My name is Maddie Frischling, and I am a junior here at Kenyon majoring in chemistry and minoring in dance. Movement has always served as a creative balance for me being so science oriented the rest of the time. I have worked with many different styles over the past 14 years but had not experienced modern or choreographed myself until coming to college!
I did this assignment with music initially which initiated me to go a certain direction with my movement. I stuck with this idea throughout the entirety of my strength work once the music had been long removed. It developed with the choices I made in the dance instead of the other way around. I feel like I created a much more cohesive piece because of this. I also made the transition to doing movement that just felt like it should happen next instead of thinking about it consciously too much. I realized it was okay to add some extra elements into a travel section, for example, besides moving the entire time if it added something significant to the phrase. My main struggle with strength, which was also present for resiliency, was my performance quality and accurately doing what I envisioned in my head. I had such a clear intent and background plot for “Malfunction,” but I had trouble executing it in such a way that communicated it to everyone else. However, I think my thought process was much more effective and resulted in an actual solo being made for the first time in my dancing career.
I have chosen the shower as my
space for the body-place-identity project. We did a site-specific activity in
the athletic center where I was in a cramped area between an elevator and
doorway. This inspired me to want to explore this type of environment more. The
shower would allow me to further build on the gestural movement that I lean
towards as well as finding ways to achieve dynamic quality and motion with
limited physical room. It is a meaningful space to me because it is my nightly
ritual and routine to take a long shower before I go to bed every day. It is my
time to destress, think about things, or just stand there meaninglessly under
the water. It is a quite literal cleanse where a change or experience has
occurred within my own mind. I feel refreshed and often a decision of some kind
has been made; it is my place of relief. I want to play with the opportunity
for both deep thought and mindless presence. I still need to find a narrative
to answer questions as to why I am there, what is motivating me, and what the
significance is between me and my partner, but I plan to discover these along
the way. I want to use the space in such a way that it is not a reproducible piece
independently; my surroundings should be vital in portraying the intention. Using
weight on the walls and manipulation of the curtain or water are effects I will
be trying out. I like the visual appeal of the one way viewpoint of the
performance space as if it is something personal that the viewers happen to
see. The rectangular geometry prevents visibility from three of the four sides,
including bird’s eye view. I am looking forward to finding creative ways to use
the space to its full potential.
The process of this study has posed some challenges for me in that it involves many more variables and elements to play with and make decisions about. Not only is there the movement factor, but also camera work angles and site considerations. The latter two I really have not had much experience with so there is a lot of trial and error involved to see what works from an objective perspective and what doesn’t. I got feedback regarding my first drafted video of the camera being too static. I definitely want to push myself to explore the possibilities of exploring this and find creative viewpoints to utilize my space as well as my dancing and relationship to Eryfili. I have found that improvisation is primarily the method of movement generation that I have been working with, completely not intentionally. It is interesting how dancing in a specific location tends towards this style with landmark actions connecting the dots of your movement. It is hard to create concrete choreography this way, but there is something beautiful about it being a little different every time. I also would like to take into account people’s notes on the shower itself. The current one in my video lacks some visual appeal and also does not allow me to play with silhouettes and shadows like a glass door would which could add more depth to the piece and influence my attire if my body is more hidden. Eryfili’s movement really ties into some features I included, and I would like to build on the effects of isolated body parts and delve into more repetition while paying attention to the details of quality, timing, and focus. I really liked my feedback suggestions about using the shower itself to reach a sort of resolution. Eryfili finds this with a sort of inner conflict which I really love and want to transpose with turning on the water after some conflict as well. We will keep in communication about the final product during the next week as we have mainly focused on our independent works and how they are related thus far!
The process of this study has posed some challenges for me in that it involves many more variables and elements to play with and make decisions about. Not only is there the movement factor, but also camera work angles and site considerations. The latter two I really have not had much experience with so there is a lot of trial and error involved to see what works from an objective perspective and what doesn’t. I got feedback regarding my first drafted video of the camera being too static. I definitely want to push myself to explore the possibilities of exploring this and find creative viewpoints to utilize my space as well as my dancing and relationship to Eryfili. I have found that improvisation is primarily the method of movement generation that I have been working with, completely not intentionally. It is interesting how dancing in a specific location tends towards this style with landmark actions connecting the dots of your movement. It is hard to create concrete choreography this way, but there is something beautiful about it being a little different every time. I also would like to take into account people’s notes on the shower itself. The current one in my video lacks some visual appeal and also does not allow me to play with silhouettes and shadows like a glass door would which could add more depth to the piece and influence my attire if my body is more hidden. Eryfili’s movement really ties into some features I included, and I would like to build on the effects of isolated body parts and delve into more repetition while paying attention to the details of quality, timing, and focus. I really liked my feedback suggestions about using the shower itself to reach a sort of resolution. Eryfili finds this with a sort of inner conflict which I really love and want to transpose with turning on the water after some conflict as well. We will keep in communication about the final product during the next week as we have mainly focused on our independent works and how they are related thus far!
Draft Video
Eryfili and I spoke quite a bit over Skype and messaging, elaborating
on our blog posts regarding our concept. What started as a play on routine further
morphed as the choreography was developed but remained our core theme. We had
each other in mind while creating the draft pieces, and made choices more
specifically regarding things we liked in our later movement explorations. For
my final piece, I actually played Eryfili’s in the background to time our
phrases which resulted in a cohesive video that uses mostly repetition and
transposition elements. There is a section where both of our bodies are hidden
by our different surroundings and our hands are the focal points, utilizing an
aspect of similarity in two different worlds. From a creative standpoint, it
was challenging because we could not really work together simultaneously. My
previous duet work was very much based on immediate collaboration while
creating. In this case, we each had to formulate some ideas or movements first
and then communicate after the fact. It was definitely a new process of making
a piece for me and balanced the independence of a solo with the thoughts and contributions
of a partner. With more time, I could see this project going a few different
ways. I think a series of pieces like ours maybe in different spaces and
different movement motifs with shorter time spans would be really interesting.
Cutting out the image to these additional clips would certainly provide a lot
more context for the audience. Also, it was much too difficult to get the
camera angles I wanted given the performance space so I would have liked to
find someone more experienced to film those. Eryfili was very expressive so
playing on that aspect with abrupt close ups would have been a very emotional
addition. It was awesome discussing the dance art with someone completely new, especially
since our department is so small and we get to know one another’s styles. The
new outlook and opinions were really eye opening and made me get more out of my
comfort zone. Eryfili inspired me with her attention to detail in a single
movement and enjoyment in stillness. I will be considering this in my own
future choreographing endeavors in that not everything has to progress so
quickly.
