Choreographic Lab

Who By Fire
by Bodies in Flight and Angel Tech
performer Tim Atack

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Bodies of Flight - Secrecy of Saints

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Secrecy of Saints by Bodies in Flight
Performer Polly Frame

Guy Dartnell considers voicing the body, and moving the voice.
Format: mp3
Length: 22.50min
Size: 10.4Mg

Robert Daniels considers “scoring” and his interdisciplinary practice.
Format: mp3
Length: 19.14min
Size: 8.8Mg

Kerryn Wise on negotiating the dance/live art/technology nexus.
Format: mp3
Length: 17.59min
Size: 8.2Mg

Anna Furse on “articulation”
Format: mp3
Length: 12.32min
Size: 5.7Mg

Gill Clarke discusses choreographing the camera.
Format: mp3
Length: 18.20min
Size: 8.3Mg

Sara Giddens discusses her work with Bodies In Flight.
Format: mp3
Length: 14.51min
Size: 6.8Mg

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Size: 8.2 Mg
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Format: Quicktime Mpeg4
Designed in SketchUp

Participants – Jane Bacon, Robert Daniels, Vida Midgelow
Observers – Gill Clarke, Anna Furse

This follows on from my previous post, which described some of the history/background to the Voic(e)motion process. This one concerns itself more with what the aims of the process are.

Like I said in my previous post, Voic(e)motion is an improvisational process that seeks to unify voice and movement through the medium of emotion. It’s difficult to describe because in my experience as a process it lies in between other art forms. With my particular background and roots in theatre I probably give it a theatrical edge when I teach it and use it, but as a process and maybe because it borrows from so many different art forms, its emphasis could be shifted according to who was working with it and what their background was. In some ways that is what excites me about it - I feel that it offers a bridge between different languages. In some ways I think of it as almost an art form in itself, others may consider it to be a fudge, neither one thing nor another.

The idea behind Voic(e)motion is to get the voice and the body to do the same thing. If you like, to get the body to act like a large vocal chord, rather than to just combine sound and movement together. Through a combination of the various exercises I use, plus some time for questions and answers and a large amount of me “feeding in” as people are working, I hope to bring participants to a point where they experience for themselves a unity of voice, movement and emotion. If and once this happens it is almost as if the person discovers the “resonant frequency” of whatever quality of emotion it is they are experiencing.

Perhaps you’ve seen those films of bridges that have begun to vibrate and gyrate monstrously, as the vibrations of cars passing over them reach the resonant frequency of the bridge. The overlay of the two frequencies together creates an enormous combined frequency – this usually results in the bridge falling down because the waves or movements created are beyond what it can structurally stand. This isn’t what actually happens in Voic(e)motion, though sometimes one witnesses extremes of behaviour in participants, but it is a good analogy I think. The combined inter/overlay of the voice, movement and emotion is such that it brings about a resonance in the individual that is more than the sum of its parts. However instead of destroying the person (as in the analogy) hitting this resonant frequency energises the individual in a very particular way.

In my eyes they become “emotionally articulate”, though no words may be uttered. Out of this an intelligence takes over where what’s manifested seems to have a life of its own. What I mean by this is that up to this point a certain amount of effort and struggle is involved to try and bring these three elements of voice, body and emotion together. The amount and kind of difficulty encountered during this process will differ from one individual to the next dependant on many things, including what art form they are generally rooted in. Once unity occurs though, distinctions between the three elements of voice, body and emotion disappear and the combined “intelligence” of all three starts to operate. Once locked into this state the individual can in a sense sit back and ride the experience - the effort to bring it about is over and it’s now more about internally trying to stand out of the way. Even if the individual finds themselves doing something that would normally require them to exert immense physical effort, because they have become a channel for the experience, the physical and vocal work is seemingly done for them leaving them often with a feeling of exhilaration afterwards rather than tiredness.

One analogy for this is to think of a surfer on a surfboard. The emotion a person is channelling may be as big as an ocean wave, but the surfer only has to exert enough effort to keep themselves balanced on the surfboard. All the real effort is done by the ocean itself. As long as the surfer respects the wave, doesn’t fight it and stays flexible enough to adjust the balance and direction to wherever the wave wants to lead them then they won’t get swamped or fall off. Having said that of course it’s a given that you will fall off sometimes and find yourself floundering or drowning for while, but you just have to make your way back to the surface and look for the next wave. Because without the wave you can’t take the ride.

Generally when it comes to emotions we’re trying to keep ourselves dry and sunbathing on the shore. If you want to ride the waves of your emotions you have to get wet. You have to swim out to meet them. That in essence is what Voic(e)motion is – it’s using your voice, your body and your awareness to go looking for emotions, hoping paradoxically that they find you first.