Previously mentioned throughout this blog was what i described as ‘The Erratic Scene’. This Erratic Scene included movements that were random everyday activities. Throughout the process this scene developed into ‘The Awakening’. This was decided to be the opening to the show after the first interlude with the Orchid and ‘The Man’. The idea of the Erratic Scene stayed the same with the theme of tension building and speed. Yet the movement was what developed. During one rehearsal I work shopped with the company the newly named scene. We started it with the idea of a doctor/therapist analysing and waking up the ‘creatures’. While choreographing the movement I decided, with the help of my assistant choreographer Jake Skelton, that the movement that the ‘creatures’ should be repeating were something that would be seen later on in the show. This was because the show had a theme of repetition and re-occurrence and we wanted to reflect and show this within the choreography, this includes: the interludes, the (now called) awakening scene and the final dance in particular. This movement was to then symbolise a connection with ‘The Man’ and ‘The Creatures’.

After the ‘creatures’ have been awoken by this therapist character they lined up into a formation ready to break out into the already choreographed erratic scene. The only difference in this was we changed the repetitive movements to movements that Jacob Toon did within the interludes. Once again to make another connection between ‘The Man’ and ‘The Creatures’. ‘Among the most deniable aspects of movement are formal properties that are, in a sense, “invisible” and yet still observable.’ (Daly, 1988, 41). Daly helps to explain that the movement within the ‘The Awakening’ may not have been noticeable yet it was there. Although the links to the movement and repetition were not to be made until later within the performance.

References

Daly, A. (1988) Movement Analysis. TDR: The Drama Review. 32 (4) 40-52.

Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 29 May 2017].

Included within the piece ‘If An Orchid Was All You Had’ there are 4 interludes, that have been mentioned in other posts. The final scene includes a connection between the Man (who is played by Jacob Toon) and this mysterious woman that has appeared throughout the interludes. Throughout the piece itself the movement involved has included, repetition, specificity and exaggeration. Within the final interlude scene the movement turns into a luring dance taking the character that Jacob plays into madness. Throughout the process of choreography for this final scene I worked with my assistant choreographer Jake Skelton to workshop the dance (as you can see in the first 1. The Process of Final Dance). ‘The same elements of the body-in-motion apply to a ballet as they do to an assembly line, only the aesthetic performance is framed by additional layers of convention (form, genre, choreographer, performer).’ (Daly, 1988, 40). By this Daly is explaining that the layers to creating body movement progress through different means of rehearsal till it goes to the performer. We focused on the different stages before bringing it to the performer. By using him as Jacobs character we worked together to create a piece of empathetic choreography. As Foster explains: ‘The notion of empathy then theorizes the potential of one body’s kinesthetic organization to infer the experience of another.’ (Foster, 2011, 175). Within this final interlude, we wanted the audience to connect to Jacobs character. Throughout the interludes Jacob creates a connection with this orchid, which gave me the inspiration to to create movement that connects Jacob to this woman character (who could be the orchid).

In the second link (2. Final Dance) is a video of the dance with the actor himself. With these videos I am showing the development of the dance when we brought it to the actor. This was because we looked into what he was capable of executing and choreographed it into the movement. The changes although mistakes happen within the video shows, the progression of the movement is noted within these two videos. By allowing Jacob access to the original choreography video helped to give him a reference when rehearsing. Although this is to be a dance, the movement I wanted to use in particular was Physical Theatre. Hoggett and Scott write: ‘It appears ‘physical theatre ‘ is used as an umbrella term for aspects of performance including dance theatre, mime, clowning and traditional pictorial or visual theatre.’ (Hoggett and Scott, 2009, 30). As Hoggett and Scott explain, physical theatre is a style that is influenced and created from other styles of theatre. So by applying physical theatre rather than dance to the piece helped to make it more theatrical and followed through with our random styles. Throughout the performance we use many styles to show the exploration of ‘The Mans’ madness, with physical theatre being a technique that is influenced by many allowed us as a company to experiment with the movement not only just in this final interlude, but the entire performance.

References

Daly, A. (1988) Movement Analysis. TDR: The Drama Review. 32 (4) 40-52.

Foster, S. (2011) Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance. London: Routledge.

Hoggett, S., and Scott, G. (2009) The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre. London: Routledge.