The Deluge Extended Cast: Callum and Madison
A day full of imagery...
Today we started with Carrie teaching us a new phrase of material from ‘The Deluge’, a new work by LÎla Dance. The phrase consisted of movement created through the possibility of experiencing a natural disaster. Our first experience with the phrase seemed two dimensional, almost like taking a technique class. However, when Carrie highlighted the importance of imagery, we began to ‘feel’ rather than ‘do’. The difference between ‘doing’ the movement and ‘feeling’ the movement pushed it beyond abstract to a more ‘theatrical’ interpretation. It was then that Carrie mentioned the theatre theorist Stanislavski, and his concept of the “Magic If”. In his book, ‘An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski asks us, ’but if this were real, how would I react? What would I do?’ This lead us to think, what if we were all actually in a moment of disaster, how would we feel? What types of movement would arise from those feelings?
We also revisited the ‘evacuation procedure’ movement created last week. To further develop this with the “magic if” in mind, we reconsidered it from a different qualitative approach, and found fluid movement with the emphasis on looking after each other. To give us a reason to move, we had the image of a ‘wave’ coming from different directions. Having previously watched videos of Tsunamis, we were able to physically embody the idea of wanting to be close to others and keep them safe. It was this internal feeling, along with use of imagery, that allowed us to respond in a in a more ‘real’ way. From this response, we looked again at our duets. Having a better understanding of the use of imagery, our duets became more relatable to the overall theme.
The imagery Carrie used in our session today, really enabled our bodies to move through space with sense of meaning, rather than dancing for dances sake.
Photo credit: All photos including cover image by Dougie Evans. Dancers: Sarah Golding & Aya Kobayashi, Aya Kobayashi and community cast at The Point, Eastleigh.
