Week 6

Warm-up exercise in the space:

Today’s class was only me and Brandon and we took turns to lead the warm-up which was much like the previous warm-ups of just exploring the space and how we can change the dynamics of movements to move through it. It was interesting doing this in a two as it would mean that the time that we had to think of new dynamics of moving in the space was limited so really had to think on the spot to keep the movements fresh. I also think just having the two of us made it easier to follow the changes of movements having only to spot one person also the transitions of who was leading was easier to differentiate because it was clear when there was a lull and you had to take over.

Revision and precision of material:

After the warm-up, I revised the material that I didn’t get to revise in last week’s class. I revise the other space. I started to think more about the amount of time in the positions that I was in for instance how long do I sit on the grass for looking at the cloud how long lying down on the floor looking up at the clouds and how long sitting up picking the grass. I chose the timings and I work with the precision of the movements. I decided to pick the grass three times for instance. Before this session, the other place was focussed about more of what I was thinking in my head and the setting that I was picturing and the energy of how I felt about the setting. The thoughts were serene thoughts and I was happy and chilled on the top of a hill looking at the clouds.

https://youtu.be/bz3l8vZlzJA

Exploring different ways of documenting the material

After revising the material we went on to document each other’s sequences. I did the other space and I documented Brandon’s body parts sequence called the force. I was documenting the paths that Brandon took. I took to a page in my booklet and started to move the pen across the page as if the end of the pen was Brandon’s feet and mark his movements as he was doing his piece. I had to get him to do it a number of times to be assured that I had got the right movements. There were points in which he stopped to do a movement of the movement with his upper body forced the lower body to move from its spot. I tried to mark all of the key movements and movements of the piece on this documentation of where he moved across the stage. I marked these moments with a number and gave them a short title that I could remember them by. The thing about this sequence that Brandon did was that there was a lot of moving back and forth much like my body parts actions. This made the documentation slightly messy with a lot of the movements overlapping each other. Doing this documentation showed me that it is important to sell the reasons behind being moved across the room as if there is not a clear reason for moving to and fro in the same sort of direction on the stage the performance will be bland and confusing for an audience and for a performer. The force and wandering hand are similar in the fact that there is a battle going on with a body part that is being controlled and the character that doesn’t want to be controlled. When doing my Wandering hand I have to make sure that the movements that I make come with the relevant energy and story behind it of my having this happen me not being in control so the body part is dragging the rest of my body in a state of confusion and the points of shaking off the control to it being transferred into another body part to when I start to move in the space again needs to be dynamic from the point of stillness when I have the body part under control and the push that the other body part has when it regains the power over the rest of my body.

Relation with each other in space:

We then moved on from the documentation to then to explore the relation with Brandon’s the force with my the hill sequence in the space and finding a fusion between the two starts to create a sense of how we will merge or solo sequence to form the whole piece together. We started by both being off stage then coming into the space in our own time and start to perform our routines simultaneously. Once we finish the routine in one part of the space we would travel to another part of the stage and repeat the routine again. It was interesting just do the routine with another person doing a different routine in the same space with the two routines have very different energies. I feel like the distance in which we were performing from each other was also an interesting factor in regards to the energy of the room. When we were more distance from each other I felt like there was a sense of the stage as the square of the piece being in two different places for the two different characters. When the distance was close and Brandon got close to me in the part of his piece when he is being dragged by his hand and he manages to stop himself and he stopped himself just in front of me there was a real sense of tension that Brandon was restraining his body part from potentially wanting to hurt or do something to my character. There were points in our routine when we would stop the sequence of the routine and just observe the others. This moment I feel was the most effective when we were close and Brandon was coming towards me and whilst I was in my state of peace and serenity I feel like this contrast in the energy created a very interesting dynamic and conflict. There was a point where I was transitioning to a different part of the room to restart my routine still rolling the blades of grass in my hand whilst Brandon was at the start of his routine as he was on the phone walking looking at the phone. We walked passed each both focusing on what we were doing with our hands and then we bumped shoulders and looked at each other as we bumped pass each then moved back into a position and resumed our routines. I feel like this was a great moment as it felt like we both disrupted each other for me it was like Brandon disrupted the peace and serenity that I was feeling by being alone on the hill and for Brandon, I feel like that could have been the reason for his body losing control and that there could be another storyline that is developed that I inflicted this on him which caused him to have this out of control hand and that would work at he was at the start of his routine and me being serene as he does his routine would work well with this storyline.

Improvisation and exploration in space (the square)

After creating the clash we started to explore all of our material in relation to each in the space looking for a way to enter the space and leave the space with multiple new ways of leaving the space and entering the space became available like hiding behind the curtain the doors from the back of the space the door at the side of the space and the doors at the other end of the space. I feel like this gave me a good sense of all the ways that the group as a whole can enter the stage and we can explore with the timings of the entrances of the group and the energy that we come into the stage with to create interesting moments in the pieces and possibly start to form some storylines that link with each other with the entrances and exits.