Hello,
this is my last blog entry for this project.
On thursday and friday we performed our choreographic works in a little theatre in Kassel.
And with it the "pieces of failure" which I ended up calling " how nice failure" and "I love to...".
Since I split up the pieces in two parts.One part was the experiment and the other the actual piece (see last blog entrys).
My resumé for this work is following:
- in the end I figured that I was using such complicated lighteffects that it end up beeing to much for this little stage and also for the piece it wasn´t necessary for it´s message.
I think less would have been more.
- not only concerning the light but also the props.I ended up having two major recunstructions of the stage setting that the piece got a little disturbed by it.
-all in all I noticed it was really good for my process to reflect on the piece with writting this blog.Things got more cleary with writting them down.And also with the fact that you guys where able to give your opinion on my ideas I got a wider few on lots of things which helped me not get stuck in my own ways of thinking!
Unfortunately I didn´t get any feedback yet, but if so I will post it!
A video of the performance will be posted soon!
So far, thanks for your participation in the process,
lisa
Sonntag, 31. Januar 2010
Sonntag, 17. Januar 2010
13th & 14th rehearsal
Hello back again.
After a long christmas break I am back at school working on my piece.
I already had two more rehearsal this week and I will have two more next week, before we will have the premiere on the 28th of january and another performance at 29th of january.
You´re all inited to:
Choreographische Werkstatt
SOZO- visions in motion
28./ 29. january at DOCK 4 Kassel 20h
Tickets under 0561 787- 2067
I started rehearsals with repeating all material we have till now.
I also presented the succession of the two sequences with the help of little cards I made:
We went through the order step by step and put it all together.
Little changes I made:
I decided to bring in a new person.
When I reflected on the 2nd piece I noticed that I just form a picture of failure and perfectionism in a way of showing those who fight against it. I didn´t bring in a view on the opposite site. A person who represents an ease to all of this.
So I decided to have one dancer sitting on stage the whole time. Placed in the right, back corner of the stage, so that she is present but not in the front, which brings her character not to the thought of beeing "right" but neither "wrong".
My thought is to just let her be on stage. She represents a person who is not effected by the steady fight against failure. Once in a while I want her to watch the other dancers but not to be effected by it. I want her to just hang arround on stage not doing anything, to have an opposite pole to the topic of failure.Maybe this person doesn´t exist in reality but it will bring in another view on how to handle failure.
I also created a plan for light arrangements. The light will have a special meaning to the piece. I want to use the light as an aid to bring things to the fore. Like the "rest person" in the right corner.I want to light her up with a spot light once in a while during the piece.
I also started working on the statements of failure. We set the statement storys so that they get secure in telling the storys and also cause I want the storys to be different from eachother.So each of them choose a story of failure. One which represents more a natural kind of failure, one which is very personal and about failure in a very emotional way and the last one about failing in something which the person really badly wanted to reach.
Than I choreographed the transition of the "failure combination" and the "caught up combination" and decided that the dancers while dancing the "caught up combination" get back to the "statement of failure" positions, the chairs and tables so that the "caught up combination" continues on the chairs for the reason of having the "caught up" as a new statement.
Maybe I didn´t mention before that I decided on having three chairs and three tabkles on stage for the beginning sequence, the statments.A spotlight on the chairs will decide on who has to give up the statement.
For the first piece I gave each of the dancers following written combination, with the task to learn it by heart, but not to dance it out at all, means not to try the movement. The first time will be on stage. (unfortunately this combination is written in german for a more easy understanding for the dancers)
_____________________________________________________________________
Choreographie I
Diese Choreographie wird in einem zügigen Tempo getanzt, im Verlauf des Schrittmaterials dürfen jedoch individuelle Dynamiken eingebracht werden.
Ein weiterer Zusatz ist bei einem Vermerk der Pause solange zu pausieren, bis alle Tänzer an dieser Stelle angekommen sind, um dann gemeinsam wieder zu starten.
