Creating Motifs part two

Building on ideas from when creating our chair motifs, we created further motifs this time including a table and three chairs using the same concepts.

Creating Motifs PMD4

In today's session, we were tasked with creating our own cause and effect/question and answer motifs in pairs built up of contact work and pedestrian movement. Using the heavy, almost glum dynamics from the taught motif as a starting point, Matthew and I created the following motif that reflects an argument or heated discussion.

Responding to Stimulus: 4.48 Psychosis PMD1

With a few motifs in our back pockets, we turned to this extract from 4.48 Psychosis. From the extract, we picked out quotations that we deemed relevant to our previously created material. We collated these ideas as a group in a mindmap before individually exploring some of these ideas in more detail with regards to how they could be incorporated in our work.

Consolidating the Chair Motif

Once we had learnt the material for the chair motif and gotten it in our muscle memory, we used the post-show discussion technique to highlight any room for improvement in our performance.
As a group, we were given the following feedback as a company:

• Don't take short cuts when pulling the legs through (Dance Grid- Bar 7, Beats 1-4) by pulling legs through to the side rather than underneath the body.
• More obvious use of dynamics
• Emphasise every point of movement to demonstrate the full range of movement
• To consolidate the transition at the end of the motif (Dance Grid- Bar 7, Beats 7, 8) in order to meet the timing for the next repeat of the motif. 

We were then also given suggestions as individual performers. I was told that my dynamics needed to be more clear and obvious, however the hair flicking dynamics were good at times. To do this I need to put more emphasis in the moments of heaviness, by expelling the breath, I can also do this in Bar 4, Beats 3-8 by exaggerating the contrast between the light and heavy, through almost bouncing from hand to hand. 

Taught Chair Motif Part Two PMD2

We were taught more material following on from the motif previously learnt and were again required to use the aforementioned rehearsal strategies to memorise the movement and document in a continuation of the previously made dance grid as shown below. 

Taught Chair Motif PMD2

We were taught a phrase of movement to memorise until it became embedded in our muscle memory. To do this we could use a number of rehearsal strategies to digest the material including the following:

• Setting a rehearsal schedule
• Draw up a schedule for the week that allows for 15 minutes of practice each day, being specific about the aim of the session and what technical or performance skills that you aim to develop or improve.
• Share best practice
• Watch a peer perform and notate the successful aspects of the performance. Look at how you can emulate these in your own performances. 
• Focussed/Unfocussed Post-Show Discussion
• Focussed: Ask peers for critique on specific areas and perform it for them.
• Unfocussed: Perform the material and ask for feedback regarding any area of the performance. 
• Feedback from teacher/peers
• Draw a dance graph
• Create a graph to track the dynamics of the performance, labelling areas where technique, safety and other performance elements should be particularly prominent and what these should be/how to impliment them.
• Counting aloud
• To consolidate timing
• Using mirrors to watch own movement
• Record performance and review from an audience perspective
• Draw a Dance Grid
• Create a grid to break down the material in the performance into timing, weight placement*, action, direction and guidance to identify the technical and performance skills required for the performance and bring clarity to the movement. 

*Weight placement is important for demonstrating accurate posture, balance and technique, in a way that is safe, and reduces strain on the body during a performance. Dancers with hyperextention, like myself, should aim to find the closest thing to straight, by engaging their muscles and 'lifting' joints to prevent them from falling into the bow shape that tends to be created. Furthermore, weight placement also allows a performer to prepare for the next movement, reducing the time and energy to transition into the next movement.

Researching Frantic Assembly: Practical Methods/Trust Exercises PMD3/4

We used a video from Frantic as a way to gain an insight into how the company use a series of exercises used by the company to develop trust between performers and to produce the dynamic weight bearing movement as per the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. 


Push Hands:
Frantic Assembly perceive this activity to be the first step in working towards contact work within their practice, reason being that it cuts out unwanted stimuli with one participants eyes being closed, and allows the performers to adapt to the concept of sending and receiving signals using non-verbal communication techniques, as well as giving them an opportunity to develop a trusting bond with other members of the company before proceeding onto the more elaborate forms of contact.

In this exercise, we labelled each other A and B. Person B would place their hand on top of Person A's. A would push into B's hand creating a degree of pressure between hands. B then led A around the space, creating different pathways and levels. When the word "eyes" was said, the person would open/close their eyes. Person A and B would then switch and repeat the process.

