Physical Theatre performance evaluation

Overall I feel that mine and Chloe’s performance went okay, however, it could have been a lot more successful. I was extremely nervous with performing our piece and that definitely hindered the way my body moved as I was slightly more focused on getting the performance out of the way than I was focused on my motives behind the actions. Although we had rehearsed and devised the piece focusing on our motives and the story we were trying to tell through our movements, I don't feel that was effectively presented to the audience. For my next physical theatre performance, I definitely need to work on letting go and trusting my partner all the way through to the final performance as I felt I carried those out effectively in the rehearsals but lacked during the final performance. Due to this, our performance wasn't as effective as it could have been. 

I though that everyone performed extremely successfully and it was pretty inspiring to see other people's movements and how they approached the task. In particular, I thought Ben and Isabella's performance was extremely effective and successfully conveyed the motives and emotions to the audience. Their movements flowed intricately together and they managed to remain extremely close throughout their entire performance, never losing focus of their motives and the connection they had created. The same level of emotion was also presented in Troy and Naomi's piece, they communicated to the audience extremely effectively and I could feel their motives as an audience member through their movements. 

One of the more effective and successful parts of our performance was that we both managed to remember the movements we had choreographed. Chloe and I approached our duet using improvisation to develop our piece and the movements; however, I feel that the organic-ness of the piece that we had developed during rehearsals was ultimately lost during our final performance. Another aspect I was particularly happy with was that the movement where Chloe held onto my wrists and flipped me over her back was performed without fault as I was particularly anxious that would go wrong. This was one of the more challenging movements in our piece at it involved me completely trusting Chloe with my body, something I had struggled with, however, I feel I did it successfully with this particular movement. 

If I had the chance, I would've developed the movements in a lot greater detail - focusing really on letting the motives carry the movements and colour the piece. I would have also liked to have developed a greater connection between me and Chloe in our movements as I feel that although we may have presented some form of connection between us, it wasn't an extremely strong or developed one. 

I am extremely happy with the BRIT grade I received for this performance, two 6's,  and I definitely feel it reflected our final performance. I would try and develop on the aspects I feel I need to improve on as a performer for my next performance, however, overall this term has been extremely enjoyable and I've really loved learning the different aspects of physical theatre. I have developed many skills and a deeper understanding of movement and my own body over the last term and have learnt aspects that I will definitely use and adapt into rehearsals, roles and performances in the future. 

Devising through organic improvisations.

Devising through organic improvisations is different to mentally planning it as it helps the movements come naturally and flow with a sense of purpose, rather than stifled movements planned out beforehand. By developing through improvisations it allows your movements to be devised completely with the objective in mind as you are improvising to the objective, rather than planning movements and adding the objective in after. This helps your piece and movements become more truthful to the objective which then makes the objective and story you are trying to present to the audience more successful and clear. It defines the difference between a physical theatre piece
and a planned dance routine, though you may use elements of dance - they are coloured with acting and objectives, so you are presenting a piece of theatre through physical movement rather than a dance routine.

One benefit of developing these skills through improvisations is that they help you develop your understanding of different devising techniques that you can then transfer into other aspects of theatre, rather than just using them in physical theatre. Another benefit is that you can try out different movements, allowing yourself and your partner to experiment with one another before you find a sequence that you both find the most effective. This gives you a chance to explore different movements with one another and help expand your physical skills and knowledge whilst carrying out this process. Through improvising, you can take different risks you usually wouldn't if you had planned it out before hand - you work with your partner, offering different opportunists for different moments that will all lead to a variety of outcomes. You can transfer these skills into all aspects of theatre - helping you become a more knowledgeable and well-rounded performer.

Partnering

You need to develop many sensibilities to be successful at the different exercises. You need to learn to be aware of your partner's body so you can be one hundred percent comfortable with one another. Being comfortable with one another is extremely important as it means you can let go and let the movements take over - you aren't concerned with what your body is doing or how your bodies are working together. You need to develop an understanding of your partner's bodies and their limits so you can work together as effectively as possible.

Being comfortable around one another means you are able to improvise and work together without letting anything else get in the way of your development - you don't have to worry about being safe with one another. However, you must take care of your partner whilst you're developing and moving so you can remain connected throughout the piece and offer them different opportunities to move and connect with you.

You need to allow yourself to place a large amount of trust in your partner so you are able to work without having to hesitate as you may worry that you won't be safe or successful in your movements. I found this quite hard as I am an extremely anxious person, however over the weeks I managed to develop my understanding of my partner's body and their abilities so I began to trust them and my body's movements, letting myself let go in various different exercises. I found that as soon as I began to trust and feel comfortable around my partner, the movements became easier and more effective.

