Movement in performance - Continuing with our 'torch-ography' piece

We made some changes and progress to the piece today, we wanted to add in more lyrical/contemporary movement/dance in because a lot of our performance so far has been very much more physical theatre than movement. We also wanted to add in more dynamics (RADS) because so far we have none in our pieces. The atmosphere created by the music and the low-lit setting gives us a great opportunity to create some free-flowing dynamic movements, that also fit under the lyrical dancing category. At 0:52, there are free flowing movements, flicking motion, sustained time movement and it is all light weighted movements (all of which come under dynamics).

In our previous lesson, I brought in my recording equipment and we began recording the voices for the piece. We discussed two different ways of recording, both of which we decided would be effective in different ways. We began by recording one line at a time individually, and as the song progresses and picks up we merged and mixed them together so that everyone was talking over each other. We then started to record 3 people at once saying multiple lines over each other to create more 'background' dialogue during where all the voices overlap each other and it doesn't sound so empty, it creates more of a busy atmosphere, and helps to show just how many people are affected by body dysmorphia. The idea at the end is have Will say live 'I love everything about me' to contradict it all, show positivity and the light at the end of the tunnel that most people with this condition fail to see.

Movement in performance - Working on Alice's idea/piece

Alice's 'character' represents girls who feel they have to conform to society's ideals of being deemed beautiful, wearing excessive make-up, body exposing photos, and just generally actively trying hard to look more 'attractive' than they think they are. The idea we discussed prior to this lesson was a piece based around Alice being half-naked and we all write comments on her that would make someone like her insecure, and showing this idea that even with lots of make up, people still pick flaws and stab at you showing that you cannot win. We drew this from this video:

We decided to use the song 'We don't have to take our clothes off', but a stripped back acoustic version that myself and Alice will record.

I found this piece particularly hard to keep up with, possibly because there was a lot of small simple movements which was hard to remember. 

Analysis 

• 0:56 - An example of a free flowing sway (dynamics) which represents how girls want to feel free of judgement, and be free of this social construct of having to look what society deems as 'beautiful' all the time, and just have time to be themselves.
• 1:05 - Surrounding Alice could possibly show the relationship girls have with social media and society - they feel trapped and confined with an ideology where they feel they must always try hard on their appearance to impress others, but they feel trapped because they fail to even impress themselves; and to others sometimes their effort just isn't enough.
• 1:12 - Moving fast/acting normally around Alice whilst se takes her clothes off represents how society expects girls to openly expose their bodies, and ready for judgement. 
• 1:39 - Writing comments on Alice's body - this is quite an unexpected and very different part to the piece and to any other piece in theatre, and we hope that it will make the audience feel slightly uncomfortable but intrigued at the same time. The way she stands there, letting us judge her and comment on her shows the other side of the story: how these girls expect to be judged and the comments they receive aren't always what they hope for, which in turn crushes their self esteem and confidence.

For the part where we walk round Alice at normal speed, or to Alice seeming like everyone is moving round her really fast, we were inspired by the London underground sequence in 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time' and the music video to 'Numb' by Linkin Park.

Overall in this sequence, we wanted to show what girls go through and what they are willing to do in order for others to deem them as 'beautiful', and show how it is as if their appearance is controlled by society and social media.

Movement in performance - Research on body dysmorphia

Movement in performance - Exploring 'torch-ography' and verbatim theatre

Verbatim theatre is a form of theatre based on spoken words from real people from real events (like interviews, for example). We really like the idea of this, and thought it would work very well with our theme. We thought of having recorded voices (I suggested we use my multi-track recorder to record each of our voices through one track, just to make things much easier for ourselves) saying words or phrases related to common insecurities to have in the background of our 'torch-ography' movement piece. We thought of some phrases that could be included:

'Torch-ography' piece:

We used a instrument version of Bastille's 'Oblivion', which works really well with the piece because it sets a nice and mellow atmosphere, but also has provides lots of opportunity for stylistic movements and visuals, and also helps to create the hard-hitting message we wish to get across. 

For this piece, we were inspired by the musical number 'Blackout' in the musical 'In the Heights', where the only lights are from lighters and phones from the cast:

(A clip from the professional production couldn't be found, so this an amateur dramatics company called Spirit Young Performers Company)

The part where we shine our lights on the ground and we walk around the spot light shows that we don't to be in the light - as young, insecure, and media-controlled young people who suffer from body dysmorphia, we wish to stay out of the centre of attention, out of the light because we don't want to look at ourselves and we believe we do not look good enough for others to us too.

In terms of RADS, we hit a fair few aspects of it. We cover: 

• Canon, with the lights (Relationships, 0:40-0:47, done poorly here)
• Meet and part (relationships, 0:30-0:33)
• Side by side, waiting (relationships, 0:40-0:47)
• Levels (space, 0:40-0:46)
• Pathways across the floor (space, 0:17-0:28)
• Travelling in a group (Actions, 0:34-0:39)
• Travelling as a transition (Actions, 0:38-0:40)
• Pivoting turn (Actions, 0:32-0:33)

Movement in performance - New final idea

After a few lessons workshopping our initial idea, we decided that trying to present a storyline within a 5-10 minute movement piece would be quite hard, and would require a lot more time than we have. So we looked at the stimulus again, and began to brainstorm alternative ideas:

I particularly liked the idea of gun crime, and showing how the matter is viewed very differently in different countries, and recent gun crimes in the USA - also possibly showing Donald Trump's views and then have an underlying message of how he is damaging the country with his views.

