Blog post 3 - Chosen practitioner - Mats Ek


 Chosen practitioner - Mats Ek 


I have chosen to use Mats Ek (see photo 1) as my practitioner because his piece ‘Smoke’ particularly intrigued me.  Previously I had not seen any of Mats Ek’s work and therefore his piece ‘smoke’ was the first work of Ek that I had experienced. The piece instantly intrigued me, grabbing my attention because of the unique choreography. The movements were sometimes bizarre and that’s what impressed me the most, after only watching a few minutes of his work. After seeing this piece I decided to research more into Mats Ek and his choreography. 


Photo 1 (Leslie-Spinks, 2012)


From research into Mats Ek’s creative process and how he creates movement, I have found that he in fact says himself that he works to translate ‘pure emotional reaction’ rather than a conscious intellectual choice’ (The Choreographer Mats Ek, n.d.) within his choreography. Ek’s style is particularly focused on his desire to portray storylines with ‘imaginative interpretations’ (Mats Ek, 2012).  Another main component of his work is his ability to portray emotion through the movements very carefully rather than purely using the movements as a story telling device, to continue to show the plot. After learning this information, it gave me even more reason to use Mats Ek as my chosen choreographer. This is because, as well as wanting to demonstrate to the audience the “story line” of my piece, I also truly want to be able to illustrate the emotions and feelings the main character is feeling throughout the events of their life. Ek is able to do this so cleverly by using such abstract and bold movements within his pieces that almost, make the audience feel uncomfortable, putting them in the shoes of the character and creating empathy with their feelings. As stated in Mats Ek: Expression & Fluidity - The Ballet Bag, 2016,  Ek’s work is like “Marmite” which relates back to what I previously said about audiences perhaps feeling overwhelmed or shocked by some of the movements the dances demonstrate (Mats Ek: Expression & Fluidity - The Ballet Bag, 2016).


Photo 2 - "Apartment" - another famous piece by Mats Ek I discuss in a letter blog post (Yusoupov, n.d.)


Musicality is another part of Ek’s style that is important. It's important to notice how he “hears his music in a very peculiar way”.  (Mats Ek: Expression & Fluidity - The Ballet Bag, 2016). Playing with the music enables him to be able to continue to ‘play’ with the audience’s emotions by “building up” certain moments in the piece, only to then “break them dramatically" (Mats Ek: Expression & Fluidity - The Ballet Bag, 2016).

Mats Ek is able to almost go against what as an audience we think we want to see and give us something completely different.  Sometimes this could be seen as “ugly” (Mats Ek: Expression & Fluidity - The Ballet Bag, 2016). However, seeing past this, one can begin to appreciate the beauty of his work. I will now be able to use this research to help guide me through my choreographic process. I am going to keep in mind the ‘bizarre’ and sometimes ‘strange’ movements of Mats Ek and use movements with the same quality within my piece to portray my child character in WWII. For example, in the first section of my piece, I do this bizarre movement where I bring my legs and arms up at the same time on a plié which I feel represents the child's great struggle within this beginning section to get through day-to-day life of being mistreated (see video 1). It almost like they have to toil against the challenges of everyday life and this is demonstrated through the struggle of the movement. 


Video 1





Bibliography 

LESLIE-SPINKS, L.
Mats Ek
(Leslie-Spinks, 2012)
Leslie-Spinks, L., 2012. Mats Ek. [image] Available at: <https://danceconsortium.com/features/choreographer/mats-ek/> [Accessed 17 October 2020].

MATS EK
(Mats Ek, 2012)
Dance Consortium. 2012. Mats Ek. [online] Available at: <https://danceconsortium.com/features/choreographer/mats-ek/ >[Accessed 23 November 2020].

MATS EK: EXPRESSION & FLUIDITY - THE BALLET BAG 
(Mats Ek: Expression & Fluidity - The Ballet Bag, 2016)
The Ballet Bag. 2016. Mats Ek: Expression & Fluidity - The Ballet Bag. [online] Available at: <http://www.theballetbag.com/2012/07/13/mats-ek-biography/> [Accessed 12 January 2021].

THE CHOREOGRAPHER MATS EK
(The Choreographer Mats Ek, n.d.)
medici.tv. n.d. The Choreographer Mats Ek. [online] Available at: <https://www.medici.tv/en/documentaries/choreographer-mats-ek/ > [Accessed 17 November 2020].

YUSOUPOV, D.
Diana Vishneva and Denis Savin in Mats Ek's "Apartment"
(Yusoupov, n.d.)
Yusoupov, D., n.d. Diana Vishneva and Denis Savin in Mats Ek's "Apartment". [image] Available at: <https://nofixedpoints.com/goodbye-matsek> [Accessed 17 October 2020].



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