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We used tin foil to transform the atmosphere in an elevator and we worked as a group to do this all around school to take the audience on a journey.

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A tableaux image that shows unity and togetherness.

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Tableaux using the curtain to hide behind.

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By the end of this process we had created a powerful piece that allowed us to move together as a unite and unify as one. At the start of our piece we started off with our marching motif with one of us on stage and gradually we all join in on the marching motif as we then move with purpose and build this motif up into stomping, and then we gradually placed our hands on one another's shoulders and then we gradually added in loud breathes that also gradually built up into shouting whilst throwing our arms aggressively forward until we came to complete silence with our hands above our heads. We then broke out into small groups of contact work until we unravelled in a long line at the back with our arms above our heads, this was our surrendering motif. We gradually one by one fell to the ground and then suddenly we were being dragged around the stage loud and fast to contrast the quite and to portray the idea of a busy protest. To finish off our piece we ended in silence slowly rocking back and forth as a unite.

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Minguito, A., (2023) Demonstration of the no to the war in Iraq in Madrid. [ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&insightstoke

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Demonstration of the no to the war in Iraq in Madrid, February 2003. This is one of the images we used as inspiration during creating material, we used this powerful imagery of surrendering to create a shocking atmosphere for the audience.

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How does Jasmin Vardimon’s ideas with props influence and support her choreographic approach and how this has inspired me?

Jasmin Vardimon is one of the biggest names in contemporary dance and is constantly pushing boundaries within contemporary dance, whether it’s pushing what dancers are able to do or her creative ideas with set and props and how she can transform a blank stage setting. Jasmin Vardimon has always inspired me; ‘Pinko’ was one of the first contemporary dance performances I have watched live and since then I’ve always been captivated by her work as a dancer and an audience member. Since watching her work online and in theatres, I have been inspired by the storytelling within her work and how her ideas intertwine together. One of my favourite things about Vardimon’s work is how each piece has a further meaning where she links it to social challenges that are currently relevant and challenging in the world today, making her work relatable for the audience.

When the task came to write about a key figure on contemporary dance, I instantly knew who I was going to focus on. I have always been really fascinated by Jasmin Vardaman’s way of working with props and how the props influence/support the meaning of her work.  As an audience member watching Vardimons work, something that stands out in her work is the strong narrative written story line for the audience to follow her work as she takes you along a journey, which allows almost all her work and meaning to have a clear purpose. Another aspect of her work that inspires me is how she can completely transform the stage with set and props and how this then changes the atmosphere. A lot of her work focuses on a classic story such as medusa that she re-tells, for an audience member this is exciting to watch as we don’t know how she will interpret the story line, her work is also easy for an audience member to follow along and her set changes make it visually engaging to watch.

Jasmin Vardimon has been creating work for over twenty years, where she has been an Associate Artist since 2006 at Sadler’s Wells theatre, as well as Associate Artist at The Place and at Yorkshire Dance, alongside this she founded her company in 1998 and has been creating ground-breaking work ever since. Vardimon grew up in a Kibbutz in central Israel where she started dancing at Kibbutz dance company, where she was a member for five years before moving to London where she founded her company. During her time growing up in Israel in the Kibbutz, she was very influenced by human behaviour as she grew up in children’s houses where she had to work with children. Later, she joined military service at 18 where she did this as a sociological interviewer, she became influenced in how people tell their life stories. Jasmin Vardimon’s many works include a narrative storyline that retell classic stories that she brings the audience along a journey and uses props to create and change her atmospheres during her works. Her works include, Alice (2022), Medusa (2018), Pinocchio (2016), Yesterday (2008), park (2005, re-worked in 2014), 7734 (2010), Justitia (2007), Freedom (2012), and Maze (2015). Vardimon often communicates a fascinating yet dark storytelling during her work that captures the audience’s attention. Her way of retelling classic stories such as medusa and Pinocchio are so clever, and this is something I really admire in her work. Vardimon’s physical dance style challenges her dances and pushes them to the limit and pushes the physical ability of what her dancers can do, whilst also pushing their physical theatre skills and work with various props and set designs. When Vardimon looks for new dancers in open auditions the dancers she is normally looking for are multi-talented dancers that are versatile and can express through different ways such as able to deliver text, act, different dance styles, and preform with strong emotion.

Vardimon views dance as its own form of expression and communication, for example it can shine new light on subject matters, stimulate emotions, raise awareness and provoke thoughts. Through her work she is interested in raising questions, increasing awareness and provoking thoughts rather than giving the audience answers and reaching a finale conclusion. Something that draws me into Jasmin Vardaman’s work as an audience member is how she works with present social concerns such as pollution, politics, sexism and so on, this is important to her because she feels that ‘Art has the power to communicate different levels of understanding.’ (Glenthorne Dance, 2021).

