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. 

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.