As I have said before, I have sustained a broken elbow, meaning I have to wear a sling for 6 weeks, and will have to take physiotherapy to get my elbow back up to strength, which will take from 6-12 months. This therefore has clearly had an impact on my movement in everyday life. At first, it was extremely difficult to adjust to life using one arm, i found simple every day tasks, like getting changed and cooking, extremely difficult and had to ask for help on numerous occasions. When we lose the use of something, we realise how much we rely on it. This has affected how I walk as I have to be extremely careful about not knocking it and bashing into someone, or falling over. I feel that, because of this injury, I have also created some unnecessary tension in my body, as whenever I feel that I could potentially hurt myself again, I tense my core muscles and my jaw.
The physiotherapy is helping with the movement of my arm, It is now becoming a bit more mobile. There are various exercises I have to do to ensure that I regain full movement in my elbow, although this may take a while.
As I am doing a physical, workshop based course, it is proving very difficult for me to participate fully in my workshops, this means I am missing out on some key aspects of the training.
Saturday, 1 December 2012
Friday, 30 November 2012
What I did today? Week 8
Note: I was again not partipating in this workshop, I was only observing. Due to injury.
In this lesson we watched everyones performance, and then gave them feedback, then watched it again when they had taken on board some of our comments. There was one group in particular whose work stood out to me. This group was made up of 3 people, all from different types of movement backgroud, so they all brought something unique and different into the piece. The all seemed to work separately yet as a group at spesfic points when contact was made. When the contact was made, it was extremely interesting to watch them react to this accordingly, as with this type of improvisation, reacting to others and the atmosphere is a key skill that is needed for a successful piece.
It was interesting to witness everybody's performances and which ones worked with some sound, and which ones were more effective in silence. One group had sound which kept changing tempo, this gave their piece more depth as they could either go along with the tempo change and speed up or slow down according or juxtapose the music on perpose to create tension between the movement and the accompaning music.
In this lesson we watched everyones performance, and then gave them feedback, then watched it again when they had taken on board some of our comments. There was one group in particular whose work stood out to me. This group was made up of 3 people, all from different types of movement backgroud, so they all brought something unique and different into the piece. The all seemed to work separately yet as a group at spesfic points when contact was made. When the contact was made, it was extremely interesting to watch them react to this accordingly, as with this type of improvisation, reacting to others and the atmosphere is a key skill that is needed for a successful piece.
It was interesting to witness everybody's performances and which ones worked with some sound, and which ones were more effective in silence. One group had sound which kept changing tempo, this gave their piece more depth as they could either go along with the tempo change and speed up or slow down according or juxtapose the music on perpose to create tension between the movement and the accompaning music.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
What I did today: Week 7
Note: I was observing this workshop, not participating due to injury.
This workshop, again, follows on from the previous one. However, instead of using exercise balls to highlight the rolling point of contact, you just have to use the other person's centre as the rolling point of contact. This is called contact improvisation. People in my class found this quite tricky without having the ball to help and guide you on the sort of movements you should be making. Many people in the class felt embarrassed and stuck when it came to thinking up new ways of pouring your weight onto someone and rolling with this point of contact. With the ball it is easier to see when you lost the point of contact and how to not lose the contact again, whereas without it, you have to be very critical of yourself, and realise when you lose the contact and what went wrong. This can sometimes be something people struggle with. But, once people were aware of how to do this task, it was very beautiful to watch the types of movement people could come up with. From these movements, I noticed that I could infer some sort of 'story' or relationship. This jusy goes to show, that without trying movements can have so much meaning and impact.
This workshop, again, follows on from the previous one. However, instead of using exercise balls to highlight the rolling point of contact, you just have to use the other person's centre as the rolling point of contact. This is called contact improvisation. People in my class found this quite tricky without having the ball to help and guide you on the sort of movements you should be making. Many people in the class felt embarrassed and stuck when it came to thinking up new ways of pouring your weight onto someone and rolling with this point of contact. With the ball it is easier to see when you lost the point of contact and how to not lose the contact again, whereas without it, you have to be very critical of yourself, and realise when you lose the contact and what went wrong. This can sometimes be something people struggle with. But, once people were aware of how to do this task, it was very beautiful to watch the types of movement people could come up with. From these movements, I noticed that I could infer some sort of 'story' or relationship. This jusy goes to show, that without trying movements can have so much meaning and impact. What I did today: Week 6
Note: I was observing this lesson not participating. In this class the group warmed up by doing the Peggy Hackney pattterns of total body connectivity and the Makka-ho stretches. They were also introduced to a warm up called 'Douging' this is when you tap or hit down and up your body, like you are needing dough, this relaxes the pent up tension in your muscles.
