Rehearsal 6 - Organic Improvisations

Devising through organic improvisations instead of mentally planning and mapping out your movements allows you to free up your head and body which ultimately leads you to connecting to your partner on an intimate level as you have to listen and respond to one another. The level of intimacy that is created enables you to live and breathe the movements, and creates a level of trust between your partner which can't be created when you just think about what your going to do and do it.

When mentally planning a physical piece you can often be hindered by being scared or insecure because you have the opportunity to choose not to do certain movements that your perhaps unsure about, whereas when you improvise movements come naturally to you and you begin to create work and do lifts that you didn't believe was possible because is happens in the moment. This sense of freedom and openness allows you to feel comfortable with trying new things and exploring whereas planning only takes you so far. 

DV8 Research

DV8 Physical Theatre was formed in 1986 and has been led since its inception by Llyod Newson. DV8 Physical Theatre receives regular funding from Arts Council England and is an Artsadmin associate company. DV8 has also received project support from The British Council. DV8 is a member of the ITC and Dance UK.

DV8 are an experimental physical theatre company that aims to take risks, challenge, motive and inspire. They explore the barriers between dance and theatre through the means of multi media and immersive theatre, combining interesting visuals and creative artistic story telling using the body. DV8 use both traditional classic dance and more modern contemporary dance in their pieces.

DV8 are very much driven by a want and need for more interesting, challenging and thought provoking theatre, that allows the audience to feel like they are living in a new world and have an experience like no other.

Film and video plays a large part in the work they do, mixing live art, installation, theatre and physical theatre together. This challenges the preconceptions of what theatre can be, how far we can take and how far we can push the audience.

DV8 often use political and social issues like homosexuality, religion and gender equality as their stimulus and test peoples attitudes towards these issues. They don't shy away from being offensive or controversial, instead shed light on these issues often in an intense and real way. This is why DV8 have gained their much deserved reputation. Research plays a large role in their desire to create pieces that are integral to the truth, the company will spend long periods of time researching and developing their work in order to create work that is dynamic and real.

They aim is to allow people to understand and discuss complex issues that perhaps are closed off from discussion or that are understood/accessible by certain types of people.

DV8 has also been known to incorporate dancers with disabilities into its pieces, for example in the film the cost of living, giving people opportunities where they may find hard previously and looking past the prejudiced and sexist ways that often theatre can be help accustom to.

It has thus far produced 18 dance pieces, all of which have toured internationally, and 4 award-winning films for television featuring the types of modern dance they advance. Some of which are named here:

• Can we talk about this
• Living costs
• Just for show
• Strange fish
• To be straight with you 

Physical objectives

Theatre practitioners work with objectives because having a meaning/intention behind your actions creates a strong narrative and allows you to open up an emotionally, connecting with the piece and making a more dynamic interesting piece.

You can use various objectives that change the way you hold and move with your partner. Here are some ideas about the way your body moves with different objectives,

To caress - with this objectives your body would be light and sensitive, you would touch and hold your partner with a sensitiveness. Your neck and body should be loose.

To hate - with this objective your body would be heavy and strong, grabbing your partner with a roughness and harshness. You shouldn't be afraid to be forceful in this objective as your whole body should be telling a story using your objective.

Using objectives gives you a base or almost starting ground to creating a piece that tells a story as you find the objective with in you and display it through instinct. For example if your objective was to hate, you have to find that hate within you which then fuels natural instinctive behaviour like pushing, pulling, grabbing etc. Using objectives can open up a whole spectrum of emotions and allows you to connect with your movements.

Your objectives could also change throughout a piece, as you listen to your body and your partners you may feel a sense of sudden love or care and you react with that in the moment.

Banana rolls and lifts

Surfing Banana Rolls

1.) One person starts off lying down in supine position, with their hands flat above their head.

2.) The other kneels besides them and places one hand on their partners thigh and another on there rip cage.

3.) the partner lying begins to turn and the other begins to follow, placing all the energy onto the other and stretching their hands as far out as possible. Lengthening the spine and quads.

4.) As the first partner rolls over they go to the floor and lay in supine position and other partner rolls over them in the same way.

5.) This continues on

Doing this exercise helps you build trust with your partner and also opens up your body, stretching your muscles and opening your back up.

Performing a lift

Shoulder lift 
Partners 1 and 2 stand shoulder to shoulder, they then walk in sync 4 steps whilst breathing. Then partner 1 jumps into partner 2 whilst partner 2 swings 1 around and up onto their shoulder. Partner 1 then stretches out and puts all their weight into partner 2.
Cradle lift
The first partner places their arm round partner 2's neck, making sure is secure, the first person jumps up and tucks their knees into their chest. Placing their other hand around the other shoulder. Partner 2 must catch them, wrapping their hands round partner 1's legs.

