“Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.” – Rumi
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Direction and Focus: Perform in class February 14
Create a dance around a single focal point. Explore directional movement as a means of indicating your relationship to the focal point. Allow the relationship to change throughout the piece by using changes in direction as both a focus (where you are looking or not looking) and a spatial idea. Consider these notes from Marcia Siegel about focus, and try incorporating a few into your study. (Marcia B. Seigel, Re-Thinking Movement Analysis, c.2007)
- Inner Focus, where the eyes are open and the dancer is aware of where they are and what’s around them but is concentrating on herself.
- Functional Focus (which might correspond to most closely to directness), where the attention is on a particular task to be done, like holding or steading a partner.
- Interpersonal Focus, when the attention is on the exchange with a partner. [Or a prop, or other object]
- Presentational Focus, when the dancer is showing herself to the audience, and sometimes looking at the audience, but not actually seeing the audience.
- Visionary Focus, where the performer is seeing an imaginary space.
Can you think of others, and use them in your study?
POST YOUR VIDEO HERE
Direction & Focus – Carissa
I approached this study as a piece about visionary focus, so the first step was to define what the point of focus was, what I was, and what our relationship is. I was inspired by videos of pets interacting with babies and toys, and I applied ideas of curiosity, playfulness, and affection to my movements. For movement, I used the sequence I choreographed in Friday’s class (gather, elongate, spiral, pulse).
Focus for me is a constant struggle, so I really wanted to play with that struggle within my study. I took the sequence choreographed in class and played with several different points of focus, and how those points of focus in turn shifted my emotional focus within.