Blog post 4 - Motif Development/ Creative task

 

Motif development/ creative task 


By this point in my choreographic journey, I have started to experiment with some movement for my piece. I have taken inspiration from the movement style Mats Ek used within his piece ‘smoke’(Smoke by MATS EK, 2009). Mats Ek has used gestural movement on the dancers where he gets them to touch their face towards the beginning of the piece which I speak more in depth about in blog post 5. I have taken inspiration from this and put some of this kind of gestural movement within my choreography (see video 1). During this movement I wanted to convey as sense of confusion and almost distress but mostly trying to force ‘myself’ (the child evacuee) to feel ok and calm about the whole situation.




Video 1 


This whole phrase was, in fact, playing with the idea of the conflicting thoughts within my mind and the stretch and pull of my body demonstrating this. This is based on the fact that many children of war may have been facing things they really didn’t want to do but they know they have to. For example, in their head they know they need to be evacuated but in their heart they probably wanted to stay with their family and stay in the “comfort” of their own home. You can see the idea of an ‘internal struggle’ during video 2.  At the beginning my arm is pulling me in one direction yet my leg is going in the complete opposite direction. You can also see the idea of being taken somewhere unwillingly later on in the clip where my feet travel first and the rest if my body almost gets pulled along; further enhancing the ‘internal struggle’ concept. 


Video 2


I then started choreographing the section of the piece where the child is about to get on the train and is walking towards it and saying goodbye to family (see video 3). At the beginning you see me wave which is a clear gesture to vividly show the goodbyes. Then I continue to travel along the stage going towards the front however I am facing the wrong direction; I am still facing towards the back (see photo 1 for choreography notes). I purposefully incorporated this in order to convey the idea of not wanting to go yet knowing I have to. In addition, I take a few steps back but then a step forward to further imply the reluctancy. I move my foot along the floor and reach my hand out but still not looking towards the front/ the ‘train’. However, the second time I do this, I finally look to the front when I reach out my arm, representing the character finally accepting their ‘fate’. 



Video 3



Photo 1 (choreography notes) 



Bibliography 

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].



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