Week 7 - Dunraven Beach Trip

During this week’s session we did something different. Rather than staying in the dance studio we were offered an opportunity to visit a beach with the 3^rd year’s Site Specific group. Our whole group turned up and started taking pictures of our trip. Dunraven was a 2 hour bus journey, and we were advised to pack something white and to wear comfortable, warm clothing, because of the very cold sea breeze. Prior to the trip, we were told to read about Body Weather by Min Tanaka.

Once we arrived at Dunraven, we were greeted by the cold sea breeze and made our way to the heritage centre, where all our belongings were to be kept. Once we arrived and settled in we were briefed about the day and were introduced to Alison, our guide. She explained what we were going to do and her involvement with the beach. She was the set designer for a theatre company who were heavily involved with Dunraven. It was really interesting to hear about her job. One story that particularly stood out was when they tried to put a piano on the beach but failed due to weather conditions.

After eating lunch, we were split into groups according to the lecturers who were there (Daniel and Jane). Nurisa, Steph and Rhys followed Jane and Allison to the site where all the ruins were situated, whilst Mark and Roosa went with Dan to the Cliffside. 

  

We first explored the ruins. They were very interesting to look at with a lot of historical background. The most beautiful structure was the one in the above picture. It used to be an old entrance for a home. The place was massive and looked like it belonged to a wealthy family. After a tour of the place were told to create a performance based on any space in the site. Rhys, Stephanie and Nurisa were in one group, and picked a place that used to be another entrance with cobblestone flooring. 

We had with us a white towel, which we used in the performance. We pretended it was something valuable and the performance was based on the idea of getting past guards and trying to bribe them with the treasure (towel). The next sequence involved us trying to get it back and running away. It was a silent piece with a lot of physical movements and running. Overall the feedback was good, people liked the relationship between the towel and actors and how we used it in our piece. 

 

Everyone else's piece were interesting. They used the energy and the surroundings of the place by integrating the breeze or site they picked. 

Meanwhile, in Dan's group with Mark and Roosa, they explored the ideas of Body Weather by Min Tanaka. 

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Once we reached the cliff, we were told to do the famous Buto walk, where one walks slowly towards an opposing side. Once we finished this exercise, we went to another part of the cliff, where we were told to stand almost on the edge in order to feel the wind, energy and nature of the cliff and felt it carry us.

Everyone did it, different sizes of sheets were distributed. The task involved holding up white sheets against the wind to feel resistance whilst walking into it, creating many different shapes and images. They also tried to put each shape with a state of mind, such as struggle and pain. Because some sheets were on varied levels, the shapes created looked different to others and were carried differently. When carrying the sheet the actor must not let the sheet move them. We were told to move on our own and not let the sheet influence our actions too much.

This experience taught us to be one with nature and tells us that the body is like the weather, it constantly changes. When the sessions were finished, groups swapped and did the activity the other group had done first. 
Once we were all done, everyone made their way down to the beach for the last workshop.

For the first part of the beach workshop, we made our way to a massive rock pool. The path leading up to the rock pool was to be used as part of a exercise. Staying in our groups, one group would stay near the rock pool and the other would create three moves en route. The last group would then greet the arriving group with a specific pose.

This exercise was interesting and something we have never done before. It was a good way to use the space we had. The final workshop was based on stories of wives waiting for their husbands to come back from war. All of us spread out along the beach and created a series of poses facing the sea. It was calming and spiritual experience. It was nice to use the atmosphere and story.

The beach trip, although tiring and quite cold, was a nice change. The whole experience taught us that the body is closely linked with nature and the world. Reading about Min Tanaka and Body Weather before the trip gave us a good foundation, and meant the workshops made more sense.


 

Week 6 - Chair Duets and Jack and Jill

In this week's lecture we learnt about chair duets, a technique which was created by Frantic Assembly, a UK based theatre company that has a unique physical style which combines movement, design, music and text. A chair duet is a choreographed movement piece, the idea of which is to build a story through movement and ultimately create a working scene from it. ‘According to Frantic Assembly, a story will naturally develop after adding meaning to the movement.’[1] 

To begin with first Dan showed us this example of what a chair duet is:

An example of Chair Duets.

We were then told to get into pairs, and create five simple movements to put into a ‘call and response’ style. within my pair, the movements were a little restricted as we were sat down. This meant the moves we used were simple leg, head or arm movements. I think that even though the movements were so simple, they were effective, and there was definitely a story starting to develop. 

