Workshop 1 - Discussion & Improvisation

Sub-Question 2: How can I explore extremities in a dynamic through creative tasks?

[THE PLAN]
Within this workshop my aim was to ease into things, make a slow start and talk over my ideas with my research intern. I didn't want to start at too fast of a pace and so I planned for us to create a spider diagram relating to what came to mind when thinking of dynamics. From this I then wanted us to move a little, choosing at least 2 words from the diagram to think about whilst improvising. After improvising a small amount of material I wanted to video record and reflect on the process and then improvise again thinking about what we had discussed while reflecting. We would then discuss again and take notes on some of the material we thought we could pull out of it.

Image of the Spider Diagram

[ WHAT HAPPENED ]
Among entering the studio myself and my research intern sat down and started chatting about our day, I explained to her what the aims of the workshop were and talked through what I had hoped we would manage to get done within an hour. We started with a spider diagram and each pulled two words from it which we could contrast against each other during an improvisation task, I chose Fast & Slow where she chose Hard & Soft.


[ FINDINGS ]
Through this workshop I was able to discover some new ways of moving and using dynamics, by looking at dynamic words. I found myself using my body in a different way than usual and was able to pull out some interesting material that I could use later, as well as my research intern doing the same thing, enabling me to also pull from her improvisation and use this bank of material later if I wished so.


[ EVIDENCE ]
See below a link to a video clip and an image of my research intern performing her improvisation in regards to soft and hard dynamics.
Workshop 1 - Improvisation Task

[ EVALUATION ]
Throughout this workshop I feel that I was able to complete what I had hoped, creating a full understanding between me and my research intern about what we would be doing throughout the process. We were able to improvise well without intimidation or fear, and felt comfortable sharing with each other. In terms of the workshop plan I devised, I feel that we've made a good start and hopefully will continue at a good pace. The only thing I feel had room for improvement was the depth of our improvisation, if I could redo it I would want us to work deeper, and think in more detail when it comes to articulating the body within a certain dynamic style.