Developing Anatomical Understanding
Returning back to my choreography after taking a break of the half term, I was in need of something to refresh my area of focus and motivation towards my work. Fortunately for me, one of my chosen practitioners, Russell Maliphant, was holding online company classes, 'which are focused on increasing body awareness, articulation and strength whilst exploring choices in movement and dynamics within a playful practice' (Russell Maliphant Dance Company, 2021). Immediately I grasped the opportunity to take part in a class, in which I became thoroughly interested in Maliphant's description of how to contort the ribcage and spine. Rather than simply moving and twisting the diaphragm, Russell Maliphant encouraged us to envisage the supple and elastic quality of the fascia across the ribcage, allowing bundles of muscle fibres to glide independently of other muscles and move freely across the ribcage (Kalika, 2021). Structuring the class so that this anatomical information acted as the initial building blocks for our own movement and improvisation, we developed from minute postural alignments, to moving in continuity with rotations and extensions, all stemming from the contortion of the spine and adjustment of weight placement. This was an extremely valuable experience for me, as due to the intimacy of the class, with 10 people and only 4 of us with our cameras switched on, I was able to receive valuable, but also personalised feedback from Russell Maliphant, as he complimented my fluidity during one of the improvisation tasks. This has allowed me to see how not only imagery, emotions or themes can be source of movement, but also through expanding your depth of anatomical information to increase body awareness, which I carried forward with me into my next creative sessions.
Looking at my Connection to Nature: Exploration section, I built upon my new knowledge of the ribcage by creating movement based on the swirling motion of the marshland in which Kya lives in 'Where the Crawdads Sing'. Starting by experimenting with different poses, I transformed this into movements by taking pictures using the burst feature on my phone, and slowly rotating on an axis to see which angle would be most intriguing for each position. Maliphant impressively demonstrates the effectiveness of varying angles within the same position/movement in AfterLight, which I admired in my practitioner study and therefore wanted to emulate. Furthermore, I wanted to continue with Maliphant's technique I used in my Intolerance and Discrimination section as it was successful for me, which was to observe my body when moving to make 'technical, aesthetic and performance choices' (Pickard, 2020).
Experimenting with the Burst Feature:
From this, I developed a short sequence and filmed it from behind, once again to see how an unusual angle may be more effective. Enhancing the initial poses into a sequence of movement was challenging for me, as I struggled to create seamless and interesting transitions, which continued the swirling effect that I intended to create. Watching back my video, I can see how the movement seems quite slow and not the most engaging. To overcome this, I reminded myself of Maliphant talking about how each movement stretches into the next and how playing with speed and dynamics can create intrigue and variation and this helped me to focus on the quality of each movement, allowing them to naturally blend into the next.
Filming from different perspectives:
In my following session, I expanded upon my previous sequence by adding music and improvising with the same contortion and swirling motion in mind. Due to my previous sections becoming quite static as they were choreographed in limited space, I took the opportunity of a free studio to challenge myself with being more expansive, and travelling my previously statuesque poses in an attempt to emulate the fluid quality of AfterLight.
Improvisation:
I then refined my improvisation into a set phrase, with the idea of pathways and journeys. Developing my choreography by introducing new areas of focus in each session (anatomical knowledge, focused improvisation and imagery) was an effective method for me to challenge my first instinctive ideas and instead search for the most impactful and intriguing version of my initial creation.
References:
- Russell Maliphant Dance Company. 2021. Russell Maliphant teaches online classes — Russell Maliphant Dance Company. [online] Available at: <https://www.russellmaliphantdancecompany.com/events-1/daily-rmdc-company-classes-jun21-g9yez> [Accessed 23 November 2021].
- Kalika, D., 2021. Getting to the Bottom of Rib Cage Pain - NYDNRehab.com. [online] NYDNRehab.com. Available at: <https://nydnrehab.com/blog/getting-to-the-bottom-of-rib-cage-pain/> [Accessed 23 November 2021].
Pickard, A 2020, Investigating Professional Dancers with RMDC: Experiences and Perceptions of Dancers’ Body Sense and Potential, case study, viewed 19 October 2021 <https://www.russellmaliphantdancecompany.com/researchprogramme/study1>
Stonier, D., 2021. Angle Experimentation. [image].
Hisaishi, J., 1988. The Path of Wind. [online] Japan: Studio Ghibli. Available at: <https://youtu.be/FQx4cEwKD5E> [Accessed 27 January 2022].
Bibliography:
- Swanson, A., 2019. Science of Yoga. 1st ed. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited, pp.20-21.
- RMDC Digital Archive, 2020. AfterLight (Part One) by Russell Maliphant. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1tnuJbF3g&t=541s> [Accessed 28 October 2021].
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