Anyway, enough of me, car crashes, and general self indulgence

Legs are very heavy.  Well mine are.  They are like these great big solid lumps of wood.  They don't want to move half the time.  This won't do.  Physical performers don't have great big solid lumps of wood for legs, they have keen, alert coiled springs that leap, dance, skip, role and flip like fireworks.  I'm trying Kettlebells and skipping to try to wake my sleeping monsters and see if there exists a spring within.  Of course 45 is probably a bit late in life to waken coiled springs, I'll probably pull a ligament or something.  Still, we are anti-ageist and pro people working to their best potential.  Potential.. I always hated that word.

Anyway, enough of me.  Here is the tale of what we did tonight at the wonderful Konnektiv workshop.  I was quite unprepared due to the fact that my day was somewhat disorientated by a breakdown on the motorway (the car broke down not me incase you are wondering).  It was a particularly dangerous location - the meeting point of the M54 and the M6.  It involved a big band and cloud of smoke and me veering across the sliproad to the only bit of hard shoulder I could see before the car grumbled to it's final resting place.  The engine, the AA man told me, is dead.  Luckily I am still alive.  

Anyway, enough of me.  There seems to be a theme in todays blog.

Those konnektiv people are so fab, I do love them.  I wasn't that prepared for the session, and had to kind of make it up as I went along.  
More than usual that is.  We started with a game.  Because I have become aware of how insentient and log-like my legs are recently, I am getting the group to do activities that involve energetically moving their legs around.  "Doctor, Heal thyself!"  I hear in my minds ear.  (Shut up, I reply, No, you shut up etc etc).  Then finally I get round to describing the session.

Girls against boys.  We had 3 of each, so it was a convenient way to divide the group into two for what turned out to be a very fun game.  The boys had a blue bean bag (very small, the type you use for juggling, not sitting on)  and the girls had a red one.  The stood strategically positioned, feet rooted to the floor, but minds alert and ready.  Each team had one beanbag, held by a player in the centre of the room.  I was the ref.  "One, Two, Three... Beanbag!"  I called.  The word beanbag released the feet and the legs became like coiled springs.  They each had to throw their own beanbag to each other, and capture the beanbag of the other team.  Capturing the opponents beanbag gained a point.  First to 5 won.  On this occasion the girls won.  

We had a chat about the importance of doing excersise that speeds up your cardiovascular system.  I'm feeling a bit out of shape at the moment and very conscious of this.  This desire to cure ones own ills by applying the remediation to others is quite interesting.  

The game was great fun.  Then we had to do some work on complicite.  I hadn't swotted up on Diedre so had to come up with something quick.  I decided to try a different angle to the usual one.  In twos, everyone found out something that they didn't previously know about each other.  Then we all sat in the audience chairs and I instructed the group what to do next.  Each person had to introduce their partner to the audience, in a magnificent way, telling a story from the information they had found out, this was done in a grandiose melodromatic style.  

The job of the audience was to hang on to every word, fully engaged, fully responsive.  Crying at the sad bits, laughing at the funny bits, gasping with incredulousness and the incredible bits etc.  Now, as you might imagine, most of the stories were about such things as packed lunches, or pet dogs.  The point of this was that the group is learning to be emotionally responsive together, and dramatically tuned in to each other.  It is all very well to experience group complicite in that serene almost spiritual way that occurs when we do the slow, focussed stuff, but we want to be able to entertain people, which means racking up the emotive volume a bit, and still keeping the sense of togetherness.  
The result was a lively, loud yet focussed whole.  Our youngest member got quite self conscious and couldn't do this, so we negotiated and agreed that she could do her introduction sitting on the floor with a hoody on back to front, covering her face.  She introduced her partner by pointing at the curtain that he stood behind.  This brought riotous applause, following which was followed by our member shuffling off on her bottom, very slowly, her face still covered by the hood.  A classic example of the extroverted introvert.  Or the introverted extrovert.

Finally, and here the pics and video's come in, the group revisited their devised machines from last week.  First they reminded themselves of what their individual group creations, and then bringing them together into one machine.  I am amazed by how something very uncomplicated can be really effective and entertaining.  

