It was nice to have tutorial with Simon.
Things seem to have a way out from only in my brain and computer.
I am going to print the images out and start mapping them, see if it’s going to be the route I planned in brain. I know it will definitely change, but it’s still exciting that to discover how these will be changing by visualizing them.
Rough thoughts moving forward:
Took the fiction as a staring point. Taking the vibe of the book, and looking for more female characters from both other fictions and different plays, also looking at some poems and lines which suit the characters and the atmosphere that I adapt from “Grey Souls”. Visualize that by finding paintings and images, and start mapping them on wall to create another kind of mixture story for my performance. Keep it even more simple in a sentence will be:
“The performance will gather many characters from different sources who are all having a grey soul in their own story. ”
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Have to Start。
GREY SOULS (Les âmes grises)
Philippe Claudel (French 1962-)
This is ostensibly a detective story, about a crime that is committed in 1917, and solved 20 years later. The location is a small town in Northern France, near V., in the dead of the freezing winter. The war is still being fought in the trenches, within sight and sound of the town, but the men of the town have been spared the slaughter because they are needed in the local factory. One morning a beautiful ten year old girl, one of the three daughters of the innkeeper, is found strangled and dumped in the canal. Suspicion falls on two deserters who are picked up near the town. Their interrogation and sentencing is brutal and swift. Twenty years later, the narrator, a local policeman, puts together what actually happened. On the night the deserters were arrested and interrogated, he was sitting by the side of his dying wife. He believes that justice was not done and wants to set the record straight. But the death of the child was not the only crime committed in the town during those weeks. More than one record has to be set straight. Beautiful, like a fairy story almost, frozen in time, this novel has a hypnotic quality.
Want to use this story as the inspiration and base of my final work.
These two words are very attractive to me, either to separate them or put together. They are both containing sadness and a massive power of being a simple noun. Look through the book, I found the story was not only very gloomy just as the title of the fiction, but also visualized, which I saw there was like a painting on a vast canvas with different tonal grey, and all the characters were in the painting, still and quiet. There was snow all over the painting, and made the colours of characters became thousands of dots on them, just like Suerat’s painting. Beyond the painting there was a shadow as the shape of a top hat cover the painting, changing its brightness with the plot… The all locked in the frame, in the freezing winter.
Grey, the colour, evokes me of London. Varies tones of grey, some is beautiful but some is like taking all the happiness I have got. It is not black or white, but always neat and soft, which you will never notice you are in it.
Souls give me the idea of characters from plays or fictions directly, especially the ones who die, disappear or exist in a spiritual way. Loneliness extremely silent, light, and very feminine.
From here, I am going to have a journey in my own winter wonderland.
Please do tell me if any thing, story, or person has the similar quality of what I just described.
Continuing ......
Philippe Claudel (French 1962-)
This is ostensibly a detective story, about a crime that is committed in 1917, and solved 20 years later. The location is a small town in Northern France, near V., in the dead of the freezing winter. The war is still being fought in the trenches, within sight and sound of the town, but the men of the town have been spared the slaughter because they are needed in the local factory. One morning a beautiful ten year old girl, one of the three daughters of the innkeeper, is found strangled and dumped in the canal. Suspicion falls on two deserters who are picked up near the town. Their interrogation and sentencing is brutal and swift. Twenty years later, the narrator, a local policeman, puts together what actually happened. On the night the deserters were arrested and interrogated, he was sitting by the side of his dying wife. He believes that justice was not done and wants to set the record straight. But the death of the child was not the only crime committed in the town during those weeks. More than one record has to be set straight. Beautiful, like a fairy story almost, frozen in time, this novel has a hypnotic quality.
Want to use this story as the inspiration and base of my final work.
