Blog post 5 - Practitioner study - Mats Ek


Practitioner Study - Mats Ek 


Recently I have been researching into the works of Mats Ek and I have found a strong liking towards his choreography and the movement he choses to use. One of the pieces I found particularly interesting was ‘smoke’ (Smoke by MATS EK, 2009). At the start of the piece I feel the woman is confused and distressed within herself. She touches her face repeatedly and repeats movements a lot which could perhaps suggest overthinking or worrying about certain events (See Video 1). This is also heightened by the fact she is alone and therefore alone with her thoughts. As Bethel Kinswales writes, the women seems,’lonely-seeming, slightly neurotic and paranoid women, perhaps stuck in her house’. (Kinswales, 2015)


Video 1 (Smoke by MATS EK, 2009)


I feel the style of movement Mats Ek has used within the piece could help influence some of my own work because I feel this type of ‘panicky’ gestural movement would complement my stimulus. The children of the War must have been in a constant state of confusion and quite often panic and therefore would have been overthinking a lot of situations. I have used this 'panicky' gestural movement during my first section, where I do a series of fairly rapid movements in succession to represent the fear and panic the child feels (see video 2).  Additionally, the fact she touches her face a lot (See Photo 1) could also perhaps suggest an almost childish and vulnerable side to her and almost reverting back to old childish habits or mannerisms to cope with her feelings. I use this idea of touching my face in the first section where I grab my face and push it up (see video 3). I feel I need to perform the movement more exaggerated so that the audience can clearly see what is happening. 


Photo 1 (Freriks, 2016)



Video 2



Video 3


Mats Ek juxtaposes intricate, strong movements that Sylvie Guillem performs against bizarre and ‘pedestrian’ like movements sometimes even ‘ridiculously squat’ (Kinswales, 2015) (See Photo 2). I use this low 'squat' throughout the piece because I feel the movement is very child-like and portrays my character well (see photos 3 and 4). These opposite style movements create a further sense of confusion however also evokes the idea of the women trying to remain strong within herself yet she still has weaknesses and her emotions can easily embody her. I am going to use this theory in order to help influence my piece because I feel this concept can relate to how an evaauee child may have felt in WW2. They likely wanted to stay mentally strong and not let their worries become obvious but inside they were, no doubt, extremely overwhelmed. There are also many moments within the piece where the camera zooms in on Sylvie Guillem’s face and demonstrates clearly her raw emotion (Smoke by MATS EK, 2009). Obviously this piece was made for film, however, I can still use this idea and perhaps have moments of stillness where I am just using my face or perhaps just using gestural movements touching my face in order to vividly portray the emotions of the character. 



Photo 2 (Smoke by MATS EK, 2009)



Photo 3


Photo 4


Bibliography


FRERIKS, M.
Mats Ek- Smoke
(Freriks, 2016)
Freriks, M., 2016. Mats Ek- Smoke. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwqiUvAue5c> [Accessed 4 February 2021].

Mats Ek
KHLOPOVA, V.
Mats Ek's Goodbye
(Khlopova, 2017)
Khlopova, V., 2017. Mats Ek's Goodbye. [online] Nofixedpoints.com. Available at: <https://nofixedpoints.com/goodbye-matsek  > [Accessed 11 October 2020].

KINSWALES, B.
10/28: Mats Ek’s ‘Smoke’
(Kinswales, 2015)
Kinswales, B., 2015. 10/28: Mats Ek’S ‘Smoke’. [online] dancecrit2015. Available at: <https://dancecrit2015.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/1028-mats-eks-smoke/ >  
[Accessed 6 October 2020].

SMOKE 1995 – MATS EK
(Smoke 1995 – Mats Ek, n.d.)
n.d. Smoke 1995 – Mats Ek. [ebook] pp.1-5. Available at: <http://briannametcalf.weebly.com/uploads/2/9/5/6/29563281/ckb_smoke.pdf >   [Accessed 6 October 2020].

SMOKE (MATS EK) FLASHCARDS BY AMANDA THAI | BRAINSCAPE
(Smoke (Mats Ek) Flashcards by Amanda Thai | Brainscape, n.d.)
Brainscape.com. n.d. Smoke (Mats Ek) Flashcards By Amanda Thai | Brainscape. [online] Available at: <https://www.brainscape.com/flashcards/smoke-mats-ek-4900357/packs/6316228 > [Accessed 13 October 2020].

SMOKE BY MATS EK
(Smoke by MATS EK, 2009)
2009. Smoke By MATS EK. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OApcHKkCXmQ&t=307s > [Accessed 11 October 2020].


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog post 7 - Practitioner study 2

Image
 Practitioner Study 2  The next piece of work I will be evaluating is The Apartment by Mats Ek. This piece is a duet between a man and a woman. The piece's movement style has the similar quirkiness of the first piece I analysed, ‘smoke’. The woman and the man often do very simple movements yet they are quite strange, peculiar and often not “dance” like. For example, there is a moment when the woman hops around the man on the ground (see video 1). This movement is quite animal-like and almost shows a sign of perhaps “neediness” and reverting back to a “clingy” animal-like state within the relationship. However, I think this technique of using “normal” and ordinary movement really benefits the piece because it helps create the sense of normal living and daily life. Additionally, it almost looks like a very dependant relationship as they are using each other a lot throughout the piece (See video 2). They alternate between leaning and moving towards and away from each other and al...
Read more