Each person had a simple sequence of movements.  When combined into a group of people making similar and interconnected movements, this became seemingly quite complex.  Then, when the two groups, who had very different kinds of movements, each joined up, the final effect was very interesting.  Have a look at the vids and see what you think.  please feel free to comment.

Energy Ball, Complicite, the Human Machine

Energy Ball

To start the session we used a simple warm up – the energy ball.   The energy ball movement sequence has changed somewhat.  I have been modifying it over time and now think it is smoother and simpler.  The breathing is an important component.  As the body opens, the breath is inward, swelling the lungs and pushing out the chest.  

As we close the body, the breath is outward, and the movement helps to empty the body of air.  A problem is that currently the energy ball movement sequence  only uses the upper body and arms, not the legs, so I am currently working on moves that will include the legs.  During the slow, flowing sequence of movements, a ball of energy is visualised (hence the name), and the energy ball is given a colour, any colour that individual wants to use on that particular occasion.

We don’t name the colour, and I’m not sure what is the purpose of giving it a colour.  I think maybe it just makes it easier to visualise, and also the colour gives the energy a particular quality.   For instance, blue may be a calming colour for some, or yellow may be cheerful , red may be warm and vibrant.

Complicite

Image 1: Exercises in complicite, the group selects a new object

We are still experiencing weekly group changes, and I have come to think that this is just something that we must cope with .  It would be great to think that exactly the same people would come for several consecutive weeks, but this isn’t the way things go.  Two of our new members from the auditions haven’t come for the last two weeks; sadly we are to lose Billie for a few weeks whilst she focusses on her A level exams.  We survive these almost weekly changes of personel, and despite these,  the complicite work that we are doing does serve to bring this new group together, building group cohesion, raising levels of intimacy and awareness of the group ‘whole’.  

These are aspects of drama that can be quite challenging.  In performance, the ability of a group to develop intimacy and cohesion is very important.  Also it is necessary for members to lose self awareness, and to become part of a whole unit, rather than being a set of individuals.  I hope that there develops a sense of joy and safety in being part of the group, and that this sense enables a full and open exploration of the drama that we produce.  This in turn represents the life that we experience, that we bring with us to each session, and so we are able to engage in a full and open exploration of our lives and experience.

Image 2, Ebbs and Flows

I’ve been inspired by reading 'Through the Body' by Dymphna Callery.  She has a great way of writing, touching on the theorists such as Brook and Lecoq, and explaining why certain things are important, but keeping this brief and to the point, focussing on a lot of practical application.  This makes her a very good first point of call for a drama group facilitator. 

Speaking about the importance of complicite, and talking about improvisation, and the importance of ‘joy’, the improviser needs to feel joy in what they are doing, for the sake of both their own performance, and that of the whole group.  Whilst we are doing these excersises, and in my discussion, I bring in the relationship with these and the ‘darker’ side of life, and of theatre, the joy not just provides energy, but a feeling of safety, comeradery, for the journey that we take, that at times, may take us to unchartered lands, or fields of experience. 

Image 3, the deliciously nervewracking moment of having been 'selected'

I roughly translated Callery’s exercises and this is what followed: First the group stood in a circle, they were told to, as one, pick up an (imaginary) pane of glass.  I added the detail that the glass had on it a very precious rare marble, that mustn’t role off.  The group were told to move the glass to the other side of the room.  

They had to, as one, bend, slide their hands under the glass, lift it until they were all standing, and then in unified speed, to move to the second location.  After one or two false starts, the group managed it, (although we did notice that the pane of glass had seemed to shrink during the journey, as the group members had huddled closer to each other in their aim to move in a perfectly uniform manner).

Then we played the ‘stop-start’ game.  The group walked around the room, in any direction, and as one, stopped, then sometime later, started.   Here we started to really get the feeling that the group was gaining complicite.  At times, it really was impossible for me to know who had led the stopping and starting.  The game slowly evolved.  This is where it starts to get really interesting.  Occasionally I would say ‘freeze!’, everyone had to stop and close their eyes.  Then I would say ‘Everybody point at (name of group member)’, most of the time the group got this quite well.  This meant that they had to be aware of everyone all the Time.