To make our duets more complex we were told to swap partners with the duo next to us, and to create five new movements for this pairing. This made the story progress: characters and relationships started to form. After doing this in our new pairs, we were then instructed to do the first set of our individual movements, but in a simultaneous sequence and not sitting with a partner. This was strange because we didn't have anybody to respond to the moves we were doing. Afterwards we spoke as a group and we decided that this would be a good tool to show important relationships in a piece, because you can see what they feel towards each other by the way they move together.

The next task was for us to get into our performance groups and recreate a well-known story as a movement piece without letting people know exactly what story we were doing from the start. We decided to do Jack and Jill, and although we thought that this would be an easy story to recreate, we found it was actually hard to pick key points without instantly revealing to the audience our chosen story. We found the full nursery rhyme online to help us, and the context of it. Firstly we had to break down the key points, then create movement that showed the relationships and emotions of characters. We changed the story slightly to make it more than just a nursery rhyme. We chose to have Jill be a victim of domestic violence; to put a dark twist on the children’s story. This also gave us more to experiment with in terms of character relationships. 

During the piece Dan instructed us to use mimetic actions to correspond to the dialog that we were using for the piece. An example of this was when Nurisa cowered away from Rhys as he raised his arm to point somewhere - this was to show her fearful state of mind. Similarly to this, when Nurisa and I were talking my character said “You can’t go, not after the last time.” I pulled her closed to me and put my arms around her, as though protecting her. 

The idea of having movement related to the speech is a useful method to really emphasise something important in a performance. We chose not to say the names if the characters because that would have given it away instantly, although we did mention the ‘hill’ to give the audience a clue of the story we were portraying. When we performed our piece, the class didn’t know what story we had chosen, so we had succeeded in the task we were given.

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[1] https://seebritain.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/chair-duet/

Week 5 - Asian Traditions

During this lecture, we were introduced to the Asian traditions of physical theatre. We looked at different aspects of the techniques created and exploited by different practitioners such as Ohno and Hijikata.

We started the lecture off as we always do, with a full body warm up, which included stretches, body shapes and rotations. As we were looking at the methods of Asian physical theatre, we specifically designed our warm up to suit what was planned ahead for the lecture. For example, triangles was the basis for how we moved around the space, meaning that however we moved we had to maintain a perfect triangle, whether that be with the arms or the legs. The position of our bodies meant that we had to have our knees bent facing outwards but with an upright torso. I personally thought it was difficult because I could not seem to keep my back straight, no matter what position I was in, and when I did finally get into that position, it didn’t feel comfortable and was quite painful. The warm up that we did linked to the 8 Indian Classical Dance forms which are as follows:

·         Bharatanatyam

·         Gaudiya Nritya

·         Kathak

·         Kathakali

·         Kuchipudi

·         Manipuri

·         Mohiniyattam

·         Odissi

·         Sattriya

After the warm up, we looked at the Japanese art forms of Kabuki and Noh theatre. 
‘Kabuki is an art form rich in showmanship. It involves elaborately designed costumes, eye-catching make up, outlandish wigs and arguably most importantly, the exaggerated actions performed by the actors.’'

Kabuki is a Japanese dance-drama. It is often performed as a full day program, rather than the tradition 1-5 hour performances that we usually see in western theatre. The dramatic pacing would usually start as slow at the beginning of the day, speed up as the hours pass and end quickly. Kabuki plots are usually based on historical events, warm-hearted drama, moral conflicts, love stories and tales of tragedy, of conspiracy, or other well-known stories. 

Most full length Kabuki plays would be performed within 5 acts. The first act is a slow introduction to the characters and the plot. The next three acts would correspond and gradually speed up, building up to a dramatic moment at the end of act 3, and possibly a battle in the 2^nd and/or 4^th acts. The final act is a short but satisfying conclusion, as almost all Kabuki shows have a happy ending. Kabuki is performed only by men, who are covered in stage make up.

Noh is a form of theatre which includes music, dance and drama and originates from the 14^th Century. 
‘Noh performers are simply storytellers who use their visual appearance and movements to suggest the essence of their tales rather than to enact it.’ 
Noh was popularised by Zeami and Kan’ami, as they wrote some of the first Noh pieces, some of which can still be seen in Japan today. Noh plays are usually short, and the actors tend to wear masks. They use their body language and movements to show emotions, making it more accessible for the audience. Their movements are very precise and the space in which it would be performed was very specific, with the stage measuring just 5.4 metres on each side. 
There are five different types of Noh plays, and they are as follows:

·         The Kami (God) Play – involves a sacred story of a shrine.

·         The Shura Mono (Fighting Play) – centres on warriors.

·         The Katsura Mono (Wig Play) – has a female protagonist

·         The Gendai Mono (Present Day Play) – story that is realistic and contempory

·         The Kyojo Mono (Demon Play) – features devils, supernatural beings and strange beasts.