These two words are very attractive to me, either to separate them or put together. They are both containing sadness and a massive power of being a simple noun. Look through the book, I found the story was not only very gloomy just as the title of the fiction, but also visualized, which I saw there was like a painting on a vast canvas with different tonal grey, and all the characters were in the painting, still and quiet. There was snow all over the painting, and made the colours of characters became thousands of dots on them, just like Suerat’s painting. Beyond the painting there was a shadow as the shape of a top hat cover the painting, changing its brightness with the plot… The all locked in the frame, in the freezing winter.
Grey, the colour, evokes me of London. Varies tones of grey, some is beautiful but some is like taking all the happiness I have got. It is not black or white, but always neat and soft, which you will never notice you are in it.
Souls give me the idea of characters from plays or fictions directly, especially the ones who die, disappear or exist in a spiritual way. Loneliness extremely silent, light, and very feminine.
From here, I am going to have a journey in my own winter wonderland.
Please do tell me if any thing, story, or person has the similar quality of what I just described.
Continuing ......
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Stephen Petronio Company。
The strength came through dancers were surprisingly powerful and tense.
Just like the choreographer spoke loud and hard.
Repertory:
Lareigne (1995)
Bud Suite (2006)
Bloom (2006)
From these repertories, I could see the choreographer has some special preferences of compositions. Laregne is full of power, from music to movement. Frankly, I would say it was a bit like a normal dance piece, though could see how amazing the dancers are well trained both in body build and techniques. And I don’t know the meaning of the title of the repertory, maybe that is the reason that I don’t really get what is this all about. The Bud Suite was more interesting to me, still quite strong movements and compositions which started from two male dancers. I saw how relationship goes between lovers through the entire piece. Simple but expressive start, brought me into the next level apart from the pure joy of the beginning of love by four female dancers. Then, came to song with lyrics, which sang about “love affairs”, the compositions emphasized on the feelings of relationships’ affairs: dilemma, struggle, decisions… The composition became messier and messier. For me, the dancers from beginning had roles or characters, but they all turned to describe an abstract status in mind when we are facing different situations in relationships. The late one of the performance was Bloom. It had a live choir, which collaborated with South Bank Centre and created with pupils and teachers from Forest Hill and Sydenham Schools from South London. But the music, compared to the dance, was less interesting to me. In this piece, somehow, I did see a kind of “bloom”, and the atmosphere built up quite nice as well.
Two things I found during the performance or I would say from this company. One is the body texture of the dancers are very much different from the dancers in UK or Europe, according to the performance I have seen. But it did remind me some texture of some dancers in Taiwan, especially from my university. So I am wondering is the different techniques training make that much gap? Or just the way that the choreographer used to affect more than the trainings? I will discover this part more afterwards. Another thing is the costumes from all repertories were very stylish and quite strong and ambitious. And they were all from different designers, so obviously, it was a strong idea from the choreographer. They brought some elements and details of fashion into costumes. For me the Bloom is the best combination in it. Very beautiful shapes and interesting cutting not only just showed of the garment but pretty much related to the theme “bloom”. Also the use of colours was very understated and low-pitched, but represented perfectly without bothering and interrupting the entire piece.
I would not say the performance was great, but I quite enjoyed it and learnt and discovered many things from that. Many inspirations not only from choreographer and also the costumes, and very much from those dancers who have amazing bodies and skills at the same time.
Just like the choreographer spoke loud and hard.
Repertory:
Lareigne (1995)
Bud Suite (2006)
Bloom (2006)
From these repertories, I could see the choreographer has some special preferences of compositions. Laregne is full of power, from music to movement. Frankly, I would say it was a bit like a normal dance piece, though could see how amazing the dancers are well trained both in body build and techniques. And I don’t know the meaning of the title of the repertory, maybe that is the reason that I don’t really get what is this all about. The Bud Suite was more interesting to me, still quite strong movements and compositions which started from two male dancers. I saw how relationship goes between lovers through the entire piece. Simple but expressive start, brought me into the next level apart from the pure joy of the beginning of love by four female dancers. Then, came to song with lyrics, which sang about “love affairs”, the compositions emphasized on the feelings of relationships’ affairs: dilemma, struggle, decisions… The composition became messier and messier. For me, the dancers from beginning had roles or characters, but they all turned to describe an abstract status in mind when we are facing different situations in relationships. The late one of the performance was Bloom. It had a live choir, which collaborated with South Bank Centre and created with pupils and teachers from Forest Hill and Sydenham Schools from South London. But the music, compared to the dance, was less interesting to me. In this piece, somehow, I did see a kind of “bloom”, and the atmosphere built up quite nice as well.
