Corpse - Body
Corporeal - Of the Body
Corporeal Connections - Connections Between/Through/Of the Body
Dear All,
Another intense session today, with good engagement with practice and even richer engagement with conceptual discussions through the session. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with honest reflection.
We introduced three new concepts today.
1. body-memory
2. play
3. palette of skills
We also explored in greater detail and with greater risk factors, our relationship between gravity, the floor, the spine and our distribution of weight. We worked on our individual experience and understanding of these relationships before moving on to work with a partner's. We filled the gaps created by our partner's body and worked to generate both creative dialogues and tensions. We discussed how vision hinders and reinforces our inhibitions and accepted that we still have a long way to go before we stop thinking through the brain, stop wanting our movement to look good and stop wondering what others are thinking as they watch us. This journey must become an individual and to some extent an internal journey. There is no place for judgment here.
Questions for this week:
1. What is your personal understanding of the concepts of body-memory, play and palette? Feel free to do some research and find some quotes to support your view/s.
2. What are our bodily inhibitions we collectively discovered in today's session? Are these inhibitions in our minds or lodged in our bodies? How can we train our brains to stop thinking?
3. What is the importance of technique in the initial part of the session? How did it support/allow the 'play' sessions to become productive?
4. Identify two bad habits of your own and think of ways to overcome them in the weeks to come.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Royona
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Tuesday 22nd September - Ground Zero
Dear All,
Thank you for a promising start to the module. We were struck by your discipline, focus and commitment to the work today and want to commend you on your practical and intellectual participation in this very first session of the module. We also very much appreciated your comments and contributions throughout the session at appropriate times. Keep these coming and voice your experiences and thoughts to maximise on the work we are doing.
We covered basic but vital grounds today. We retuned our presence and neutrality for the purpose of this module and emphasised that this is a position full of potential, ready to tackle any impulse thrown at the body. But more importantly that this neutrality in this genre of work is designed to allow bodies to be prepared for other bodies and their weight.
We learnt the importance of befriending gravity to work with it.
We then tackled the awkward taboos surrounding touch and bodily contact by demonstrating how bodies can be read and communicated with through touch. By taking away your vision, we heightened your physical senses through touch.
We also challenged the notion of 'dance' and demonstrated the vast kinds of movement patterns that fall into this category.
So, our questions for you this week are:
1. What did you expect from the first session before you walked in this morning and what did you end up acquiring/achieving by the end of the session? Were there any differences between your expectations and your achievements?
2. What did you learn about the body and its own intelligence which is undermined by society who tend to favour the brain as the main centre of intelligence?
3. What are the challenges you feel you will need to meet in this module as the weeks get harder?
4. If you were to sum up the session in three words, what would they be?
Looking forward your responses. If any of you have questions you would like to ask of each other, please put them down in your comments to invite others to respond to them.
See you next week!
Royona & Paul
Thank you for a promising start to the module. We were struck by your discipline, focus and commitment to the work today and want to commend you on your practical and intellectual participation in this very first session of the module. We also very much appreciated your comments and contributions throughout the session at appropriate times. Keep these coming and voice your experiences and thoughts to maximise on the work we are doing.
We covered basic but vital grounds today. We retuned our presence and neutrality for the purpose of this module and emphasised that this is a position full of potential, ready to tackle any impulse thrown at the body. But more importantly that this neutrality in this genre of work is designed to allow bodies to be prepared for other bodies and their weight.
We learnt the importance of befriending gravity to work with it.
We then tackled the awkward taboos surrounding touch and bodily contact by demonstrating how bodies can be read and communicated with through touch. By taking away your vision, we heightened your physical senses through touch.
We also challenged the notion of 'dance' and demonstrated the vast kinds of movement patterns that fall into this category.
So, our questions for you this week are:
1. What did you expect from the first session before you walked in this morning and what did you end up acquiring/achieving by the end of the session? Were there any differences between your expectations and your achievements?
2. What did you learn about the body and its own intelligence which is undermined by society who tend to favour the brain as the main centre of intelligence?
3. What are the challenges you feel you will need to meet in this module as the weeks get harder?
4. If you were to sum up the session in three words, what would they be?
Looking forward your responses. If any of you have questions you would like to ask of each other, please put them down in your comments to invite others to respond to them.
See you next week!
Royona & Paul
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Welcome to Process & Performance 200910
A warm welcome to all 2nd Year Drama & Performance students at the University of Wolverhampton taking Process & Performance.
Consider this blog as our online home. If it doesn't yet feel like one, it will soon become one! This blog has been set up as an intellectual, reflective and critical resource and tool as we collectively undertake our creative journey through the next twelve months. It will function in a way, where we will initiate dialogue through posts and you will respond to them via your posts.
This module will be about discovering who we are and how we reflect this in our movement on a daily and an extra daily basis.The keywords you may want to start researching into as this module progresses are:
body
identity
sexuality
culture
dance-theatre
physical theatre
We hope to see you using this blog in a constructive and useful manner and on a regular basis. Looking forward to the start of a mammoth journey.
Royona & Paul B
Consider this blog as our online home. If it doesn't yet feel like one, it will soon become one! This blog has been set up as an intellectual, reflective and critical resource and tool as we collectively undertake our creative journey through the next twelve months. It will function in a way, where we will initiate dialogue through posts and you will respond to them via your posts.
This module will be about discovering who we are and how we reflect this in our movement on a daily and an extra daily basis.The keywords you may want to start researching into as this module progresses are:
body
identity
sexuality
culture
dance-theatre
physical theatre
We hope to see you using this blog in a constructive and useful manner and on a regular basis. Looking forward to the start of a mammoth journey.
Royona & Paul B
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