- renne vorwärts vond er Seite der Bühne auf die Bühne, dabei drehst du dich während des auf die Bühne kommen und rennens zum seitwärtslauf und schließlich zum rückwärtslaufen. Dies alles geschieht zügig
-wenn du auf der Bühne angekommen bist machst du ein battement nach hinten mit dem rechten Bein, über ein develope gelangt das selbe Bein von hinten zu einem Schritt nach vorne
-das linke Bein macht nun ein ron de jombe von hinten nach vorne, a terre , so groß das es dich nach vorne zieht
-dein linkes Bein bildet nun deine neue Achse auf der du aus dem ron de jombe kommend eine halbe Drehung (also in Schräglage) machst, und dich mit den Armen am Boden abfängst ( Liegestützposition)
-in dieser Position läufst du (auf Händen, und Zehenspitzen)ein paar Schritte vorwärts
-nun drückst du dich von deinen Händen ab, so das du auf deinem Po sitzt, deine beiden Beine lang nach vorn gestreckt, den Kopf gesengt
-hier pausierst du
-du streichst mit beiden Händen je über ein Bein, von oben bis nach unten und umgreifst deine Zehenspitzen mit den Händen.Hier drückst du dich hoch auf die Füße ohne Hilfe der Arme (sehr Mühsam)
-dein rechtes Bein kickt zur Seite, so das sich dabei der rechte Arm vom Fuß löst
-die linke Hand streicht nun am Bein entlang , bis zur Wange, dort angekommen schlägt die rechte Hand gegen den linken Ellenbogen, dadurch drehst du dich
en de dans auf dem linken Standbein
-bei der Drehung bewegt sich deine Hüfte in einer figure of eight, dein rechtes Bein darfst du im Schwung mitnehmen
-dein linker Ellenbogen macht am Ende der Bewegung eine hastige Bewegung nach hinten, am Ende der Bewegung darf sich dein Arm öffnen, die Wucht des Ellenbogens (Armes) lässt dich ein Stück rückwärts rennen
-aus der Rückwärtsbewegung herraus führt dein Kopf die nächste Bewegung an, er macht einen "scoop" nach rechts, dabei schwingen beide Arme auf die linke Seite des Körpers
-du springst in die Hocke rückwärts, also nach hinten und springst direkt aud den Bauch in den liegenden Stern nach vorne (fang dich gut mit den Händen ab)
-hier pausierst du
-deine rechte Hand löst sich vom Boden und wandert langsam an deinem Körper entlang hinter deinem Rücken, bis zu deiner linken Hüfte, dein Körper bleibt dabei schwer auf dem Boden liegen
-durch das drücken der Hand auf die Hüfte zieht sich dein Körper zusammen, du machst dich klein und kommst wieder zum sitzen, beide Beine nach vorn gestreckt
-deine rechte Hand immer noch an der Hüfte, drückst du dich nun mit der linken Hand vom Boden ab, so das du durch das drücken der Hüfte bei der Aufwärtsbewegung dich linksrum drehst, durch die Drehung löst dich deine rechte Hand von der Hüfte
-am Ende der aufwärtsdrehung springst du mit zwei gestreckten Beinen und flex Füßen in die Luft, der Kopf ist dabei gesengt
-nun rennst du sechs Schritte vorwärts und gehst dir bei jedem Schritt (rechts Schritt= rechte Hand/ links Schritt= linke Hand)
mit deiner Hand über die Wange bis über den Kopf
-Wiederhole dies mit zwei Schritten, diesmal machst du am Ende einen Sprung und die Arme bleiben am Kopf beim Sprung.
Dies machst du 4x hintereinander
-nach dem letzten Sprung bleibst du stehen und pausierst
-dein rechter Fuß schiebt am Boden entlang, parallel nach vorn und dreht sich anschließend auswärts, durch die Ausdrehung des Fußes knickt dein Oberkörper ein zur rechten Seite, so stark das deine rechte Hand dich auf dem Boden abfängt, nun springst du mit beiden Beinen hinter deinen Arm (immer noch ist nur die Rechte Hand auf dem Boden)
-deine linke Hand zieht dich zur Seite weg zum stehen, welches direkt zu einem rennen führt
-du rennst durch den Raum und verschwindest zu entgegengesetzten Seite als du reinkamst
Achtung---> wenn der erste zur Seite rausgerannt ist, heißt das für die übrig gebliebenen Tänter erst ein bisschen weite zu laufen, dann verlässt der nächste die Bühne, der letzte Tänzer rennt etwas alleine und verlässt dann auch rennend die Bühne.
____________________________________________________________________
I also started all the necessary organization stuff, like get a LCD projector, chairs and tables, writting the text for projecting it ( first piece, explanation of the life experiment).Making the light arrangement, deciding on the music.
I will use music just for the "caught up sequence" in the 2nd piece and for the 1st piece.
I decided on "Berlin calling".
For the first piece:
Berlin calling, Paul Kalkbrenner track 2 (can´t find it on youTube)
For the second piece:
either
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBDAunPkSAY
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWQRWBj5GxU
Unfortunately I got the information that I will not be able to have a piano on stage, which means I will have to use the audio file I have when I recorded it last time.
Which for me is okey since it brings in another site to each which I like.Cause it wi´ll be more like another dimension to the topic of failure when it plays in the background of the statements. It will be less clear than if Mirjam would have given the life piano play as her statement.
I will use the next rehearsals for runthroughs and setting the rest of the "caught up sequence" on the chair. The sequence is clear allready but I´d like to bring in a organized variation of it.
About the dancers. Alle three of them already feel pretty save in the step material and brought a new energy to it after the break. I feel like the break was a good thing since the steps where more clear for them after.
They do feel challenged in the first piece, since they still have to learn the sequence by heart in a very different way than they are used to.
For all the non- dancers: dancers are use to memorize movements in their body.Lots of learning doesn´t happen in their heads in the first place but cause of their body almost memorizing it unconciousness.
So it´ll be pretty hard to lean the sequence just in their hads, visionizing it.
But for the use of really showing of a real moment of failure (which is not produced) it has to be really challenging but still not infeasible.
I am still up for lots of views on the piece of you guys, so keep on writting your thoughts to me.
yours lisa
Mittwoch, 9. Dezember 2009
10th, 11th and 12th rehearsal
In the last three rehearsals I presented my "continues thoughts" on the piece, see last blog entry.
And started working on the new ideas.
I started going through the order or more the idea of an possible order of the small pieces we have till now.
