Feelings in Dance 1 - Reflection
This is most likely going to be a theme for me for a while as it is something that I’m unsatisfied with and want to grow into. There is a general knowledge gap here. I struggle to integrate the ideas of what I want to know with any serious answers. It links into yesterdays topic: Feelings in dance.
In reflection on the last project, I was unsatisfied as to how much of a struggle it was to find the emotional content the dancers were trying to express in performing the movement. The ideas were there but there was a gap between the idea and the practice. I have many questions that I need to work out answers to, but as always it comes back to an examination of my own processes and beliefs.
It was strange to me, yet shouldn’t have been that unexpected, that the way to find emotional content of a dance in the project was difficult. I was myself more focused on the form from the beginning than the feeling. Transposing the feeling into the dance at the later stages proved difficult.
So why was this the case? The content of the dances I had explained at various stages in the process. There was a written protocol with the emotional content/keywords to do with each dance that one could reference. I did engage and encourage feeling in the movement, but obviously from the rate of development, not enough. Somehow it was a struggle. I would talk to the dancers about how they felt and the answers I received also avoided the question asked which was either a reluctance to connect or a lack of understanding. eg. “how did you feel while performing… x… dance? or what did it mean to you as you were performing? The answers received were “I liked this moment/such and such step worked well, this was good…” Valid answers yet mostly devoid of emotional content!
Now I will qualify the situation a little. I was working with amateur dancers, but I don’t find this an excuse. We all are humans, no matter our training, with emotions and feelings. In the end I take responsibility as the choreographer for what comes out. We are only as good as each other and that is the reason we continue to strive for growth and development. That we had mountains of. The idea is to focus it better next time!
Capability and a willingness to connect with our emotional sides can sometimes be different, but I’m not too sure this was the case. It was a group of 10 women and group dynamics can be tricky. Yet my feeling was they felt comfortable with each other and connected so the surroundings were not adverse. At one stage we talked about having an awareness for the others with which one dances and from the moment I placed the focus on this area, it came straight away and was amazing!
Sometimes there may be a lack of willingness to be vulnerable in front of ones peers, yet it also didn’t really strike me as an issue. Though that is only from my perspective that I can judge it. We have known each other for over one year, some for 3 years and more. Generally, I receive well thought out feedback when I ask questions or leave space for the dancers to reflect on their experience of an idea or exercise that we have just performed.
So I am drawn back to the disconnect between the knowledge of emotion and how to put them into dance in a meaningful way — to at the same time create a stronger connection with oneself.
There was a wide range of feelings that I was asking for throughout the piece.
So what do we need to connect with the emotion of dance?
Here are my first thoughts as to a checklist/steps (it needs development):
Connection with oneself
Willingness to be open and vulnerable
Able to tap into/connect to desired feeling through pictures, memories or personal experience
Allowing the feeling to be embodied — letting go and surrendering to the feeling/emotion
An understanding of what a feeling is and how it affects movement
Being able to transpose the concept/idea/theory into actual movement/performance