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Due to the first section of my solo being nature based I wanted a track to couple this theme. I listened to many songs and artists, using my own music preferences, but also those I found online - for example; "songs that sound like nature" and "songs about climate change" on YouTube.

I ultimately decided on the track "First Light" by Hozier. This song has a calm tone allowing me to use lighter, softer movements and a tempo with suites dance styles such as contemporary and waving (which were styles I discussed in my brief), reflecting the relaxing connotations of a natural environment. Additionally, many of the lyrics of this song also relate to nature which I believe would aid me to present the theme of nature clearly to the audience - “The sun coming up...some bright morning...I’ve lived my whole life before the first light”.

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This picture was an additional stimulus to me. The tree is still "free" to grow, however its growth is stunted and controlled due to the unnatural environment (pot) that it has been placed in. Therefore, despite its attempt to grow and expand it is always going to be controlled and limited. I aim to represent this in the urbanised section of my solo.

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For the urbanised section of my piece I wanted to convey a more "unnatural" feeling.

I began this process by listening to different tracks which I felt had a urbanised feel. I then attempted to develop this by creating different movement and shapes that may seem unnatural or uncomfortable to visually compliment this sound.

You can see part of my development process below.

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For the second section of my piece I initially chose the track "Run Boy Run" by Woodkid. However, I decided to change this as I believed that Run Boy Run gave a futuristic, dystopian feel. As I wanted my piece to make the audience think about the current state of nature and our planet I did not think that this fitted the message I wanted to convey. Instead I decided to use "Sock It 2 Me (Kaytranada Remix)" by Missy Elliott.

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I wanted my peice to have two climaxes.

Climax 1:

The full growth of the tree. As the song ultimately reaches the chorus after the build up from the verse (which I mirrored with the growth of the tree) there is a drop. Instead of hitting the drop directly I paused and waited for the second beat before jumping into big movement. This was to represent how nature reacts to its surroundings.

Climax 2:

The change in music. As I aimed to create a direct contrast between natural and artifical, when the climax and beat drop of the second song of the peice hits there was an immediate change in style/movement and pace. Furthermore, to create another difference between the two I hit all of the first beats in the music, just as everything in an artificial environment is almost premeditated/ planned and immediate. Unlike the gradual reaction/change of a natural environment.

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Once I had created my mix and began to create more detailed choreography I began to realise that the transition from Section 1 (naturalistic) to Section 2 (urbanised) felt very immediate. Making the piece almost seem like two separate pieces back to back, somewhat losing the message I was aiming to present to the audience. I decided to change this by adding more of a story element of being the tree and how it is being affected by what is happening through the transition of environmental change due to urbanisation.

I began this development by jotting down the initial thoughts I had about the ways trees are affected by the urbanisation process which you can see below. From this I layered related sound affects to my mix such as chainsaws, cars, sirens and construction. To aid my transition from one section to another and more eloquently show the message to my audience (as shown above).

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Tree Pose - Yoga

I decided to develop and build on different ways I could represent mother nature/ the tree for the end of my nature section. From this I discovered the yoga pose "The Tree Pose". I played with having the pose build up from the foot, then the leg and eventually the arms, just as a tree would grow from the ground up.

I then continued to develop this concept as you can see in Motif Idea 4, making the same movement sharper (which I have decided to use in my urbanised section) as a repeating motif to help represent nature through both sections and represent nature attempting to "fight back". As stated by D,G, Mouton (2006), using a motif can be a way of non-verbal communication to get a message across, which is what I am aiming to do here.

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From this idea of a tree growing up and out, I decided to develop this by presenting the full growth of the tree. I did this by starting on the floor with my hand flicking up representing the shoot. Then using floor work and threds to represent the interwinding roots. Before finally showing the branches and leaves by using large movements with my arms and twisting my wrist - just like leaves move in the wind.

I also showed the full life cycle of the tree in my peice by finishing in the same position which I started, creating a cyclical structure.

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As my theme is based around mother nature I tried to encapsulate this within my costume. Using the soft natural colours of brown and green. Additionally, later in my piece I literally represent a tree and I believe these colours will help to clearly convey this to the audience.

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Concept of Core Memories Initial group associations 

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Concept of Core Memories Initial group associations 

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I watched the film "Inside Out" which presents many of the same themes we wanted to include to see how they presented them in different ways and lights. One thing I took from this and brought to the group was the way the film used colour to represent emotions and we decided to try and implement this through lighting.

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In order for our piece to stay original we decided to use different/ more intricate emotions.

One way I further looked into this was using this emotions chart.

The emotions we decided on were:

Elation/Surprise

Self loathing/Disgust

Fear into trust

Anger/Annoyance

Grief/Sadness

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This piece inspired some of our creative processes. For example, their use of textures and dynamics to help distinguish and contrast each emotion through movement. As well as, the use of music to reflect the atmosphere of each emotion and give the audience a certain mood. These were elements that we also tried to implement into our own piece.

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We decided we were going to use voice overs to trigger each new emotion in our piece. So that the transition between each emotion was clear to our audience. From this I decided to do some research into emotion based poetry and spoken word. I brought some of these poems forward to the group and we ended up using these in our music.

Additionally, when doing this research and having a conversation with the group we decided to change the layout of our piece slightly.

We decided that in order to have our cyclical structure we were aiming for then the piece needed to end with an alternative emotion to grief. Therefore, we decided to use content. As our piece was based around having 5 emotions, this meant that we would have to remove a different emotion. After a discussion we decided to remove self loathing and disgust. This was mainly due to the fact that it is fairly similar to anger and annoyance meaning it may not be as distinct as the other emotions (in music, movement and intention) and therefore may not add another element or contrasting feel to our piece like we aimed for all the emotions too.