Lifts

In the field of physical theatre, lifts are a extremely important technique to be able to carry out with ease and grace. Being able to carry out lifts requires extreme commitment and focus. It isn't about amount of extravagant lifts you can perform, but the quality to which they're carried out.

Pencil lift - In partners, partner 1 will jump up straight infront of partner 2 three times and partner 2 will catch them at the peak of their third jump by placing their arms around partner 1's thighs to support them. As they are being lifted partner 1 must breathe out to control their breathing - this makes the lift even more effective and successful as you are in control of your body. This is an effective lift to use when you are playing with levels and status. The person holding the other up partner could be portraying a lower status than the person they are holding up - this is a creative and imaginative way to present it to the audience. This is also an effective lift when you need to work on a transition between moves or levels as it focuses on moving someone from one place to another and could be used in a routine.

Performing lifts requires extreme commitment and the most important thing, trust. The need to develop your lifting techniques is all down to the fact it allows you to become more expressive in different ways in you work. By learning and developing different lifting techniques an actor is more diverse and knowledgeable in different ways to use their body. They're able to develop their work in different ways and in greater detail than they were able to before - they're able to play with different levels, experimenting and telling different stories through different types of lifts. They're able to present different ideas towards the audience in experimental and unconventional ways. It also helps you learn your strengths and weaknesses, you learn you can do more with your body than your originally thought.

DV8

Founded in 1986, DV8 are an extremely unique and entertaining physical theatre company. The aim of the company is to essentially have a completely different approach to physical theatre and the arts in a completely new and un-thought of type of way. At this moment in time, the company have 18 critically acclaimed productions that have all toured internationally and have 4 award winning films.

The company have won many awards over the years and in 2013, Lloyd Newson received an OBE for his contributions to contemporary dance.

Their current production is called JOHN, it's a piece of verbatim dance-theatre piece by Lloyd Newson - the Artistic Director of DV8 Physical Theatre. He interviewed over 50 men about love & sex, one was consequently called John. It's currently on tour around Europe and will be broadcast to cinemas in the UK in December as part of National Theatre LIVE. 

Their use of verbatim in JOHN adds a completely different depth to their new production. As every piece of dialogue and the stories being presented are from real people's experiences and lives, it really makes you think about whats being presented. As it isn't fictional, verbatim can be quite hard hitting as you can't really comprehend some of the things people have been through which are then translated onto the stage. I feel that DV8 use this aspect in an extremely important and successful way, giving a voice to those 50 or so men's stories and experiences whilst intertwining them with physical theatre and dance.   

Past productions include; CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS? - which dealt with speech, censorship and Islam, TO BE STRAIGHT WITH YOU -which dealt with LGBTQ issues and JUST FOR SHOW. 

In my opinion, I think companies like DV8 are extremely important - they push the boundaries in both the content they perform and how they perform them. They present hard hitting issues towards audiences in interesting and creative ways. Though they've met negativity from the press in the past - an example is; "GAY SEX ORGY ON TV!" - the shrieking headline from The Sunday Mirror after the screening of DEAD DREAMS OF MONOCHROME MEN - it doesn't hinder the company in the slightest, they continue to knock down the barriers of what is and what isn't deemed appropriate to present to an audience. Their creative way of presenting issues to audience provides the audience with a completely new aspect of looking at situations in the world and their daily lives, they cause the audience to think outside of their own box and look at things in a new light. I think this is extremely successful and effective as it not only allows the actors and performers on the stage to express themselves in different ways, but it pushes audience members in ways they may have never experienced before. The way they use all different aspects of the arts whilst intertwining it with physical theatre and multimedia is really, really effective and completely breaks down the barriers between the different art aspects. Whilst some work has been better received than others, their work is generally extremely successful both critically and artistically and I feel that they definitely deserve all the praise they receive. Their work is extremely inspiring and eye opening, their contribution to the performing arts is unparalleled within the industry. 

Objectives

Physical theatre practitioners work with physical objectives for many different reasons. Objectives add colour into theatre pieces, it stands as a motivation behind the moves. They allow the actor to be more expressive in their movement as they have a reason for every move they perform. For example; if an actor was to express every movement with the objective of "to grab", their performance would be completely different to if they expressed it with the objective "to love". Objectives help narrate the piece in a way that enables the actor to need no dialogue to portray what the story is trying to present. Everything is expressed through movements motivated by different objectives. Objectives help pieces be developed from a rehearsed physical theatre piece into a story being presented through physical movement.

I find that using objectives help me connect more to the piece and feel more truthful about my movements. I believe the movements my body is making and how I am interacting with my partner more when we are working and acting to different objectives. It helps me develop my understanding of physical movement and how to tell and present different stories and situations towards an audience in the most effective way possible.