By working with social concerns as a main area in her work she can really relate to present situations and people can even learn more about situations from watching her work. This is something I find powerful in her work; everything has such a significant meaning. I think that’s why her work is so popular because people can relate to it. Another element that inspires her creative work is personal experiences. For example, she visited the concentration camps as a teenager and visited her grandfather’s grave there, this was a very strong experience that stuck with her when she grew up. It took Vardimon time to process this experience and to eventually develop it into artwork but later on in life this would be a huge influence for her piece 7734. (Jasmin Vardimon, 2020).

She is also hugely influenced by observing society when creating her work. This is something I love about her creative process because she actively gets information from our current world from just watching. Observing society is also how she created one of her early works, Park. As she often works with big social concerns this links in well with our work during unit 2 on the protest project. We used breath and voice as a way of portraying unity and a voice for when people can’t be heard. This is something that can be seen throughout all her work, she spoke about this during an interview about her work Medusa,’ We used the use of breath in medusa, to sink with each other in morning class, to create unified community and organism that has its own rhythm and timing not related to the music.’ (Jasmin Vardimon, 2019)

This is also something Vardimon used during her companies prep for shows and in training, she uses a lot of breath so that the dancers acknowledge each other and to try and unify as one. This is something I really kept in mind during working on our protest project and that the more we would practice breathe work together the more in sink we would become as a whole and this was vital during our work on protest project. Vardimon has also been influenced by human behaviour, she grew up in Kibbutz and later on in life joined military service at 18, where she did this as a sociological interviewer, she became influenced in how people tell their life stories. When creating her work, she likes to think of the props as the dance’s partners, which could open more movement opportunities when you think of the props in this way. Vardimon’s use of props supports her choreographic approach by linking lots of different ideas, such as medusa. In this piece Vardimon looked into the gendered historical significance of the classic tale Medusa. During this work Vardimon explored, the myth, the symbolism and the idea of reflection whilst also being inspired by marine life which is where the octopus like movements stimulated from. She also took inspiration from the current social concern of pollution to support the idea of marine life she portrayed this idea of the ocean and sea life throughout her piece, to link this she used a lot of trash during this piece. This is something I find so incredible in her work, how everything has a meaning and is somehow linked together, this is something I hope to really draw upon during my creative work.

Vardimons work has influenced the dance world with her creative ideas with setting props and her ability to transform her stage settings. Her physical dance style pushes the ability of dancers and what they can do as-well as influencing classic stories and retelling them. The affect her work has had on me as a performer and choreographer is catastrophic; she has influenced my creative ideas and way of thinking. Something that strikes me about her work is how whenever I’m an audience member, I am constantly surprised by what I have seen on stage, and I always leave the theatre with so many questions and thoughts. This is something I really hope to take forward during my creative work and bear in mind how the audience can be surprised by what they see on stage. She has challenged what is physically possible for contemporary dancers as she is constantly pushing them to the limit and making her dancers stronger.

REFRENCE LIST:

Glenthorne Dance (2021). Jasmin Vardimon Influences. [Online Video]. 8 July 2021. Available from: https://youtu.be/6VFfzORN5YE. [Accessed: 24 March 2023].

Jasmin Vardimon (2023). Jasmin Vardimon MBE. [ONLINE] Available at: https://jasminvardimon.com/bio/jasmin-vardimon/. [Accessed 12 April 2023].

Jasmin Vardimon (2020). Jasmin Vardimon Zoom Q&A. [Online Video]. 12 May 2020. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TIsvdgrRZM. [Accessed: 20 April 2023].

Jasmin Vardimon (2019). How does the use of breath influence and initiate movement in Medusa? Available from: https://youtu.be/AYtKEaw1Q6c. [Accessed: 24 March 2023].

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

BBC Four. 2023. Young dancers 2022. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/23KGm4ZK8s5hzBKLR6Dqr4z/jasmin-vardimon. [Accessed 5 April 2023].

Jasmin Vardimon (2023). Anthony Matsena in conversation with Jasmin Vardimon. [Online Video]. 12 May 2020. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPwtkEjjLrw. [Accessed: 30 June 2020].

The Stage. 2023. Jasmin Vardimon: 'I grew up in a kibbutz built by poets. That’s informed my vision for JVHome'. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/jv2s-jasmin-vardimon-i-grew-up-in-a-kibbutz-built-by-poets-thats-informed-my-vision-for-jvhome. [Accessed 5 April 2023].

