Oppositional Forces: Balance and Off-Balance

Actor's physical training, Out of Balance -exercise

 

Dance therapy exploration: Off-balance

Principles that Govern the Pre-expressive Level of Performance

There are three main principles that govern the pre-expressive level of performance: alterations in balance, the law of opposition, and coherence and incoherence (Watson 33). 

Ian Watson states that the first two principles mainly have to do with altering the

performer's center of gravity, normal balance, and transfer of weight and energy. 

He writes that most daily body techniques tend to a point of inertia which demands a minimum expenditure of energy. 

Codified forms, on the other hand, distort this normal equilibrium, calling on the performer to engage additional energy in order to move, remain still, or even merely to retain balance (33). 

Codified forms can be understood as techniques of extra-daily behavior with established interpretive guidelines such as ballet, noh theatre, and kathakali. 

An example then of Barba's belief in the principle of opposition is his observation that across codified forms, for the actor, every impulse must always be met with a counter-impulse (De Marinis 110). 

 In other words, if the performer is to move to her left, she must first make a slight move to her right; if she is to jump, she must first bend slightly downward. 

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Exercise

Students explored body movement using the concept of balance and off-balance.  

They would achieve positions of balance to provoke an off-balance move.

This continuous balance and off-balance movement created also new shapes.

As they landed, they payed attention to positions they would have never thought of otherwise.

Source:

Applying the Performance Concepts of Eugenio Barba to the Stage Direction of The Romance of Erin

Duncan Technique: Review and Ensemble

 SK Duncan Technique

Steps Explored in Class

Walk with focus

Walk with focus in different directions

Say "I am a king"

Use of metatarsus

Waltz step

Beauty prayer (inner focus)

arms above

beneath

solar

before me

behind me

all around

figure eight with arms

arms with walk

arms with waltz step

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Exercise

Students practiced the main movements related to Isadora Dunca's Technique.

Students created a phrase for their respective ensemble pieces.

Humphrey / Weidman Technique

Early Weidman

DNB -- New Dance (1935) by Humphrey and Weidman

Summary of Humphrey's and Weidman's Ideas

Develop a form of dance indigenous of America

Develop a form of dance different from ballet

Develop dances that resemble the world around them 

Develop dances that do not defy gravity

Concepts

The Humphrey/Weidman Technique is build around the body's response to gravity

To maintain balance one must resist gravity

To give into gravity is to fall

As one falls and recovers, movement shapes change

The speed of the fall and the slowness of the recovery produce rhythmic constrast

In resisting the fall there is suspension

And in springing back from the fall, there is rebound

By varying the directions of the fall, the rise and the suspension, the degree of yielding and the dynamics of the recovery, endless choreographic possibilities emerge

The body moves in three plains: floor, norm or air

Vocabulary

Fall

recovery

Shapes

Rhythmic contact

Suspension

Quiz 1 & Floor Work / Moving With Gravity

Early Studies on Gravity

Natural Movement Training Ground transitions | How to get up from the floor without using the hands

Movement Research: Archers

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Exercise

Students were introduced to the study of gravity in relation to the human body in motion.

Students experimented with their own weight, gravity and how to get themselves down to the floor and off without help from their hands.

Students explored momentum and how to manipulate their body weight in order to get off the floor.

Students explored pulls and stresses, balance, fall, recovery, shapes, suspension and rebound

Floor, norm and air, what we called levels, were explored as students fell down and got up. 

A new group phrase came out of this exercise.


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Quiz 1

1. What is pedestrian movement? Why do we use pedestrian movement in class?

2. Why are levels important in dance?

3. How does using directions make your dance richer?

4. What is the difference between kinesphere and general space?

5. What does focus do for the dancer?

6. What is flow?

7. What is the difference between free flow and bound flow?

8. How did Laban's cube enhance your movement in space?

9. Isadora Duncan believed in "emotion before motion".
      Explain.

10. What is the solar-plexus?
      Why is important for dancers to know where the solar-plexus is located?

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GRAVITY

Gravity is an invisible force that pulls objects toward each other. The closer objects are to each other, the stronger their gravitational pull is. Earth's gravity comes from all its mass. All its mass makes a combined gravitational pull on all the mass in your body. Thus, 

Source:
What is gravity?

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Gravity in Dance:

The forces acting on an individual dancer create a push-pull relationship between the dancer and the surrounding space. The force you exert on the floor is affected by the direction and magnitude of the force. ... This results in a zero sum force acting on the body placing you in your center of gravity.

Source:
Physics of Dance Movements

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Laban's Cube: Heart Rhythm / First Solo Phrase

The notion of kinesphere was created by Rudolf Laban to define: “the sphere around the body whose periphery can be reached by easily extended limbs without stepping away from that place which is the point of support when standing on one foot” (1966, p.10).