Bow to Boat and Surfing Banana Rolls

As it's essential to learn the basics before attempting anything, we began by looking at bow to boat rolls. For this roll, you must go from lying supine on the floor with your arms above your head and only your back support you to lying on your front with only your torso is supporting your weight. You have to use your abdominal muscles to roll yourself over onto your front whilst stretching your arms and legs away from your body to lengthen your body as much as possible. This exercise strengthens and works your abdominal muscles and the muscles in your lower back. I generally found this exercise easy to carry out, I have quite strong abdominal muscles from years of regular ballet, but I generally think i was successful at carrying this roll out.

We then moved onto banana rolls, like a bow to boat roll but continuously carried out across the floor. You have to try and carry this out without letting your head, arms, neck or legs fall to the floor - although this is harder to carry out as you have to have complete control over your body whilst in the roll otherwise you wouldn't be able to carry it out successfully. I generally found this exercise easy to do and I really enjoyed using it to travel across the room. However, I found that you really have to commit to the roll and to the movement of your body - I found altering the speeds of the roll or learning to hold it in certain places really helped me improve of my technique and enabled me to carry it out more effectively.

Then we moved onto the final stage; surfing banana rolls. With this exercise you pair up in partners and one person takes the position of a banana roll on the floor whilst the other kneels leaning across their body vertically. The person lying down has to roll over as if they would with a usual banana rolls and the other person has to let their body move with the movement as the person below them rolls over. This causes them to travel across the room then swap with the other person without stopping moving. I found this a really fun exercise to carry out as it was a really interesting exercise to use when travelling across the floor - I also generally found it quite easy to carry out and transition the different roles within the roll.

Place, Press, Push

Another exercise we carried out in class was 'Place, Press, Push'. This involved in pairing up with another person and then in pairs, one person lies on the floor in supine position with their arms resting above their head. The other person chooses different points on their partners body, avoiding areas such as joints, and placing their hands onto that point and just letting them rest there without placing any pressure. If you are the person doing the movement, once you feel you are ready to progress further, you have to start pressing slightly down onto you partner's body part so a slight pressure is felt by your partner. In the final stage, you use your whole weight to push down onto the point on your partner's body. You then explore different parts of your partner's body, getting comfortable with each other - going through the exercise in a cycle of three stages; placing your hands onto your partner's body, pressing down slightly, then pushing down completely. You then switch with your partner so they are able to place, press and push down onto your body.

Benefits of this exercise is that it really helps you connect and interact with your partner in a comfortable environment, you gain a deeper and detailed understanding on how much your body can take as the pressure placed on your by your partner doesn't feel as strong as it may seem. You and your partner learn each others bodies and become comfortable working so closely together. Learning and becoming comfortable with each others bodies is extremely important as you develop a deeper understanding of how your body works and how much your can physically achieve with your body when you put as much effort as you can into it. You learn to place your faith in another person as you trust them not to hurt you throughout the exercise. It needs to be completely clear at the beginning of the exercise that if either member feels any form of discomfort throughout, they can just say 'stop' to completely end the exercise. Trust and being comfortable around on another are both extremely important components of partner work as your piece can't properly flow or work successfully if you don't trust and feel completely comfortable around one another.

I personally found this exercise quite relaxing when I was the one lying on the floor, I felt comfortable with my partner and trusted them not to hurt me or make me feel uncomfortable. I found doing the exercise on my partner slightly more daunting as I didn't want to hurt or make my partner uncomfortable in any way possible. However, I feel that both me and my partner carried out the exercise successfully and we worked well and efficiently with one another to achieve the best possible outcome.

Push Me/Pull You

Push Me/Pull You involves holding the wrist of your partner, bending one knee and keeping the other leg. You have to trust your partner to keep a hold of you as you have to bend your knees and fall back, once you're on your back and your legs are in the air, you need to rock back so that your legs almost go over your head, this gives you enough momentum to then rock back forward onto your feet into a squatting position so your partner can fall backwards. You have to keep a right grip onto your partner when they fall back and bend forward to follow them as they rock back too keep the movement consistent and fluid. If it works successfully and flows, then you and your partner are almost moving in a rocking chair movement. Your whole back comes in contact with the floor when you rock backwards, it's a really interesting and effective way to move and come in contact with the floor. 

Me and Chloe worked together on this exercise and we managed to grasp it quite quickly and develop into a fluid movement. We trusted each other with the movements and were confident enough to let ourselves go, this really helped us develop a deeper understanding and get a grasp of the detail and the attention the exercise needed to be successful. This exercise definitely would've been harder if we didn't have the confidence to work with the floor and trust the flow of our bodies. I really enjoyed this exercise and found it quite fun to carry out once me and Chloe got the hang of it. 

