Session 1

Tuesday 6th January

Warm Up
A focussed physical warm up in silence
Big Small Twisted
Minimal Surface contact
Individually in/in groups

ALPHABET BOX - Making meaning from the abstract

• Mark out an imaginary box around yourself. 
• An imaginary box around each person, this is described along with the positioning of letters which mark various points of the box. 
• Each letter has a particular position inside the box. 
• Students then familiarise themselves with the positioning of the letters of their name. 
• Students create an ultimate spelling using different body parts to touch each letter, at different speeds, qualities, and scale of movement. 
• Then split the whole group into three so that each group performs while the others become the audience. 
• Set their movement to music.

DISCUSS: What are we reading from the performances? What is being invoked in us as spectators and as performers and how? Is it narrative, memories, emotions etc? Is it anything at all? OR Simply people making abstract meaning?

Creation of physical/bodily language

In 1931, Artaud visited the Exposition Coloniale in Paris where he saw a performance of a group of Balinese dancers.  Though he did not understand the intricacies of the language of the dance, Artaud was deeply impressed by the spiritual beauty of the performance and this inspired his fascination with the potential of the body to unlock powerful emotions in both performers and audience.  As a direct reaction to the Balinese dancers, Artaud began to explore ideas of a new language of the body.

“I am well aware that a language of gestures and postures dance and music is less able to narrate a mans thoughts to explain conscious states clearly and exactly than spoken language. But whoever said that theatre was made to define a character, to resolve conflicts of a human emotional order, of a present day psychological nature such as those which monopolise current theatre.” Artaud