The rest of this lesson the group were experimenting with pouring and giving their weight to an object rather than a person, for this they used exercise balls. This follows on from previous classes as they used their core-distal connection when rolling over these exercise balls, this shows how Peggy Hackney's patterns of total body connectivity can be applied to the movements we make in performance. Also, in this lesson they experimented with using the exercise ball as a rolling point on contact between two people, this meant that they had to give their weight not only to an object but also to the person on the other side. This, from observation, seemed quite tricky, as many people kept dropping thr ball and losing the connection between them. But once they learned to trust the other person and give more of their weight, the movements were much more fluid and they didn't drop the ball as much.
Then we all had to go back to our piece of writing about our familiar place (see previous blog posts), and re-write (from emotion memory) the same piece of writing with the key feelings we can remember writing down. Then we had to do some individual movements from these 'feelings' and then find 3 other people and teach them our movements. We were then given the task (for independent study) to create a improvisational movement piece using these movements and come up with some rules (e.g. always one person on the floor, when someone claps you have to change tempo etc.) to be performed next week.
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| This exercise is similar to how the class were using their core-distal connection. |
Then we all had to go back to our piece of writing about our familiar place (see previous blog posts), and re-write (from emotion memory) the same piece of writing with the key feelings we can remember writing down. Then we had to do some individual movements from these 'feelings' and then find 3 other people and teach them our movements. We were then given the task (for independent study) to create a improvisational movement piece using these movements and come up with some rules (e.g. always one person on the floor, when someone claps you have to change tempo etc.) to be performed next week.
Update on me...
In another class this week I injured myself, I have broken my elbow and it will take up to a year for me to have full movement in my joint again. This means movement will be extremely difficult for me, and i'm not entirely sure to the extent where I will be participating. This means that some of blog posts will not have relfextion on what I have been doing in class, but the emphasis will be moved onto what I have seen or have read in my independant study and in class. This is really upsetting, as I felt every week in movement I was getting more and more confident and free with my movements, it will be very hard to get back to this stage when I can participate again, as it has taken quite a few weeks for me to get to this stage.
What I did today: Week 5
In this session we had to do the same Peggy Hackney warm up, however, we had to do it at a different level (i.e. lying down). It felt very strange having done this warm up standing up for five weeks to go to lying down. Although, once you committ to it, the movements seem more easier and when we were lying on the floor.
From the task in my previous entry, we had to write our initial thoughts to the place we spent time at (for me it was starbucks). Some of the words I wrote down in the lesson were; "Relaxation" "Earthy" "Temptation". We then had to embody this emotional response individually and began to create different movements accordingly. I find individual movements quite tricky, as you only have your ideas and input to work with. To me, movement is much more effective as a collective as the different ideas and intrepretations makes for a much more effective and interesting piece. As the lessons progress and develop I feel so does my own theories and thoughts on movement, when are group of people are all moving communicating some thematic ideas, it is extremely powerful.
From the task in my previous entry, we had to write our initial thoughts to the place we spent time at (for me it was starbucks). Some of the words I wrote down in the lesson were; "Relaxation" "Earthy" "Temptation". We then had to embody this emotional response individually and began to create different movements accordingly. I find individual movements quite tricky, as you only have your ideas and input to work with. To me, movement is much more effective as a collective as the different ideas and intrepretations makes for a much more effective and interesting piece. As the lessons progress and develop I feel so does my own theories and thoughts on movement, when are group of people are all moving communicating some thematic ideas, it is extremely powerful.
Emotion Memory
In last week's lesson we were given the task of going into a familiar place and observing what was happening in this place and our body's emotional reaction to this place. I chose Starbucks as it is a place we visit often, we had to sit here for 10 mins. Really trying to observe how you react to a certain place is extremely hard to put into words, and because you are trying to look out for things, I feel you act differently to how you would under normal circumstances. Although, being aware of yourself and others is an extremely important part of being a performance, as being in a state of readiness and awareness are key concepts of actor training.
What I did today: Week 4
During today's lesson we began with Pegggy Hackney's patterns of total body connectivity and the Makka-ho stretches which warms us up to be prepared and ready for our workshop. Here is some examples of the type of Makka-ho stretches we do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6w
Today involved an individual exploration of improvisation. In this class we had to lean against a wall and give weight to the wall, and then explore ways of moving around our 'space' to express some sort of emotion. We had to do about 5 or 6 movements in this space and come up with a sort of movement 'score' in which we could do these movements. I experimented with speed/tempo and sound. Sound and tempo are very expressive of a certain mood, atmosphere or energy, so it was extremely useful to experiment with this to explore the different emotions that are communicated with movement and how these can be manipulated by using different techniques. We then had to watch these individual performances but you were also performing with two other people. It was really nice to see the juxtaposition in some of the pieces when performed side by side, the contrast for me gave extra emphasis on the extremes and intricacies of human emotion and how movement expresses our deepest feelings that the lexical language can only hint at. This lesson really opened up my eyes into the reasons behind doing this module and I feel that my understanding of movement grows with every lesson.
