Movement

I know that movement is to get us more comfortable using our bodies and expressing with them, and that can be used as a stepping stone towards choreography. I've done very little with dance, and even casually I'm mostly reserved to shoulder dancing and maybe hips if I'm really groovin'. I have ideas for the lip sync next week, but I'm not sure how much dancing there's gonna be. But I feel like my mask is pretty reserved because the thoughtfulness becomes overthinking and the apathy doesn't care to be that big. I think I can make it work. Side Note: Appreciation to Jason for being a great teacher and giving us the space to figure out our bodies and communication.

I noticed how everyone has their own style and personality in contact improvisation. Some people are supporters, some are thinkers, and some are doers. Supporters are constantly letting their partner know that they have their back. Thinkers are more prone to voice 1 controlling motion. Doers are more prone to voice 2 and going with the flow. I feel like I'm more of a supporter, but that makes the moments where I feel their support so much greater and more comfortable.

We're working on monologues in acting class, and I remembered something that was said last week during movement. It was pointed out that this was a good mode of communication for me, and that I could apply it to my acting. So today I tried doing it on my own with two pieces. I found that without a partner, my movements became more literal representations of the text. A lot of it came from blocking I had already come up with. But there was one moment where my character is frustrated with my other, and I'm yelling at him. In my movement, I felt more of the emotion and let myself move more freely without thinking about the text. I realized the movement with the text wasn't about saying the words and making crazy interpretative blocking. It's used to help unlock the emotions and allow ourselves to find the discoveries and feelings without being locked on the text. I can say a line of monologue, then allow myself to discover the emotion with the line.

 I did two different contact improvisations today. The first one we were both thinking about supporting our partner so much that we kind of lost the idea that we were also being supported. There was a moment where we made eye contact, and I realized that he had me. I let myself accept the support, and it felt so good.  I used the word base in class to explain supporting, but I'll try to find a less rooted word for it. It would be interesting to do a piece where someone is completely still... The second one had three partners. I remember at the start I felt a bit estranged, but allowing myself to work with them and follow the flow felt amazing. At one point, I just let myself roll back into them and my leg lifted. If I was back in that moment, I wish I could have kept going with that flow and fully rolled over. Being able to put trust into all of my partners and being able to communicate nonverbally is such a relaxing experience and I really like this form of movement.

Something I have realized with the movement projects I've been doing for class is that even if I don't consider myself a movement-oriented person, I still do some movement daily. Even if it's just standing up to grab something across the room, or even moving my finger to do stuff on my phone. But for me personally, I realized that when I am alone in my room really listening to music and getting into it, I improvise movement. It's not dancing, but I just feel the music. After classes today, I put in headphones and turned on some music. "The Ballad of Sara Berry" from 35MM by Ryan Scott Oliver came on, and I just got into it (check the link at the bottom). Then I just kept that energy while the songs kept going. Having listened to most of the songs before, I found that I could easily come up with some kind of story on the spot. It felt really good to just let go and move and feel . (Here's the link to one of my favorite covers of it: https://youtu.be/GqSEAv8...

On Monday, we did an interesting contact exercise where you were filling in the negative space left by another person's position. You had to keep some kind of contact to be in communication with them, and you each had four seconds to move before it switched to your other. The song I felt connected to for this project is called "Move" by Sol Seppy. The first line is "Are you waiting for somebody else to move?" This clicked after the exercise. The somewhat of a story I have for it is this: I start in stillness, "waiting for somebody else to move." They don't, so I just start doing it alone. (I have a chair acting as my other since we can't have partners for movement projects right now). I keep contact with my other while I keep trying to get them to join. Eventually, there is a sense of "this needs to stop", which pushes me away from them. Defeated, I return to stillness. I make one gentle effort before the end, and there is acceptance....

 Our next movement project is about Freedom. I'm trying to think about what to do with that for mine. There's the freedom of doing whatever for the project. There's freedom to move however we feel. It feels like a very open-ended prompt. My last project was more personal to me. You would never see it outside the classroom because that's where I experienced everything going into that piece. It was reflecting my progress, however limited it was. With this one, I want to do more with movement and expression. I am not a very BIG person when it comes to movement or voice or choices. I find it difficult to make choices, which can be frustrating. So I want to find something where I can just let go and be . 

We started working on contact improvisation, working together to create movement and trusting your partner. One exercise was a trust fall where you face each other, lean back and balance, then pull back up in unison, fall back, and grab each other at the last second. I learned that eye contact was really important for this. Keaolani and I were partners, and one thing I used to help us was to keep eye contact and follow the beat of the music playing in class. The action provided momentum to stay balanced. I haven't been able to do much momentum in solo work, so this feeling was very cool to experience.