Practising Flying:
The next activity we undertook was the idea of getting used to "flying" and trying to make come contact work seem effortless and weightless. One person within the pair would form a strong platform on the ground by engaging their core, whilst the other would plant their hands onto this platform as they push off and create the desired shape with the rest of their bodies as they travel, or 'fly' over the platform.

The exercises we practiced were those previously taught to us in a workshop with the company Metro Boulot Dodo.

In the first of these exercises, one person would form a strong platform on their hands and knees, engaging the core and creating a flat back in doing so. The other person would then jump over the platform, pushing off of the platform's back to achieve height.

With one person still using the previous position as a platform, the second would squat in order to connect their hip to the platform. From here, they would lean over the platform onto their hands, create a position with the legs, and finally push themselves back up again.

One other exercise, which I experienced in another MBD workshop, incorporated the platform position once again. The second performer would, aiming to position their hips in the centre of their partner's back, as this would evenly distribute the weight, balance on the platform's back. The second person would then lift through the sternum and legs and hold said position, before tucking the right shoulder and head under in order to roll off the platform, without holding onto them. 

The final exercise was a hip lift. Here, both performers are standing up, right hip to right hip, facing opposite directions. The person lifting would plie in order to assist with getting more height into the lift, whilst the person being lifted would jump/lean into them. The lifter would then turn in a small circle and put their partner down.

Lifting Exercise:
Further building on ideas from the previous task, we then came together as one group to practice such a concept on a larger scale, whereby an individual would be lifted by the rest of the group, with the weight of the individual being planted in a single person, who was labelled the "rock".

Apologies for some videos being upside down.
Should I find a way to rectify this I will upload them again at a later date!

Trust Exercises PMD4

Importance of trust exercises
Whilst such activities are mainly used to develop a sense of trust within a company through receptive interaction, they also help bring a sense of cohesion and responsiveness to it. Such exercises can be as simple as walking around the space and gradually coming to a stop as one unit or come in more complex forms.

Other exercises that practice weight sharing and trust are as follows;

• Sharing a point of contact whilst travelling across the space, changing the point of weight. 
• Constant connection maintained, for example in the head, whilst travelling across or around the space
• Travelling across the space as a group, providing platforms and opportunities for people to improvise contact with 

Trying to participate in activities in which people are lifted or supported by another can sometimes be difficult or dangerous, therefore it is essential that those involved are comfortable with their peers and aware of one another's boundaries. To safely execute activities such as these, performers should have a considerable degree of core strength to enable them to sustain and support in weight sharing activities.

Trust exercises are also incredibly useful to help explore performance possibilities. Companies like Frantic Assembly and DV8 work in a style that is very contact based and so gaining comfort to transfer weight is important to create comfortable and engaging theatre.

Research: Frantic Assembly PMD4

As English Literature students at Swansea University, Artistic Directors and co-founders Scott Graham and Steven Hoggartt had no drama department and only held limited theatre productions three-to-four times annually. It was because of this that they had very little knowledge of the broad opportunities theatre had to offer, until they took part in a production directed by Volcano Theatre. The performance was a life changing opportunity that the pair instantly knew what they wanted to do with their lives.

Since founding Frantic Assembly in 1994, the company of performed 16 full-scale productions, and many shorter pieces during artistic residencies in schools and local communities, collaborating in over 30 countries worldwide. 

Artistic Director: Scott Graham

Exectuive Producer: Despina Tstasas

Associate Director/ Artistic Director: Neil Bettles

General Manager: Fiona Gregory

Administrator: Fiona Bradely

Look back in Anger                        1994

A highly stylised, physical theatre rendition of the 1950’s classic “Angry Young Man”, transforming the kitchen sink drama into an emotional arena with only a cluster of ironing boards for armour.

Klub                                        1995

Created in collaboration with DJ Andy Cleeton, the violent study of the commercialisation of clubbing centres around the drug related death of Leah Betts. Structured to mimic a DJ set, the performance explores themes of identity, reality and belonging amongst mid-nineties club culture. The performance marked the first project working alongside Adventures in Motion Pictures’ Stephen Kirkham, and was awarded “Best Directed Show” at Cairo International Festival, in 1998.