Image 4 - cats and mouse

In this next section, I was reminded of the notion of person being ‘object’.  When I instructed the group to ‘discover’ (create) a ‘frightening object’, I had intended it to be an imaginary object, as we often create in improvisations.  I instructed the group to discover and slowly approach this frightening object, that was somewhere in the room.  They walked around for a while, searching for the thing that the group would find, quite an interesting process to watch, a bit animalistic, with an awareness that felt like swirling currently of water, moving this was and that around the room.  

Image 6 - who will it be?  Standoff...

To my gradual surprise, and then amusement, blending gradually with spectator-fear (this isn’t real fear, it is the fear that a spectator feels, though they know they are not really in danger), I realised that the group had chosen me as the feared object.  This was quite amusing, and I laughed, but it was a slightly nervous laugh, as they very  slowly approached me, very slowly, methodically, reminding me somewhat of a group of zombies in a horror film.  I felt not like a feared object, but a hunted victim.  

Image 7 - the tide on the turn

The ticklish fear reminded me of the experience of an audience member who had been singled out by the bouffon, and that confusion of role between feared and fearful object, that the bouffon tease with their parody, cruelty and humility.

This was so interesting, and such fun, that we gave each group member a turn at being the audience member.  Before approaching them, the group would get together an plan what their mode of approach would be – ‘dead pan’, ‘bared teeth’, ‘lascivious’, ‘inquisitive’, and the effect each time, was the same, laughter, mixed with and due to, a really unexpected feeling of fear. 

Image 8

In role both as actor and spectator, this was very enjoyable.  As spectator it felt very special, being singled out and treated to a one off performance, and somehow being given a starring role, even though as victim in this case.  As actor it felt empowering to be able to bring about such emotion in an audience member.  We started to realise the potential of this method.  Wistful conversations about the bouffons ensued, and renewed promises that we will do a bouffon production one day.

Image 9

But for now, the machine.  And first we have more complicite exercises to do.  Being taken by the idea of singling out one person, and the power of this, which is magnified of course, when one isn’t actually expecting to be singled out, I instructed the group to single out and approach one of their own number, and to decide as a group, when to approach, and when to back off away from the selected person-object.  The first video shows a small amount of this part of the improvisation.  The group reminded me once again of swirling currents of water, moving first one way, then the other, each member looking around, wondering if it would be them, tacitly suggesting that it could be someone else, then, sometimes suddenly, sometimes in a slower more fragmented process, the group, would select someone and approach them. 

Equally fascinating was the way that people reacted once selected, sometimes they would play, sometimes try to fight off the predators, sometimes try to disappear – by moving under a table or by lying face down on the floor.  Later the group talked about the feeling of this being a good natured, humane and co-operative game, with very strict rules (eg not carrying on approaching someone if they seemed to be getting genuinely distressed), though there was also the dangerous element, the feelings of paranoia, not being able to trust anyone, the cruelty of the hunt.  This was an excersise not just in complicite, but in power dynamics, politics, and communication at a very subtle level (just about everything we do is non-verbal).  

Image 11

On another level, It was also an exploration in cruelty, scapegoating, and persecution.  At times, for me as spectator, it felt what I can only describe as primal, or tribal.  The humour and the group cohesion made for a feeling of safety throughout the excersise, but I did think about how it could become something along the lines of an Artonian ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ exercise. 

Artaud strove to recreate these elements of pre-civilization archetypal experience through theatre, looking for the basic primal human instinctual experiences that we have lost through the ages.   Times have changed since the days of Artaud, we may be less repressed, the themes may be less shocking to us.  In addition to this, there may be an assumption in Artaudian terms, that the primitive experience will be unsettling, cruel, shocking, disturbing.  

More recent theorists, such as the anarcho-primitives, look upon the primitive experience as being one of co-operation, humanity, equality, pleasure and play.  Through the drama we experienced both of these element, the dichotomous, illogical cradling of dangerous experience in a safe, agreeable environment.

