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