Task 1: Flocking
For the first part of this task we worked together as one big group clustered together facing the same direction. We had to follow as the person at the front of the cluster did until we ended up facing a different direction when the front would change and so would the ‘leader’. We had to remain as in sync with each other as possible and move as one group instead of making it look like we were copying each other. Following this we were split down the middle into two groups and were separated into separate halves of the studio, we then repeated the same task until told to, as a group, find stillness and finish.
During this task I wasn’t on the outer each of either cluster so I never became a ‘leader’ but I found this task challenging because sometimes I struggled to see what the people at the front were doing completely and sometimes I was delayed in making my movements completely correct and matching to theirs and everyone else’s. This also could have caused an issue for people behind me as they may be looking towards me to see details of the movement that they can’t, meaning if I’m delayed in the movement they will also be delayed in the movement.
Task 2:
We worked in pairs for this task and labelled ourselves A and B, A’s were performing in the space while B’s were giving the instruction ‘change’, which was an indication for A to change their movement somehow. After a short while, B’s were then also able to give the instructions ‘develop’ and ‘continue’ which meant A’s had to develop the movement that B’s had just seen until they told us to continue, which meant we could carry on moving freely.
I worked with Josh on this task and I was labelled as A, and he as B. At times I found this challenging because I’m not used to improvising so when Josh told me to change my movement at first I found myself only changing the dynamic of what I was doing. When ‘develop’ and ‘continue’ were added into the instructions I found this slightly more challenging but in a better way because it gave me a chance to look at my movement and play around with ways of changing it. Sometimes I used the develop instruction to use a different body part to do the movement or I made the movement bigger/smaller. This then gave me ideas on what to do if Josh instructed me to change my movement because I realised I was able to change body part as well as dynamic, so later when he instructed me to change when I was doing some footwork I tried to do similar movements except leading with my hands, instead of feet.
As a whole class we then split into groups, A’s and B’s and Kirsty was the one instructing us while the other group observed. When we were doing our movement Kirsty was more adventurous with her instructions than our partners were and sometimes she told us to lead with a certain body part, or give us a restriction on a body part. For A’s, we were given the instruction to ‘develop while leading with our head’ and then asked to change the tempo. We were also given a restriction of no arms and had to keep them clasped together. Following this we swapped round, so we were able to observe how B’s handled the task.
I found doing this task really interesting as it gave us the challenge of thinking differently to how we usually would, for example – what if we couldn’t use this body part for a certain section or if were restricted to having a particular body part, that wasn’t our feet, touching the floor. I found myself moving further away from habitual movements in this task because of the thought process I found myself going through when we were given an instruction. Overall, I felt really positive after this task because I felt myself starting to develop within improvisation and moving away from habitual movements that I was used to using.
Task 3: I enjoyed observing this final task because it was great to pick out on how everyone handled the different instructions and requirements. During stage 1 there was a moment when Laura entered the space where Heidi, Lauren and Charlotte were already performing and between them they played with different relationships. Laura created a duet with Heidi when she first entered the space before choosing to begin a solo, meaning there was 4 solo performances occurring at once. Laura then re-joined Heidi to create a duet again before Lauren joined in. Charlotte exited the space not long before this and shortly after the trio was created Josh entered the space to create a quartet when he began to follow the three already in the space. As well as this quartet going on there was solo performances also within the space too which should a good contrast.
Stage 4 was the most interesting to watch of all the stages because the whole space could be used for this stage whereas up until this point the space had been split and only certain areas had been allowed to be used. Stillness was used well in this stage and the change of relationships throughout was really fun to watch. By the end of the stage everyone had been in the space all together at once and there was a number of different trios and duets all occurring at the same time. While observing this particular stage I found that some people would enter the space to join a soloist, duet or trio and then use what they were doing as a starting point to go off on their own a short while after and started using their own movement. A point that stood out for me in this was when everyone was in the space and performing on the floor and Wren was the only person stood, moving in the space at a higher level than everyone else. This progressed into a duet when Josh also stood and joined her moving with the space. I thought that a trio created between Kirsty, Charlotte and Emily was really effective because throughout Kirsty and Emily were doing the same movements while Charlotte’s movements complimented what they were doing. People also became more experimental in this stage which was great as they were willing to try more things.
In this task I noticed people using their habitual movements less and less and they were becoming more experimental with their way of moving as well as the relationships they were creating throughout and people seemed less afraid to try and play with the situations around them.