However it the majority went towards the idea of social media and how it is damaging the one's self confidence, increases insecurities, makes young people think they have to advertise themselves to be someone they're not in order to 'fit in', and the general impact it has on our lives. This is a very interesting idea because there are many aspects of the matter than you can incorporate and tie in/link together to form one big message. We researched issues such as body dysmorphia, using make up to cover up what you really look like, and feeling like you can't win no matter what you look like.

When discussing ideas for movement, we watched the following clips for inspiration:

From these, we decided we wanted to use mirrors to show how girls constantly look at themselves and judge how they look, believing they are 'ugly' or 'fat' etc...We wanted to present a girl suffering from body dysmorphia. We used the song 'One more light' by Linkin Park, because it set a depressing atmosphere and the lyrics really help tell what this person is going through.

This mainly focuses on using space and actions, but also possibly the relationship the girl has with who she thinks she sees in the mirror.

Movement in performance - Devising our final performance

Group 1:

• Cameron
• Will
• Alice
• Owen
• Chloe

Group 2:

• Henri
• Warren
• Taylor
• Tyler
• Joe

Stimulus:

Ideas drawn from stimulus:

For our opening movement piece, we wanted to show Alice giving birth and how Chloe's character (who is, ironically, a mid-wife) obviously longs for that moment of her own. 

Thinking of RADS and other stylistic and abstract movements, so far we have included the following:

• Answer and reaction (relationships, shows that we are all friends)
• Canon (Relationships)
• Round-by-through
• Waiting (Relationships)
• Elevation (Actions)
• Free flow (Dynamics)
• Travel (Actions)

Movement in performance - Slapstick comedy routine

Today we moved away from RADS and looked at applying slapstick comedy to a movement routine.

We watched a clip from the film 'Singin' in the rain' where the character Cosmo (played by Donald O'Connor) leads his number 'Make 'em laugh' which is simply about making the audience laugh in a performance. We observed that through his song/routine, he throws himself about a lot and he is very silly (which is the art of slapstick comedy), and all his expressions and movements and body language were very big and he committed to everything with massive energy. This made it all the more fun to watch.

This was the song we had to use for our routines. We put into groups, I was with Taylor and Owen, and we decided to do a 'love-triangle' themed routine where Owen likes me, I like Taylor and Taylor likes Owen. The initial comedy coming from the fact that Taylor is after a gay person, Owen is after a straight person and I am after a girl who wants a gay person. We also played on and made comedy out of the fact that the person each of us are after doesn't want us back at all.

Movement in performance - Actions

Key words for Actions:

- Elevation

• Hop
• Leap
• Jump
• Preparation
• Take off
• Landing
• Two feet to one
• Two feet to two
• One foot to two

- Turns

• Rolling
• Spinning
• Twisting
• Pivoting
• Whole body turn

- Travel

• Walking, running
• Sliding
• Stepping
• Rolling
• With a partner
• In a group
• As a transition
• Stylistic differences 
• Technical, pedestrian

- Gesture

• Functional (e.g. beckon, nod, salute)
• Non functional (e.g. abstract)
• Conversational (e.g. gesticulate, social e.g. hug)
• Emotional (e.g. wring hands)

- Stillness and falling

• Pause
• Shape
• Tableaux
• Use of centre to aid balance 
• On and off balance
• Suspension
• Fall and recovery 

We were given a photograph as a stimulus, and we were put into pairs to create a short movement piece, each with a focus on one aspect of actions. Alice and I were assigned travel.
From the photograph, we gathered that it is possible an elderly couple reminiscing or longing for the days of their youth where they were active and joyful.

Elevation:

Stillness:

Gesture:

Turns:

Movement in performance - Relationships

Keywords:

• Mirror
• Unison
• Canon
• Interaction
• Answer and reaction
• Back to back/one behind the other/side by side
• Waiting
• Meet and part, lead and follow, passing, contrast

Once paired up, we were asked to create a relationship-based movement piece which had to include all of the key words above. Tyler and I decided to have a dysfunctional sibling relationship, with one being 'sane' and the other troubled and estranged, and he is a burden to the sane brother and begins to drive him to a state of depression and hopelessness. We wanted to show that the sane brother just wants to let go of his troubled sibling but he cannot seem to do so because he loves him. When it came to choosing a song, we chose 'Heavy' by Linkin Park because the lyrics talk about being paranoid and having a messed up mind, and always carrying something that is bringing you down. The lyrics are as follows:

I don't like my mind right now
Stacking up problems that are so unnecessary
Wish that I could slow things down
I wanna let go but there's comfort in the panic
And I drive myself crazy
Thinking everything's about me
Yeah I drive myself crazy
'Cause I can't escape the gravity

I'm holding on
Why is everything so heavy?
Holding on
To so much more than I can carry
I keep dragging around what's bringing me down
If I just let go, I'd be set free
Holding on

Why is everything so heavy?
You say that I'm paranoid
But I'm pretty sure the world is out to get me
It's not like I make the choice
To let my mind stay so fucking messy
I know I'm not the center of the universe
But you keep spinning round me just the same
I know I'm not the center of the universe
But you keep spinning round me just the same

I'm holding on
Why is everything so heavy?
Holding on
To so much more than I can carry
I keep dragging around what's bringing me down
If I just let go, I'd be set free
Holding on
Why is everything so heavy?