I also asked them when they would like to start learning the "piece on paper" (first piece), and we decided on after the christmas break, so I will have that ready for my next rehearsal.
Try out 1
We did a try out, of the second piece, (since the first piece will be more of an experiment and which will also not be rehearsed) means we tried going through the whole piece in the order I created in my head.
The try out went pretty well.
Since I couldn´t work with any lights and cameras yet (as I explained it in my last entry), I tried it out quite simple.
In this "run through" I noticed that I don´t like the walking arround of Sarah and Mareike, cause it was really disturbed and also not the sitting of Sarah in the beginning it still had to much of an "story telling" character in a quite borring way.
So I had to think again of the "statement of failure" sequence and what it exactly means to me and what I want to show with it.
Statements of failure
Well, for me those statements are supporting for the piece cause they bring in a certain honesty and also a focus and emphasis on the personal handle of a failure moment, which can make it more personal and relateable.
They bring in a very vulnerable moment for the dancers cause they reveal weakness and that can build a closer relation to the audience, through the possibilty of identification with the dancers.
The reason I wanted them to talk into a camera was on want hand the opportunity of having it personal, the camera as their friend, and the big projection of the face on the backwall, as a feeling of beeing close to it.
But after talking to a professional for technical realisations, I noticed that three cameras, three projections and cabels will be lots of stuff on stage which can totally abstract from the major happening. So I started thinking about another possibilty of how I can stick with the idea of the staments but show it in a different way.
Try out 2
I got the idea of playing a little with this moment of revelation of failure.
Since it is such a vulnerable thing which you don´t spill out to anyone I would like to play with the intimate moment.
The idea is to have the audience as "the friend" I tell my failure moment to. A close friend.
To show this relation I thought of having all three dancers sitting on a chair behind a table (three chairs, three tables, maybe each with a cosy light on it). The tables are directed towards the audience. So the audience is sitting on the other site of the table.Each dancer facing the audience.
I would stick with the light idea, the person who talks switch on the light on the table.
I the next try out I let them sit on chairs (din´t have any tables), and gave them an order of when to start with the statements.
Somebody starts talking (all three are already sitting on the table) and another one just starts talking after a while, the switch on of a light means the person who started before had to stop talking and switch off the light on her table.
So each of them gets to tell their moment of failure and gets interrupted by another one, but continues when she gets to talk again.So the audience has three different storys of failure they get confronted with and which they got shared with.
In the try out we had some really funny moments, cause the storys have been so different from eachother. While one person was talking about failing in riding the bike down some stairs and the other person falling her words with the story of her strong feelings of failing in beeing on time for work. The story fragments where very different from eachother, which made it really interessting.I also gave the task to jump into the story and not have it perfectly planned out before. It can just be feelings, and doesn´t need any filtered order.
That made it quite interesting.
After a while I let Mirjam get up and play the piano in the off (so you couldn´t see her), whe let her light on on her table so that the play on the piano was her statement.
She played the ronda alla turca with the new beginning whenver she made a mistake.
I also let the other two continue talking.
I liked the chaos of storys and the annoying failure of Mirjam on the piano, cause it gave an urgency to the storys. Which I think makes the piano play through emphasising the failure in making it present on stage and not just storywise. In that moment it becomes an issue to the audience, cause they have to hear and deal with the failure of another person.
I like the order of the "statements of failure" in the beginning and than go for the movement sequence, which stands for the try of reaching for the perfect, which comes like and emphasis on what they talked about before.
The talk about failing and following the steady try of avoiding it.And the avoiding of failure gets expression through the movement sequence with the dogma sentences.
Also the follow of the movement sequence of "caught up" movements gets deeper into the problem of the unreachable perfect state.
In the next rehearsals I tried to bring back the idea of having the little movements sequences inbetween the talking. We already tried that out when I was still working with the walking arround with the camera.
But now they had to put those body expressions in a cumulative way into the storys, sitting on the chair, with a table in front ( which they where allowed to leave as well, if that was for the good of expressing their feeling of failure during talking).
Some of the dancers continued talking while their little movements inbetween, and some stopped and than it seemed more like a tic they had. A tic in sence of a unwilling, averse habit.
I liked both a lot. The tic gave me the expression or better the association that their failure, they talked about is also kind of a tic they have. And the continues talk while moving was more like the body expression of what they talked about.
(The movemnts sequences where all really short, since they where more for the sake of a short expression, maybe 4 movements).
We also cleaned the existing movement sequences we already have.
The next steps will be:
And started working on the new ideas.
I started going through the order or more the idea of an possible order of the small pieces we have till now.
I also asked them when they would like to start learning the "piece on paper" (first piece), and we decided on after the christmas break, so I will have that ready for my next rehearsal.
Try out 1
We did a try out, of the second piece, (since the first piece will be more of an experiment and which will also not be rehearsed) means we tried going through the whole piece in the order I created in my head.
The try out went pretty well.
Since I couldn´t work with any lights and cameras yet (as I explained it in my last entry), I tried it out quite simple.
In this "run through" I noticed that I don´t like the walking arround of Sarah and Mareike, cause it was really disturbed and also not the sitting of Sarah in the beginning it still had to much of an "story telling" character in a quite borring way.