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Spoken Word/ Poetry Voiceover Research 1

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Spoken Word/ Poetry Voiceover Research 1

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John Gielgud - All the world's a stage - As You Like It by William Shakespeare - 1959 -

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Spoken Word/ Poetry Voiceover Research 2

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Spoken Word/ Poetry Voiceover Research 2

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Fear/Trust

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Spoken Word/ Poetry Voiceover Research 3

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Spoken Word/ Poetry Voiceover Research 3

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Anger

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"Employed and Annoyed"  / Spoken Word / Poetry by Rev. Merc

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Here you can see how I edited some of the music to add the desired layers and voiceovers that we were aiming for.

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In order to represent the different emotions through colour we decided to do this in a visual way that the audience would be able to directly see. Therefore, we decided to use these small portable lights. We aimed to use these lights to show each emotion being triggered with having them light up with a corresponding colour once each new emotions section has begun. So by the end of the piece each light would be on and a different colour to try and directly and clearly show to the audience how a person is made up off all these emotions in one.

The corresponding colours we decided were:

Yellow - Elation/Surprise

Purple - Fear/Trust

Red - Anger/Annoyance

Blue - Grief/Sadness

Green - Content

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After researching our lighting and realising we only had access to 4 press lights we decided to overcome this challenge by implementing a torch. This is to represent fear as fear is often associated with the dark. Therefore, we used the torch as a prop to present the transition into trust by "shining a light" on the fears and overcoming them.

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In this video you can see us trialling a section of choreography by walking and talking through the movements and ideas as well as how we are going to implement the torch.

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In this video you can see how we utilised the torch within the choreography.

Furthermore, we developed the choreography to further represent trust by using the light in a symbolic and literal sense in a duet section rather than solo. To represent one person "shining a light" on another's fears.

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As our piece is based on emotions I did some research into how they present themselves in a biological sense. From this I discovered that the emotional part of the brain or the 'limbic system' is the part of the brain 'involved in our behavioural and emotional responses' (The University of Queensland, 2024).

From this I decided to look into more detail specifically on how these messages and responses are sent around the brain and body. As stated by C, Flanagan et al (2015), 'there are 10 billion neurons in the human nervous system, 80% of which are located in the brain. By transmitting signals electronically and chemically, these neurons provide the nervous system with its primary source of communication'. After reading more into neurons and synaptic transmission and bringing this information to the group we decided to use this concept as a reoccurring motif in our piece. Representing how emotions and messages are constantly being communicated around the brain in the background.

We further developed this motif by using it in a cannon to represent how the message is communicated between each neuron, as shown in our picture stimuli above.

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This was the motif we decided to use as we thought it was subtle enough to be integrated into all the styles choreography but distinct enough to be recognisable when repeated multiple times.

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In this video you can see one example of how we used this motif.

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This is one of the videos I watched when researching the brain and emotions. I later sampled some of the speech from this video and used it in one of the voiceovers in the music for the piece. This provides the audience with context for our piece so they can clearly follow our narrative and provide them with accurate information on what our piece is representing.

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Here you can see the section where I layered the voice samples with the music in order for them to be heard in unison. This allowed us to continue to dance on the beat (as well as the cadence and tone of the voice) but also allow the audience to hear the context and voiceover without the piece having to stop and start again.

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In this section we attempted to add a trick into a fast hand combination. However, as you can see in the above video we could not execute this well due to the fast tempo of the music.

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In this video you can see how we changed this combination to incorporate a fast hand combination but on different timings, adding more musicality. And then altering the choreography and formation transition to ensure full execution of the choreography and cleanliness.

Additionally, we further developed this section by implementing another choreographic device, cannon adding another layer and intricacy to the previously static and basic choreography as shown in the previous clip.

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In the above video you can see us running through this sections choreography. As part of our process we would record each section without and then with music and re-watch the videos together, pointing out parts that we liked and did not like. This helped us develop our choreography quicker and help clean the movements for a more overall aesthetic performance.

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As stated in our brief, we aimed to have a cyclical structure to represent the circle of life and how a person is composed of all their emotions in one. We originally decided to do this through music. After researching through suggested songs on YouTube and Spotify we started by finding our ending song to represent content, "Man I Is - Logic". The upbeat and bouncy feel to the track as well as selected lyrics, such as "I am happy the man I is", well represented the atmosphere we were aiming to create when conveying the emotion content.

Then to develop this into a cyclical structure we researched songs which had the same sampled music and discovered "Erykah Badu Didn't Cha Know" which was the same sample but slower tempo so we chose to use this as our opening track.

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We then decided to develop our cyclical structure further by adding repetition. To begin with we were going to repeat the opening four 8's again at the end of the piece. We then developed this further by implementing the choreographic device reverse by repeating the same four 8's but backwards. However, after recording and re-watching this we were not satisfied with how the choreography looked aesthetically when in reverse. Therefore, we decided to research other choreographic devices we could use and decided that fragmentation could be more affective. We trialed this a few different ways and then agreed that fragmentation with an ending move in unison would look most affective in our piece.

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Closing Sequence - Repetition and Fragmentation Implementaion (Rehersal Video)

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Closing Sequence - Repetition and Fragmentation Implementaion (Rehersal Video)

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To further encapsulate the emotions and their corresponding colours we decided to incorporate the colour of the emotion we were the "lead" for into our costume. We did this by using coloured bandannas and shoe laces. This way we were representing one emotion more prominently but not entirely. Just as someone generally does not only feel one emotion at a time and emotions are more complex than just black and white.