Week 9
Year 1
Day 1
Objective:
Level 1 will have a movement assessment next week. Today's work in class is to work with 'listening to the body', and developing a working process for developing abstract movement out of an intention
Areas of Bess:
Body- fundamental
Effort - effort elements
Space -attention to spatial considerations
LMA principles:
Body level listening with attention
Integration of body, effort, shape and connecting to motivation
Class activity:
-Developing a working process for creating movement material
-Practicing body listening
-Focus on character- movement stemming from impulse- go back into the physicalization - work to create a repeatable sequence
Teaching thoughts:
Focusing exercises based on how movement is registered and picked up by different individuals. 'Listen to your body' is the theme here. After doing, take time to notice the small details of how you chose to move. Do a body scan and movement scan.
Some follow the leader, some initiate movement with an impulse- continue the idea of allowing movement to come out of the body. After this type of focus, the students were asked to get back to thinking about their character. Play with exaggerating the quality, the use of body parts, and the attention to effort. Allow the quality to influence what you are doing-play with the extremes and the opposites. Let your body explore. This was a reminder to get out of the head and find the reservoir of possibilities inherent in one's movement.
Day 2
Class activities:
This is a continuation of day one with the addition of a prop. Possibilities of working with a prop include transformation -allowing the prop to act upon the character- exaggerating the way the prop is used
Teaching thoughts:
The creation of abstract movement is becoming a useful way to access the inner life of the character. Abstraction allows the actor to view and experience the essential qualities of what makes this person tick. Asking the actor to perform a scene 'outside of the play' also gives permission to engage in an imaginative exercise that plays with exploring the subtext of the character, some of which may never be totally revealed in a play. Playing with many possibilities, creative play, and imagination before 'locking in' to the reality played out in the script, hopefully, will allow for greater depth and understanding of motive and objective of the character within the play.