BLOG POST 4 – MOTIF DEVELOPMENT/ CREATIVE TASK

In order to generate movement that relates to my theme, I question: HOW should the body move in a certain way? WHY should movement come from here? WHERE should movement be initiated from in relation to what I am trying to express? This is my constant mantra as I develop my choreographic process. Every movement must have a meaning and a reason. These questions begin to form a web of movement which turns into a delicately detailed pattern that is symbolically connected to my stimuli.

I had been finding it difficult to establish starts and ends to movement whilst choreographing a particularly rapid phrase. This was the area of strength I noted in my chosen choreographer.  To tackle this problem, I decided to create an improvisational tasko develop and uncover clean and solid movements. Slowing down and breaking down these movements proved to be a valuable process as it developed more intention in the smaller movements and created detail in my transitions e.g. in the second video I embellished the phrase by implementing different dynamics for each movement - beating my chest became a resisted, pulsing movement in slow motion.  

In the middle phase of my dance, I have experimented with moving rapidly and forcefully from a prayer movement to a diagonal stretch to represent being pulled away from yourself before returning to your prayer.  Eventually the prayer cannot control the fear within.  This is one of many movements that symbolises my theme of moving from Blake’s ‘innocence’ to ‘experience.’  I am also reminded of Arthur Hugh Clough's poem 'There is No God' whose final verse reads:

'And almost everyone when age,

Disease, or sorrow strike him

Inclines to think there is a God,

Or something very like him.'

Indeed, whether Daniel was a religious man or not, in his last moments he was pleading to God and Jesus.  

The effectiveness of the development of ideas and choreographic direction has been largely dependent on the quantity and quality of knowledge I have of my stimuli. My initial attempts to conjure up movement came to a stand still. This was due to my inability to relate to a theoretical idea.  Once I had decided to base the piece on a personal experience, which I was desperate to explore and express, then the creative ideas flowed. After finding more information about the environment Daniel was in, I was then able to develop movement that best symbolised and communicated his conditions. 

Research has also guided my movements, giving purpose and symbolism to them.  I have discovered  that suicide in men is significantly higher than in women.  Statistics published by The Samaritans show that the rate for suicide in men in 2020 was 15.3 per 100,000 compared to the female suicide rate of 4.9 per 100,000.  It is thought that this is because men are more inclined to feel isolated and will bottle up emotions. 

This is why, as I experiment with the middle half of my piece, I plan to include a moment of smiling into the distance, as if someone is walking by, and then it fades when they pass - putting up a brave face. A repeated movement will also be the covering of the mouth with the hand - again to symbolise the inability to voice yourself and to be heard.

   -  Improvisational task video  -                                      -   Motif developed from creative task  -

References:

Samaritans:  Latest Suicide Data.  available from:https://www.samaritans.org/about-samaritans/research-policy/suicide-facts-and-figures/latest-suicide-data/ accessed January 2022

Clough, A. H (1850) There is No God. available at:https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/there-is-no-god(Accessed January 2022)