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I believe our final piece achieved the evoking atmosphere we wanted and set a mood of unease. We had various artistic aspects which really benefited our piece such as the music,  working with the flowers and flour and the cold wash of dim lighting. I believe it was compelling and interpretive. Watching it back, there are parts that our ensemble movement should have been more refined and in unison. Some of our movements, mine especially, should have been more controlled. It would have improved our performance a great deal if we had done a meditative exercise prior to the performance.

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Artaud, A., 1938. Theatre and it’s Double. Translated from French by V., Corti. Published by Alma Books LTD, Surrey, UK. (Page 5)

Callery, D (2001) Through the Body. New York: Routledge.

Carlmelegari.com (2019) Carl Melegari painter [Online] Available at:http://www.carlmelegari.co.uk/ [Accessed 10.04.2019}

Contemporary-Dance.org (2019) Buthoh [Online] Available at: https://www.contemporary-dance.org/butoh.html [Accessed 10.05.2019]

Complicite.com (2019) Complicite [Online] Available at:http://www.complicite.org/ [Accessed 06.05.2019]

DV8.co.uk (2019) DV8 Physical Theatre [Online] Available at:https://www.dv8.co.uk/ [Accessed 06.05.2019]

Fraleigh, S. H (1999) Dancing into Darkness. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Press.

Franticassembly.com (2016) Frantic Assembly [Online] Available at:https://www.franticassembly.co.uk/ [Accessed 06.05.2019}

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Initially, we were lifting our heads which were pushed down by another person. This become too messy and so we evolved the arm movements.

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Experimenting with screams. We decided that we just are using breath, pained faces at points and percussion with our bodies.

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We wanted to take Butoh's use of materials on stage. We wanted something we could incorporate into the piece whilst it being odd and unnerving. Instead of paint, we decided to use talcum powder or flour. This left a really interesting mark whenever we moved and really added to the mood of the piece. To define our 'water', we have created a circle of flowers (signifying the story) which we are going to incorporate into the piece to denote ending and death.

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Taking inspiration from Complicite's 'Shoal of Fish', we created a tight ensemble and choreographed a controlled, unified movement which I then break out of when seeing 'the water'. They then shoal around me and stop me from being able to see my reflection.

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The next aspect of the myth we took was 'Echo'. We experimented with echoing and elongating the movements Tisa made. This was based on an exercise we did called 'Wow that's really good! Is there more?' in which one person does a movement and the other copies, they then ask the question and the movement becomes exaggerated. As this scene developed, we improvised the first, slower movements and as the scene progresses we choreographed fast movements so we were all doing the same repeating gesture.

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We began using the exercise 'walking out of water'. Firstly we did a meditation exercise to put us in an 'altered state' . This piece is powerful as it is so still but due to our intent stares, the audience is captivated. Watching this back, we look as though we are being led and drawn to something, this can be linked to our story as Narcissus is drawn to his reflection.

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Strangefish depicts a dark and lonely series of events, displaying the longing for intimacy and closeness and cleverly contaminates it with odd conflict. With a lack of dialect throughout, the party scene with Nigel becomes the most poignant and memorable for me. It is humorous as he is babbling and desperate to have contact with anyone but everyone is desperate to get away from him. This builds and layers until everyone is running and jumping and refusing to be near him. This comedic scene quickly transforms and evokes a strong feeling of discomfort in the audience. We have taken inspiration from this scene and merged with the use of Pathways in a scene in which Ren is trying to look at us to find her reflection and we abruptly turn away from her while walking in a direct manner.
There are a lot of moments in this piece, when the performers bodies and how they move together, remind me of water. This also reminds me of the 'Round, By, Through' exercise (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC9uJrY9Bh8) which we played with when creating one of the scenes in which we are pushing around each other to get to the 'water'.

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We have been researching different kinds of stimulus'. Although we have lots of ideas and themes we would be interested in experimenting with. We have decided that using a story as a guideline to our devising process and in terms of symbolism will be useful whilst still being interpretive to an audience.
We have decided to use the story of Narcissus:  https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Narcissus/narcissus.html
Different parts of the story can be isolated and used as scene stimulus' to devise from.

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We like the idea of using juxtaposing instrumentals and maybe only one piece of music so the use of our voices is more powerful. Artaud used mainly grunts, breath, screams and unpleasant noises. Butoh uses strange and contrasting music to create a feeling of unease. We would like our piece to be interpretive but we also want it to be grotesque, strange and slightly intimidating. I have researched ugly instrumentals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3GheRRfoVs Igorr, Unpleasant Sonata. This piece of music is extremely piercing.

We began using a piece of music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaVEe4UMGww but due to the piece being short, it always ends before the piece. Also, certain parts of the music highlight scenes that we don't want to be associated with the emotion the music evokes.

Towards the end of our process, we decided to experiment with cave echos and dripping. This links back to the story and sets a eerie atmosphere, similar to both Butoh and Artaud but in our own alteration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2AAR9jRc7I

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I like the idea of using metaphors on stage. Or using materials for example, something heavy signifying something holding us down, a plastic bag could be signifying feeling suffocated, or a slippery floor could signify a feeling of no control. The red circle could signify something that no one wants to address but the power of its meaning is manipulating the ‘cult’.

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SANKAI JUKU  Official movie “MEGURI” 山海塾  - Butoh Dance 舞踏 -

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Coming together as a group we discovered a shared interest in grotesque, distorted and abstract physical theatre.

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Coming together as a group we discovered a shared interest in grotesque, distorted and abstract physical theatre.

