Anka Gacesa
As a young actress I believe that exploring different aspects of performance is crucial in my development. I consider International Kinitiras Coreography Lab as a place where I
can learn and upgrade by gaining
knowledge and getting useful skills. Also, I support the idea that artists
should not be limited to using only one theatrical tool, and that experiencing
different cultural approaches to making a performance provides chance for
artistic growth. Since I already have training in dance and background in
choreography making and physical theatre approaches of work, I know that there
are various possibilities of story and idea telling with my own body, and that
it is really important for every artist to research them.
Kinitiras Choreography Lab, first week; Workshops with Ana Sanchez-Colberg and Androniki Marathaki
Expectations. It is
better not to have them. When they are too big, you can easily get
disappointed ... and if they are small, it is more likely to be
surprised. Remember .... low expectations, but not low goals. Good day,
Athens!!!
I woke up on a wrong foot.
Go through this door…not thinking at all…what you are today, in this moment, in this space...Who am I today? Where am I ? Those are funny questions, actually. I’m somebody who doesn't know why I have come…better still, I am somebody who doesn’t know the reason for leaving. What is familiar, and what is unfamiliar to you? Everything is unfamiliar, I can’t even recognize my body. I feel so fragile, I want to cry… I feel pain…oh, that is familiar…it’s in my stomach. I can’t cry, I don’t know anyone, I’m going to embarrass myself. I imagine pain as a ball, which can move through my body. If only I could send it away somewhere from my stomach.I can feel it now in my hand, in my hip, in my knee, in my little toe! While I'm moving the ball from one place to another, I'm dancing! There, the pain is gone. With this game that I have just made up, not only that I took my mind off upsetting thoughts, but I made my body move differently. It was very inspiring!
Without actually thinking about it, I found my "material" for today.
I find the “She” task very useful because it brings a refreshing and more objective view on my movement. I wrote down my actions on the stage from the audience point of view (in 3rd person), which helped me to be more aware of what i actually want to show on stage and what not. I saw the surpluses…. and the deficit. Fertile ground for new ideas!
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Warming up, that has been led by Androniki, was very helpful .Simple things as walking\running through space, focusing on people around you, and in the moment of encounter with somebody saying only the vowels/consonants of their name, or making silly grimace with your face, were not only great for quickly and unnoticed raising of the body temperature, but also were important for getting to know other participants and bonding with them. This warm up developed sense of belonging to a group, a sense of security within it, practice to focus, coordination, quick thinking ... and most importantly, it brought a sense of play and freedom, which is very important for the artist and it is a prerequisite for the creative process.
Select an object you see on the floor. Try to catch it, throw it, kick it. Explore those every-day movements. Find your game.
The objects are there for us to become aware of unconscious.
I woke up on a wrong foot.
Go through this door…not thinking at all…what you are today, in this moment, in this space...Who am I today? Where am I ? Those are funny questions, actually. I’m somebody who doesn't know why I have come…better still, I am somebody who doesn’t know the reason for leaving. What is familiar, and what is unfamiliar to you? Everything is unfamiliar, I can’t even recognize my body. I feel so fragile, I want to cry… I feel pain…oh, that is familiar…it’s in my stomach. I can’t cry, I don’t know anyone, I’m going to embarrass myself. I imagine pain as a ball, which can move through my body. If only I could send it away somewhere from my stomach.I can feel it now in my hand, in my hip, in my knee, in my little toe! While I'm moving the ball from one place to another, I'm dancing! There, the pain is gone. With this game that I have just made up, not only that I took my mind off upsetting thoughts, but I made my body move differently. It was very inspiring!
Without actually thinking about it, I found my "material" for today.
I find the “She” task very useful because it brings a refreshing and more objective view on my movement. I wrote down my actions on the stage from the audience point of view (in 3rd person), which helped me to be more aware of what i actually want to show on stage and what not. I saw the surpluses…. and the deficit. Fertile ground for new ideas!
