Senses on Site

The work has become more and more about the momentary reaction when the space becomes a place for the performers, the passersby and the spectators. “Calling spectators attention to the neglected minutiae of everyday” 
(Siegel, 2007: 2)

For the performers, we have worked with different places in London to see how their bodies change and react to the environment which normally they would ignore; these motifs they each created have been used in the choreography within the work.

These motifs gave an insight into how each individual relates to sights, listens and experiences in very differing ways. From Primrose Hill, to the Tate, to Liverpool Street, I have notice each of my dancers’ relationship to the city.

Working with the way we see:

Alice creates motifs that are inspired by the distance landscape; she sees the whole and the objects that are far away. Her motifs have been inspired by this as she is very open and vast with her movement. This is Alices motif of the bridge in the distance, she described how she wanted to feel the vast and strong nature of the construction:

Sarah looks at the layers of the sights, she picks up on shapes and how they fit together and on top of each other. Her movement leads into motifs that abstract and quite angular. Below is Sarah amidst a transitionary motif which explores the view of 3 bridges stacked up in her view: 

Michelle, who recently had to leave the process due to study commitments, was very individual with the way she worked as well. Her movement was directed towards objects and sights that were immediately in front of her, this meant that she created positions that were am personification of the object. As you can see in this picture below, Michelle was attempting to become the life ring:

Chloe, who is a new addition to the process, created motifs that were rather inquisitive; she looked for sights that were hidden or not something you would usually glance upon. This changed her whole body as a response to the motifs.

As I made motifs, I seemed to go for sights that moved, for example the birds, the trees, which influenced my movement with flowlier, circular based motifs.

This was also apparent when we moved in response to the aural sense: Sarah moved to the rhythms of the city, I found myself directing my movement towards the origin of the sound, Alice created a duet with the sounds and Chloe again heard sounds that were not as noticeable.

I have also noticed how the senses go beyond just the five we immediately think of (sight, aural, tactile, aromas-taste&smell), but rather it can relate to temperature, or pressure. As all rehearsals are on site, I have been able to see the change in movement when it is cold and dark to when it is bright and sunny. The movement is far more explorative and open from all the dancers when the weather is warm, which in turn will affect the spectators and passersbys reactions...

This immediately affected my work, because if 5 people experience differently, I began to think about the passersby and spectators, and how they are likely to see in individual ways too. My work is supposed to invite people to stop and realise or just experience how this space appears to them, in order to make it a place for them – however this would be difficult if I presented the space through MY response to it.

Therefore, I wanted to make sure that the work was accessible and experimented through different avenues of movement. I decided to incorporate the motifs that the dancers and I have created around London into the work, because not only does it respond to the senses in different ways, it also relates to the idea of the transformation of a space to a place. The motifs have seen an alteration in the way my dancers move, they have began to move through an organic response to the environment rather than through their skill set within dance. Through doing so, they have created individual relationships to that space, thus turning it into their place.

The idea an authentic movement resonates with my work, as it asks of the individual to relate to the sight through their unconscious desires, instead of socially constructed ways of seeing. So, for example, we walk to work using our bodies along the frontal plane, via routes that are directed to us, allowing our experiences to be limited. 

Now, authentic movement allows us to create an individual connection to that space; Pallaro discusses how, through experimentation with movement, one can create a dynamic relationship to an object or space in my instance, creating a “sense of congruence with self and other” (Pallaro, 155). Therefore, this authentic response to movement can create an individual relationship to the environment for the dancers.

Now, for the passersby and audience, the movement is going to be placed in different areas around the site, asking them to step out of their everyday patterns of movement to have individual choice over how they want to relate to it.

Do they want to stand close to the movement, do they want to step back and see the work within the backdrop of the city?

Through improvisation, will the spectators, relate, and in doing so, move towards the movement that connects to the way they relate to things? E.g if a dancer is improvising around something directly in front of them, will someone who sees similarly move towards this dancer?

Bibliography

Siegel, M. B (2007) Dancing on the Outside. The Hudson Review, [online] LX (1) Available at: http://www.hudsonreview.com/siegelSp07.pdf [Last Accessed: 01-05-11]
Pallaro, P (2007) Authentic Movement, Volume 2: Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved: A Collection of Essays. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.