Butoh was the main focal point of this session, as we looked into detail some of the exercises that the people training in the practice would take.
‘Butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a range of techniques, activities and motivations for dance, performance and movements.’
Butoh was developed after the Second World War by Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo. 
The first exercise we did was an easy but time consuming one. All we had to do was walk across the room slowly, putting heel to toe without using any other muscle in the body, and keeping the head up, staring out into space. The exercise was useful, as we found that we had more of an awareness of our bodies, as we knew what we needed to do, but were trying not to concentrate on doing it. It is also a good way to develop a mind of concentration, as it requires your full attention at all times until the exercise is over.
Another exercise we did was standing up against a wall and having to peel ourselves away from the wall, as if we was losing our skin as we were doing so. We had to imagine how it would feel and show the pain of it without exaggerating. Again, it was a task that required full concentration and a slow pace. We found that as we got further into the exercise, we would slightly speed up. This reminded me Kabuki theatre.

References:

http://www.britannica.com/art/Noh-theatre
http://www.japan-zone.com/culture/kabuki.shtml
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2090.html
http://www.the-noh.com/en/tour/nnt.html
https://tokyobling.wordpress.com/tag/noh-theatre/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-bgSFJiKc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF64QwlyeBs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esKido3gitQ

Week 4 - European Traditions

During the lecture today, we continued to explore the European traditions of physical theatre, but we began to look into things such as clarity and scale. We were also introduced to the different techniques created by French practitioner Etienne Decroux, and began to explore his method of ‘corporeal mime’. We also touched back on Rudolf Van Laban and some of his theoretical techniques and theories we had explored in the previous lecture.

Once the lecture commenced, we began by doing a full body warm up, which included things such as rotation of the different body parts and shape making. As we were continuing on from the previous lecture (where we had first began exploring European studies), our warm up contained elements of Laban’s theories and allowed us to refresh our memories on some of the main European traditions, such as Laban’s effort actions (sometimes referred to as Laban Movement Analysis). This is a ‘theoretical and experiential system for the observation, description, prescription, performance, and interpretation of human movement’ (Konie, 2011). The warm up that we did linked to the eight effort actions that Laban introduced, which includes:

-          Dabbing

-          Flicking

-          Wringing

-          Slashing

-          Thrusting

-          Punching

-          Floating

-          Gliding

After we had completed the warm up, we began looking at Etienne Decroux and his development of the dramatic technique of corporeal mime. Corporeal mime is a theoretical technique that allows the ‘practitioner to learn, through a unique vocabulary how to express theatrically human behaviour from its most practical aspects to its more abstract and spiritual ones.’ (Theatre de l'Ange Fou, 2016). 
A technique that is often associated with corporeal mime is body segmentation, a principle that grants the ability to move one body part at a time. Decroux believed that this technique was effective when thinking about the body because for this to happen, the rest of the body must agree not to move and stay stationary, he felt that this allowed actors to deeply consider the different ways they can move individual parts of the body. We began looking at this exercise when we explored the three planes of motion and the anatomical structure of the body and its appearance. This involved us exploring the division of the human body and looking at the different parts we could move. Each part also has a specific term to describe it. These parts are:

-          HEAD+ neck = HAMMER

-          HAMMER + chest = BUST

-          BUST + waist = TORSO

-          TORSO + hips = TRUNK

-          The entire body = EIFFEL TOWER

Example of Corporeal Mime 

In this exercise, we rotated a specific body part to a 45 degree angle and practiced moving through the different levels, experimenting how easily it was to do this. For example, we would move the head (hammer) in one direction and the torso (trunk) in the other. “A simple design is, for example, an inclination sideways, or an inclination backward, or a rotation. Man naturally mixes these things, especially when he is excited, or moves with resistance, or turns quickly” (Decroux, 1963: p.79).

The exercises for the principle of body segmentation in Corporeal Mime technique are called ‘scales’. We spent this session exploring the different types of scale and the process involved to create one. Once we had the basics established, we found that the exercises can be performed in many different ways. The following is an example of a basic scale:

BASIC SCALE- one block, at a time, moves one eighth of a circle and stops its motion, then comes back to the neutral position. The following block moves one eighth of a circle and stops. Then comes back to the neutral position, i.e. HEAD – NEUTRAL – HAMMER – NEUTRAL – BUST – NEUTRAL…

During this exercise, we were put into pairs, and each pair had to come up with two different scales for the other person to complete. These scales could vary in duration and difficulty, but the main objective of the session was to explore the different types of scale, and what body parts were able to move together in an effective way. Decroux ‘wanted to explore the full expressive potential of the body and give it a three-dimensional form.’ (Involuntary Movement, 2012). By doing this exercise, I felt that we were able to express the different bodily movements and we were able to convey the different types of scales, and the effect they would have in performance material. 
During this exercise, there was no speech involved, with a sketch of the created scale all we could use when completing the task. This meant that we were unable to verbally communicate to our partner what steps we wanted them to follow, we were only able to follow the sketched design created by our partner. This was a challenging task because it meant that we had to use our knowledge of Decroux’s ideology to re-enact our partners created scale without them giving us verbal guidance, although I feel we were all successful in completing this.

