Team Member

Performance-Studies Ideas

Hi everyone! 

Here are a few of the ideas that were brought up during the rehearsal. In order for the performance to happen in such a short amount of time, please add your ideas, contribute, comment and expand upon the ideas, as much as possible.   

Instructions: 

To edit the discussion and add ideas:  

In the top right corner of the page there is a tab that says OPTIONS, 

scroll down and click Edit Discussion.

  

To start a discussion (encouraged!) on one of the ideas, make a separate comment thread for each activity. 

You are in control, so make sure you don't delete the entire conversation! 

We are looking forward to hearing your responses and ideas! 

 

Thank you!

 

 Add a plus + next to an idea if you are interested in the activity. 


Where have we taken the neutral/pedestrian body. The ordinary vs. the extraordinary body?

  1. Three bodies are taped to the museum windows  and remain taped for three hours.
  2. One body is tied to the back of a bookshelf located in the lobby area with many strings
  3. Three people who could be taken as museum-goers are seated in the cafe area and taped to their seats or coffee cups.
  4. A body struggles forward while attached to a harness that constantly pulls them back+
  5. A body constantly shifts into precise ballet positions
  6. A body naked released/relaxed and still
  7. A body naked tense and still
  8. A body at the stair case that ascends and descends a staircase yet never really succeeds in either action
  9. A body in a state of just having fallen from a tight rope.
  10. A body just at the point of speaking
  11. A body just before going ascends and descends the stairs. 
  12. A body constantly repeating pirouettes 
  13. A body taped to the door handle of the lobby door or to a door handle similar to that door but with out a door
  14. A body hanging up side down, almost touching the ground while another body is standing next to it.
  15. Three bodies in frozen 3 dimensional shapes roll around the floor. 
  16. A naked body covered in white paint next to a naked body without paint. 
  17. An image being projected onto a body as a canvas.
  18. Two bodies wrestling.
  19. A body being exposed by another body.
  20. A body dressing and making themselves up and then undoing the entire process. 
  21. A body performing a technical dance in a suit.
  22. A group of 7 naked bodies next to one clothed and then 7 clothed bodies and one naked body.
  23. A body exposing themselves. 
  24. A body singling out specific parts of the body. 
  25. A man wearing a Burka and female wearing a tuxedo.
  26. A body with its face covered but the genitals are exposed. 
  27. A body in the act of balancing. 
  28. A series of bodies more progressively clothed---jumping. 

** Actions will unfortunately not be taking place in the lobby area

Views: 284

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alex Vizzi on November 21, 2012 at 1:22am

one other planned "activity" can be the activity of a transition.

if we are going to have these informal, supposedly non-performative transitions between activities, maybe we can also choreograph an activity that mimics a transition. for example, we rehearse and act out the becoming "normal" as we come together and speak to each other about what we're going to do next.

this might look like: everybody's body becomes loose and not tense, we all look at each other and smile, we approach each other into a clump, maybe one dancer massages another or pats them on the back. we either speak or mime speaking about what's next.

is this a "real" transition or a "fake" transition?

this calls into question what is "pedestrian" and what is "neutral" versus what is performative. when are we "dancing" a transition and when are we merely transitioning.

how do we ourselves know if we are performing or not? how do our audiences know? does it matter?


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Jeremy Goren on November 21, 2012 at 1:27pm

+

I like this - and would suggest the addition of having this happen in juxtaposition with some of the activities, for us and people watching to experience the contrast -- or experiment the contrast - of performative and supposedly non-performative, and the spectrum of these. 


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Tara Fenamore on November 21, 2012 at 8:50pm

Hey Alex,

I'm just a little unclear on the activities.

So, we verbally communicate with each other to determine what actions to do?  It can be anything?  The verbal communication and changing activities creates visible, tangible transitions?

Is that the idea?