The human-machine

The second and third video on the blog show what we did in the final part of the session.  In two sub-groups, two machines were created, one of the bottom half of the body moving, and one with the top half of the body moving.  I instructed members to ensure that only one part of the body moved at a time, to give the impression of each part of the body being an individual moving part – thus emphasising the mechanical nature of the movement.  Of course in fact every time we move one part of our body, other parts move, and this is much more evident when we move our legs, as we need to shift our whole weight from one side to another to transfer from one leg to another.  No matter how hard we try, our top bodies will move visibly, all we can do is to try to reduce this effect.

As you will see from the videos, each group member co-ordinated their moves with each other group member, so that one movement stemmed from, and led to, a movement by one of their partners.  They also incorporated vocal sounds, which added to the physical sound in the case of the leg machine.  

The sounds gave imagery of steam, pressure, smoothly moving parts, whistles.  They added a more powerful dynamic to the move.  The plan next week is to bring all of the elements of the two machines together, to create one larger and more complex one.  The way that they do this will be decided on the day, in the meantime, I hope that they are practicing.

Embodiment; isolating body parts; impro in varying group sizes.

Physicality:
We are a physical theatre group.  This suggests a level of physical awareness, prowess and dexterity that I'm not sure we all have.  We have creativity, imagination and playfulness in abundance, however I think, and I have shared with the group, that we could really do with brushing up on our physicality.  That involves:

Being fit and healthy - we engage in some pretty energetic stuff, and whilst in impro workshops it's ok for us to be huffing and puffing a bit, stopping to rest occasionally, in performance, it rather detracts from the enjoyment of watching.  So, we need to ensure that our cardiovascular systems are in tip top condition, eating well and regular vigorous excersise (e.g., brisk walking, swimming, cycling, skipping) should be essential parts of our honing ourselves as performers.

Being strong - ok, some of the positions the creatures and objects that we create aren't very naturalistic in terms of humanness.  
We contort ourselves and hold weird and wonderful positions.  Part of the issue here is bodiy awareness - ie don't hold a position that is going to hurt or even injure us, and don't hold a position that is going to result in a wobbling shaking object rather than a sturdy one.  The other part of the issue here is being strong enough to stretch our physical boundaries without doing self harm.  It's a balance.  Regular weight bearing excersise (Merv does kettle bells, other forms of weight training could also be used).

Another element of physicality is dynamic expression.  I am thinking here gymnastic ability, being, swift, flexible and responsive.  In order to maximise our dynamic expressivity, we could take up regular practice at gymnastics, acrobatics, circus skills, along with, or alternatively, martial arts or wrestling.

I'm being realistic here.  We are not a young group (with the exception of one or two members), but we all enjoy being physical and have a moderate amount of physical ability.  Putting on entertaining and impressive performances of physical theatre is our aim.  The fitter we are, the better will be our performances.  We don't need to be acrobats, but we do need a certain amount of acrobatic skill, physical awareness and control.

Last nights session started very much with this message.  We revisited an excersise that I created last year, called 'energy ball', this is a bit like a yoga or meditation.  It is a single movement that goes through a sequence of positions, and involving a visualised ball of energy, which is given a particular colour.  It is good for focussing and calming energy, in preparation for an activity or just the day ahead.

Isolating body Parts  The machine is planned to be an extravagent, unexpected, smooth, interactive, activity.  In order to look mechanical, we are beginning once again to examine the notion of isolating body parts.  A simple movement, e.g., standing on your toes, involves the whole body.  When we do this, and really think about it, we realise just how much of our body is moving.  The toe and ankle joints, the whole shift of weight, our shoulders and hips, the angle of our arms to our body.  The angle of our head and shoulders.  To appear mechanical, each of these movements need to be either 1) miminised so that it is almost indiscernable, or 2) emphasised, so that it appears deliberate and mechanical.  No simple task, and requiring of much practice. Connected to this is the notion of 'Otkas, Posyl and Stoika', the 'statement of intent to move', the 'movement' and the 'statement of completion of move'.  