Two things I found during the performance or I would say from this company. One is the body texture of the dancers are very much different from the dancers in UK or Europe, according to the performance I have seen. But it did remind me some texture of some dancers in Taiwan, especially from my university. So I am wondering is the different techniques training make that much gap? Or just the way that the choreographer used to affect more than the trainings? I will discover this part more afterwards. Another thing is the costumes from all repertories were very stylish and quite strong and ambitious. And they were all from different designers, so obviously, it was a strong idea from the choreographer. They brought some elements and details of fashion into costumes. For me the Bloom is the best combination in it. Very beautiful shapes and interesting cutting not only just showed of the garment but pretty much related to the theme “bloom”. Also the use of colours was very understated and low-pitched, but represented perfectly without bothering and interrupting the entire piece.
I would not say the performance was great, but I quite enjoyed it and learnt and discovered many things from that. Many inspirations not only from choreographer and also the costumes, and very much from those dancers who have amazing bodies and skills at the same time.
Friday, October 13, 2006
The Forsythe Company- Three Atmospheric Studies。
How amazing the way Forsythe approaches the political issue through dance.
A world which is violent but mute.
Composition I
It started with a mother speaking out "My son is arrested".
Then, the dancers were dancing. No music, but only the sound of breathing and sometimes dancers hit the floor by hands, which became another music after few minutes. In this part, I felt a very unusual power of the composition of movements and sounds. Every movement was precisely in order, sharp, strong and clean, but looked very messy in visual to give me the sense of battle or war. The sounds helped very much as well, though some of them were cues for the next movement, but it did not push me away from movements.
The dialogues were kind of humorous but black, and also show the sadness and helplessness of a mother who tried very hard to get involved into the situation and made it better, though it was not seemed like the way what she expected. During the conversation of the mother and interpreter there were several interruptions by another dancer’s talking who started to trace the lines across the stage in the middle of the composition. A very strong feeling of alienation which referred to the theory of Bertolt Brecht. From this, the feeling of war came up in Composition I became even more powerful and persuasive adding humanity in. And the plot of Composition II seemed to be clearer.
Composition III
One dancer talked like a presenter or a weatherman. Meanwhile, other dancers appeared with stronger movements than Composition I and the sounds made by the dances, which had been technically enhanced, resounded the din of war. An exaggerated American South accent soldier stared to explain the situation to mother, which was mainly about what happened was in order, that there is no reason for alarm. The layers started building up the atmosphere by every single element used on stage. Finally, the performance ended up at a culmination where the dancers started to lie down on the floor which was like dead bodies in battlefield, the soldier kept talking to mother, and the mother moved strangly, slowly, and no facial experssion but all controlled by the interpreter from Composition II. Lights out.
One of the most interesting and important parts was the sound. It grew and built up steady from Composition I to III. As I mentioned in Composition I nearly silent but only the breathing and few times when dancers hit the floor by hands. Those breathing sounds could be heard frequently in any dance performances, and this was one of using it well without bothering me. Following the second composition, characters began to talk, sounds became voices. And also in this part the use of the sound between characters were nice, especially the logic of the lines between mother and interpreter, of course, the most important interruption speech from the third person on stage. When you almost felt there were two different worlds on stage, one was mother and interpreter and another was the dancer, they suddenly became one conversation. I would not say it was new techniques of using conversation on stage, but it did have effect in this composition. Composition III, the strangest texture of sounds all appeared here through technology. The sounds from the dancers not only mocked perfectly the din of war but also went very well with the movements. The stage, costume, and lightening are very simple, therefore, sounds and movements had been carefully merged together and he tried to made this two elements become one. So the sounds became visible through movements, and the movements turned into acoustic.