Today involved an individual exploration of improvisation. In this class we had to lean against a wall and give weight to the wall, and then explore ways of moving around our 'space' to express some sort of emotion. We had to do about 5 or 6 movements in this space and come up with a sort of movement 'score' in which we could do these movements. I experimented with speed/tempo and sound. Sound and tempo are very expressive of a certain mood, atmosphere or energy, so it was extremely useful to experiment with this to explore the different emotions that are communicated with movement and how these can be manipulated by using different techniques. We then had to watch these individual performances but you were also performing with two other people. It was really nice to see the juxtaposition in some of the pieces when performed side by side, the contrast for me gave extra emphasis on the extremes and intricacies of human emotion and how movement expresses our deepest feelings that the lexical language can only hint at. This lesson really opened up my eyes into the reasons behind doing this module and I feel that my understanding of movement grows with every lesson.
What I did today: Week 3
As I have said before, every movement class begins with Peggy Hackney's Patterns of Total Body Connectivity which I explained in the previous post.
This week was more of a continuation of last week's workshop so we started off with the same sitting and leaning our weight into another person's back but then we had to rock from side to side and then roll over the over person (this was called body surfing). I found this extremely difficult at first, as you have to completely trust the other person and be comfortable with them taking all your weight. I had a psychological barrier to this as I thought my partner wouldn't be able to support me and I would hurt myself. Overcoming this barrier, however, was a big milestone for me. Once I had done the body surfing I felt much more confident and free with my movements which created a more fluid 'body surf' which meant there was even less chance of getting hurt, because injuries occur when the body tenses up rather than allowing yourself to 'soften' into it.
Therefore, this class was a major breakthrough for me in terms of confidence ans trust. I really enjoyed today's class.
Therefore, this class was a major breakthrough for me in terms of confidence ans trust. I really enjoyed today's class.
Monday, 22 October 2012
What I did today: Week 2
As with all movement workshops we start with a warm up. We begin by using Peggy Hackney's pattern's of total body connectivity. This involves doing different exercises that use different areas in the body. It follows the stages of infant-child development and explores how the whole body is connected and can be used in together. The first stage is 'Breath' this is when we have to breathe into our core and imagine we are laying an egg to really focus our breathing, and then we add some sighs to give our breathing depth. The second stage is 'Core-distal' this is when we give our self a hug and roll our spine to make our self as small as possible, and then stretch out into a star to make ourselves as wide and as big as we can. The third stage is 'Head-tail' this is when we separate our torso from our lower body, so we bend our knees and stretch our arms up and say 'work' with every bend till we get as low as we can (about 5 times) and then say "weeee" as we come up to the original position. The fourth stage is 'Body Half' were one side (i.e. left or right) is doing one thing and the other is doing something completely different. We stretch out and up with one side and curl in on the other side and switch, while saying "I did it!". The fifth and final stage is 'Cross-Lateral' this is when we use all areas of our body. We reach to the floor as if we were picking it up with our right hand and then in one fluid motion we pick reach to put it over our left shoulder so we cross over the whole body. This week in movement we did 'leaning' onto someone and 'pouring' our weight into another person. We had to go from standing 'back to back' to sitting 'back to back' and making sure we gave our weight to the other person so that the movement down was as fluid as possible.
We then had to get into a new pair and find new ways of giving some or all of our weight into each other. For example one person would go on all fours and the other person would have to find a way of sitting or standing next to or on that involved giving some or all of their weight to the other person. We then had to explore ways of 'pouring' our weight on to the other person which would mean that we give our weight gently so that the other person was ready and didn't get hurt in the process. We made a small performance out of this exploration, to show the ways in which we could give our weight to each other.
Using the exploration we had done previously, the class was then split into two groups where we had to make a performance were all we could do was; run, walk, sit, stand or give our weight to someone else. We had experiment with pace and positions and 'upstage/downstage' (using all of the stage space). This was very interesting to watch and be in as both groups approached it in different ways, our group tended to do things separately and not create one big symmetrical picture, whereas the other group tended to create symmetrical pictures. But both were using the criteria, as the brief was vague we could do what we wanted with it, and create a performance in which ever way felt natural to us.