So I had to think again of the "statement of failure" sequence and what it exactly means to me and what I want to show with it.
Statements of failure
Well, for me those statements are supporting for the piece cause they bring in a certain honesty and also a focus and emphasis on the personal handle of a failure moment, which can make it more personal and relateable.
They bring in a very vulnerable moment for the dancers cause they reveal weakness and that can build a closer relation to the audience, through the possibilty of identification with the dancers.
The reason I wanted them to talk into a camera was on want hand the opportunity of having it personal, the camera as their friend, and the big projection of the face on the backwall, as a feeling of beeing close to it.
But after talking to a professional for technical realisations, I noticed that three cameras, three projections and cabels will be lots of stuff on stage which can totally abstract from the major happening. So I started thinking about another possibilty of how I can stick with the idea of the staments but show it in a different way.
Try out 2
I got the idea of playing a little with this moment of revelation of failure.
Since it is such a vulnerable thing which you don´t spill out to anyone I would like to play with the intimate moment.
The idea is to have the audience as "the friend" I tell my failure moment to. A close friend.
To show this relation I thought of having all three dancers sitting on a chair behind a table (three chairs, three tables, maybe each with a cosy light on it). The tables are directed towards the audience. So the audience is sitting on the other site of the table.Each dancer facing the audience.
I would stick with the light idea, the person who talks switch on the light on the table.
I the next try out I let them sit on chairs (din´t have any tables), and gave them an order of when to start with the statements.
Somebody starts talking (all three are already sitting on the table) and another one just starts talking after a while, the switch on of a light means the person who started before had to stop talking and switch off the light on her table.
So each of them gets to tell their moment of failure and gets interrupted by another one, but continues when she gets to talk again.So the audience has three different storys of failure they get confronted with and which they got shared with.
In the try out we had some really funny moments, cause the storys have been so different from eachother. While one person was talking about failing in riding the bike down some stairs and the other person falling her words with the story of her strong feelings of failing in beeing on time for work. The story fragments where very different from eachother, which made it really interessting.I also gave the task to jump into the story and not have it perfectly planned out before. It can just be feelings, and doesn´t need any filtered order.
That made it quite interesting.
After a while I let Mirjam get up and play the piano in the off (so you couldn´t see her), whe let her light on on her table so that the play on the piano was her statement.
She played the ronda alla turca with the new beginning whenver she made a mistake.
I also let the other two continue talking.
I liked the chaos of storys and the annoying failure of Mirjam on the piano, cause it gave an urgency to the storys. Which I think makes the piano play through emphasising the failure in making it present on stage and not just storywise. In that moment it becomes an issue to the audience, cause they have to hear and deal with the failure of another person.
I like the order of the "statements of failure" in the beginning and than go for the movement sequence, which stands for the try of reaching for the perfect, which comes like and emphasis on what they talked about before.
The talk about failing and following the steady try of avoiding it.And the avoiding of failure gets expression through the movement sequence with the dogma sentences.
Also the follow of the movement sequence of "caught up" movements gets deeper into the problem of the unreachable perfect state.
In the next rehearsals I tried to bring back the idea of having the little movements sequences inbetween the talking. We already tried that out when I was still working with the walking arround with the camera.
But now they had to put those body expressions in a cumulative way into the storys, sitting on the chair, with a table in front ( which they where allowed to leave as well, if that was for the good of expressing their feeling of failure during talking).
Some of the dancers continued talking while their little movements inbetween, and some stopped and than it seemed more like a tic they had. A tic in sence of a unwilling, averse habit.
I liked both a lot. The tic gave me the expression or better the association that their failure, they talked about is also kind of a tic they have. And the continues talk while moving was more like the body expression of what they talked about.
(The movemnts sequences where all really short, since they where more for the sake of a short expression, maybe 4 movements).
We also cleaned the existing movement sequences we already have.
The next steps will be:
- Fixing the movement sequences at the table " expressions during statements of failure" ( which I´d like to think of themselves, since they tell their own storys, I´d like them to express them also themselves)
- try out the light idea (light on and of while talking)
- organize the "caught up" sequence ( I need each of them to present a different character in when and how they get caught up in the movement sequence with the dogma sentences)
My next rehearsal will not be before the 10th of january so I´ll keep you updated on further thoughts during the rehearsal break.
Sonntag, 22. November 2009
Continues thoughts II
Today I was trying again to get an overview on what I have till now, which material I would like to use and where I want to go further.
I ended up in creating two seperate pieces with the material I´d like to use.
First piece
1. black,
projection on the backwall of follwing text:
" About three weeks ( maybe I´ll allready give it to them before christmas so they really have enought time to auseinandersetzen with it) ago three dancers received a letter with a written choreography in it.
They all received the same order of steps written by me, the choreographer.
Their task was to learn this written sequence by heart. With the special ask of not trying the movement out.
They had to memorize the whole choreography in their head.
Each of them head a little verweis on where on stage they have to start.
The choreography is going to be danced out the first time tonight.
The sequence exists in each of their heads, in however way they interpretated the written choreography.
Enjoy."
( I will probably write it in german though)
The dancers will walk in, walking arround with the papers of the written choreography in their hand to memorize it a last time.
