Screen Dance Journal

Week 5: 26/10/17

This week I watched Restless Sleepers: Schrödinger. This performance was physical theatre and involved a performance based around a giant cube in the space. The performers moved around, through and above the cube throughout the performance. I found it really clever how they managed to move themselves and objects through the various different holes in the cube. This piece showed me how important space and set can be for a performance and how it can be used in a practical manner rather that just to be in the background. We started this week’s session by looking at the idea of space during the warm up. When walking round the space, we had to move amongst each other holding our space. To begin with I could feel myself closing in when other people came close to me, however, by the end of it all I felt myself being able to hold the space better, and could allow people to get close to me, and still feel confident about holding my space. We then looked further at holding, and different ways and forms holding can come in. We repeated the cranium and sacrum connection exercise from last week. We got into partners and placed one hand at the bottom of their head, and the other hand on our partner’s sacrum whilst our partner moves across the space. My partner’s touch allowed me to become more aware of the connection between my head and pelvis, and created movement that felt supported and allowed for a wider range of movement.

We took the idea of different ways of holding with the solos we have been developing. We got into partners and whilst one of us performed the solo, our partner looked at how they could hold us whilst we perform. When I performed my solo, my partner used a restrictive hold whilst I performed my solo. Ryan held onto one of my legs, which made it very hard and tiring for me to perform my solo. After a discussion, we decided the moment of struggle could be quite interesting with a camera if you were unable to see the person restricting my movement. This would show my struggle, and how something is holding me back, however, what is holding me back is not shown in the frame. We then tried another strong hold, but this time, the hold was more of a push than and provided momentum rather than being restrictive. The momentum given to me through the hold helped to make my movements reach their full potential. When receiving feedback from the group, it was said that the duet looked forceful, however it was interesting to see the forcefulness pushing me in the right direction rather than being restricted. It was also noted that the gender roles in the duet gave the piece a sexualised feel as it reminded them of an abusive relationship. We wanted to challenge this idea, so we swapped roles and I was the person pushing Ryan. This still had a sexual theme, however it wasn’t as harsh as the first duet. The viewers could see me putting effort into trying to hold Ryan, but it having not as much impact on Ryan because he is stronger than me. My hold didn’t give Ryan as much momentum as it did previously the other way round. 

Screen Dance Journal

Week 4: 19/10/17

In this weeks session we began by talking about Piña Bausch’s Lament Of The Empress. The piece is a series of short videos combined together to create an hour-long film. The piece started with a skinny lady dressed in lingerie and rabbit ears, stumbling through a moody field. This opening image is quite sexualising and reminds me of a ‘playboy bunny’. The woman keeps falling over in the mud and looks tired, which gives the impression she has been there a while. There are various pieces of music throughout the film. The beginning piece has a looped affect and repeats. Each clip has a moment where something is established before moving onto the next clip. I found the piece in places quite difficult to watch. I really had to pay attention to try and make sense about what I was watching. We then moved onto the discussion about how Bausch compares and contrasts to Ashley Banjo and dance group Diversity. This initially seemed quite obvious, but in fact the two artists have quite a lot in common. Both artist want to entertain an audience. The main difference is the type of audience who would watch each piece. Diversity attracts a passive audience; you can sit back and watch without any confusion about what is happening. It is more of a closed text as there is only one narrative to follow. Bausch’s works however, are more of an open text, that it is up to the viewers to decide what is happening. An active reader is required to keep options open about what Bausch is trying to show.

Ryan ran today’s warm up. He talked us through the connection between the cranium and the sacrum. We started but moving about the floor and the space using the connection of the cranium and the sacrum. Once we had partially established this by ourselves, we then got into partners. Our partners placed their hands on the bottom of our skull and at the bottom of our back. This instantly made me feel the connection between the two body parts. We then had to move across the space, with our partners keeping that contact, using movement that is lead by these body parts. It felt like the movement was more supported because of this.

