Challenging my Natural Movement Style
Setting myself the goal in my research blog of "discovering a more fierce and powerful dynamic quality" and experimenting with "unnatural and challenging" ways of moving contrasting to my natural instinct as a performer is something I endeavoured to achieve this week. After feeling trapped in a rut, I followed the advice of Twyla Tharp to "do something that gets you out of the vehicle with the spinning wheels" and thought that pushing myself completely out of my comfort zone would be the "solution to save me and get me moving again" (Tharp and Reiter, 2003). Creating a graph to visualise where energy levels vary throughout my piece, I was able to identify where a striking change in dynamic was needed in my structure:
Emulating the seemingly darker, brutal and somewhat sinister survival skills ingrained in nature itself, I created this Brutality of Nature section falling under the Surivial, Necessity and Violence theme from my first blog. Inspired by the lurking movements of praying mantis, I used videos of the creatures as reference, as well as this performance by Ballet BC.
(flyjwa, 2015)
From these videos, I observed the alluring and unusual quality of their movement, such as sharp isolations of the head and shoulders, sudden directional changes and repetitions of angular extensions and juts of the body. Using the pulsing beat as inspiration, I developed 4-5 minimal but effective movements to repeat and endeavoured to execute them with an intense and powerful dynamic. "Challenging my assumptions" about myself being only a delicate and fluid-moving dancer was a motivating experience for me, as I found I was very engaged and excited by creating a new phrase so opposing to my natural style. Looking forward, I hope to experiment with alternative movement styles like this again, as I found it to be a compelling way to revitalise my creativity in a time of stagnancy.
Rehearsing my Survival, Necessity and Violence: Brutality of Nature Section:
My graph also allowed me to identify the sudden opening to my piece, and so I decided to create a short phrase to develop the setting of 'Where the Crawdads Sing". Utilising my new knowledge of Daniel Stern's use of vitality dynamics to develop phrases from poetry, I applied this to the opening paragraph of the book, which describes the breath-taking marshland setting. Considering the dynamic of the words 'grows', 'flows' and 'slow' I endeavoured to emulate the lingering and expansive quality of their sound and form within my movement, as Stern described how movement and words 'unfold in a stretch of time' (Stern, 2010). Reminding myself of Frances Ring's admiration of nature, I thought it was important to start my solo with the depiction of the setting to immediately introduce its importance to the audience. Emulating Ring's tenderness and adoration of the earth through my sincere and heartfelt quality of movement, I tried to engage with my surroundings through my use of eye-line to mirror the Indigenous connection to their land, which I feel will be a powerful and engaging opening to my piece.
Rehearsing my Connection to Nature: Setting the Scene Section:
References:
Stonier, D., 2021. Energy Level Graph. [image].
Tharp, T. and Reiter, M., 2003. The Creative Habit. New York: Simon & Schuster, pp.184-197.
Ballet BC, 2020. Bedroom Folk - Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar (Excerpt, Ballet BC 2019). [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/hHwhEufXfKQ> [Accessed 29 December 2021].
flyjwa, 2015. Praying Mantis does Happy Dance. [video] Available at: <https://youtu.be/rGLwQ4Yslnk> [Accessed 29 December 2021].
Owens, D., 2019. Where the Crawdads Sing. London: Corsair, p.3
Bibliography:
Thurston, S. and Slee, S., 2017. Vital Signs: Poetry, movement and the writing body. Choreographic Practices, [online] 8(1), pp.9-25. Available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/41454/ [Accessed 18 September 2021].
Lawson, C., 2021. The Rise of Frances Rings - Fjord Review. [online] Fjord Review. Available at: <https://fjordreview.com/the-rise-of-frances-rings/> [Accessed 16 October 2021].
Stern, D., 2010, Forms of Vitality: Exploring Dynamic Experience in Psychology, the Arts, Psychotherapy, and Development, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Thurston, S. and Slee, S., 2017. Vital Signs: Poetry, movement and the writing body. Choreographic Practices, [online] 8(1), pp.9-25. Available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/41454/ [Accessed 18 September 2021].
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