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We initially had a discussion on what we would all be interested in our piece being about, suggestions came such as grief, loss, pain, struggle. After watching some Butohvian work, we recognised it to be cult-like and liked the idea that the body was used as vessel. This made me think of an artist I have previously studied- Carl Melegari.

His work reminds me of lost souls. Figures who can’t find purpose and have given up doing so. The paintings in which there are groups of figures are almost cult-like. A group formed of empty-vesseled humans, each other the only things they have left. The lone figures look lonely and as if they are fading away and the close-up paintings show some form of a pained expression. We also discussed the idea of using paint or chalk or material that we could incorporate into our performance as Butoh technique does in many performances and Melegari’s work reminded me of this.

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A contemporary, Japanese avant-garde dance and art form which is used internationally as a training and technique. Because it is such an internationally known practice, there are many hybrid versions. It was originally formed by  Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, and is accessible to all for training the trained and untrained body. The idea behind the Butoh technique is to uncover a dance that already naturally exists and by using stillness and reduction of personal traits to extract inner movement. It provides methods to uncover the individual’s true self and unconscious mind. The use of stillness and slow motion is often viewed as a hyper-presence and trance that goes in and out of states that we rarely explore without the use of practices such as Butoh. Dancers practising Butoh often report of being ‘other’ than themselves due to this transformation and dance/move as something other than themselves.
“Their work has been described as the search for a representation of the body that would be free of cultural references and open to all metamorphosis. This presupposes the existence of a natural state of humanity (as opposed to culturally determined) that could be reached and expressed with movement and that would lead to a wide variety of aesthetic results.” (Contemporary-Dance.org, 2019)

These techniques aim to transform and manifest bodies into other materials, for example a tree and its seasons. I find this incredible to watch and hear of other people’s interpretations of pieces: some might see a woman going through her life rather of a tree through its seasons. Another example might be a person manifesting a melting ice cube, however many people may view a person who is grieving. A piece of art like this is so personally interpretive to the viewer as no narrative, speech or facial expression (in some) is given, just a physical movement.

We did an exercise called the Spine Roll, in which we slowly, vertebrate by vertebrate, lowered ourselves onto the floor to a laying position. On our back we breathed into our heads, then to our shoulders, our arms, hands and fingers, into our chest, hips, bum, lefts, feet and toes. And as we do this, we relax our whole body and we feel ourselves on a comfortable beach, sinking into the sand with every breath. When we slowly got up, we were told to focus on something. I looked at a bit of black curtain. We then had to focus on our peripheral vision at the furthest things we could see, whilst still looking at the original place. And then finally we were to look at everything at the same time. This exercise/technique is called ‘actors glass eye’. For me my vision was tinted with white and although I could see everything, paired with my relaxed body, I felt like my whole body was a blank slate which was peaceful, and my body felt like a vessel rather than something I had full control over.

We then did an exercise in which we walked toward the audience, slowly, as it we were walking out of the sea (not acting this but imagining coming out of the sea). When I did this, I felt like I could feel when the ‘water’ wasn’t on my skin anymore as my skin felt cold as if the cold air was hitting my wet skin. I felt this exercise to be very spiritual however controlled. Personally, I feel like my body works best as a performer in this state.

Watching it back, there was a narrative although maybe not to a a passer-by, they would just look like they were zombies or sleep walking. They looked like they were in a trance. It was so organic to watch, everything was so natural and stripped-down. We were able to view everyone’s real expressions and it was quite beautiful and moving. It was so rich and filled with so many stories but at the same time completely empty and blank. Their stories changed as they moved, some of them looked like children. It was as if everything they have learnt to be adults, they lost and they returned to their natural state, untouched by society, culture or responsibility.

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"For theatre, just as for culture, the problem remains to designate and direst shadows. And theatre, not confined to any fixed language or form, destroys false shadows because of this and prepares the way for another shadowed birth, uniting the true spectacle of life around it" (Artaud, 2013)

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Artaud enjoyed the juxtaposition, connotations and violence of images and wanted to display a similar impact on stage: Artaud rejected traditional theatre practices such as Stanislavski and naturalistic theatre which mirrored everyday life and instead suggested that civilisation and society had made human kind into repressed and disgusting beings and our culture masked our true behaviour. He taught that within his theatre, true human, instinctual behaviour would be shown and “like the plague, theatre is a powerful appeal through illustration to those powers which return the mind to the origins of its inner struggles" (Artaud, 2013), therefore the Theatre of Cruelty aimed to make the audience realise their inmost fears and worst nightmares in order to confront their fears and over come them.
·         The use of sounds like grunting, cries and screams were more important that the use of texts. This was important as it was meant to evoke the emotion in the viewer in order for them to be truly disturbed and dominated by the performance.

·         The use of strong symbolic gestures (inspired by Balinese dance).

·         The use of sick, shocking and cruel portrayals. This was in order to show the 'truth' of the human subconscious mind and meant that the actors had to be honest and  cruel to themselves, their fellow actors and the audience to create a true sense of emotion.
Artaud's work makes me feel inspired to create theatre and evoke strong emotions within my audience.

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When I think of Physical Theatre, I automatically think of true expression. Theatre has become a mind numbing mirror of what we believe life to be, what society tells us to believe life to be. This is all well and good, entertaining and often thought-provoking, but it does not make me feel on edge or a strong wave of feeling. When I think of Physical Theatre I think of interpretive and authentic, raw and sometimes primal but most of all, genuine to the performer.