We then moved into another pair and started to explore another choreographic strategy to develop our solo. Our partners watched our solo and we both had to write down what we experience, what we liked and wanted more of. From this, I was given four words to add to my solo through improvisation. The words I was given were: curiosity, following, leading and focus. I really liked the material that came from my improvisation. There was a sense of struggle, in both slow and fast movements. The intense focus was said to be captivating. My partner then wanted the focus to be solely on my hands, and wanted a contrast in dynamics and levels. I was instructed to try move slowly when I am on the floor, and then to really speed it up once I am up and moving about the space. We then switched roles and I gave my partner ways in which they could improve her solo. Her words were: unstable, rocking and pathway. The solo was developed and when she performed her improvisation, it added a completely different quality to the movement.

Shift from Funn Foto on Vimeo.

One thing I like from Shift by Fun Foto is how the slow-motion from editing has made the movement look more intricate, controlled and detailed. This makes it more interesting to watch over normal speed. I also love the use of space and relationship between the two dancers. In one part, the two dancers dance in unison, however the female is in the foreground more than the male, but you watch the male switch from being infant of her to jump behind her in the space due to the composition of the camera.

Screen Dance Journal

Week 3: 12/10/17

This week we started by talking about Dance Double Bill by Charlie Morrissey and Paula Hampson. I found both pieces really inspiring. I particularly enjoyed Paula’s section where she used film to enhance her performance. I really enjoyed the fact she created her choreography by filming her nine-year-old son dancing. However, she didn’t just copy his movements, she was just inspired by them to create her own version of his movements, which I thought was really clever. The fact you saw her son on the screen whilst she performed her movements also allowed us to see this relationship, and it was beautiful to see her dance with her son.

After the warm up, we looked at holding weight, from the idea that stemmed from the idea of holding onto an object. This involved us getting into small groups and forming a close circle around someone. The dancer in the middle had to offer the dancers around them weight. To begin with I wasn’t feeling very comfortable with this idea as the people around me didn’t sound very convincing that they were going to catch me. However, I was soon able to relax into it as they became more accepting about taking my weight. I really enjoyed the feeling of being held, and was able to explore the ideas of being held whilst traveling as well as being static.

We then moved into threes to look further at the holding idea. One of us went in the middle, and the other dancers had to offer the mover support by holding them, whilst they travelled forward through the space. I enjoyed moving in this way because I felt supported, and the sense of touch helped me to visualise the connection of different parts of my body. From both these holding exercises, I feel like I am more confident with receiving and giving weight. I also feel closer to my class mates as I know all of them are capable to take my weight now in some form, and after the second exercise I feel that we had discovered a new way of moving as one unit, rather than individuals.

Our homework from last week was to create a solo based around our object or memory. When starting my solo, I wrote down words to describe my locket and its function. I took words such as: linked, circular, open and closes as a starting point. The solo I created to begin with felt quite basic, structured and slightly forced. During the class we began by showing our solo to each other. We the got asked to develop or remove all the movements that are liked to a particular dance style (for example a ballet arabesque or attitude, jazz roll etc.). This allowed us to discover alternative ways of performing movements. This also made more conscious about what movements I was putting into the solo. Rather than using moves that are already in my movement vocabulary, I discovered richer movements that were less about the technique, and more about the efficiency and alternative shapes and patterns created. Next, we were told to get into partners to watch each other’s solos. Our partner had to point out afterwards moments that they particularly interesting to watch. Sarah noted that she liked my linking fingers, and the fact it was quite detailed (like my locket). We then had to improvise focusing on the moments picked out by our partner. I decided to take the linked idea and enhance it. I performed my solo with my fingers link the entire time. I felt like this both enhanced and inhibited movement. To begin with I was struggling to find travelling movements that would work with my fingers linked. I was unsure about how I could emphasis the fact I have my fingers linked, whilst trying to cover the space. Our next task was to create a three-movement loop from our solo vocabulary, and add the loop into our solo. I found this difficult again as I struggled to get from my lying down position to standing with my fingers joined. I had to come up with the most efficient way of getting up whilst attempting to stay joined. I decided to get my weight transferred over my feet as quickly, so that I could then have the momentum to propel myself up to standing. Once we done this, we then taught and learnt each other’s loops to create some unison choreography. 