Than tehy will put the sheets by the site, music starts ( I will show them the music piece before, didn´t decided on which yet).
and than they will dance the sequence.
After that I´d like the loudspeaker announement to come up, which I meantioned last time already.
Which could be something like : " This piece failed in beeing perfect".
Second piece
1. black,
projection of Sarah onto the backwall, close up of her face,
tells her "statement of failure" ( story of a failure moment)
2. a little spot of light comes onto Sarah, (projection contiunes)
sitting in the middle of the stage, holding a little camera in her hands,
talking to it, gesturing, and excited, memoryzing
3. out of the black the noise of a piano comes up,
Mirjam sitting at the piano, playing the "ronda alla turca", starting a new whenever she fails,
the audience can just hear her.
4. projection of Mirjams face onto the backwall and slowly a light on the piano lightens up her and the piano,
her camera is placed on the piano.
5. Mareike walks into the room, with her camera in her hands, giving her statement of failure, just her silhouette is seen, cause of the light arround her.
projection onto the backwall of her face. slowly more light, lights up the whole stage.
6. Sarah starts walking too, both Mareike and her are talking, Mirjam still playing the piano.
Sarah and Mareike start to put their little movement sequence,they made themselfs as an expression of the feeling of failure (see last rehearsals), inbetween the talking.
7. camera projections continues itself (in a loop on the backwall, three heads next to eachother).
Sarah and Mareike carry their cameras over to the piano, still talking, Mirjam gives up with the piano play and starts talking about her failure moment too,( which doesn´t have to be the moment she just experienced).
the audience can catch up some words, tehy will know what the talk is about but probably will not get all the storys exactly, which I like since for me it´s more about their facial expressions.
8. all of them stop talking the moment they leave their cameras by themselves on the piano ( like a sign of giving up talking about failure, leaving behind the person they would talk about it). And now start trying to fight the failure.
They gather in the middle and start the "perfect sequence" with the dogma sentences ( I love to..., I love to...), no music, maybe just the sound of the video projections, which still runs in a loop, silently in the background.
9. the sequence leads into the " caught up sequence" , which gets more and more restricted, for the good of showing the failure in fighting the failure, music fades in (hard music, didn´t decide on a song yet)
The reason I like to seperate those two pieces is, cause the first piece can give an impulse on the thought of failure.In this experiment it´s, cause of the given terms already preprogrammed that they will faile somehow in the movement, since tehy never danced the piece before.It´s quite hard to dance a "perfect" piece (perfect in the sence of what the audience would see or accept as a good danced piece), but through the fact that they had a given task, they had the chance to get more into it, to get passionated about it or at least to find their own way with it.They had a certain time to altercate with it.
So this piece is more about creating the actual moment of honest failure on stage, while the other piece more broaches the issue of failure.
The first piece is more of showing a little process of our research, which I think is alreday saying so much.
One doubt I have about my second piece is that can end up beeing way to much.The camers, the projections, the talking, the music.
Maybe the cameras, for now, will just be an aid for the process and can be left behind later on.
In my next rehearsals I like to talk to the dancers about my mentioned ideas. Go through it an see if it´s round or if things don´t end up making any sense. I´d like their views on it too.
I will also teach them a little more of the failure sequence, which till now is about 2 min. long.
Also I will repeat all movement material we have till now, since we missed one rehearsal last week.
My further steps will be, to find a technician I can talk to, about the realization of the cameras and live projections on stage.
And also to start writting the choreography on paper.Which brings me to the point that I have to decide on rather I choreograph a piece in the studio and than write it out or if I also will just create it in my head????
So far.
I ended up in creating two seperate pieces with the material I´d like to use.
First piece
1. black,
projection on the backwall of follwing text:
" About three weeks ( maybe I´ll allready give it to them before christmas so they really have enought time to auseinandersetzen with it) ago three dancers received a letter with a written choreography in it.
They all received the same order of steps written by me, the choreographer.
Their task was to learn this written sequence by heart. With the special ask of not trying the movement out.
They had to memorize the whole choreography in their head.
Each of them head a little verweis on where on stage they have to start.
The choreography is going to be danced out the first time tonight.
The sequence exists in each of their heads, in however way they interpretated the written choreography.
Enjoy."
( I will probably write it in german though)
The dancers will walk in, walking arround with the papers of the written choreography in their hand to memorize it a last time.
Than tehy will put the sheets by the site, music starts ( I will show them the music piece before, didn´t decided on which yet).
and than they will dance the sequence.
After that I´d like the loudspeaker announement to come up, which I meantioned last time already.
Which could be something like : " This piece failed in beeing perfect".
Second piece
1. black,
projection of Sarah onto the backwall, close up of her face,
tells her "statement of failure" ( story of a failure moment)
2. a little spot of light comes onto Sarah, (projection contiunes)
sitting in the middle of the stage, holding a little camera in her hands,
talking to it, gesturing, and excited, memoryzing
3. out of the black the noise of a piano comes up,
Mirjam sitting at the piano, playing the "ronda alla turca", starting a new whenever she fails,
the audience can just hear her.
4. projection of Mirjams face onto the backwall and slowly a light on the piano lightens up her and the piano,
her camera is placed on the piano.
