This week we began our improvisation by doing another flocking exercise but in a horizontal line instead of a small huddle. We had to have no clear leader and just follow the others in the group through our peripheral vision. There was a minute or two of stillness when the exercise began as people were adjusting to the task set and thinking of ways to improvise that wouldn’t be too complex. When we began, similar movements began to occur and get repeated as our group concentrated on movements which would be noticeable to others, for example, a roll down the spine or an arm reaching out to the side. In this exercise I found it tempting to look sideways so a strong focus was required to stop this from happening. I lead the movement a couple of times in this exercise and concentrated on how my movement would be simple out of the peripheral to copy. I focused on transference of weight, rocking my weight into the toes and balls of the feet to begin with as this would be an easy starting point for people to copy. When we joined together as a whole group it was a lot harder to start movement, there were clear leaders in the group that would lead the movement more than once. I often found myself trying to start a movement but someone else had already got there before me, this was probably because of the vast number of us all wanting to have a go.
The next exercise we did related to the readings we got set prior to the lesson looking at felt time in dance. We had to lay down and estimate when we thought two minutes had passed. A lot of us were over or under the time required showing how felt time estimation is difficult. The next exercise required us to improvise and move in the space for 7 minutes, sitting down when we believed the time was up. Firstly I thought seven minutes is a long time to improvise without snapping back into old habitual patterns and how will I know when to stop moving?
“In improvisation, time can be friend or foe.Time will crawl, for you and for the audience, if you are not comfortably engaged in the action of the moment. If you are concerned about how you are seen or what you are doing, time will press on your mind and squelch your creativity.”
(Spain,K, 2014, 114)
This quote really inspired me when improvising as sometimes I can be too critical on my movement, worrying too much about what it looks like rather than allowing my movement to flow naturally. Time seems to go slower when doing this and my movement becomes stop start hindering my chances of being more creative and expressing myself. In future weeks I want to put this quote into practice; stop having a constant conscience of worry and being concerned about how i’m seen and just concentrate on exploring movement fully. This quote I believe relates to me and has allowed me to reflect on my current experiences of improvisation. I will definitely try to not let time/worry stop me from being creative in my practice.
To give a visual representation of Nina Martins scores we watched the ‘Straddling Trio,’ and analysed how they used Nina Martins ensemble thinking scores within their improvisation. Martin has 4 main scores which she uses in improvisation:
1. 3/2- How the ensemble relate to each other through levels, movement, facings and distance
2. Hot spot- How the individuals take focus and how the ensemble give an individual focus
3. One idea- how can the ensemble create one simple easy to read form
4. Number score- How many of the ensemble are in the working space
I found that some of the scores were more easier to spot in the video than others. The number score for example was self explanatory, there were always three bodies working within the space whether they were improvising as a solo, duet or trio. The hotspot and one idea principle was a lot harder to spot than the number score because as an audience, we had to know what their perception on form was and what their focus within the improvisation was; we could only guess what it may have been. When looking at 3/2 this was fairly straightforward to figure out because it was just being able to spot their relationships through the way that they move. For example, in the duet section between the male and female they were seen to compliment each other and be improvising on a low/medium level.
After watching Nina Martins ensemble score, we put it into action as one big group. In this exercise i really wanted to explore my movements in relation to other people, being open to work with new individuals in the group and explore relationships in improvisation. A quote taken from the reading, “space is a playing field without which there is no game,” (Spain, K 2014) inspired me to want to be in the space more than in previous weeks.
Working with Martins scores gave us something to think about when improvising. The hotspot and one idea score proved hard to work with as i questioned, how do we improvise something to create a clear form? and how do we construct a focus within the group? Form could be anything you want it to be, there was no right or wrong answer but being able to create new movement to fit around the idea of a form and doing this collectively was frustrating to figure out. To begin this score we walked round the room to the music, when the music changed we began to split off working in smaller groups and improvising movement within these littler groups. Our movement we were improvising was intrinsic to the music that was being played, it was interesting to see how peoples improvisation changed according to this. For the focus score I noticed Heidi began to have focus on applying pressure to her feet working through her feet in a plie position. To compliment the focus I worked on developing her movement on a lower level and working through different body parts, for example my hands, hips and arms.
For the number score we had to improvise with the number of people that were required in the space. I felt I explored relationships quite a lot in this score, working with Tasha looking at points of contact which could be made on different body parts. I also worked with Laura and Tasha as a trio, weaving in and out of their kinasphere’s creating different shapes and stillness within the space.
For the 3/2 score I would work in opposition to people for example, when working with Chloe she would do a forward bend over her legs and I would do a back bend. I also explored facings by working downstage if someone was working upstage or improvising corner to corner. When working in a group of three I found some people kept altering their facings and I would canon their movement.
As the weeks progress I can see a difference in my movement and hope that it will continue to develop. I really enjoyed working with Nina Martins scores this week and I am beginning to feel more relaxed in class. I like putting the readings into practice as it really helps me to embody them.
Bibliography
Spain, K. (2014) Space in Landscape of the Now. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Spain, K. (2014) Time in Landscape of the Now. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
World Dance Alliance.(2013) Straddling Trio with Gamblin, Martin and Wass. [Online Video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCqh3Cq2Qis. [Accessed: 17 February 2016].