Sunday, 14 October 2012
Personal Learning Plan
Personal Learning plan:
In our first movement workshop, Liz gave us some questions to think about regarding our experience and feeling about 'Movement'.
1) How do you feel about movement and what is your background in this area?
Movement is very broad term that covers a lot of areas surrounding theatre. I do not have much 'dance' experience per say, but during my time in a musical theatre company I have done some musical theatre dance and contemporary dance which has helped me develop some techniques. But movement doesn't just consist of 'dance', physical theatre is something I have always been interested and during A level Drama and theatre studies we did a piece of theatre using primarily physical theatre to tell the story which is part of movement. I feel that movement is sometimes misunderstood as 'dance' but any physical piece that tells a story using your physicality is 'movement'. So I am really looking forward to studying more ways of using your physicality to communicate ideas to an audience.
2) What are your perceptions of what studying movement will involve?
As I have touched on in the previous answer, at first I thought movement would merely involve dance, so I wasn't looking forward to that module, but having spoken to Liz and read through the module guide I can see how this module 'fits in' to the world of theatre and my degree programme so I am now really looking forward to studying movement.
3) What do you perceive your strengths are in relation to movement?
My strengths in this area are primarily around the physical theatre aspect, as I really enjoy working in productions that involve physical theatre and have some experience in that area. But just like movement physical theatre is a term that is extremely broad, and covers many aspects (e.g. body propping etc.)
4) What do you hope to achieve through this module?
I hope to achieve a broader understanding of the body and how that can be connected to an idea and issue and how it can be communicated in theatre. I also hope to strengthen my core muscles so that performing in a physical production will be easier and I will be able to hold some poses or positions for a longer period of time.
5) What strategies can you adopt to achieve your goals?
I feel that to achieve my goal all I have to do is give a 100% effort to all the exercises in the workshop and work on them at home to ensure that I get the most out of this module.
6) How do you imagine this module might tie in with other modules?
As I have stated previously, this module is extremely important to theatre as the body is one of the actors 'tools' in order to tell the story or subtext of a scene. But I feel this modules relates most closely to 'The Physical Actor' module which is helping you relate body and physicality with your voice. So both these modules are concerned with how the physicality will portray meaning, but in 'The Physical Actor' it is also about how the voice ties in with the physicality to portray meaning and how they are interconnected.
In our first movement workshop, Liz gave us some questions to think about regarding our experience and feeling about 'Movement'.
1) How do you feel about movement and what is your background in this area?
Movement is very broad term that covers a lot of areas surrounding theatre. I do not have much 'dance' experience per say, but during my time in a musical theatre company I have done some musical theatre dance and contemporary dance which has helped me develop some techniques. But movement doesn't just consist of 'dance', physical theatre is something I have always been interested and during A level Drama and theatre studies we did a piece of theatre using primarily physical theatre to tell the story which is part of movement. I feel that movement is sometimes misunderstood as 'dance' but any physical piece that tells a story using your physicality is 'movement'. So I am really looking forward to studying more ways of using your physicality to communicate ideas to an audience.
2) What are your perceptions of what studying movement will involve?
As I have touched on in the previous answer, at first I thought movement would merely involve dance, so I wasn't looking forward to that module, but having spoken to Liz and read through the module guide I can see how this module 'fits in' to the world of theatre and my degree programme so I am now really looking forward to studying movement.
3) What do you perceive your strengths are in relation to movement?
My strengths in this area are primarily around the physical theatre aspect, as I really enjoy working in productions that involve physical theatre and have some experience in that area. But just like movement physical theatre is a term that is extremely broad, and covers many aspects (e.g. body propping etc.)
4) What do you hope to achieve through this module?
I hope to achieve a broader understanding of the body and how that can be connected to an idea and issue and how it can be communicated in theatre. I also hope to strengthen my core muscles so that performing in a physical production will be easier and I will be able to hold some poses or positions for a longer period of time.
5) What strategies can you adopt to achieve your goals?
I feel that to achieve my goal all I have to do is give a 100% effort to all the exercises in the workshop and work on them at home to ensure that I get the most out of this module.
6) How do you imagine this module might tie in with other modules?
As I have stated previously, this module is extremely important to theatre as the body is one of the actors 'tools' in order to tell the story or subtext of a scene. But I feel this modules relates most closely to 'The Physical Actor' module which is helping you relate body and physicality with your voice. So both these modules are concerned with how the physicality will portray meaning, but in 'The Physical Actor' it is also about how the voice ties in with the physicality to portray meaning and how they are interconnected.
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