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The protest project was the first compositional project we did under unit 2, artistically led by Eva Recacha. We had three weeks to develop a piece inspired by the aesthetics of a protest with an assigned prop (ours was a long white cloth).

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Protest project was a group project. As a group  it was our responsibility to navigate the process. Even though we were a little confused on the concept, with the lectures we had on the subject matter (watching Las Tesis and the AIDS protests) we had gathered inspirations and ideas to try out. We had "self-directed" sessions to come up with ideas to develop further and to show them to Eva.

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Since it was 25 different people having ideas, there were huge distinctions between our perceptions of what we should present after the self-directed session.

Working in a creative project with a big group has its challenges: working habits, having the platform that everyone can share their ideas, different group dynamics, etc. In my opinion, we have set a working space for us that worked so we could create. We were feeling really confident before presenting what we had come up with to Eva. However, when some ideas got through and chosen to be developed, some were left behind. That created an air of confusion in us on what should and shouldn't be included in the piece. We were definitely questioning our taste in creating material. At the time, personally I didn't understand why some of our ideas weren't selected to develop.

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Months later, I was watching a video essay on the coherency of a movie and why that movie didn't work . The essayist was explaining that in the movie there were five darling moments contributing both to the cinematography and the story. However, when looking at the whole picture, those 5 "darling moments” weren't working together; they weren't making a coherent whole with the theme (from a YouTube video "How to Fix Saltburn" by Just an Observation,2024, 1:44-8:02). It made perfect sense to me and I understood the importance of "intention" in including material in a composition. As I was reflecting back on the process of the protest project I understood why we have had to kill some of our darlings for the greater picture's sake. We had to stick to one idea, so we could give it the depth it had to offer to us.

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Later on that week, we had a form&sturcture class on coherency and juxtaposition; my reflections have proven beneficial. I understood the importance of respecting the theme and how to bring elements together in an intentional manner. More so, I learnt that each material has its own creative potential and as the creator it's your responsibility as the creator to respect the material for developing and making sure it's in the right place for it to have the space and time to live up to its full potential.

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It was always a mystery to me how choreographers transformed their ideas into dance. I never lacked the ideas nor the inspirations however I didn't understand how to bring together the complex elements of a choreography to make the image come to life.

In the first term, I really struggled to understand the tasks in composition classes. We were being introduced to the "Labanotation". As I never created a full piece on my own before, it was very difficult.

It was only after I had choreological studies and form&sturcture I started seeing the logic behind the tasks. Having choreological studies alongside composition really enhanced my learning and understanding of how to bring a dance to life.

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For me, it was very important that I have developed my own creative approach that works for me. Most of the choreographers I had worked with were people who took an abstract concept and transformed it into movement. However I really struggled with translating my thoughts and feelings into movement in a creation process. I could embody a character or bring artistry into my dance, but it would always be someone else's work. Then I realized my process was reverse: I would get the ideas from the movement rather than movements coming from the ideas. I found out that, in my opinion, movement itself held so much meaning by itself that my only inspiration would come through it.

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The uploaded pictures are from my notes during class; you can see, even though the choreological studies class wasn't about making a piece, I already was thinking about how that particular movement-whether it was the image of it or the feeling generated from it- inspired me to invest in it more.

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One very good example of it occurred when we were doing a task on "landscapes" for composition. In a composition class we were assigned to create a short piece inspired by the word "landscape". We were meant to create a world through the chosen landscape. Normally I would have struggles with turning a landscape into dance, however a week before that class I had a contact improvisation session. After that class I was reflecting on my experience. During the dance I felt like my partner was offering me shapes for me to react to or to go through. That made me think of a landscape made out of people or people's bodies as landscapes.

When we were given the task, I felt really inspired to embody a landscape. It made the whole process much more interesting to me. Me and my friends decided to invest into that idea. In the video you can see us creating a landscape from our bodies. Instead of looking at the form&structure classes just as tasks, I started seeing them and thinking "How this would work in a piece? What does this inspire in me? Which feelings does it evoke in me?"

The classes of unit two really helped me expand and challenge my creativity. I have discovered my ways of understanding choreographing a dance. I also had the chance to work in other ways that helped me get out of my comfort zone and expanded my "creative tool kit". I had the opportunity to experience vast ways of working and creating.

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One of the most interesting experiences of creating was when we were assigned to create a piece for a composition class inspired by the exhibition at the Wellcome Collection called "The Cult of Beauty". Our teacher Athina Valha chose that exhibition as it touches many thought-provoking topics.

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My group friends and I visited the exhibition separately. Since we were all drawn to different aspects of the  exhibition, we decided to bring all of our discussions into the piece.

We decided that we would use the sound of the dripping parfum from the exhibition (The installation ‘Beauty Sensorium’ by Renaissance Goo x Baum & Leahy, no date) as our sound. We used beauty products as our props and to create movement. My chosen item was a shaving razor, to give an image that I was shaving my legs. I decided to add more distorted shapes into my dance to portrait the different uncomfortable positions people get into to shave. I observed myself shaving my legs and I took some pictures to put them in exploration.

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I really enjoy visual art forms, especially cinema and photography. The way they create strong visuals to communicate an idea is fascinating to me. When I took the pictures of myself, I had to bring them to life with movement. I felt like I was piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. This made me look at choreographing as a series of images coming together in a seamlessly transitioning way. It was an interesting way of approaching creating and made me think outside of my box.

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For "The Cult of Beauty '' piece, me and my friends worked a lot with imagery and "moments-to-be-captures". I quite enjoyed that way of working as it also allowed me to draw from my knowledge of cinema and photography. For example; since our piece was about beauty standards, we thought of Boticelli's painting "Birth of Venus". We had the image, but as it's dance we had the 5 elements (REFF) to consider. We chose Tilly as our Venus; we found her a place in space; a dynamic in which she would execute her actions; our relationship to her and how she would use her body to embody Venus.

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"(One seed is enough. Stick to it, cherish it and make it flourish!)"

Recacha, "FINAL FORM AND STRUCTURE TASK", Google classroom, 14 May 2024

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"Dance first, think later. That's the natural order."

-Samuel Beckett

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I am the one wearing blue

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"The world is out there. Get out, get inspired and create!"

-Athina Valha

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Bibliography

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Reference list