Routes to the floor

Developing different routes to the floor is extremely important for an actor who is developing their understanding of physical theatre and movement in many various ways. Developing different routes to the floor enables the actor to learn and teach their body different movements and different ways to travel down. By developing different and creative routes it helps the actor's movements flow and tell imaginative narratives, so the actor can colour their physical theatre pieces creatively and explore different ways to the floor rather than just dropping down. 

We explored different ways of getting to the floor to gain a further understanding of the importance of knowing various movements and to gain confidence in carrying out these movements. One of the ways we developed our understanding was through capoeria movements, such as; ginga, cocorinha and nagativa. We worked in pairs to develop and work off one another, using these movements to get in contact with the ground to avoid the kicks of our opponent. I really liked learning these movements as it really helped me build confidence and an understanding of my body and how it can come in contact with the ground in different and interesting ways.

Another way we developed to get to the ground was through forward and backwards roly polys, these were quite challenging at first for me as I haven't done either in a very long time so I almost had to relearn how to carry them out. However, after a while I managed to get a hang of both of them and used them as a creative and effective way to get to and travel long the floor. 

Milling

I found the milling exercises extremely satisfying to carry out, they let me be free with my movements and gave me a chance to let my body take the lead rather than over-think my movements with my mind.

The first milling exercise involved walking around the space, getting aware of your surroundings and the people in them. We were allowed to move freely without limitations, walking in a way that didn't conform to the usual idea of walking. I really enjoyed being out of my comfort zone and pushing myself to experiment and try new things that I wouldn't have necessarily done previously. I found it so interesting how the rest of the group also let go from over-thinking or letting themselves be nervous, we all flowed really interestingly with each other, intertwining our movements with very few collisions.

Working with one singular person in the free mill exercise was strangely freeing as it flowed like a conversation through movements - it didn't need any words. We were able to work together at our paces and levels, just letting our bodies take over with the movements. We were able to work together with such ease that didn't allow us to be embarrassed or put limitations on any of our movements, which I personally think helped us relate to one another better and help us develop a more effective piece.

The only way to be completely successful at this exercise is by completely letting the body take over, not thinking through every movement you're about to carry out and I think, I personally, and the whole group managed to capture that.

Sun Salutations

We then learnt and practiced a Sun Salutation. Sun Salutions are a sequence of yoga movements that aim to honour the sun. Starting the session with a sun salutation really put me in focus for the rest of the lesson, it left me feeling open and ready to put as much effort in as possible for the rest of the exercises.

Every transition to different positions are facilitated by either inhaling or exhaling, this is to gain a deep focus on your breathing, making sure it's regular rather than irregular. These movements lengthens your spine and stretches muscles throughout the body, doing the sequence regularly has many positive health impacts on your body. For example; doing the sequence at a fast pace is a good cardiovascular exercise, it helps improve blood circulation as well as adding health benefits to systems throughout the body. The particular sun salutation we did in class focused on stretching and opening up the back of the legs, this meant I had to push myself to carry it out as successfully as possible - which I think I managed to do.

I found the sun salutations extremely interesting to carry out as it really got me to focus on my breathing and as well as carrying out the different positions. I found holding some of the positions for an extended length of time a bit of a task but I know i will be able to improve over the next coming weeks.  I used to do yoga regularly when I was younger but I haven't done it recently so to spend time to really focus on the sequence was really refreshing and left me feeling strangely peaceful.  

Developing and finding a sense of alignment

We started the lesson by trying to find a good posture, but in order to find a good posture we need to find and develop the perfect sense of body alignment. It's extremely important to find a sense of alignment and use body parts to their highest efficiency because many pains and problems with the body are due to mis-alignment which can lead to health complications in later life. These bad habits that cause mis-alignment are picked up throughout life and can also be due to sporting activities or further outside forces that cause you to hold your body in a certain way. 

To find a perfect posture, the spine needs to be extended, eyes level, knees need to be relaxed but not completely bent and feet need to be hip width apart. This ensures that the whole body can be used to it's full potential, all your bones, muscles and ligaments can be used how nature intended them to be. Poor posture and alignment can lead to further health issues that can affect systems throughout the body (such as; digestion, breathing, muscles and joints). This causes those without a good sense of alignment find themselves easily worn out and unable to work efficiently or move properly. 

I found finding my sense of alignment generally quite easy as I've been studying ballet for the last 13 years which requires good posture throughout, however, I do find myself regularly slouching and by doing this exercise I gained a deeper understanding on the importance of finding a sense of alignment. I have now developed a deeper and more detailed understanding about the health complications that can occur without a good posture and how our bodies have adapted to form mis-alignments (such as; locked knees) due to bad postures and the misuse of our bodies.