1st August 2011 - Lecoq, clapping, working with gravity. The Badger Kettle.

Lecoq.  One of our members has been spending much time studying Lecoq, and was interested in some of the themes that have come out of his deliberations.  One of these is the Meyerholds study of biomechanics, and in particular, the way that each movement can be broken down in to three parts.  These include the preparation to move, the movement and the finish of the move.

To look more closeley at this, we used a game from Lecoq's book, which involved the group sitting in a circle and all starting to clap, and changing our claps timing until we were all in time with each other.  The theory was that the claps would gradually come into time, and then would speed up, and then the rhythm would be lost.  This was indeed what happened, and at the end of the game, it was as if everyone made a round of applause.  The three sections tied in with the ideas of the three parts of the movement.

Whilst we discussed this, I remembered an excersise that a group of students did at university a year ago.  This involved people resting on each other in such a way that if one moved, the other would fall, but in position, they actually felt relaxed, safe and comfortable.  I remembered that it was important to note how each pair got into their position, in order to complete the movement effectively and safely.

This led to another exercise in which in twos, we all worked out an interdependent position.  We had to show in detail how we prepared for the movement, moved, and ended the move.  The following pictures show the shapes that we made, and give some idea about the variety of positions that are possible from the simple instruction.

Following this we spent some time working with gravity.  After the video of the Commedia influenced dance that we watched last Sunday, I spent some time pondering on the fact that one of the things that makes a performance watchable and entertaining, to me, is the apparent lightness of the performers.  This applies to dancers, actors, singers and musicians.  When a skilled performer is playing, it is almost as if they have no weight.  They could take off in any direction, at any time.  I have seen 20 stone actors with this skill, and really there isn't much difference between them doing it and an 8 stone dancer.  It is an illusion.  It involves muscle control, fluid, planned movements, a good posture, and I think, and enjoyment of moving.


This is like a child playing in a field, running around, jumping, climbing, doing summersaults, for the pure joy of moving.  It is opposite to a person with depression, where every little movement takes a great effort and can even seem physically painful.  A person with depression may look incredulously at a joyful child.  Unable to imagine how they can experience such exhilaration from movement.  Even if they, in earlier life, had engaged in such play.

I wanted to ask the group to engage in an exercise that would give some idea about the polar experiences of heaviness and lightness.  After spending some time centring their bodies, in standing position, I asked them to imagine weights being added to their backs, at the top, between their shoulder blades.  10 imaginary weights were added, and each time, the group members rolled down thier spine, as if weighed a bit further down by the weights.  Eventually, by the time the 10th weight had been added, they were all crouched on the floor.  I walked around pressing each one between the shoulder blades, to reinforce the feeling of weight.


Following this, I spoke again to the group, asking them to now imagine that the weights are being removed, one by one.  Gradually they raised up, from the floor, until they were standing when the final imaginary weight was removed.  Then, I went around and lightly pinched the two hands of each group member, saying that I was attaching helium balloons to their hands.  The imaginary helium balloons were also added to the tops of their heads, between thier shoulder blades, and finally their feet.  


I then asked each group member to choose one of the roles that they were playing and walk around as smoothly and lightly as possible, thinking about the speed and rhythm of the movement.  The results were that each person moved with a sense of greater confidence and looking more agile and poised than they had previously.  One member looked very much like a string puppet, which gave an idea for another workshop that we could do one day.


Finally we worked with the Badger Kettle.  We hadn't realised how much this piece has been neglected recently in comparison to the other two stories.  As a group we worked through the introduction, starting to develop the characters of the Kettle and the priest.  We found ourselves working with reflections and repetitions, which connected the characters to each other, even when they were doing quite different things.