Monday, January 31, 2011

Rehearsal and First UnShowing!


Today in rehearsal, we played with blocks! And I recorded the sounds of stacking them.

I set up structures with 16 acting blocks to create a fun environment that my dancers really took to. We did the solo phrase in this setting with three dancers (to Let Me In), then traded one dancer for a photographer who photographed the invisible paper-passing section (to the sounds of stacking blocks). Thanks to the two dancers who spontaneously joined me in rehearsal and tonight's showing to allow me more bodies- they were great!

In the showing, I asked the audience to move around the perimeter of the room to see from different views for the first section, and brought them to the front for the second part. Before beginning, I was actually surprised and pleased when I walked into the room behind the audience to find them exploring the environment up close! Even after seeing it several times, it remains an interesting and fun jungle-gym.

Feedback from the showing was also great; I particularly asked for what they did and did not see. Many people caught on to the elements of framing, interference with observation as they "can't see everything at once," lack of a single "front" for viewing. Comments on body parts sticking "out of the blue" show the disconnect and noticeable absence of certain information. Some saw it as a comment on art exhibition itself, which is not far from my purpose to look at exhibition of emotions in the stimuli. More substance in the movement can help with this as I am ready to set movements.

Other interesting feedback includes the idea that the audience is part of the experience, not just as active observers, but as incidental subjects in the photographs taken from within the piece. To me, that reflects the role of participants in the studies which determined the validity of the stimuli which were used in further studies- it's circular. One person thought of how others see the dance because of the presence of the photographer within the piece, expanding the perspectives in a way that I like because of how the stimuli bring us perspectives on others lives and our own. Tied in with this were comments on exploitation and invasiveness which seem appropriate to me as references to the role documentation might play in the process of capturing some of the stimuli. Specific to the second part, there was note of negotiation and lack of resolution, which I like- there is no one way to express or understand emotion, and its sharing is an ongoing interpersonal process of negotiation. This comment gives me the idea to fade the lights in and out over movement to begin and end the piece softly and irresolutely.

Questions and possibilities that arise include:
-How will I make the in-the-round format more practical for stage performances? I've considered using cameras, or even having a video camera walked around the piece as it goes on. We also joked about a giant turntable, which would be awesome but pricey and extremely difficult to do in reality.
-Will I set where the photographer should go? I think not- but I would like to find a consistent person to fulfill this role and to become accustomed to it to some degree.
-Will I continue to use my digital camera, and will I use flash? I might want to look into a different style of camera to emphasize it as an element deserving attention (maybe my photographer will have one.) As for flash, that could be a great element to add, which I'll experiment with.
I also want to set the movements of the dancers to bring back the duets and to introduce more traveling through the environment. Part of the perception of them as "moving sculptures" may be that I neglected to give the same full instructions as I did in rehearsal- I want to keep improving the clarity of my directions, as I forget they don't know what I'm thinking to keep each time. There were also comments on what the dancers saw- I want to allow them to see each other, which they seemed not to do so much in performance as they did in rehearsal. Someone noted the dancers avoided one of the forms, telling me they saw interaction with the others- this is something I like, and they'll interact with them all when the final form is replaced with a sturdier substitute. There was an interesting question as to whether the movements were the same among all the dancers, which tells me that they gave the phrase significant variety but enough similarity- I like this as it ties into the averaging of data.

The photos are the ones from the show that my lovely guest dancer took. I was sad my camera died before the second part- I even charged it just for this!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Rehearsal Wed Jan 26: need to narrow it down!

In The Creative Habit, Twyla Tharp talks about ruts and grooves. I don't remember quite how she proposes one move from a rut to a groove, but I'm sure glad I made it out! This semester is so much better than the last- now I'm groovin. I have ideas upon ideas, and now have the task of determining which ones to use for the upcoming "unshowing" next Monday.