Flesh                                      1996

This was a highly provocative performance, addressing the audience through rich poetic text and “limb threatening” choreography created by Christine Devaney. Using the “on your bike” work ethic as a stimulus, Frantic Assembly interviewed rent boys, strippers and lap dancers to create a performance centring around selling the body for profit and the obsession with mortality.

Zero                                       1997

The final instalment of the Generation Trilogy (along with “Klub” and “Flesh”) depicts the story behind a photograph taken at a New Year’s Eve party. It portrays the most spontaneous time of indulgence, confession and reflection before the clock strikes and a new Millennia begins.

Sell Out                     1998

An argument spurs from honest amongst friends; a simple whisper spiralling into an out of control force, with consequences that effect everyone involved. Sell Out toured internationally, winning the “Best Of West End” Award at Time Out Live in 1998.

Hymns                                   1999

At a funeral of a friend, small talk and good natured teasing soon becomes a hunt for weaknesses, until one of four once close friends finally snaps.

Underworld                         2000

This was the first Frantic performance in which the Artistic Directors did not perform. The piece reinvents the idea of a ghost story, combining bruising realism and physicality, interweaving timescales and cinematic soundscape.

Tiny Dynamite                                 2001

This piece portrays an impossible love story centring on the lives of 3 characters who learn that sometimes lightning can strike twice. Joining forces with Paines Plough, the performance won “Best Fringe Production” at the Manchester Evening News Awards and “Best Theatre Show” from City Life Magazine.

Heavenly                              2002

Two brothers and a friend find themselves in heaven following a drunken New Year’s Eve quest along a rugged coastal path in search of love. However as the performance goes on, the men realise the room is trying to warn the trio that one of them should not be there.

Peep Show                           2002

“Peep Show” was inspired by Michel Gondrey’s music video for Massive Attack, which showed the lives of people living in flats and how their lives can interconnect.

Written in close collaboration with Isabel Wright, the production investigates life in a tower block as two friends, four lovers, and one loner, and exposes glimpses of their urban lives, provoking the questioning of whether we can trust what we see through a window, or hear through a wall.

Rabbit                                    2003

Frantic Assembly tackled the dysfunctional family by following the life of Madeline, who plans to drop out of law school and become a rap artist, however her father has his own bombshell to drop, and time is running out.

On Blindness                        2004

Using sign language and audio description, “On Blindness” was originally a project involving disabled directors and performers, exploring the possibilities of theatrical language. Whilst a comedy, the piece does focus on serious ideas such as the perception of desire, charting the journeys of four characters over a weekend.

Dirty Wonderland              2005

Inspired by the work of photographer Nan Goldin, “Dirty Wonderland” depicts a guided tour of the ballrooms and bedrooms of a Brighton hotel after a boy loses his girlfriend and his search takes him through the rotten underbelly of a once glamourous seafront.

Pool (No Water)                 2006

After a famous artist has an accident after jumping into an empty pool, she recovers under the protection of her friends, yet they soon turn bitter and her suffering becomes her next work of art.

Stockholm                            2007

Frantic won the Wolff Whiting Award in 2008 with Bryony Lavery and Laura Hopkins and were nominated for Best Touring Production at the TMA Theatre Awards the same year, for their delivery of an extraordinary perspective surrounding the nature of modern love.

Othello                                  2008

 Performed with the Theatre Royal Plymouth in collaboration with Royal and Derngate Northampton, Frantic took on Shakespeare’s most brutal tragedy with themes of parano  ia, jealously, sex and murder.

 When it comes down to the company's artistic process, the most defining of features is that the initial ideas come from them, regardless of who they collaborate with on the project, as generally speaking, guests come in much later on in the creative process. An idea can take years before it becomes even  close to reaching the stage, not always in development, but instead waiting for the right social climate or artistic opportunity to come along, in order for the performance to reach its full potential and be fully appreciated. Accompaniment plays the part of a major influence in the creative progress. It is viewed as an integral indicator as to how the dynamics and emotions should be conveyed within the performance. Rehearsals are short, as to maintain focus and interest, as well as to abide by the financial constrictions that allocate for a five-to-six week rehearsal period. Significant emphasis is placed upon the text, before then deriving movement at a later point.