5. Mareike walks into the room, with her camera in her hands, giving her statement of failure, just her silhouette is seen, cause of the light arround her.
projection onto the backwall of her face. slowly more light, lights up the whole stage.
6. Sarah starts walking too, both Mareike and her are talking, Mirjam still playing the piano.
Sarah and Mareike start to put their little movement sequence,they made themselfs as an expression of the feeling of failure (see last rehearsals), inbetween the talking.
7. camera projections continues itself (in a loop on the backwall, three heads next to eachother).
Sarah and Mareike carry their cameras over to the piano, still talking, Mirjam gives up with the piano play and starts talking about her failure moment too,( which doesn´t have to be the moment she just experienced).
the audience can catch up some words, tehy will know what the talk is about but probably will not get all the storys exactly, which I like since for me it´s more about their facial expressions.
8. all of them stop talking the moment they leave their cameras by themselves on the piano ( like a sign of giving up talking about failure, leaving behind the person they would talk about it). And now start trying to fight the failure.
They gather in the middle and start the "perfect sequence" with the dogma sentences ( I love to..., I love to...), no music, maybe just the sound of the video projections, which still runs in a loop, silently in the background.
9. the sequence leads into the " caught up sequence" , which gets more and more restricted, for the good of showing the failure in fighting the failure, music fades in (hard music, didn´t decide on a song yet)
The reason I like to seperate those two pieces is, cause the first piece can give an impulse on the thought of failure.In this experiment it´s, cause of the given terms already preprogrammed that they will faile somehow in the movement, since tehy never danced the piece before.It´s quite hard to dance a "perfect" piece (perfect in the sence of what the audience would see or accept as a good danced piece), but through the fact that they had a given task, they had the chance to get more into it, to get passionated about it or at least to find their own way with it.They had a certain time to altercate with it.
So this piece is more about creating the actual moment of honest failure on stage, while the other piece more broaches the issue of failure.
The first piece is more of showing a little process of our research, which I think is alreday saying so much.
One doubt I have about my second piece is that can end up beeing way to much.The camers, the projections, the talking, the music.
Maybe the cameras, for now, will just be an aid for the process and can be left behind later on.
In my next rehearsals I like to talk to the dancers about my mentioned ideas. Go through it an see if it´s round or if things don´t end up making any sense. I´d like their views on it too.
I will also teach them a little more of the failure sequence, which till now is about 2 min. long.
Also I will repeat all movement material we have till now, since we missed one rehearsal last week.
My further steps will be, to find a technician I can talk to, about the realization of the cameras and live projections on stage.
And also to start writting the choreography on paper.Which brings me to the point that I have to decide on rather I choreograph a piece in the studio and than write it out or if I also will just create it in my head????
So far.
Sonntag, 15. November 2009
9. rehearsal
Today I started rehearsals with a short introduction on my thoughts for the video statements.
I had the picture in my head that all three of them would walk arround with their camera in their hand, the camera represents a dirary, friend, themselves. Everybody is tells their statement of failure. At the same time.The walking was free, means if somebody decided to stand or sit inbetween was fine, cause I wanted to give them the feeling of really talking to somebody (like on the phone).
We experimeted a little with it, and the first time it was still having this heavy atmosphere of confession and a sitting circle.
So for the second try I asked them to not necessarily talk about the feelings in a failure moment but to tell a story of a moment they failed, to make it more alife. I also gave the task to try walking with their camera.
That try went much better, I liked that it was more alife and it got much more funny since I was able to hear about some really funny moments and it made it more real, cause they actually had to remember a point of time, which was a good way to make it more real.
Than I asked them, independently from the task before, to improvise to the feeling of a situation they failed.And asked them to set a short sequence (one time 8, or less) .
After that I went back to the first task with the cameras and aske dthem to put both together.Means to talk about their failure moments to the camera and inbetween express it through the short movement sequence.
The video of Mareike from rehearsal 8 is what came out of it ( I had to post it in the last blog since the old "statements of failure" where to long for this blog).
One idea I have is, as I mentioned last time, to porject the faces as a close up to the backwall, for the good of shwoing their behaviour, their expression while confessing or talking about failure, which Iam interested in.It´s not mainly about what they talk but how they say it.
But I don´t know if that wouldn´t be too much. Three big faces on the backwall, Three dancers life on stage, all talking.
After that I contiued teaching them the little "caught up" sequence.
Which for my taste still has to be faster and more restricted in the movement since I want to use it intbetween the piece for a short expression whenever that feeling of "beeing caught up" comes up. I ´ll see if I maybe really keep that open and free to them that they just do it when they really feel like that.The difficulty could be that they may not have that sensibilty while they are on stage.
Another idea I had is that I´d like to underline that this piece is a piece which is failed in beeing a failure piece.I would like to show the antagonism between making a piece about failure, reaching for the perfect and failing in all of it, since I don´t have the ability to be perfect nor to make it just about failing there will be moments were they won´t faile.
So one way to do that I was thinking of making an announcement through loudspeakers : " This piece failed in it´s perfection".
I´d like to put that at the end of the piece since it would anticipate to much in forehand.