This spherical space around our body shifts as soon as we shift our weight. It is also the first area of movement exploration before going into “space in general”.

 It follows anatomical limitations, being actually more elliptic than spherical as constitutionally, the average body has a wider area of reach forward than backward.

 La clarificación del Movimiento en el espacio (Cubo de Laban) -Alfa institut 2016

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Exercise

Students closed their  eyes.

They were asked to imagine they were inside an imaginary cube 

They asked to explore with their hands and feet, the walls and corners of the cube.

As a result they came up with a movement phrase for their solo work.

Source:
Kinesphere

Review: First Ensemble Phrase / Flow

FREE AND BOUND FLOW

THE FLOW FACTOR

 CHANGES IN THE QUALITY OF THE FLOW OF TENSION BECOMING EITHER FREE OR BOUND 

The alive human body is always in a more or less “energized” state. Therefore, it is not really accurate to think of the polarities of motion as extreme “tension” and “relaxation” as in a dead flop. The rhythmic changes in breathing, the constant responding of the body to both inner and outer stimuli, provide a constant stream of urges to move. Thus, when we describe movement, we must look at it from the beginning as the natural state of the alive human body. This is particularly important in understanding the “opposite” or extremes in quality in the flow factor. As you watch a person moving, you may notice that he either holds back, restricts, binds the flow of his movement, or that he goes with the flow, his body moving freely and easily with the motion. The “going with” the flow of movement we call free; the restriction of the flow we call bound. 

Free and bound are the elements or qualities of the flow factor. Bound flow is similar to what we very often call “tense;” free flow to “relaxed.” However, both free and bound flow require muscular tension; all movement requires tensing of muscles, and it is the relationship among the muscles tenses, rather than the presence of tension in the body, which determines the quality of the flow.It is a mistake to think that free flow is “better” than bound flow, even though the connotations of these terms may suggest such a value judgment. There are no good or bad movement qualities as such; there are appropriate and inappropriate uses of qualities. 

The proverbial “bull in the china shop” is an example, at least in part, of an inappropriate use of free flow. Most people find that they must restrict the flow of their movement in such tasks as threading a needle or carrying a pot of hot coffee. Although the flow factor is sometimes viewed as the same “kind” of event on the same level with the factors of weight, space and time, it is more often seen in a slightly different light from the other effort factors. Changes in the quality of flow seem to be the most frequent kind of changes in movement of all the effort elements. They seem, in fact, to provide a kind of substrate in movement, out of which changes in the qualities of weight, time and space can “crystallize,” as highlights among the continuing flow changes. 

For example, a boxer in the ring, in between punches, constantly moves his arms, legs and trunks to keep the flow “alive” or changing, and out of this he crystallizes a strong-direct-quick punch. Many conversational gestures are prepared and concluded with flow changes, while elements of the weight, space and time factors may emphasize the main statement. From this point of view, flow “feeds” the other factors in a sense, and can be subsumed by the other factors when other qualities crystallize.

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Exercise

Students were given time to review the free and bound flow movements  by calling the flow quality out loud.

If the call was free flow, they moved their arms as if they were throwing a scarf in the air.

If the call was bound, they moved their arms as if they were holding a stick moving it as a spear in all directions, but in a controlled manner. 

Then, the call would change form free to bound continuously, giving students a chance to experience the two different qualities of flow.

The more they did the exercise, the more expressive their arms became, and the more in control of their arms they were.

Source:

Effort Elements in Combination 

Sticks: Bound Flow

 BOUND FLOW

Bound flow allows for movement in a more controlled way. 

Bound flow is described as more firm and with boundaries. 

It's about keeping emotions in and contained.

Review: Effort

Laban's model of effort allows many subtle analyses and understandings. His four Effort Factors are defined, each ranging across two opposite Effort Elements:

• Space Effort considers focus or awareness, ranging from direct to indirect or flexible;
  
• Weight Effort considers pressure, force, or sensitivity, ranging from strength to lightness;
  
• Time Effort considers speed or slowing of the pace, ranging from quick to sustained.
  
• Flow Effort considers the control of movement, ranging from bound or controlled to free or released. 

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Exercise

Students were given a wooden stick. 

They began to play with the wooden stick by using in any way they wanted (as a weapon, as tool, as a symbol). 

The alternating of the hands as they penetrated the space with the stick created a sense of controlled arm flow.

This sense of controlled flow is necessary for the student to embody the quality of bound flow.

The second part of the exercise, they would let go of the stick and now move their arms as if they were still holding it.

That reference made them continue pulling and pushing the imaginary stick as they alternated arms.

The result was a noticeable increase in arm movement with a sense of controlled flow they never experienced before.

Source:
The Three Factors of Movement: Time, Effort and Flow