Today in rehearsal, we started with contemplative dance practice (meditation, personal movement, and group interaction). I structured the group part to ask the dancers to engage with the little torn up bits of paper I introduced on Monday. Then I asked them to move the papers together to one point, with the idea that the air was thicker at one end of the room to make the dimensions of the original graph present. (I soon decided this wasn't necessary-I was directing too much at once, and was more interested in other things.) Tasks within that goal of moving the points included to move the papers on body parts other than the hands, and to work together so that one of them was the vehicle and the other assisted. For a little while I also challenged them to make their goal point somewhere in the air (decided on without talking about it), and to solve the problem that their papers wouldn't stay there without their help. They ended up with papers piled on their heads. I especially liked how they had to search for more papers without looking in order to keep the rest balanced.

Next I set up some gym mats standing up on their ends as obstacles, and put the goal point on the other side of the room. I asked them to get the papers across cooperatively, and taking turns so that whoever held the paper was stationary while the other repositioned to receive it again to continue the chain. This gave some fun results, especially when the paper didn't do exactly as they planned- when it fell on the ground, both dancers reacted by remaining stationary as if they still held it, as they tried to grab it up again from where they already stood. Last, I asked them to repeat this process with an imaginary piece of paper, which left us with a beautiful cooperation of careful movements. I'm glad I began with open space to let them explore with the paper alone first, as their discoveries and curiosity there carried over to this new landscape in a fun way.

As the two dancers moved around the obstacles, the images were very interesting. When they disappeared from my view at one point, something funny happened that I missed- that was a significant loss of information, which I was going for. Another time, they had the paper behind one of the mats, and lifted it over the mat to where I saw it again. I was really intrigued by what I could see when parts were also hidden from me between the two of them- I think this is more interesting than working individually or in full view. Some sense of the process is lost with the blocks, but with what is established in view, I can guess and sense that the tentative and awkward movements were also continuing behind the mats.

To continue what we began Monday, I read free-association words to CT, while CM took photos. We created CT's phrase, and I asked CM to take photos from the perspective of the floor. We'll work more on this Monday.


More importantly, I need to decide what to do for the unshowing on Monday evening. My assignment for comp class is to do a trio. Well, I've only got two dancers, so it's fortunate for me that what a trio is exactly is up for interpretation.

I'm debating between having a guest either from the audience or from my Visual Language class come to take photos as the third person with both dancers moving, or whether to have them do as we did Monday and today with one photographing the other, and considering the camera as a third person. ...I also have the choice between showing their free-association phrases for this, or using the idea of the paper transport and obstacles. Is that too much to do both ideas?

If I have a guest take pictures while my dancers work together across the obstacle field, that would be an interesting situation, for sure... How it relates to my purpose to address emotional stimuli is a harder question. I'd be covering the loss of information in media translation through the effect of the blocks, the passing of the paper and reinterpretations of how to handle it are like how we each handle the stimuli differently, and the photos are the media themselves and bring up the falseness of preserved emotional moments... I don't think that's what people will take from it, but I'm up for any odd feedback. I just need to decide if it really should be narrowed down. Or heck, maybe I don't want to anyway... In Monday's rehearsal I'll let them know what we'll be doing.

Rehearsal Photos
























Monday, January 24, 2011

Rehearsal Mon Jan 24

Today I read sentences from the ANET, asking my dancers to free-associate by writing words in colored pencils on a sheet of sketchbook paper. Then I read the words as one of them interpreted the other's phrases/words into movement, and the dancer who had written the words took photos of that process. I asked for photos that abstracted the body, also prompting levels, proximity, silhouettes, and to take photos of "in-between moments". The "Rehearsal Photos" post shows my favorite results.
The goal of this was to do to dance what the stimuli do to emotional events: flattening, boxing, shortening, and preserving. I'm thinking of presenting a photo series, and even images and sounds along with my actual dance in performances.


The little pieces of paper seen in the photos are a lead I began working with today some. As I was going through the article on the ANET to get the sentences, I was caught by the graph which shows the points of each sentence on "Affective space" of Pleasure and Arousal.


I grabbed a sheet of my sketch paper and tore it into little points that were fun to begin playing with, and I'm hoping to have one more dancer soon to allow my full cast to play in this environment.

And to help me remember later, here's a song I might like to use...

I like its references to both science and emotion, stringing them together in a way that's "fact not fiction, for the first time in years." Sounds perfect for me.

Rehearsal photos