As preparation for an improvisation task, I asked Sian to bring a Folk Song that I was not familiar with and had never worked with or sang, but that she felt would be interested to work with in movement terms. I felt that I wanted to set a challenge for myself and discover what would happen when I was literally having to respond to messages 'in the moment.' With the material I had been working with prior to the workshop, before beginning any physical work, time had been spent studying the songs at length - the story, the characters, the emotions and the history behind them. Then I took this knowledge I had acquired into the studio to start the improvisation process.
I was interested to see what would happen if I didnt have this knowledge prior to the improvisation. Where would my responses come from and what would they be? The experience was quite interesting but unfortunately we didn't have the time to really get our teeth into it!!
Sian chose the song 'Ffarwel i Aberystwyth' (Farewell to Aberystwyth) a traditional songs that tells of a young man's decision to leave his home town after having his heart broken by a maiden who fell in love with someone else. Sian played the song to begin with while I listened and visualised and then we discussed briefly the story behind the song. Before attempting the first improvisation, I had thought the response would not come from anything more than the music, which then made me wonder whether I would actually get anything from this task. I thought it would make me realise that in order to respond to the material I would need to have to have done this big study beforehand.
I began to realise something interesting. (Putting this into words is going to be interesting!!). A lack of sources present such as music or words does not mean there will be a less of a response. There is this other response - this non-visible connection to the work that drives me and guides me to find movement. What I wanted to know was, is this an experience of responding to something that is already there, something culturally embedded? I dont think I know enough about this to be able to delve into this thought further at this stage but the task definately evoked this idea of responding to something that is already embodied.
Rosie - I doubt this makes much sense. I need to spend time to think clearly about this as essentially its this experience that is driving the work. Maybe we can spend time talking about this? Its the root of the creative response isnt it?
I'm going to stop now! I didnt discuss any of this with Sian which I should have. I think her take on it would have been really useful for me. But I've noted it as an experience of the work and hopefully we can find a way to come back to it in the future.
Bye!
Friday, 11 February 2011
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Reflections on Workshop 1
To give the workshop a kind of structure I had decided to 'prepare' 3 pieces of work. I'm not using 'prepare' here in the sense that I had set choreographed 3 pieces of work as I had decided during the process that I would no longer aim to set work. This preparation involved exploration through experiencing, feeling and going along with the messages I was receiving through moving - those messages coming from loads of sources at the same time - text, music, voice, stories, characters and their emotions, my emotions, my environment etc etc. This allowed the work to change every time I 'rehearsed' it which is exciting and scary and liberating! The possibilities are endless. I originally found this idea quite mad - how was I going to manage this? Would something ever emerge?
It sounds like a strange thing to say because essentially, this is how we create work. You create, reflect, throw away, adapt, keep material and the work starts to form. I didnt use this process in my usual way for this work. I haven't really spent time documenting the work through video or writing notes. I became interested in the fact (and this is going to sound incredibly naff!) that my body started to document the work! (See-naff!). Material started to emerge through repetition of the improvisation - certain patterns, moments and movements stayed with me without comprimising the rest of the improvisation and then some kind of shape started to form. Its not large chunks of material - little snippets here and there but enough for me to feel there was some kind of structure to the choreography.
I discussed this way of working with Sian at the start of the workshop to give context to what she was about to observe. One of the 3 songs/pieces of work I had chosen was one of Sian's creations 'Branwen a Blodeuwedd.' (I think I'd sent you a brief explanation of this song Rosie in the email for the photos link). It was this she asked to see first. During the first performance Sian observed and filmed the work! During her feedback we discussed the realtionship between the choreography and the song and discussed the song itself and how this could help develop the choreography. The portrayal of the 2 characters was quite important to the discussion and how a clear change in movement quality could demonstrate the fate of the 2 women.
After each discussion, I went back to working physically on the material and found that it was started to develop further with each bit of information I was receiving from Sian who had by this time, not only taken on the role as witness, but was able to direct me. We stayed with this piece of work throughout the whole of the morning session as we were finding that, after each performance of it, there was constantly somewhere to go with it. Even though we had these 2 other pieces of work, I felt that we needed to carry on with this one. There was too much happening to leave it be.
We didnt discuss the work much at all over lunch and when we arrived back at the space we decided to pick up where we left off. That hour away from the work was needed it seems, as when I came to perform it again a shift had happened. It was still unset (is that a word?) but something had changed. I felt I had managed to stay in the moment throughout the entire piece. It felt strong and I felt rooted and conscious in the work - like there wasnt one moment where I felt dis-attatched to what was happening. I felt I would often come across fleeting moments of dis-attatchment during improvisation where I was moving but not responding. I felt like I had made a breakthrough and began to understand much more, this creative process I was working through.
This has brought the work onto another level again and now I need start thinking more about how all these things link up -
Creating through 'listening to the messages'
The realtionship of these messages with cultural roots, history, folk, community
Material that stays in the body and material that doesnt - and why?!
Working in the moment - remaining conscious within the work and dis-attatchment.
I'm not even going to attempt blogging the second half of the workshop now. This is already turning into a thesis! I'll come back to it! x
It sounds like a strange thing to say because essentially, this is how we create work. You create, reflect, throw away, adapt, keep material and the work starts to form. I didnt use this process in my usual way for this work. I haven't really spent time documenting the work through video or writing notes. I became interested in the fact (and this is going to sound incredibly naff!) that my body started to document the work! (See-naff!). Material started to emerge through repetition of the improvisation - certain patterns, moments and movements stayed with me without comprimising the rest of the improvisation and then some kind of shape started to form. Its not large chunks of material - little snippets here and there but enough for me to feel there was some kind of structure to the choreography.
I discussed this way of working with Sian at the start of the workshop to give context to what she was about to observe. One of the 3 songs/pieces of work I had chosen was one of Sian's creations 'Branwen a Blodeuwedd.' (I think I'd sent you a brief explanation of this song Rosie in the email for the photos link). It was this she asked to see first. During the first performance Sian observed and filmed the work! During her feedback we discussed the realtionship between the choreography and the song and discussed the song itself and how this could help develop the choreography. The portrayal of the 2 characters was quite important to the discussion and how a clear change in movement quality could demonstrate the fate of the 2 women.
After each discussion, I went back to working physically on the material and found that it was started to develop further with each bit of information I was receiving from Sian who had by this time, not only taken on the role as witness, but was able to direct me. We stayed with this piece of work throughout the whole of the morning session as we were finding that, after each performance of it, there was constantly somewhere to go with it. Even though we had these 2 other pieces of work, I felt that we needed to carry on with this one. There was too much happening to leave it be.
We didnt discuss the work much at all over lunch and when we arrived back at the space we decided to pick up where we left off. That hour away from the work was needed it seems, as when I came to perform it again a shift had happened. It was still unset (is that a word?) but something had changed. I felt I had managed to stay in the moment throughout the entire piece. It felt strong and I felt rooted and conscious in the work - like there wasnt one moment where I felt dis-attatched to what was happening. I felt I would often come across fleeting moments of dis-attatchment during improvisation where I was moving but not responding. I felt like I had made a breakthrough and began to understand much more, this creative process I was working through.
This has brought the work onto another level again and now I need start thinking more about how all these things link up -
Creating through 'listening to the messages'
The realtionship of these messages with cultural roots, history, folk, community
Material that stays in the body and material that doesnt - and why?!
Working in the moment - remaining conscious within the work and dis-attatchment.
I'm not even going to attempt blogging the second half of the workshop now. This is already turning into a thesis! I'll come back to it! x
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