Pencil Lift
The first partner will stands straight and partner 2 stands in front of partner 1 and places both hands on their shoulders. Partner 2 jumps fairly high enough to build some energy. Partner 1 then then catches them and supports them, holding them just under the bum with both arms wrapped around their legs not just supporting with their hands. 

There are different types of lifts in which we have started to experiment with. Lifts are super important in helping you develop your gentleness and grace whilst performing and being aware of your body and others. 

Breathing is also a really important factor whilst doing lifts as breathing helps you focus and relax. If you hold your break (especially when holding another person) you may panic and feel like you can't hold them, this is because they are actually short of breath not because they cannot physically take the weight.

Timing is also another key element. You need to be in tune with your partner and communicate so you can work together well and get the lift right. If you don't listen to your partner, the timing won't be right and you could potentially hurt each other. 

Crossing centres enables you to gain more height and creates a quick and easy transition.

Successful Partnering

Do be work successfully with your partner you need to be able to be open and free in your movements because your partner will more easily be able to listen to your body. You also need to be sensitive and respond to the other persons emotions. 

In order to be successful with your partner you need to develop a sense of understanding for one anothers body and natural instincts. Doing this helps you  communicate through your body in a natural free way and stops your mind from taking control over your movements which leads to a rigid performance.

You need to trust each other - making sure you trust yourself and your partner with you own body weight and theirs. 

Being coherent and corporative are key.

Place, press, push

Place, press, push is where you partner up and place certain parts of your body on your partner. This exercise is testing how much weight you can take but it also about using your body to connect with another and explore different ways to move around another body.

For example you would take your hand and place it just above your partners knee. You would then press further into there muscle and keep an eye on how your partner is taking the weight . Next you would push all of you weight into your partner. It is important to to trust yourself in giving all your weight and it is also important to communicate with each other is it hurts and you can't take the pain, in order to reduce risk of hurting each other.

You can then explore ways of moving around your partners body, jumping, spinning etc. This is a great way to build trust and start thinking about ways you can use place press push in our physical pieces.

Routes and Push/pull

Explain the need to develop routes to the floor

It is important that we develop routes to the floor as it enables you to feel connected to your surroundings and stay in touch with your body.
Devolving our routes to the floor will allow you to further explore the way our body moves and the different ways we can travel.

Developing your routes to the floor helps free up your mind and body, allowing your body to take control and to listen to your instincts. Developing your skills in doing this will only allow you to get better at switching off the sub concious. Switching off your subconscious mind will help with the energy and flow of your movements as you are not hindered by thinking your doing something wrong or being embarrassed. 

Push me/pull me exercise 

This exercise helps each person build trust with one another and tests your physical strength. You rely on your partner to insure you don't fall back as they pull your weight up so you have to have a good communication and strength between one another. You also find your self easily warn out and can be hard on your lower back, so getting past the mental block and carrying on - trusting your body's strength.

Impulse work and Milling

How do you perform impulse work and what is it beneficial for it?

We perform impulse work by reacting and living in the real moment. Performing impulse work is all bout being able to switch of the sub concious mind and ignoring social insecurities, leading you to not construct a reaction or movement from our minds but from a natural instinct or in other words an impulse of emotion.

Impulse work is important because performing using your mind can often be unbelievable and not natural. When you live in the moment and react from with in it creates a truthful and interesting piece of theatre, therefore impulse work is beneficial for naturalism and truthful acting.

Impulse work also allows you to react to your fellow actors thoughts and feelings more tentatively. Your reaction to your partner may change and develop as there feelings change, impulse work forces you to connect with your partner on a different level and again creates a truthful piece.

What is milling and what is it beneficial for?

Milling is moving around the space using parts of your body that we don't normally use when walking, so using your elbows, sides of our hands and feet, heads etc. Milling is allowing your body to be free in movement and feeling the energy between two people. Milling allows you to stop thinking about your movements but let your body carry your weight.

I have learnt that we have confirmed to this idea we have to walk in one way yet there are so many other parts of our body and muscles that can be used to travel. I have learnt how important it is to get in touch with your body and the energy between people.

Capoeira is a good example of allowing your body to be free and move in ways we don't normally. It builds strength and confidence in your body and allows you to express feelings using your body.

Process of a sun salutation

1.) First you put your feet together and bend your knees slightly so you have a a bounce. Place your hands on your thighs by your side. Then inhale and rise your hands above your head.

2.) Next exhale and bring your head towards your knees. Inhale look up and slide your hands forward, stepping back into the plank position.