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Tara Fenamore on November 21, 2012 at 9:05pm

I had an idea (sort of in line with the harness idea already proposed) of tying ropes to the limbs (wrists and feet) of a dancer.  This dancer is dressed in a suit...something professional looking.  The ropes are held by four naked bodies.  They manipulate the yielding body with the ropes.  The body yields absolutely to the governance of the ropes.  It is not aware of the ropes or the other bodies in the space.  Maybe this dancer speaks some kind of constructed monologue that is recognized by the audience as "filler language:" "Hi, How are you?  Nice weather we're having." etc.  This is pedestrian.

Next to this...or somewhere else in the space...is a naked dancer with ropes tied to his/her limbs.  The ropes are held by four clothed dancers.  It is an inversion of the other image.  This dancer fights the ropes.  This dancer is aware of the ropes that constrict/manipulate and fights them.  The four dancers holding the ropes must actively work to manipulate the body as they collectively wish despite the rebellion.  This dancer has no lines...can even speak to the audience/the bodies manipulating the ropes. this actor is present...aware.  This is neutrality.


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Ian Wen on November 23, 2012 at 11:40am
i like this idea. i would add that the inversion is enough without introducing one as yielding the other resisting. the mere act of viewing the bodies nude/clothed would be interesting in of itself.

LEIMAY Ensemble & Guest ColaboratorsPermalink Reply by Elizabeth McAuliffe on November 21, 2012 at 9:36pm
So far i like all the proposed action studies. I will keep thinking if i am more in favor of some or others and why. For now I am particularly interested in the role of costume in all of this. How does costume affect our perception of the action being performed? How does costume affect what we perceive to be pedestrian, ordinary, extraordinary? I like the idea of juxtaposing multiple bodies doing the same synchronized action (pedestrian and or technical) all in different costumes. For example a technical dance being performed by a person that is nude, a person in business attire, and a person in a tutu.

LEIMAY Ensemble & Guest ColaboratorsPermalink Reply by Miyu Leilani on November 22, 2012 at 5:01pm

I found what happened to myself during the rehearsal interesting.

To me, there was a huge wall/ border between being topless and entirely naked.

Since the moment I took my panty off, it suddenly started to become a fight between being an object/ performer and too much self-consciousness.

But I think from outside, especially when women's body is naked, the most part where makes the strong sense of nudity is the top (Breast) not the bottom. I think as a observer, the moment when a woman shows her breast is stronger than the moment when she takes her panty off. or maybe they are equally strong.

As being the one becoming naked, somehow, for me, topless was just another form of clothing but showing the bottom was somewhat very uncomfortable.

Since our rehearsal, I've been thinking about it a lot.

Nudity itself can be interesting. But keeping the state of performer is the need. Winning the self-consciousness as a performer could be a key to overcome the sexuality in nude.


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Jeremy Goren on November 22, 2012 at 8:55pm

"Nudity itself can be interesting. But keeping the state of performer is the need."

++


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Alex Franz Zehetbauer on November 22, 2012 at 6:11pm
Perhaps another action... could involve a performer set in the space as an audience plant. In normal attire, performing the act of viewing the exhibition. This performer moves to a new work every hour and for the entirety of that hour stands in relaxed yet statuesque spectatorship. Still breathing, still moving the eyes across the work being viewed, yet stuck in observation. Perhaps there is also a pair of white foot prints, exact to the performers feet, such that when they move to a new work on the hour their presence is left behind at each location. What do you guys think?

Happy thanksgiving all!!! Alex.

Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Jeremy Goren on November 22, 2012 at 8:56pm

Very nice.


Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Ian Wen on November 23, 2012 at 11:41am
concur!

Friend of LEIMAYPermalink Reply by Tara Fenamore on November 22, 2012 at 8:49pm
I love that idea, alex.

And Miyu, I felt similarly. I had no boundaries with being topless, which surprised me. I never took my panties off and defintely felt a barrier in relation to that. I admired you for your courage.

It is something I am interested to explore again next rehearsal.

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