Out of another research on youtube I found some videos about "failure" in a comical way.There was a time, I think it started beeing fashioned on TV about 10 years ago, when they started to put whole TV shows on, which were all about showing people failing.It´s called "funniest accidents ever".
An example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wypCGl4YX3Y
It clearly shows (of course exaggerated versions) that the failure of people through it´s excessiveness, is even funny. Though the moment it happend laughter would in the most cases been inappropriate.But if failure is seen by hindsight, than it´s even funny.I like to have also a focus on that site of failure. The funny, light site.
So for the next rehearsals I am planing on continuing working on the "statements of failure".Iam also planning on getting together with a proffessional for questions of realisation of cameras an live projections.
I had the picture in my head that all three of them would walk arround with their camera in their hand, the camera represents a dirary, friend, themselves. Everybody is tells their statement of failure. At the same time.The walking was free, means if somebody decided to stand or sit inbetween was fine, cause I wanted to give them the feeling of really talking to somebody (like on the phone).
We experimeted a little with it, and the first time it was still having this heavy atmosphere of confession and a sitting circle.
So for the second try I asked them to not necessarily talk about the feelings in a failure moment but to tell a story of a moment they failed, to make it more alife. I also gave the task to try walking with their camera.
That try went much better, I liked that it was more alife and it got much more funny since I was able to hear about some really funny moments and it made it more real, cause they actually had to remember a point of time, which was a good way to make it more real.
Than I asked them, independently from the task before, to improvise to the feeling of a situation they failed.And asked them to set a short sequence (one time 8, or less) .
After that I went back to the first task with the cameras and aske dthem to put both together.Means to talk about their failure moments to the camera and inbetween express it through the short movement sequence.
The video of Mareike from rehearsal 8 is what came out of it ( I had to post it in the last blog since the old "statements of failure" where to long for this blog).
One idea I have is, as I mentioned last time, to porject the faces as a close up to the backwall, for the good of shwoing their behaviour, their expression while confessing or talking about failure, which Iam interested in.It´s not mainly about what they talk but how they say it.
But I don´t know if that wouldn´t be too much. Three big faces on the backwall, Three dancers life on stage, all talking.
After that I contiued teaching them the little "caught up" sequence.
Which for my taste still has to be faster and more restricted in the movement since I want to use it intbetween the piece for a short expression whenever that feeling of "beeing caught up" comes up. I ´ll see if I maybe really keep that open and free to them that they just do it when they really feel like that.The difficulty could be that they may not have that sensibilty while they are on stage.
Another idea I had is that I´d like to underline that this piece is a piece which is failed in beeing a failure piece.I would like to show the antagonism between making a piece about failure, reaching for the perfect and failing in all of it, since I don´t have the ability to be perfect nor to make it just about failing there will be moments were they won´t faile.
So one way to do that I was thinking of making an announcement through loudspeakers : " This piece failed in it´s perfection".
I´d like to put that at the end of the piece since it would anticipate to much in forehand.
Out of another research on youtube I found some videos about "failure" in a comical way.There was a time, I think it started beeing fashioned on TV about 10 years ago, when they started to put whole TV shows on, which were all about showing people failing.It´s called "funniest accidents ever".
An example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wypCGl4YX3Y
It clearly shows (of course exaggerated versions) that the failure of people through it´s excessiveness, is even funny. Though the moment it happend laughter would in the most cases been inappropriate.But if failure is seen by hindsight, than it´s even funny.I like to have also a focus on that site of failure. The funny, light site.
So for the next rehearsals I am planing on continuing working on the "statements of failure".Iam also planning on getting together with a proffessional for questions of realisation of cameras an live projections.
Montag, 9. November 2009
8. rehearsals
Today we started the rehearsal with repeating the learned movement combinations.
They really have to be rehearsed a lot since it is suppose to be the "pefect" part of the piece.So I really want the dancers to put lots of effort in rehearsing so that they can totally stand behind the result.
After that I started working on the "statements of failure" .
So I asked each of them to take notes on the personal feeling of failure.To describe the feelings they have in a moment of failure or to tell a story. I left open how deep they wanted to go into it, since it´s quite a private thing.
Than I told them to spread in the room and start telling me about their thoughts on the asked questions. I decided the starting person and in the middle of her statement I let the next person start her statement and the otherone had to stop. With that system I let each of them tell their storys, with little interruptions but with the task to start again at exactly the point of interruption, so they continued their storys in the end, but all the storys where mixed.
A short example for a better understanding:-):
I think the sitting in the room is not working so well, cause it just gives me to much the impression of a self- help group, maybe through the composition of sitting, and talking one after the other.
But when I saw them sitting there and talking such intimate stuff I felt that is was very intense though and what worked was the basic idea of sharing an intimate moment of fail
ure.
So I had to think about how to give them the chance to have this very honest and intimate moment on stage.
And I noticed what made it really interesting and privat was actually how each of them told their thoughts (you could clearly see who was honest and who made themseves vulnerable), their face was really intersting to me.
So what I tried out next was, that each of them had to tell their story into a camera.
My idea is that I want the audience to share their privacy kind of, but to make it still a private thing and not a "showing of with my story thing".Means I didn´t wanted them to tell the story directly to the audience. More like the audience is having a glimpse on a private moment.
