Dancers!Fantastic work on Friday facing fears of vocalization and storytelling. Tell me what you learned from this experience. This is a second posting for last week. You can respond to either this one or the next one about the spiral/repetition exercise.
Louis
11 comments:
I thought that Friday was the most out of my element that I have felt while dancing. Before, I had never really connected my voice with dance, other than being in musicals, but having to express a story and feelings with movement is a completely new experience. Having been put on the spot, it is a lot more nerve racking that telling your story in a big group. Not only nerve racking, but then having to vocalize a story and dance as well. It was difficult to me to be able to come up with sounds and relate them to movements, but I feel that by practicing more, it will become more comfortable. I think that the fact that I wasn't able to physically use words was the hardest part.
When trying to figure out what my story was I felt as though my mind had gone blank. I have never really been used to performance so having to be vocal on my own in front of the class in an impromptu way was difficult. And even though I was not able to fully express what I had in mind before stepping out, I think that it was definitely a good lesson in performance. Honestly I think we should do it more just because it is hard and if we continue to step out in front of an audience and perform something we may be uncomfortable with, I think we will be prepared to perform at the end of the quarter and perhaps learn to be comfortable with our movements and our voices beyond these few weeks.
Shanna
I must admit I felt funny doing this exercise. I am not used to using my voice when I dance so I felt a little embarrassed when I made sounds. After I got over my initial embarrassment, I felt as if I had faced a fear and conquered it. It gave me courage to try new ways of creating without expecting approval for that creation, but just to let it stand on its own. I really enjoy the many ways you bring out the creativity in us Louis.
I've done a lot of acting (I actually lettered in drama believe it or not, they actually give those out...), so I absolutely loved this exercise. I think it's an interesting question to pose: can what is considered as "dance" involve vocalization? And if so, where does the movement have to reach in order to not be simply blocking? I loved this mostly, though, because around my family, I'm just this weird - not to say this exercise was 'weird' however our culture would deem acting in such a way voluntarily, out of the ordinary. I felt very comfortable, the way I feel in drama class or when I'm babysitting. It's a free sense of being that I get from dance not as often as I used to, so I really appreciated it. I couldn't find any challenges as this was all me. So fun! Louis, you should teach beginning acting.
I learned on Friday how afraid I am of my vocalizations still. I felt uncomfortable performing in front of our class, yet that fear evaporates when I perform in front of the class and no vocalizations are required. It seems to me that I have yet to fully accept it as a part of dance that is available for me to use, and that whatever inspiration I find in that vocalized dance will be OK regardless of the external quality of the movement (how it looks to others).
It's also interesting to note how there are always new forms of dance that one can explore to find that same fear of the dance again, and then you can overcome it and make it a part of your dance vocabulary and tools. Perhaps it is a more obviously different dance form, but vocalized dance is still just another form of the modern dance I love. :)
It was actually a pretty difficult thing for me to do. It's nerve-racking enough to dance alone in front of your peers.. but to tell a story with gestures and vocalizations? Get out of here.. Not only was there the pressure to dance in front of an audience.. you had to be entertaining, fun, and exciting too! Though this was a difficult exercise.. it only takes time, experience, and confidence to get better at it!
This exercise has been the most intimidating for me of the ones we've done in this class. It's interesting, because I have a much more extensive background in music and singing than in dance, but for some reason it's always caused a lot more stage fright for me than movement. It's also interesting because I have become very comfortable speaking in front of people, and I am very open about sharing my opinions, viewpoints and personality. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I must use my voice in unusual ways and convey meaning or content using something other than words, which for me are in my comfort zone. I really appreciate the challenge, though, and think this is a great opportunity to increase my confidence and comfort as a performer as well as push the boundaries of my typical experience of performance, expression or dance.
I really liked the vocal exercises on Friday. It was cool to see how the noise can compliment or enhance the movement and vice versa. But, like when I'm improvising with movement, i found it difficult to find different noises even though there was an endless possibility.
When we came to the big circle and learned what we were to do, it immediately made me feel like I was in a drama class. But that again goes back to the awesome idea of breaking down the wall between dance and theater, and with that, that possibility of expanding and engaging in all the arts becomes real.
It was difficult. I don't know how to let my vocals be free. It was hard because when i tried to vocalize I couldn't think and move at the same time. And when i think of a sound to correspond to the movement, I felt like repeating that sound and moving on to the next sound was hard. It was terrifying but cool cuz I did feel that this allowed me to see where my comfort zones were and where they were not.
If I remember correctly the spiral/repetition exercise had to do with the Fibanaci numbers? Anywho, that exercise was hard to me for some reason. My body wouldn't naturally flow to those counts of 1,1,2,3,5,8,13... So I would either under-dance or over-dance during the time period. It worked better for me when there was more of a structure to it, as in there was a set pathway we were to follow during the counts. It was especially challenging when we were supposed to do the sequence with our eyes closed. Nothing horrible happened but there were many clashings of hands and feet and it felt kind of clumsy overall to me. I did appreciate the history and application from the Fibonaci numbers to natural patterns among other things. It was really interesting to test out.
At first I had a moment of nervousness when we first talked about linking voice and movement but after it came out, it became hard to stop it. I used to be in drama and for some reason I was able to dance and sing but when the sounds seem silly I think people are afraid of being judged. I guess it will take some getting used to for me as a dancer to be able to use my voice. It just seems like there's so much more you have to think about when you do something like this. For example, with gestures you have to think about how you can enhance the movement, entertain the crowd, and remember what you say. That's a lot for me to take in.
Post a Comment