When applied to the machine, this can be done in different ways, the ways that we looked at was a slight movement in the opposite direction of the movement to mark the otkas and the stoika, or another way, which is to hold the body quite tense, then slightly relax the part that is to be moved (the otkas), and during the movement retain this tension (posyl), and making a sudden return to the original tension right at the end of the movement (stoika).  This looked quite effective, and again, requires practice.


 Impro by numbers; a variation on the cauldron.
The pics this week are all from the improvisation phase of the workshop.  After physicality, we are working on the group cohesion and the essence of 'complicite' that will give a feeling of real magic to the performance.  Every performer is so sensitive to the actions of the group, and so responsive, that the group ceases to become a set of individuals, and becomes an entitiy in it's own right.


Usually, in the cauldron, two people are in the performance space, free improvising.  When another member of the group wants to join in, they come and tap someone on the shoulder, the tapped person leaves the impro and the new entrant takes over.

In our version, (and thanks to Billie for suggesting this), we use the group complicite for this process.  Rather than the new comer making the decision, the group decide.  This is done in various ways, quite often, one of the improvisers is running out of ideas, and will take the opportunity to run off stage.  Sometimes the newcomer and one of the existing spaceholders will form a dynamic, leaving one out, who will then leave the stage, sometimes there will be something of a standoff, as improvisers each make offerings, to see whose will be taken up.  Occasionally the newcomer will hesitate, part way through making an offering, suddenly feeling that what they are doing is out of place, and run off stage. 
Occasionally, I will tell them to stand their ground, and to carry on negotiating for space in the performance area.  Through simply taking away the element of one person choosing who stays in the impro space and who leaves, and letting the group come to a decision through more subtle means, we managed to get a much more sensitive group, who communicated with each other more subtly and creatively. 
After a while I tell the group to increase their number by 1.  So over the course of 50 minutes, the number of improvisers in the space grew from 2 to 5.  This brings in many different dynamics of performance.  The areas of improvisation centre around things such as conflict, conspiracy, exploration, discovery, danger, sabotage, defence, exhibition.  Improvisers may take the part of characters or objects (with character); objects may become imbued with characteristics (see pics of the incorporation of the table into the improvisation).  Whether character or object, each element of the improvisation adds it's own dynamic, and an infinite variety of possibilities for story development.

Who is the spy?
During the last 10 minutes, I gave the group another task in complicite.  I told them that one of their number is a spy, and the group had to find out who the spy was and arrest them.  I forgot to tell them that they had to produce an ending also, and added this later.  My phone camera stopped half way through this and I have lost some of the improvisation, but the videos shown here demonstrate some of the techniques used by people in coming to group decisions.  It became very much more democratic when I actually named a specific group task.  The processes of negotiation are quite clearly seen here.  
This process will be much less obvious as the group becomes more highly tuned in terms of sensitivity and responsiveness, however it is an education, as well as being very entertaining, to be able to observe these processes occuring. 
 Can you spot the rebel?  The collaborators?  The onlooker?  Which offers are taken up and which go unnoticed?  In a brief moment of disengagement an actor 'loses the plot' and has to reintegrate themself, or be reintegrated, into the action. 

Restarting the Machine

Today we used group juggling technique to look at several themes that will be important to the machine: patterns, rhythm, interactions, and sound.  We used a group movement excersise to start working with complicite and also to start to play with the different types and styles of movement that the group can create.  We also began to look at whether there is an optimum number of people to create our machine, through free impro.