Reference List

Involuntary Movement (2012). Involuntary movement: Corporeal mime - "The art of the thinking body". [online] Available at: http://involuntarymovement.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/corporeal-mime-art-of-thinking-body.html (Accessed: 12 April 2016)

Konie, R. (2011). A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF LABAN MOVEMENT ANALYSIS. 1st ed. [ebook] CLMA, p.1. Available at: http://www.movementhasmeaning.com/wp.../09/LMA-Workshop-Sheet.pdf (Accessed: 11 April 2016).

Theatre de l’Ange Fou (2016) Theatre de l’Ange Fou - what is corporeal mime. Available at: http://www.angefou.co.uk/corporealmime.html  (Accessed: 11 April 2016).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ovSwkUVevE (Accessed: 23 April 2016)

Week 3 - European Studies (Laban Movement Analysis)

On week three we were taught about Laban and effort actions (Laban Movement Analysis) which is a big part of modern European dance. The Laban method was devised by Rudolf von Laban (1879-1958), a dancer, choreographer and theoretician who is considered one of the most influential and important figures in the history of dance. LMA offers "a large vocabulary for describing where in space the body is moving and the quality of the movements themselves." (Giguere, 2014: p. 48). It is "used to provide a common vocabulary for understanding the way humans move ..." (Giguere, 2014: p. 48)

We warmed up by moving accordingly to Laban, using the different effort actions (dabbing, flicking, wringing, slashing, thrusting, punching, floating and gliding).

An example of dancing using Laban effort actions:

Reference List

http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/about-us/our-history/rudolf-laban

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSShj74qcwo

Giguere, M. (2014) Beginning Modern Dance. United States, Human Kinetics.

https://youtu.be/S21UKIEd0I0

http://www.laban-analyses.org/laban_analysis_reviews/laban_analysis_notation/overview/summary.htm

Week 2 - American Modern Dance

In this week’s lecture we learnt about American modern dance techniques. This introduced us to dance practitioners such as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Doris Humphrey and Martha Graham, how they would perform, and how we could adapt their techniques within our own pieces for this module. We also had a visiting lecturer from the University of Minnesota, Rebecca Katz-Harwood, who expanded further on some of these techniques.

To start off the lecture, we did our usual warm up to prepare us for the physical activity we would be doing within the lesson. firstly, we were introduced to the work of Isadora Duncan, whose dance style and influence spread from America to Europe and Russia. She was the first person to ignore the rigid motions of ballet, preferring instead a more free flowing style of movement. She said ballet felt like "an articulated puppet producing mechanical movement."[1]  She opened two dance schools within her short lived career, and paved the way for many dancers to follow in her footsteps. 

We were informed that her work is full of movements that follow on from the previous one, flowing together seamlessly. This bares similarity to the Meyerhold technique of otkas, posyl, stoika and tormos. 

One exercise we did with Rebecca involved us running across the room using the techniques of Duncan: we were instructed to stand sideways and have our arm guide us across the space. This made the arm like a pendulum, therefore causing us to move forward with the swing of our arm. The movement created was not restricted, it was like a chain reaction in the body. We didn't have to think about our next movement, as it came naturally. "She doesn't base her art on a search for physical skills but on a connection between her own thought and feelings with the movement they can generate."[2] She also did not like to create a narrative for her dances, instead taking full inspiration from music to create her pieces.

This a video of dance in the style of Duncan. 

We were also introduced to Ruth St. Denis, Doris Humphrey and Martha Graham. All of these dance practitioners were inspired in some way by Duncan, yet they all adapted their own individual styles of dance. Ruth St Denis' dance style was influenced by eastern mysticism; she believed in the spirituality of dance. and that the body can be a vehicle of connection with which to explore movement. She took inspiration for her pieces from ethnic costume and images.

This is of video of Ruth St. Denis performing an Indian inspired piece.

Doris Humphrey, mentored by St-Denis, created her pieces with a focus on the use of the breath rather than beat counts. She created what is known as 'fall and recovery' (the process of continually falling away from and returning to equilibrium); breath rhythm (phrasing and dynamics associated with breathing), and natural movement (movement derived from natural sources). These became the basis of her technique. 