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During day 6 we worked on using props again and we chose to just explore the big purple cloth. Using this we hid underneath the cloth whilst also engulfing someone who was above the cloth, and then I had an idea that someone could run under the cloth to show that we felt trapped with no way to get our point across but to protest. After watching the footage back it looked quite scary from the audiences perspective and almost uncomfortable to watch.

This worked well but the cloth wasn't sound proof so you could hear us underneath the cloth, and although we were underneath a big piece of material it still looked quite messy at times. Some feedback from Eva was to make each movement bigger as it appears small underneath the piece of material. After watching the footage back we decided that this didn't quite communicate togetherness and a peaceful protest.

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Powerful tableaux image creating a strong wall like force.

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During are 5th day, we worked with props again and we created a tableaux and moments of protest which allowed us to visually show a scene of a protest. I found this creative task really helpful visually and to do this we did it using different props such as a flag, buckets and a piece of cloth. We did this by one person starting of in a static position and everyone else gradually joining in, we did this a few times and created lots of different static positions. During this creative process I suggested that we used the curtain as one of the props and we could hide behind it but also show the parts of us that we want to be seen, such as hands reaching from underneath the curtain, (you can see this image to the right hand side of the page) this looked really effective and led us on to have more ideas with using the big purple cloth as a prop.

Reflecting back on this task, I found it useful to go at a slower pace and take time to create something with meaning. As a class we really created some powerful imagery which really inspired a lot of us. Some feedback I gave myself after this class was to be confident with my own ideas and just give everything a go, during this creative process this is something I am actively trying to work on. Eva also gave the class some general feedback during this class when creating these still images, to not add ourselves until we have an idea and to think of a meaning when you add yourself into the tableaux. She also reminded us that we aren't creating a violent protest and its not some of the class against the other half of the class, its to create something as a unite working together.

During our fifth day we tried another creative process whilst working with our teacher Sharon to create different environments around school whilst using different props. We worked on creating a journey for the audience to follow around the space, for example one group created a space using lots of different ropes on the top floor of the school and then we created a different space in the lift to journey to another location in the school. This experiment with making a pathway for the audience to follow us allowed us to think about how we could translate this to a stage setting and how we can use the space, props and audience in relation to each other. Below is a video of us during our class with Sharon making an atmosphere with props.

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During our second day working and exploring with props we played with the cloth and how it can tie us together and unite us as-well as create a safe place for us almost like a barricade. This safe place was created by a big piece of purple cloth that we hooked up onto the wall and then it draped downwards to the floor, creating space underneath it. We explored why we created a safe place and we spoke about getting the audience involved and dragging them into the safe place that we have created, it was almost like a safe place were we can protest peacefully and speak our minds without outside influences trying to stop us.

Some general feedback we received from our teacher Eva at the end of this class was to give everything a meaning, why that particular prop? why carry it how you are? And she asked us to really think about each move from the audiences perspective and that if we are underneath the big purple piece of material the audience can't see unless we get them to somehow come on stage. I suggested that we could make it audience inclusive and have them start off sitting in the audience and then we could include them in the piece and take them on a journey around the space. This is something we discussed as a class but in the end came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be safe to get the audience involved and on stage.

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Here is a clip from our first session exploring with all the different props in the studio. During this task it was challenging  as it felt as though we had no purpose to what we were doing, but exploring with these props how we can unite as one whilst playing around with different props and material. During this session with exploring props we used materials to tie and link people, tangling people up, lead each other through the entanglement, changing leader, moments of uniting, led by sound, walking like a herd, passionate and gathering and scattering. I had an idea that to link us together we could get entangled by rope or something and then someone in my class started to do this with the tape and we all ended up in a clump entangled together, this led me to think of how in a protest you cant get your point across our you physically can get tangled up with people and pathways can be blocked by police cars or pedestrians for example. During this session our teacher Eva, would call out different words or phrases that could help inspire us in our investigation with these props such as, how can you find a leader? or How can you link together? I found this helpful as it allowed new ideas to spark so we didn't get stuck.

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Protest project, experimenting with props

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In my opinion a costume can definitely make or break a piece. It was vital that we chose something that showed togetherness but also individuality as a protest is full of all different types of people uniting as one. We decided that a colour scheme would unite us so we choose a denim colour scheme to link our costumes together. We didn't want the costume to take away from the piece so we kept it simple. We all wore different shades of denim and grey and black which also allowed individuality to show through the unity.