Group juggling - our first machine

Free Improvisation - pic 1

In a circle, we began to throw juggling balls to each other.  First, one ball, and clockwise around the circle, to the person standing on our left.  Once the ball had gone round a few times, and we felt a rhythm forming, Another ball was added.  We passed the two balls around the circle, once again, waiting for a rhythm to form itself.  Another ball was added.  In total, we ended up with 6 balls going round the circle of 8 people.  We needed to focus.  As soon as we had thrown a ball to the person on our right, we had to return our attention to the person on our left, so that they could throw a ball to us.  The rhythm worked on 3 levels, and was not perfectly regular, as people dropped the ball from time to time.  When this happened, a ball jam occured, as one person could not pass their ball, and thus could not be passed to ( I introduced a rule that people could not have 2 balls, to prevent balls being thrown without a recipient.)  Once the jam had cleared, the machine was once again working. and the rhythm returned.  We talked about how enjoyable it was when the machine worked, something very satisfying about a repeating rhythm, and a coherent whole made up of several interacting parts.  We added sound to the movements, accentuating the rhythm, vocal and body sounds, beeping, whistling, stamping feet and so on.  Once we had mastered this technique with the ball going round one person at a time, we repeated the excersise with people throwing the ball to people in different places in the circle, still repeating a sequence, but the sequence being variable.  Once the rhythm had been emphasised with sound, we realised that we had formed quite a complex structure.  As time went on, the passing of the balls became smoother, people became more relaxed, and the sounds more interesting and lively.  This was our first machine, appearing complex but with simple rules.

Movement skills and creativity development.

Free Improvisation - Pic 2

The group moved around the space.  Like atoms, moving to fill the available space.  They were in high spirits and automatically doing casually silly walks.  After a while I told the group to watch one member - they stopped.  For a moment they watched Billie, she froze and looked back, startled.  Then, in response to an unspoken expectation, she began to make sharp, nervous little movements, like a meercat, (or a badger kettle).  The group, after a little hesitation, responded, making similar movements.  We moved around together, sniffing the air, on toes.  "Everyone go back to your original walk"  I said.  They did.  They focussed on their breathing.  I wanted this to be a relaxing experience, in preparation for the group impro, and to warm up people in their bodies, to prepare the bodies for sensitive, playful, interactions and different levels.

One by one, each person's walk was reflected by the group.  In between I instructed members to be aware of their breathing, after about the 3rd person, when they were getting really warmed up, I instructed them to be aware of their beating hearts.  Later I drew their attention to the heat of their bodies.  Once everyone had been reflected by the group, people were starting to get quite out of breath.  I had wanted the group to be focussed on their body's signs of being physically warmed up, because at the end came the relaxing part.  I instructed the group to slowly, like a big steam train, come to a halt.  They did.  They got into a comfortable position and spent some time listening to and feeling the changes occuring in their bodies - their breathing became less deep, their heart started to beat more slowly again.  Gradually the tingling in the warm palms faded.

They reflected upon the experience that they had just had.  This was a time of rest and a bit of a time to relax and gain familiarity with the sense of a creative body.  They thought about the machine, and what form it might ultimately take.

From: http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2011/09/17/artwork-steampunk-larisa/

When they were ready, people rejoined the group in a loosely knit circle and discussed what form the machine might take.  We talked about steampunk, the notion of history meets science fiction in ridiculously beautiful artifacts.  We talked about a machine that might sometimes break down but would be very resilient, and fix itself, getting back into action just as people thought it's end had come.

In the last section of the session, the free improvisation, we began to ask, is there an optimum number of persons for a machine? in terms of complicite, as found in bouffon work, the magic number is 5.  Our experience in Konnektiv would so far suggest that this is the best number for what we are devising.  However this would mean splitting the group into two, and make rehearsals difficult, so for practical reasons, I am hoping that this is not the case.  Time will tell.  If 5 it must be, then 5 it will be.

The group sat in the audience chairs looking into the performance space.  They looked at the empty space for some time.  One person walked into the space.  They looked around, exploring imaginary objects, creating a scene through their responses to these creations.  A second person entered the space.  With a slightly different plot in mind.  The two entered a negotiation, a new scenario developed.  A third person.  Jogging.  Jogging?  In a gallery?  At once the scene was thrown.  Later we talked about how in drama anything is possible, of course you could go jogging in an art gallery!  We are testing our grip on our schemas in these improvisations.  One by one, each member of the group enters the space.  The new members are keen, and enter early, the older members holding back, waiting for their moment.  One member doesn't want to enter the space, another persuades her to, through the improvisation.  Moods, themes, responses, offers, rejections, sadness, play, hope, requests - all are played out.  I freeze the action and ask the group members to name the character they are playing.  then they carry on.  Eventually the whole group congregate, and a rhythm is formed.  We love rhythm in this group.  Rhythm is the beating heart, the lungs, working like bellows, the stamping feet, the drops of tears.  The pumping and whistling and whirring of the machine, the creaking of an old forgotten tree, snow falling silently on a starlit landscape.  Rhythm is infinate, of nature and of machine.  Even when, whistling through space, the earth crashes into the sun causing billions of tons of explosion,he final screams of her burning up in the sun's fiery belly echo through space.

