Week 5

This week we worked on creating our whole class section. We began by looking at the work of Laben and taking his 'structure' to apply to our own piece by creating our own categories that we could mix together. I find using these techniques really helpful when devising as it gives you an opportunity to create physicality's and movements that you otherwise never would have. For example we looked at 'Lava' and 'Metal' as physical properties and explored how we could create these as both an ensemble and as a solo.  One quality i felt worked really well when we performed it as an ensemble was 'twitch' as it resembled the work we had done on the plastic bag the previous week which meant we were able to incorporate those movements we had previously worked on.

We also looked at working with our cloths in partners, creating a short duet that showed our masks being removed. I worked with Maria and we looked at showing the cloth as a sort of 'restraint', To do this we used the cloth to bind our hands and feet. To create our piece we started by just improving with the cloths and then from that we took out key moments that we liked. I Feel we were able to convey some different ideas of how we could use the cloths as a 'representation' of something. One duet I liked was Ben and Ellas, I think their use of extending the cloth above them and using it to help them perform lifts was really visually pleasing and allowed moments to be constantly covered and unveiled.

In class we also worked on an opening grid section. I think, visually, this is one of the most interesting moments we created as the varying pace of everyone in the class gives it a textured and engaging effect on the audience. With this section however i think it is key we are all really strict on our grids and have to be aware constantly of the space around us, as i found when i was walking at a fast pace it was hard not to walk into people.

Moving forward as an ensemble i think we all need to work on what we feel 'working as an ensemble' means and being able to work as a whole without all grouping together and looking at one another as this is something we kept falling into during rehearsals.