Birdcage from Tobias Gundorff Boesen on Vimeo.

In Birdcage by Tobias Gundorff Boesen, we are introduced to three dark, vampire like characters sat at a table eating raw meat and blood in a snowy woods. The film uses lots of editing techniques that help to create an added darkness to the piece. The close up shots of the blood dripping down one of the dancers pale face is a strong image as the red sticks out from the monochrome background and face. When the dancers begin to move, some of the dancers previous positions get frozen in time, while their body continue to move through the space thanks to editing. The impact of this shows gradual developments of the movement and allows us to see the shape of the body in the space. There are multiple close up shots of the dancers faces, whether that be their eyes or mouths. This is uncomfortable to look at as you are forced to look closely at these inhumane females in depth and you can see all their dark features. 

Screen Dance Journal

Week 2: 5/10/17

In this session we started by looking at the reading ‘In and Out of Place: site-based Screendance’ by Kyra Norman. This reading talked about picking different sites for your work and how the site can effect the movement, and how it is seen on screen.

We then watched two screendances, one was Diving into Your Absence by Concha Vidal and the other was Last Dance. Diving into Your Absence was a woman in a circular pool of polystyrene balls. The woman was moving in and out of the balls, and it was only watching it closely that we realised that the whole film was in reverse. The film looked like it is going forwards, however, the way the balls are moving go against gravity and the natural directional flow, showing that it is in reverse. The second film was a woman dancing with a polystyrene man. She was hugging him, and dancing with this man, until the end, where she is laying over him on the floor, and his balls fall out of him and blow around her in the wind. She still remained to hold this man, and refused to let go of him. This gave me the impression she has lost someone close to her, and she wants to hold onto his memory.

We began the moving part of our workshop by lying on the floor, and feeling our body being held by the floor. We then moved to walking and running round the space, but we had to start and stop together. By doing this we could feel a connection between the space and with each other.  We had to use a feeling to know when people were going to move, and when it felt right to stop. We then got into partners and held different parts of their body, whilst they were lying down. We could feel and take their weight for them, so our partner knew what it felt like to be supported. We started by holing the head, feeling the weight in our hands, then moved onto an arm, the legs, then an arm and leg. We then performed our solos with different parts of our body being held. This made me think about what part of the body I am leading with when I perform my movements. When my partner held me, I tried to change the part of the body I lead with, by using their touch to decide the body part.

We were told to bring in something for this lesson. It needed to be something we have held onto for a long time. We got into a circle, described and passed round the object/story and described why we have held onto it for so long. I brought in my nanny’s gold locket, which I kept hold of after she died. The locket has a picture of my mum as a child inside of it. This locket is dear to me as my nanny wore it all the time when she was alive, and it is one way I can keep both her and my mum with me, and close to my heart. We wrote down words that described our object, its function, and what it reminded us of. Our homework for this week is to create a solo from this object and the words used to describe it.

The screen dance film I watched this week was called Various Positions of Roadkill by Nathan Lawrence. The piece is a solo dancer performing a sequence of positions/movements one after another, whilst the camera changes its angles and positions so you watch the same movement from different angles and perspectives. The beginning shot of her laying across the screen is an interesting image as it made me as the viewer scan her entire body from one side to another without the image even moving for the first few seconds. The film jumps to a close up of her hand hitting the floor. The close up shows us the detail of the image and allows us to see the shape and the shadow of her hand hitting the floor. As she performs more of her positions, the camera jumps from above, side on and close up angles of her body in the space. The above angle allows us to see the light pattern created on the floor by what seems to be windows. The dancer moves in and out of the window refections, highlighting different parts of her body. This film was useful to understand how different angles can be shot and edited together to change to interpretation of the movement.


Various Positions of Roadkill: A Screendance from Nathan Lawrence on Vimeo.