6. Gesture and Motif Creation

As my choreographic process develops, I have been utilising the free studio time allocated. During my studio rehearsal in the studio on Monday, I aimed to create phrases and motifs to add to my movement bank. Some of my peers were also using the studios for choreography which helped motivate me to be creative. I managed to create a minute of movement for different sections of my solo, based on themes and emotions which relate to my stimulus. 

Initially, I was feeling stressed as I have missed valuable studio time due to being ill and I have been concerned about falling behind and missing my goals and deadlines which I set for myself at the start of the process. When I began, it was difficult to get started as I felt as if I had a massive task to achieve. However, when I was ill, I planned out the motifs and sections which needed to be completed. I considered how I would approach the task with inspiration from my chosen practitioner, Jonathan Burrows. In his book ‘The Choreographers Handbook’ he mentions not being afraid to be boring. Reminding myself of this enabled me to feel more relaxed and take the pressure off myself. 

From this, I was able to create a phrase where I used hand gestures, similar to Burrows’ ‘Hands’, which I was really happy with. The motif uses a gesture of being shackled or tied up, to show the theme of being trapped. This motif is repeated and eventually develops through the use of embellishment, to have hands placed together in a prayer position. This gesture is relevant to the piece as the slave trade and abolition movement was very prevalent at the time which I have been researching (Painter, 1994). Furthermore, Sojourner Truth had been brought up as a slave and mentions it in her speech ‘Ain’t I a Woman’, showing a direct link between the stimulus and my choreography (Truth, 1851). I think it is important for me to include contextual motifs in my piece to inform the audience about the injustice and discrimination that was being faced by minority groups. This is still an issue which is prevalent in the 21st century, with Black Lives Matter protests happening in 2020, making this a highly significant topic to be researching while balancing social sensitivity as someone from a non-minority group. 

(Leal-Olivas, 2020)

On the other hand, some of the other movements I was creating were not as successful as I kept repeating movements which I had intended to be in a different section that has contrasting themes and emotions to convey to the audience. I think this was happening due to feeling stressed before the session, instead of taking risks and not feeling worried about how the movement looked, I was naturally falling into movements which are comfortable to me. This meant that the movements weren’t always relevant to my stimulus and research which I have conducted as it was not critically thought out. To avoid this next time, I will bring in prepared research with me which has been analysed to allow me to edit my motif. Rather than deleting the whole phrase, I will change the parts which are less relevant to my choreography and add in movements which will support my aims and goals for the piece. I will create a plan of research and references to choreographers and academic research to ensure my choreographic work is analytical, intellectual, and innovative.

This video demonstrates how I have developed the 'shackled' motif into a sequence.

References

Leal-Olivas, D. (2020). Black Lives Matter Protests London 2020. WBUR. Available at: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/06/22/mapping-black-lives-matter-protests [Accessed 26 Jan. 2022].

Painter, N.I. (1994). Representing Truth: Sojourner Truth’s Knowing and Becoming Known. The Journal of American History, 81(2), p.461.

Truth, S. (1851). Speech Entitled “Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth Delivered at the 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. [online] Available at: https://thehermitage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sojourner-Truth_Aint-I-a-Woman_1851.pdf [Accessed 19 Oct. 2021].

 

Bibliography

Black Lives Matter (2013). About Black Lives Matter. [online] Black Lives Matter. Available at: https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/ [Accessed 26 Jan. 2022].

Burrows&Fargion (2020). Hands (1995). [online] Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/388689595.

Burrows, J. (2010). A choreographer’s handbook. Oxon: Routledge.‌

McCoy, H. (2020). Black Lives Matter, and Yes, You are Racist: The Parallelism of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 37(5), pp.463–475.

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