lesson.
With these items we made a sculpture.
This was the sculpture that Hannah and I created...









This was the first completed sculpture, before we went to find more objects...









Motherland



Thursday 1st November 2012
Motherland
Vincent Dance Theatre
Birmingham Hippodrome
Directed by Charlottle Vincent

I did not really know what to expect from this piece before going to see it. I've never heard of Vincent Dance Theatre and I haven't seen any other work by Charlotte Vincent.

After watching Motherland, I feel I have some much food for thought. There seemed to be so many symbolic meanings in the piece that I could relate to because we have talked about them in either Placing Practise in Context or Dance Analysis.

Motherland to me, was very hard hitting, raw and truthful.

I made some quite in depth notes during the performance which take a lot of explaining! Here are some of the ideas that I took away from the piece.

  • Gender
  • Age difference
  • Unity
  • Strength
  • Naivety
  • Male gaze
  • Humour
  • Traditional stereotypes
  • Challenging stereotypes
  • Nature
  • Fertility
  • Sexuality
  • Repetition
  • Frustrations
  • Blood
  • Roles
  • Single Parenthood
  • Apposing styles of music (Classical and Rock).
  • Maturity
  • Modern Society

Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Tino Sehgal

Here are two videos I took for Tino Sehgal's work whilst at the Tate Modern...





Monday, 5 November 2012

Trip to the Tate Modern!!

Monday 22nd October 2012
 
Tino Sehgal- Turbine Gallery






The Tino Sehgal piece really interested and intrigued me. It made me ask questions about what the piece was about/ based on...

Why the repetion of moving up and down the hall?

What were the stories? Did they represent an influential moment within their life?

Why did the speed change?

What was the starting point/ stimulus for the piece?

Would it mean something different if it was shown in a different place?





The Tanks