The group form a rhythm, palms of hands on wooden floor.  As each person joins in it becomes more complex and exciting.  After a while I ask them to find an ending.  The rhythm is slowed.  People withdraw from the group, Eventually it stops as the movement freezes and the rhythm stops altogether.

I have made a video of the ending of the improvisation - hopefully I've uploaded it correctly - if not, I will try again tomorrow.

In a circle, we discuss each persons experience of the impro.  The new people have joined in very well, more experienced members share their ideas of how to create optimum fluidity and dramatic interaction in the impro - we talked about the importance of thinking with body, and sound.  We talked about not clinging to notions or characters, or intentions, but offering, and accepting the offer, of negotiation, awareness of other.  Ideas necessarily become fuzzy in the improvisation space.  The individual tends to disappear and the group takes on it's own identity.

In this impro the action tended to be a little disparate.  Small groups were formed as they group failed to agree on themes until the very end.  The question is, does this suggest that there were too many?  Would 5 have been better?  Or was it just due to the fact that half the group are not really experienced at this sort of thing, and the rest of the group are maybe a little rusty after our break from Konnektiv workshops.

Needless to say we will explore the matter further!

A new season begins

A great session, and a fitting start to a new season of Konnektiv.  We saw some old and some new faces, and everyone threw themselves into the activities and all said they had really enjoyed themselves.  

Konnektiv is changing.  

Now that the Research and the Health side of our organisation are more productive, the Drama side can focus more on the important factor of performance, and in a sense a different level of wellbeing benefits - confidence raising; training the body and the senses to a higher degree, a deeper level of interpersonal skill and social interaction.  

Performance is an essential part in all of our lives; we have different roles, with different scripts, that take part in different storylines in different scenes in our lives, and who may all write distinctively different personal narratives.

We did some simple activities in groups, using balls and hoops.  In one set of activities each person in the group had a ball (in one group) or a hoop (in the other).  They choreographed a simple routine in which we were looking at how a simple move done simultaneously by 5 people can look very effective.  

Especially with the balls, this was more difficult than I had thought it would be.  Some times, I spent more time picking up the ball than throwing it in the air.  That being said, we began to remember the tricks of group performance - the basics....

How does the group begin - how to they know when to start?  How do they know when to end?  How do they end?  these factors are extremely important.  And it is very important that the whole group knows and agrees on these factors.  

A good start and a good ending are of vital importance to any performance.  As in life, you can recover from a bad start, but it may be difficult, and takes energy from the job of realising ones full potential, at least temporarily.  A bad ending is a lost cause, and no matter how well your epitaph is written, the audience are left with an unmemorable impression, or one that is memorable for the wrong reasons.

The start is difficult, because people are nervous.  People may mumble and fumble their way through a beginning, as this is the worst time for performance anxiety.  Control is vital, being fully focussed and aware.  Knowing your moves intimately - nerves are an enemy of memory.  Enjoying yourself, despite the nerves.  

Endings I find easier.  However during the rush and excitement of putting a performance together the ending may be easily forgotten.  I have been 2 minutes before the end of a full length live performance, and realised that we haven't rehearsed any kind of ending.

In the second set of group work, we mixed up the balls and hoops.  One group got 3 balls and 1 hoop, the other was given 2 hoops and one ball.  These both gave an extremely interesting choreographed routine.  The different affordances suggested by each prop, as well as the different combined personalities of the members of each group, meant that the two performances were very individual.  This is something that I am constantly in awe of; the skill of a group of individuals in creating something meaningful and entertaining, with very little initial input and guidance previously given.

