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
No comments:
Post a Comment