3.) Then push your weight forward into the upward dog position (seen in position 7) hold that position and take an out breath.

4.) Roll your feet over until flat and fold yourself into downward dog position (seen in position 8) 

5.) After 5 out breaths in downward dog, jump forward, bringing your knees to your chest. Have your feet about a £5 note's length apart.

6.) Finally roll your back up, your head being the last part of your body to be level and repeat.

A sun salutation is a form of yoga which allows you to open up your airways and focus. Stanislavsky often used yoga teachings in his methods and would often warm up with a sun salutation.

Performing a sun salutation has helped me to gain focus and control over my body and breathing. It has also helped me get past the mental block that makes you think you can't remain in a position for a certain amount of time. For example (step 4) where you have to stay in downward dog for 5 breaths can be physically challenging, but the more you practice and the more you stop thinking about not being able to do it, the easier it gets.

Introduction

In this weeks lesson we began by finding neutral, some of the key things i learnt in order to be able to find netrual are:

• Stand with knees slightly bent in order to have a bounce rather than have your knees locked which hinders certain movement

• Have your back straight and shoulders rolled back

• Tilt your head slightly up and look to the horizon

• Imagine a rope is going through your core all the way up out of your head and it is pulling you against gravity, this allows your body to feel slightly lighter and causes your back to be stretched and lengthened

• Chest forward rather than inwards in order to show a confidence and readiness

Finding neutral and taking deep breathes enabled me to feel focused, ready and almost a blank canvas. Developing your alignment opens up your back, your neck and your chest allowing you to be able to breathe properly and fully. When you are able to get oxygen into your lungs and take deep breaths your automatically start to relax and focus. Doing this enables you to feel ready and prepared.

Developing your alignment as an actor is key because you need your body to be free for movement. If your body was uncomfortable or out of alignment you may find it harder to move around, this would hinder your performance as an actor so making sure your body is aligned, comfortable and free is really important.

Finding neutral is also a starting point for an actor. It's the stage where you can stop, forget about your surroundings and become a blank canvas in order to take on your character. If you didn’t have this starting point and went straight from being you into someone else, you would probably find you would lose the sense of who you are and who your character is and it wouldn’t feel like you are in the mind of your character because you haven’t taken the time to ground your self and focus. Therefor having this 'starting point' (finding neutral) is a really basic, important tool.

We warmed up by learning how to do a sundance. I learnt that sundance is a form of yoga and that yoga isn't a strength exercise but a breathing exercise therefor i discovered it was a good way for actors to warm up and use to focus. I also learnt that Stanislavsky was very much influenced by the teachings of yoga and used the sundance as a warm up. 

When we began the sundance i learnt that my upper body strength and flexibility is worse of than i thought however i noticed that as we continued to work our bodies and do the sundance more it became easier for me and i felt more confident. Before i learnt the sundance i was doubting myself and was thinking that perhaps i wouldn't be good at it or would look stupid, it was interesting to see that when i did know how to do it and felt more confident i began to get better at it and actually focused on my breathing, as suppose to what people thought of me. It made me realise how much your mind set can stop you from doing something or in fact hinder what you do, so doing this warm up helped me to see how important it is to be aware of your negative continence.

This then helped me in the next exercise where we learnt about milling. We began moving around the space using more than just how we would normally use our hands and feet so, using the sides of our feet, the back of our hands, elbows, heads and so on. This allowed us to be free in movement. For me at first i was a bit rigid and would construct from my head what moments i would do however as we went on i began to stop listening to my brain and started to listen to my body and its energy. Doing so enabled me to move around in ways i didn't know i could more this was really interesting as in today's society we all conform to this one way of living, the idea that we all have to walk in a certain way using just our feet, when in fact there are so many other parts of our body that could be used. In fact, to me, it felt more natural to mill freely and as a non believer in evolution this made me question wether were once animals before and think about how our bodies may have been.

We then began to interact with others as we milled past them, either making eye contact or sharing a moment of movement.The energy then connected one person to another. This lead us to paring up with someone and interacting with one another. I was pared with Sky and loved how we just completely forgot about the other people in the room or the fact that people were watching us, we were justing living in the moment. I think this was really special as today people are so caught up in where they've got to be or whats happened previously, rushing and never really living in the moment.

I defiantly felt a presence in the room. The energy then connected one person to another as we began interacting. It was fun to share a moment with someone in movement rather than speech and let your body, your energy do the talking. During the lesson Tyler made a comment about how it was weird and interesting to know that you can speak without speaking, i agree with his comment and think its very true as it was kind of weird to feel like you are communicating with someone without speaking at all.