I know I'm not the center of the universe
But you keep spinning round me just the same
I know I'm not the center of the universe
But you keep spinning round me just the same
And I drive myself crazy
Thinking everything's about me

I'm holding on
Why is everything so heavy?
Holding on
To so much more than I can carry
I keep dragging around what's bringing me down
If I just let go, I'd be set free
Holding on
Why is everything so heavy?
Why is everything so heavy?
Why is everything so heavy?

In terms of facial expressions, I needed to show that I have an inner conflict of leaving or staying with my brother, always battling out the pros and cons of each. I think the main problem to start off with is I need to look up at the audience more, because in the video you can see more of the top of my head than my face. In the first video, you cannot see our faces because of the lighting - this was accidental but we thought the silhouette looked very good and if this was to be performed properly, a silhouette effect should be used. 

In our next lesson, we were given the task of finishing our pieces, but Tyler and I had to focus on back to back/one behind the other/side by side. So when choreographing the rest of the piece, we tried to keep our phrases in that field. 

We already had quite a few of these movements phrases so far in the piece, our most notable would be the 1st chorus phrase ("I'm holding on, Why's everything so heavy?"), the second verse when Tyler is directly behind me and we, in canon, hold our heads ("let my mind stay so fucking messy"). In terms of our relationship, I think the back to back phrases really help to show that my character is in two minds about his brother - he is turned away from him but very close in proxemics to show that he can't leave him. My favourite phrase is the second chorus because we start with the side by side leans either side, and the backward lean, and these parts are all quite fast and aggressive, then we go to another back to back phrase we slowly lean on each other (Tyler leans forward and I lean/rest on his back) because, dynamically, it is quite a hard hitting change from heavy aggression to light and soft. The idea behind it was that the aggression would represent an argument and the slow and calm part would represent the apology; then the lift where Tyler launches himself onto my back and I hold him and walk about represents the burden he is on me and again, like the first chorus, the drop show's how I would love to just let go and I'd be set free ("I keep dragging around what's bringing me down, If I just let go I'd be set free"). This section fits and flows really nicely, and I think it looks very good and effective. I think the addition of ending in our side by side starting position is very effective, because it shows we are just going round in circles; nothing is being resolved and nothing is getting better.

One aspect of relationships we didn't have much of was the meet and part, lead and follow, passing and contrast aspect. A good example of this is Henri and Owen's movement piece:

Movement in performance - Dynamics

Key words for dynamics:

• Flow - How free and continuous your movements are, against how bound and sharp and precise your movements are. The low arm swing (0:23:0:26) shows a free flow because our arms are dangling and swaying with a free and continuous motion. The matrix movement shows a bound flow of movement because it is as though we are all tied together as one and we all move together.
• Weight - Firm and strong movements (could tie into the bound of flow) against light movements. The Haka (0:09-0:16) is an example of a firm weight movement because there are a lot of heavy stomps and strong movements, and Taylor and Chloe's movement is an example of a light weight movement because it is slow and requires a light step and a light drop to the ground. It also contains an element of a free flow. 
• Time - Sudden movements, meaning stop-start and quick, one movements straight to the next, against a sustained slow movement, that is the same continuous movement throughout a longer period of time. The Haka, again, is an example of a sudden movement because, like it's flow, it has clear and sharp singular movements that stop and then start into the next. The matrix is an example of a sustained movement because it is a slow motion singular movement that has a free, continuous flow throughout.
• Effort - Essentially a movement that reflects the effort/force you put into it, for example a glide, punch, slash, press, flick or float which are all pretty self-explanatory. An example of a glide is when we slide backwards across the floor (0:17-0:19). There are various punches, kicks and slashes throughout the piece.

Teaching the opening song to the cast - 5/1/17

Since we have come to the point where all the scenes have been blocked and they have had an adequate amount of run throughs, we are now focussing on the music; so today, I was asked to teach the opening number to the cast including the harmonies too. Once I had done this, we then started to work on the very last song which we decided to reprise the first song but slowed down, and in a minor key because it needs be a sad and emotional song. We sing the last song relatively quietly with barely any movements to maintain an emotional ore about the atmosphere. When we blocked this, we watched a song from the musical "School of Rock" and watched how the kids don't dance and there is no choreographic movement, the just rock out and feel the music. For the last song, everyone just comes together slowly in the middle and slowly walks off stage and through the middle of the audience, leaving Mother Courage onstage to show that her actions have pushed everyone away from her.