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What are the sounds in a protest? How do we control what we hear? What are the volumes of the sound we hear? What is the power of silence or sound during a protest?

To have music or not? this could make or break our piece and to decide on one sound as a group would of been very difficult. We decided as a group that sudden silence is extremally powerful and can be very engaging as an audience member, so this is something we really tried to create.

During the end result of our piece, one person started on stage marching with purpose towards downstage, this gradually built up with more and more people joining in until the marching was a rhythm and we were as one, this was a way of us uniting through the rhythm of our feet. Then gradually this travelled towards downstage on the diagonal until the marching turned into stomping and then eventually we included our breath which then built into shouting louder and louder as we threw our arms forward. The gradual build up acted as if you could see this protest getting bigger as more people joined and using our voices to shout elevated our stomping, the breath and voice work allowed a unified rhythm amongst us all to work as one and allowed us to feel truly unified. We contrasted this by suddenly stopping at complete silence, which felt really powerful when we shared our work. This sudden silence created a thought provoking atmosphere for our audience. From this silence we carried on for a while until we built up the sound again by dragging each others body's across the floor and running around the space frantically, this got louder and louder as we picked up the pace. We ended the piece by sinking our breathe at the end which united us as one.

During our creative process we explored using breathe to unite us as well as shouting, but in my opinion silence became the most powerful use of sound during this process because it leaves time for audience interpretation because of the quietness.

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To generate material, this was the hardest part in my opinion as it almost sculpts the purpose of our protest. It took many sessions and ways of exploring how we can visually show the ideas of a protest movement. Our end idea focused a lot on togetherness during a chaotic protest so to do this it was vital during our creative process that we used contact and also unison to bring this idea to life.

During our creative process we discussed how we wanted to include pedestrian like movement to keep the protest as realistic as possible. One action we explored a lot was marching, this is something you will see at most protests. It is a simple movement that can be so powerful. We used this as a starting point for the movement of our piece and used it to gradually bring everyone together on stage.

Another movement that can be seen at protests is people surrendering. We saw a lot of powerful images of people with there hands above there heads, this is such powerful imagery and is completely realistic and pedestrian like. Its important to show the realistic sides of a protest and this shocking imagery allowed us to do just that. We did this about half way through our piece in complete silence, slowly hitting the ground at different points one by one.

Another gesture we worked on was dragging people across the floor, this section of our piece was the most frantic section and showed the realistic side of how a protest can be busy and over whelming. This started off in class by two people exploring dragging each other and then more people joining in which then caught on throughout the class when exploring ideas. The dragging of bodies shows how different people unite and work as a team to help each other.

During working on the movement element of our protest project we were given some useful feedback notes from our teacher Eva who told us that as a class we need take even longer when we were building up the speed and noise of our marching motif at the start of our piece. She told us this because it will build up the suspension more for the audience and because if we are shouting for longer it will have more of an effect when we suddenly go to silence. Eva also said to make it last longer we have to work as a team and listen to each other. She also said during rehearsals that we could get even louder and that we weren't reaching our maximum volume.

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During a protest visually you can come across lots of different props, from bold banners with statements on to tape blocking off sections to the public. A protest can be seen in many different views from people in the protest, to the public viewing the protest and police looking after the safety of a protest, all of these people can view props on a protest seen in a different light, so when we start to create material with the props we need to bare in mind how others will view the props from an audience perspective.

To start this creative journey we started the process by exploring with props. We came into the studio and our teacher Eva had laid out lots of props that could be seen at a protest such as chains, high vis jackets, buckets, tape, flags and a piece of cloth. On our first ever session we just started off by exploring with all the different props and possibilities. This allowed a safe space for everyone to explore the ideas in small groups, we did this for the first four sessions and we worked on developing all the different ideas with the props more and more.

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Initially it was hard. Starting a creative process is a hard process especially when working with new people. Our class was very unsure of what needed to be done, it was definitely a journey. It took many discussions with our teacher Eva, who led us through this project, to realise what we were trying to achieve. Initially I had lots of ideas for a piece inspired by a protect and exploring with props was a great way to be inspired and explore. My first thoughts when I heard 'Protest' was loud sounds, busy chaotic movement, unity as one, chanting and shouting, marching and sighs.

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To navigate my padlet please flow the arrows and sub headings.

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During my padlet for unit 2 I will explore my creative process of the protest project we explored during unit 2. I plan to reflect and document my journey through, movement, props, sound, and costume. I have really enjoyed the creative process and coming together as a class to create work inspired by the movement of a protest.