Through this piece, I feel Forsythe, who is an American, strongly but tender accusing the war in the Middle East. An artwork (from still pieces to time base media) must have its own viewpoint, no matter how bias it is, as long as we find our best way to explain it. For me, he did, and I would like to say: Well done. He showed the anger but fulfilled with care to human beings, therefore, it was very powerful and the feelings filled all the space in the theatre. I was moved that it left a mark, neither a comma nor a query, but just a genuine mark made me think of war from the very small and private part in my mind, and you will always notice that.
A world which is violent but mute.
Composition I
It started with a mother speaking out "My son is arrested".
Then, the dancers were dancing. No music, but only the sound of breathing and sometimes dancers hit the floor by hands, which became another music after few minutes. In this part, I felt a very unusual power of the composition of movements and sounds. Every movement was precisely in order, sharp, strong and clean, but looked very messy in visual to give me the sense of battle or war. The sounds helped very much as well, though some of them were cues for the next movement, but it did not push me away from movements.
The dialogues were kind of humorous but black, and also show the sadness and helplessness of a mother who tried very hard to get involved into the situation and made it better, though it was not seemed like the way what she expected. During the conversation of the mother and interpreter there were several interruptions by another dancer’s talking who started to trace the lines across the stage in the middle of the composition. A very strong feeling of alienation which referred to the theory of Bertolt Brecht. From this, the feeling of war came up in Composition I became even more powerful and persuasive adding humanity in. And the plot of Composition II seemed to be clearer.
Composition III
One dancer talked like a presenter or a weatherman. Meanwhile, other dancers appeared with stronger movements than Composition I and the sounds made by the dances, which had been technically enhanced, resounded the din of war. An exaggerated American South accent soldier stared to explain the situation to mother, which was mainly about what happened was in order, that there is no reason for alarm. The layers started building up the atmosphere by every single element used on stage. Finally, the performance ended up at a culmination where the dancers started to lie down on the floor which was like dead bodies in battlefield, the soldier kept talking to mother, and the mother moved strangly, slowly, and no facial experssion but all controlled by the interpreter from Composition II. Lights out.
One of the most interesting and important parts was the sound. It grew and built up steady from Composition I to III. As I mentioned in Composition I nearly silent but only the breathing and few times when dancers hit the floor by hands. Those breathing sounds could be heard frequently in any dance performances, and this was one of using it well without bothering me. Following the second composition, characters began to talk, sounds became voices. And also in this part the use of the sound between characters were nice, especially the logic of the lines between mother and interpreter, of course, the most important interruption speech from the third person on stage. When you almost felt there were two different worlds on stage, one was mother and interpreter and another was the dancer, they suddenly became one conversation. I would not say it was new techniques of using conversation on stage, but it did have effect in this composition. Composition III, the strangest texture of sounds all appeared here through technology. The sounds from the dancers not only mocked perfectly the din of war but also went very well with the movements. The stage, costume, and lightening are very simple, therefore, sounds and movements had been carefully merged together and he tried to made this two elements become one. So the sounds became visible through movements, and the movements turned into acoustic.
Through this piece, I feel Forsythe, who is an American, strongly but tender accusing the war in the Middle East. An artwork (from still pieces to time base media) must have its own viewpoint, no matter how bias it is, as long as we find our best way to explain it. For me, he did, and I would like to say: Well done. He showed the anger but fulfilled with care to human beings, therefore, it was very powerful and the feelings filled all the space in the theatre. I was moved that it left a mark, neither a comma nor a query, but just a genuine mark made me think of war from the very small and private part in my mind, and you will always notice that.
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