***********
Warming up, that has been led by Androniki, was very helpful .Simple things as walking\running through space, focusing on people around you, and in the moment of encounter with somebody saying only the vowels/consonants of their name, or making silly grimace with your face, were not only great for quickly and unnoticed raising of the body temperature, but also were important for getting to know other participants and bonding with them. This warm up developed sense of belonging to a group, a sense of security within it, practice to focus, coordination, quick thinking ... and most importantly, it brought a sense of play and freedom, which is very important for the artist and it is a prerequisite for the creative process.
Select an object you see on the floor. Try to catch it, throw it, kick it. Explore those every-day movements. Find your game.
The objects are there for us to become aware of unconscious.
Game/rules: Stick. It mustn’t be in the same position
and at the same level for more than 3 seconds. Must not be kept with the
same part of the body for longer than 10 seconds. Think of speed
(although it is strongly associated with the rules), space usage,
changing levels, building layers. The exercise with the girls around me
“acting” space was really helpful for realizing all these layers.
Small recap:
- was always taught to have an idea first, and than make little steps, sequences to carry out my idea. But what to do when you don’t have any ideas? No inspiration? No beginning point? Get frustrated and close yourself?
And of course, my favorite : “You can’t dance your mother in law”
Opposite approach actually works! Work on a small, every day – ordinary things and practices. Be imaginative, give yourself unexpected tasks. Have inner dialogues. Think of space. Make a game. Add some filters. Change the rules.Write everything down. This kind of work can often give birth to unpredicted ideas. So, In a way the point is – not only that a “material” can appear from the idea, the idea can also be formed from a material- which sometimes can have its origin in ordinary, everyday routine.
- Some processes are not for the presentation, but they are important for learning;
-Not to be afraid of memory loss. No need to panic if something you did yesterday, you can’t repeat today. Why do we lose memory? Maybe something wasn’t important, maybe that hole makes space for something new that is relevant. Maybe it will return. Body remembers. Knowledge is cumulative. It goes away and it comes back.
-It’s important to move your eyes…If the focus Is fixed, you are actually blocking your body
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Kinitiras Choreography Lab,
second week;
Waiting???
Small recap:
- was always taught to have an idea first, and than make little steps, sequences to carry out my idea. But what to do when you don’t have any ideas? No inspiration? No beginning point? Get frustrated and close yourself?
And of course, my favorite : “You can’t dance your mother in law”
Opposite approach actually works! Work on a small, every day – ordinary things and practices. Be imaginative, give yourself unexpected tasks. Have inner dialogues. Think of space. Make a game. Add some filters. Change the rules.Write everything down. This kind of work can often give birth to unpredicted ideas. So, In a way the point is – not only that a “material” can appear from the idea, the idea can also be formed from a material- which sometimes can have its origin in ordinary, everyday routine.
- Some processes are not for the presentation, but they are important for learning;
-Not to be afraid of memory loss. No need to panic if something you did yesterday, you can’t repeat today. Why do we lose memory? Maybe something wasn’t important, maybe that hole makes space for something new that is relevant. Maybe it will return. Body remembers. Knowledge is cumulative. It goes away and it comes back.
-It’s important to move your eyes…If the focus Is fixed, you are actually blocking your body
***********************
Kinitiras Choreography Lab,
second week;
Workshops with Robert Clarck and
Linda Birkedal
Emotions.
Get
out of the studio, go outside. Find a person who looks
interesting, follow him/her and
watch their body posture, physicality. The
idea is not to imitate, but to be
aware of the emotion that arises in
you watching their physicality.
I could not get away from my acting observations.
I often watch people as a potential characters. The woman I chose was
quite thick, with
huge hips and short legs, carrying her little purse as a treasure box. At
first glance, her attitude was
the one of a comic character. Later still,
watching her shoulders and torso stiffness,
her slow pace of walking,
her head bowed forward, everything stopped being fun. Something in her body was causing sorrow
in me.
