Hello and welcome back to my journal. November went fierce fast, My creative mind can go off in a million and one directions, when I’m working on a project, so it’s been a good tool for me to have one element of nature to focus on each month and allow space for other ideas to come up.
This month I have chosen Air. Air symbolises movement and breath. I was immediately drawn to trees and birds when connecting with the element of Air. I instinctively began to look up and watch and listen to the trees moving in the wind. I observed that there were moments of what felt like a holding of breath, as if the trees were inhaling the air, waiting for the wind to touch the trees and move them to dance and sway, exhaling the force of air . This made me think about when I dance,that sometimes I unconsciously inhale and hold my breath, usually before I go to execute a tricky step or just before I launch myself into the air and then once I’m back in the flow of movement, I exhale again.
I was planning to work on movement and breath this month and to start creating choreography for the dance piece. I was very happy at the beginning of the month when 80km winds were forecasted,I had wild notions of dancing in the storm, throwin shapes with the wind and being at one with the forces of nature �� But the wind was taken out of my dancing sails, when someone crashed into the back of my car. Whiplash put a stop to my movement for a couple of weeks. Funny, when I decided to focus on movement, I am restricted in my own movement.
This project has definitely ignited a new childlike curiosity in me with regards to natural sounds. Normally on a stormy night, I am perfectly happy to be warmly tucked up in my bed when the winds wake me, but this month I was finding myself, getting out of bed at god knows what time of the night, to go outside and record the sound of wind and watch how trees, branches and flowers moved in strong winds.
I decided to also focus on the brief– Dance with natural sounds, in your natural setting, percussively. I started to play around with other ways to percussively make sounds naturally, using my breath and body. I was interested to hear how my voice and body sounded in nature. The lake is by far my most favourite place to make percussive sounds, it’s a natural amphitheatre. I had a visit from a fisherman one morning, who had heard me from lake and followed the sounds to the pier to see what was happening.
I’ve been collecting sounds to create a soundscape for the film. The sound of my piece has been my main focus so far. Once I have collected and recorded the sounds I need, I will begin working on composing the soundscape. I like to idea of creating the sound of the piece first and then creating choreography and aesthetic in response to the sound. My dance practice has always been focused on how my dance sounds. I don’t practise technique and steps much, I find focusing on the musicality and sound of my dance first, helps me develop new steps and techniques. A lot of the time when I am watching percussive dancers, I like to close my eyes to listen to them, to get another sense of their dancing. Percussive dancers are not only dancers, we make music with our feet.
So here is my little video I put together for this month, a little snapshot of sounds and ideas that I will develop over the coming months. Whiplash has been healed, so I’m back in the dancing saddle for next month.
HUP!!!!
Stephanie x