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.