I was reminded of the importance of discipline.  Especially as now, in this incarnation of Konnekiv, we have decided to be more performance based.  We need to be highly dedicated in terms of working on balance, control, body awareness, and having a purposeful and confident presentation in all that we do, whilst maintaining the lively and spontaneous feel that we pride ourselves on.  As always there is much work to be done.

When is it work and when is it play?

As a drama for health group, the experience of taking the journey from initially devising dramatic ideas, to putting on performances, was the most important thing, and the magic of the performances, was in the liveliness and sponteneity of the actors.  As a performance based group, we may begin to expect more of ourselves in terms of technical ability and expertise.  I will certainly be requesting that each member of the group does some form of daily physical excersise, even if for a short time.

Birth and Death ceremonies

How do we mark births and deaths?  How do we make sense of these miraculous events?  The coming into and the leaving of existence of life forms is something that has been discussed by religious, humanistic and scientific philosophers.  Much of our art on some level responds to the emotional and cognitive challenges that we come across when trying to comprehend the nature of both our existence, and our non-existence.

I've been very influenced in this area by two events.  Firstly by reading books by Roger Grainger, a dramatherapist who works with ritual and who has written about the importance of the death ritual - the funeral, and how this is used to make sense of loss.  This includes both the loss of our loved ones, and the knowledge of our impending loss of self, as we inevitably move closer towards our own impending cessation. The other event was a naming ceremony that I was invited to some years ago.  The parents of the child were christian, however, aware that many of their friends were of different religions, or even of no religion, they called the christening a naming ceremony.  There were many elements of christianity in the ceremony, however there was an implicit acknowledgement that the people present, the friends, neighbours and family of the child, were  from different backgrounds which were all valid, and this tactful and inclusive approach to a traditionally sectarian ritual was very impressive to me.

Births and deaths are not marked by ceremony for any other reason than that they are extremely important to us as individuals, and as social groups, right across the planet.  They are the times when we are struck by the miraculousness of life, and fear the dreadful awesomeness of death.

Ritual, or ceremony, contains these experience.  It uses metaphor, repetition, shared understandings in an atmosphere of deep intensity in order to reflect, express and hold our deepest wonderment and terrors.  Or at least it should do.

Drama and ritual are inseparable.  Ritual is drama, and traditionally, drama is ritual.  The use of masks, song, dance, archetypal characters, folk tales and so on, give us a framework, a sense of shared understanding and learning.  Being part of the same thing, Safety in numbers.

A christmas tree, an easter egg, a straw man burning on a bonfire.  Rituals contain our need for something greater, the hope of new life, and the dread of pain and death.

After a short warm up, the group was divided into two.  Each group was told that they were to devise a naming ceremony for a person or thing, that the other group would be invited to take part in.  Following this, the groups devised death ceremonies for the person or thing that was named by the other group.  I had reasoned that under normal circumstances, it would be unusual for the main people attending or presenting the birth ceremony to be the same as the people attending or presenting a death ceremony.  It also meant that there was a richer ceremony, as each group embellished the initiall ideas presented by the other.

We learned several important things

1.  A ritual may be performed in all seriousness, but may be experienced as funny.  This may be because of nervousness in the part of the participants, or because of ridiculousness, as the actors may take it too seriously, and this may result in visual absurdity.

2.  An effective ritual involves the active participation of all present.  If the attendees are confident enough, a being able to be creative about their involvement leads to a greater level of engagement.

3. Change of dynamic energy are also good ways of drawing people in to further engagement with the ritual. This can be done by a leader or leaders presenting sounds and gestures that are reflected by the participants, and gradually altered, to bring about a transformative shift.

4. Giving people particular roles or characteristics enables them to enter into the drama with less self consciousness.  One group gave each participant and element, earth, air, fire or water, and the element became an object that took focus and self consciousness from the participant, again enabling a greater engagement.

We have one more session this term, and then in January we start looking at the idea of devising a horror production.  Horror in this sense, not to be blood, guts, vampires etc, but to contain the elements that we have been working with, and to include pathos, romance, tragedy and comedy.  All of the things that give us our lives and dramas meaning.