To explore some of this, we did an exercise using the notion of breath to guide out movement. The movement that we created was graceful and elegant, and could look very effective in a performance, the only concern we had was that if we always followed breath rather than music our pieced could look disjointed and off rhythm.

Doris Humphrey's piece Air on a G String.

Martha Graham is known for being one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. She created a movement language based upon the expressive capacity of the human body. Graham’s style stemmed from her experimentation with movements of fall and release, similarly to Humphrey. By focusing on the basis of human form, she enlivened the body with raw, electric emotion. The sharp, angular, direct movements of her technique were a dramatic departure from the predominant style of the time.

Martha Graham - Night Journey

During this lecture, we also learned about the solar plexus, which is a chakra (a focal point of energy within the body commonly referred to in eastern philosophy). The solar plexus is located in the centre of the torso, and is used as a tool to make directions in dance more prominent. We were told to imagine a beam of light coming from there and see how it would affect the movement. To me personally I felt this was a more robotic way of moving.

Isadora Duncan believed all movement originates from the solar plexus or the eyes. She would practise ways to use the solar plexus as a starting point, to make different types of movement: first using her eyes first to look, then she would breathe and move, creating the impression that she had in that moment decided to move a particular direction.[3]

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[1] Isadoraduncan.org

[2] Isadoraduncan.org

[3] http://www.duncandancers.com/10myths.html

Week 1 - Russian Movement Theatre

In the first week of the module, we learned about the Russian Movement Theatre. We were taught about the Russian physical theatre practitioner Vsevolod Emilovich Meyerhold  and his teachings of Biomechanics.

Meyerhold created his own theatrical ideas after coming to the realisation that Naturalism and Realism did not interest him anymore, capturing the attention of another well known dramatist Stanislavski. He was then invited to join Stanislavski in an experimental studio in Art Theatre. His experience in the studio made him realise that actors could not meet his standards, so he gained inspiration from American pioneers in modern dance to create a system that enabled his actors to thoroughly follow his direction and style. He called this system Biomechanics.

After learning a condensed history about Meyerhold, we then got on our feet and started to learn some basic Biomechanics. We were briefly told about the acting cycle and its three main parts of Intention, Realisation and Reaction. Continuing from this, we were told in more detail about four separate movements, the words were in Russian making it slightly difficult to remember but fun to learn. Otkas (Refusal), Posyl (Sending), Stoika (Stance), Tormos (Brake). 

The Otkas is the preparation for the main movement of a sequence, started by movement in the opposite direction, like a spring.

The Posyl is the main execution of the intended action, set up by the Otkas.

The Stoika is like a stop-motion pose. It is the completion of the movement and the starting block for the next movement.

The Tormos is the “brake” or “resistance”. It helps the body to move in a fluid and controlled motion through all stages of a movement.

To start our session we did basic warm ups. The stretches did not go on for too long, we wanted to carry on with the lesson and cover as much as we can. We were taught how to execute the four distinct parts just by walking or positioning ourselves as if we were about to run. It took us a while but once we got used to it we were all able to do these movements.

We watched a video explaining one of Meyerhold's etude, 'Throwing the Stone'. It is a sequence of movements that compromises the elements of the four movements (Otkas, Posyl, Stoika, Tormos). When doing the exercise it took serious concentration and discipline to execute it well. We found that once we broke our focus the whole sequence was lost. We were told that if we start losing our focus we had to gather ourselves again and restart the sequence in order to perform it well. The Dactyl starts the sequence as it brings our focus into the performance. It is two claps towards the ground which physically and mentally prepares us for the next movement. Listed below is the steps:

Dactyl

1. Leap into stance (side to audience, facing stage left, left leg forward)

1. Preparation to run (legs bent, arms bent, right arm forward)

1. Seeing the stone (look down and back over right arm)

1. Falling on the stone (right arm up and over – stage right)

1. Lifting stone to the feet

1. Transition of stone from foot to knee

1. Preparation to run

1. Spinning the stone

1. Taking aim

1. Preparing to throw

1. Throwing the stone

1. Identifying the strike of the stone

Turn

Dactyl

After experimenting with 'Throwing The Stone', we each experienced our various strengths and weaknesses. For example, some of us were quick to learn a certain movement or stance whereas others struggled to grasp it. It was interesting to see the different abilities each of us had and it made us aware of one another which is a great way to start a module. 'Throwing The Stone' taught us to have focus and be aware of our actions and physical presence on stage. We were told to practice the exercise at home and show it to the class next week.