Hello everyone!
I am in such a good mood now. I'm just back from Uni after a 4 hours workshop with Nicola at Waverley. Early at the year, we did a pitching with Nicola for a collaboration of NTU MA students and Dance4 for the project Giving The Eye at end of March 2011. It would be a performance in response to the on-going exhibition of Anne Collier and Jack Goldstein at Nottingham Contemporary.
We all went to the exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary before the pitching so that we understand and pitch ideas in response to the exhibits. In a way, this is very interesting and at the same time scary for me. It is my 1st time doing a pitching and at first, I totally had no idea what is pitching. Haha.. It just 'selling' or presenting your ideas to the people-in-charge and see whether they 'buy' or not..XD
So, after the pitching, I did not get into the Creative team though, but they created another team..the editorial team and I'm there. ^^
So, this afternoon and tomorrow will be two workshop sessions for everyone.
I would so like to share with you all what I have experience this afternoon. It had been so long since I did things like this.
Too bad, no pictures though. Doesn't seem appropriate and no time. hehe
First, we all gather and introduce ourselves briefly, as usual. There is about 8 of us so it is quite comfortable. After that, Nicola ask us to start walking around the room, randomly. Changing direction and pacing around the room, careful of bumping into each other though... (we did that a lot... ^^") After a while, we kind of started to slow down and we see whether we will all stop at the same time or not. We did this for twice. And the 2nd time, we 'almost' stop at the same time. There's a lot of laughter going around. So it is good.
Then, to me, it seem a lot like in Yoga class, except that we are all standing instead of lying down. We are all requested to stand in a comfortable position, hands free beside us. Closing our eyes, she slowly speaks. Telling us to be aware of our own breathing, our feet..right up to our eyes. Kind of similar to the end of a Yoga class.. (we stand for about 10mins..)
After that we open our eyes and start walking around again.
The next thing to do is to think of a place of celebration. Anywhere.. Imagination or real, it doesn't matter. And then, we have to use our body to create a position representing that place. (I'm not telling you where it is. ) We do not need to tell where it is. Just do. 3 position altogether. It is quite awkward at first but it gets better. Then, we need to write down the instructions on how to do these 3 poses on a piece of paper and exchange it with another person. Now, we have to do the poses according to the instruction on the paper. Doesn't matter if it is not right or confusing as it is all what it is about. So we did it according to our own understanding.
We did it once altogether so there's no solo performance going on so no need to be shy. Then, Nicola ask us to use the 3 poses and create the theme 'fading'. I rearrange the poses and that's it. ^^ The next is the theme 'expanding'. I just reverse it. LOL..
After that come some writing part. She gave the topic of 'something that is missing'. Anything, anyone, any emotions, memories..basically, anything at all. 5 mins to write. We do not have to show it to anyone so no worries here. Just write whatever that comes to your mind. Then she ask us to come up with 3 questions in response to what we just wrote. After that, another topic to write, 'the present'. But this time, not 3 questions but 3 answers in response. Anything will do.
Next, we go into pairs. And this is where the funny part starts. We combine everything that we have done the whole afternoon into a 1min 20sec performance. We have to start and end with our first names, include 1 question and 1 answer from previous, the solo poses we did earlier and do a short performance using all these. We can speak and dance and do whatever.
We split into 4 groups and mind you. We laugh all the way while preparing. It is so funny and I kept forgetting my lines. (Only 1 though..=.=") But the highlight was 2 of the other groups. They are so damn funny that makes us all keep laughing. It is very entertaining. It does not matter whether we did well or not as they do not judge. However, after 4 groups done performing, we now have to do another 30sec short performance in response to the other group performance. That's the most funny part as we tried to imitate some part of their performance and include our own rendition into it.
All in all, it is a great afternoon. Very interesting and artistic. Never did these kind of things for so long. There is still another workshop tomorrow at 11am till 5pm. Long day. I hope it is as fun as well. Will try to see if I can get any photos..haha..
I know this post is very messy. I am typing this very very fast because my nuggets are in the oven and they are done. I am hungry. So apologies for any confusion. Will try to update another one if I have time.
^_^
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