I also wanted this moment to really happen live on stage. So the idea is that each of them is telling their thoughts, feeling to their own intimate failure situations to a camera (as form of dirary) or it could even be seen as a close friend.I don´t want it to have the character of an interview, so I decided that they are holding the camera themselves. And they can move it as they want.
This way they can even do it with the back to the audience
The cameras are connected with cabels to a projector, which projects the picture (manly the face) to a white screen onto the back wall.Since I would like to still have the moment private but still seen closly by the audience.
One example:
For that I´ll ask them to think of a new situation of failure or another angle to it, to make it as honest as possible.
From our first try, I still like that they are talking disrodered, so that it´s more like frazzles of thoughts.One starts her thoughts and the other one interrupting for her own view on it. Three different views, storys. Getting a connection by the disordered composition.
In conclusion, this rehearsal brought in a new aspect of how to continue with the statements of failure.
The aspect of cameras and live projections on a screen.
They really have to be rehearsed a lot since it is suppose to be the "pefect" part of the piece.So I really want the dancers to put lots of effort in rehearsing so that they can totally stand behind the result.
After that I started working on the "statements of failure" .
So I asked each of them to take notes on the personal feeling of failure.To describe the feelings they have in a moment of failure or to tell a story. I left open how deep they wanted to go into it, since it´s quite a private thing.
Than I told them to spread in the room and start telling me about their thoughts on the asked questions. I decided the starting person and in the middle of her statement I let the next person start her statement and the otherone had to stop. With that system I let each of them tell their storys, with little interruptions but with the task to start again at exactly the point of interruption, so they continued their storys in the end, but all the storys where mixed.
A short example for a better understanding:-):
I think the sitting in the room is not working so well, cause it just gives me to much the impression of a self- help group, maybe through the composition of sitting, and talking one after the other.
But when I saw them sitting there and talking such intimate stuff I felt that is was very intense though and what worked was the basic idea of sharing an intimate moment of fail
ure.
So I had to think about how to give them the chance to have this very honest and intimate moment on stage.
And I noticed what made it really interesting and privat was actually how each of them told their thoughts (you could clearly see who was honest and who made themseves vulnerable), their face was really intersting to me.
So what I tried out next was, that each of them had to tell their story into a camera.
My idea is that I want the audience to share their privacy kind of, but to make it still a private thing and not a "showing of with my story thing".Means I didn´t wanted them to tell the story directly to the audience. More like the audience is having a glimpse on a private moment.
I also wanted this moment to really happen live on stage. So the idea is that each of them is telling their thoughts, feeling to their own intimate failure situations to a camera (as form of dirary) or it could even be seen as a close friend.I don´t want it to have the character of an interview, so I decided that they are holding the camera themselves. And they can move it as they want.
This way they can even do it with the back to the audience
The cameras are connected with cabels to a projector, which projects the picture (manly the face) to a white screen onto the back wall.Since I would like to still have the moment private but still seen closly by the audience.
One example:
For that I´ll ask them to think of a new situation of failure or another angle to it, to make it as honest as possible.
From our first try, I still like that they are talking disrodered, so that it´s more like frazzles of thoughts.One starts her thoughts and the other one interrupting for her own view on it. Three different views, storys. Getting a connection by the disordered composition.
In conclusion, this rehearsal brought in a new aspect of how to continue with the statements of failure.
The aspect of cameras and live projections on a screen.
Sonntag, 1. November 2009
7. rehearsals
Today I started with refreshing (repeating) the learned sequence ( "perfect sequence" ).
And continued to teach the sequence further on.
After that I started teaching them a little sequence which I call "caught up" sequence.
I choreographed it with the inspiration of the moment of failure, where I am still trying to fight failure to not be exposed. The moment of trying to be perfect.
It´s a little short sequence, sharp in the movements, which I can use as a " fill in " inbetween. Cause it´s an expression of fighting with the failure/ perfect issue.
We also talked about the previous course and came to follwing conclusions:
And continued to teach the sequence further on.
After that I started teaching them a little sequence which I call "caught up" sequence.
I choreographed it with the inspiration of the moment of failure, where I am still trying to fight failure to not be exposed. The moment of trying to be perfect.
It´s a little short sequence, sharp in the movements, which I can use as a " fill in " inbetween. Cause it´s an expression of fighting with the failure/ perfect issue.
We also talked about the previous course and came to follwing conclusions:
- I don´t have to use the self played music pieces necessarily ( since the original idea was more for the research for the dancers of the failure feeling
- we talked about the pressure of receiving a perfect state and came back to the thought of Charles Darwin and his evolutionary theory about the "survival of the fittest"
- I also talked with them about my further thoughts during the break and the developement of the "failure" sequence and the projection on a screen.
And we discovered that it is a really thin line of objectivy the issue of failure through the whole informing about the process and with it revealing the reasons of failure and through it make it a convictable for the outsite.
So I came to the conclusion that I really want to stick with the issue of perfection/failure in a very subjective, personal and exposing way and find a way of identification for the audience.
In my next rehearsals I will continue cleaning up the movement and make sure the dancers have the sequences ( I was thinking of doing a quick runthrough every beginning of the rehearsal so that they get secure and clean in it).
I will also work on the personal statements and their realization in the piece.
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