It made me think of the magic that the movement has. It is interesting how movement (in the first place on stage, but
also in real life) arouses feeling and creates a story in the
eye of the viewer, regardless of whether
it intend to create a story. Even totally abstract movement can, as Ana often says, e v o k e
range of emotions and imaginative stories.
So why do I sometimes (have to be
honest) get bored by watching performances
of contemporary dance? I see a virtuous technique, but
nothing touches me, I don’t have a single emotion awakened. What
is (if exists) a prerequisite for
dance to evoke? Does
it depend on the performer or
the viewer? Can you have a control of it?
-Think of tree different emotions in your life, try to remember sequence of the event, and all little
details from the situation you were in/write them down/walk trough space thinking about emotion
(situation)/again, thinking about the emotion improvise movement only if you feel the need/apply
this new layer(emotion) to the sequence(we have learned before)
As
an actress, emotions are something what
I’m often dealing with … invoking
them through the
emotional memory, constantly looking for triggers,
manipulating with them… Even though the task to express emotion
solely through dance was
not so easy. To ensure that it is the movement which is
expressing the emotion and not only my face I gave my self tasks to express the
emotion with different body parts. If I feel anxiety for example, how will my
torso, head, feet, or back move?
Wasn’t easy as I thought.:) It was helpful to
think of already known facts: that curved shapes are soft, gentile, welcoming,
even comforting, and the straight lines are usually strong, cold sometimes
intimidating – but it wasn’t nearly enough!
improvisation in pairs; leading and following; acceptance and opposition; using eye contact/changing focus; using conventional signs/ adding element of surprise; working in groups
Olga
is my guardian angel for today. Thank you, Olga.
Random
thoughts or kind of summary:
-My
acting professor always told me: “Everything can be if it is proved”. The only criterion is actually
to be believable: either you are, or you’re not. Something on a stage is exciting or it’s not. This
applies not only to the theater but also to dance
performance.
-It is not so difficult to become melodramatic and clichéd.
Although exaggeration has its place in some genres, too much drama and
uncontrolled emotions can be repulsive to an audience. What I find more
exciting are undisclosed emotions.
I feel that this is a perfect moment to call a genius for
help – Shakespeare. It is beautiful how this is universal:
Hamlet’s speech to
the players:
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.(…)
Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
word to the action; with this special o'erstep not
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
censure of the which one must in your allowance
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be
players that I have seen play, and heard others
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,
that, neither having the accent of Christians nor
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of
nature's journeymen had made men and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably(...)
Of course, the cat was also there(on the right)...thinking:)))
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
as many of your players do, I had as lief the
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.(…)
Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
word to the action; with this special o'erstep not
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
censure of the which one must in your allowance
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be
players that I have seen play, and heard others
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,
that, neither having the accent of Christians nor
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of
nature's journeymen had made men and not made them
well, they imitated humanity so abominably(...)
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IN BEtWEEN body and space,
thinking and moving.
Look around the space, see shapes and lines, see objects. While going
forward to object think of what is in between/verbalization will help focus/see
people…are they in between you and space/what is in between you and them.
Of course, the cat was also there(on the right)...thinking:)))
Here
are some of writings on the wall:
In between: the only place/time to be infinite
Touch
Body/SHADOW/space Close-Distant
Sound impact Space of Change
Birth/LIFE/death Divide-Connect
Transition, Magnets
Memory (past-present) Dilemma
Waiting???
Waiting is in between doing nothing and doing
something? Can it actually be passive?
I chose this to be my material….it was very, very
difficult not to give up! Waiting in space for what? For somebody to give me an
impulse to do something. It was very true at some moments, especially in group
impro…It made me think about “Waiting for Godot” and its central theme.
In terms of movement I
find most useful the task about the
one part of your body leading movement. Rest of your body
can follow or go counter
(counter technique). Next level is having two body parts to lead. As I was giving my self more and more difficult
tasks (choosing very weird parts of my
body to lead), the movements which were arising were more, and more interesting
and unfamiliar.
Choreography Is making choices…
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