Pathways

In Oliver's lesson this week we learnt about pathways, ways to meet and make contact with a partner.

 

 

We began this by initiating contact through the hand, down the arm and round to the back. This process would then be reversed when either partner wanted to move on. Before, I would have found it hard to initiate contact with a partner, but learning this has given me a way into contact. We then progressed this so that once you had made contact with a partner, it could become table top like we practised last lesson.

 

 

What I have learnt about contact improv is to be open. Everyone responds differently to this work and therefore you need to be aware of that and adapt to others you are moving with. Obviously, some partners are more willing than others. 

The Last 6 Inches

I apologise that its been a long time since I have blogged, but now essays are out of the way I can spend more time uploading posts!

Our first timetabled lesson of the new year was with Oliver Scott. He is an artist working in the Coventry area and he is teaching us contact improvisation. I was looking forward to developing my skills in this area because I feel this is one of my weaker techniques at the moment.

We spent this first lesson learning about the last 6 inches, this is the last six inches just above the floor. To begin with, we were experimenting with focus. For example, how close does your face have to be to the floor before you loose focus of what you are looking at. I suppose this made me think of distances and how we perceive things we look at. We can change our own focus by looking at things closely and looking at things further away. Our eyes work on a similar principle to a camera lens in a way.

After this, we learnt about table tops. We have learnt a little about this in first year but this time we went into more detail. The key was to keep balanced and remain in control of your own body. I found the best way to control my body was by moving and changing the position of my head. I also found that keeping a connection between the pelvis was really helpful!

I really enjoy our first lesson and am looking forward to how this will develop over the term. I feel that I have now learnt some of the basic principles of contact improv and as long as I remember them in future they will help me.

Dress Rehearsal





This footage was taken of Small Boat Dance Company during the dress rehearsal on Thursday 6th December 2012, before the first evening performance.

Unfortunately, this is the only full length, costumed, light copy of the piece we have. The filming of the first real performance failed and the second was only taken on a small camera which could not cope with the professional lights and therefore is of poor quality.

So enjoy!!

 

My Second Role

This was the day of our first performance and Imminent Dance Company were helping put up the projection screen for our piece

 

Just some pictures of the lighting booms at the side of the space and the lighting rig above it. I took these pictures to put in my artist journal to coincide with my second role of technical support.

 

 

 

And this is the lighting desk in the box. This controls all the light set up in the space and it was my job to control this during Imminent's performance.

Day 5- Intensive

The last intensive rehearsal all seemed a bit of a blur really, we just muddled our way though the day just doing what we needed too. I am glad we had our last rehearsal day so close the the performance because this really gave us time to polish and perfect the piece.

We started by finishing the piece off and finding the right place to end. Rather than just all stopping and creating an almost forced ending, we finished with all of the group trailing off one or two at a time until the last two dancers came to a gradual stop. I feel this was the rightful ending that our piece needed, like we had done it justice and now it was time to end. Once this became the definite end for the piece, we began to go through and clean the piece.

We went through it slowly making sure that no stone was left unturned and that each movement was done with the intention of how it was created, from how it came from out own individual thoughts about what dance means to us. I suppose when I think about it, it has been a personal experience for all of us. And like I previously said, in order to convey the piece I feel that I need to put everything in to show my true feelings about dance. And only from this can I now understand that I have lied to myself about why I do it and how it makes me feel. I cannot believe how this has changed things for me.

Anyway, we corrected any problems and got the piece looking really good. We continued to run the piece several times so that we were really comfortable with it and then we left it before it sent us mad!!

Final Costume Design

So these were all the clothes that we brought in so we could come up with a matching colour scheme in order for us to look like a unit...

 

 

 

 

 

...And this is what we came up with!!

 

So its been rather a long time since I last posted on my blog! Oops!! However, I'm going to attempt to catch up on some of the stuff that I haven't put on here that I feel is important. I am still yet to write about our Performance Project Performances!!!!! And also the things that we have started to do after Christmas too!

So here goes...