Coil II involves the embodiment of the imaginary beings – of imaginary bodies; it explores how performers possess and be possessed by them.
In this step of the research, I used the material from the book of beings created in Coil I and asked performers to improvise while embodying these previously conceived imaginary bodies.
In this Coil it was essential for me to collect a toolbox of pathways and guidance to help performers to explore “wild” states. I asked the performers to let go, to abandon themselves, to entrance themselves, to dear to push themselves out of their comfort zones, to play with the idea of going crazy and flirt with the idea of madness.
I gave each performer one of the beings and I designed 3 different scores that would guide the performers to embody the imaginary bodies, motivating them push their limits and undo familiar patterns of movement in order to try to disclose unknown pathways of improvisation.
This stage demanded of the performers to empty themselves to receive a new identity – the imaginary body.
The creation of this toolbox started with the observing and reflecting on what were the specific stimuli that allowed the performers to take the step into this wild/unknown/entranced new state and to spot what techniques amended to unleash their intuitive impulses. This happened through the reflection of the material obtained by the experiment, but also by the somatic and psychological experience it traced in their agglomerate bodies.
The imaginary body is the medium -
between the imagination of the performer and the body,
The body of the performer is the medium, between the wild and the audience.
The body of the performer surrenders, empties itself,
Dears to taste madness through the medium of the imaginary body
Embodies the imaginary body
The spectator embodies the body of the performer embodying the imaginary body.
A turning wheel of what is imagination and what is body improvises its way in the present moment
unveiling potential, unravelling trapped dogmas
Releasing an imprisoned body of toes, shoulders, lips, nails,
pelvis, vocal chords --- tumbling into a familiar unknown.
Through the embodiment I aimed to create a context where the physical and the imaginary blur – the body and the mind – the hidden and the seen – the inside and the outside - the imaginative flow and the physical movement into a stream of uncensored improvisation.
Methodology – Scores of Embodiment
In Coil II I proceeded with 3 scores which invite the performers to improvise the embodiment of their assigned imaginary body alone in a room, unwatched by other humans. The scores focus on the feeling of being unwatched to let go, in opposition to the current social system which maintains self-discipline through surveillance or the feeling that you are being watched. As Foucault puts it when describing the panopticism, the mere fact of knowing you could be watched makes you behave the way you are required to in order to not be punished (Foucault, 1978, p. 221), creating a sort of internal individual surveillance. This explains the choice to give the task to the performers to do in a safe space, alone ad unwatched, giving them the possibility to feel comfortable to explore the delicate spaces I ask them to enter.
1 – AUDIO SCORE:
The audio score consists of a 20 minute voice recording that guides the participant into the embodiment of one of the beings.
Before sending the score to the performer I gave the following instructions:
- The score must be heard for the 1st time during the improvisation.
- Warm up 10 minutes before hearing the score
- Wear clothes that are a bit unusual to you (this makes it often easier to switch identity and is a very good tool in using the body differently, since costumes have a transformative effect)
- Take a camera, record yourself during the 20 minutes – and allow yourself to decide at the end if you want to send it back or just delete it. (this point is important for me because it allow the person to feel less watched by the camera and freer.)
The Audio Score (example on the side) guides the participant to:
- Massage their own body for some minutes.
- Take the time to be present in a meditative silence of perceptive listening.
- Listen to the “being” that they will embody.
- Move in the space with their new body.
- Take this body further and further into the unfamiliar, into the bizarre, take it to unexpected places.
- Take a moment to write down/draw something on a paper reflecting your thoughts, experiences or associations during the exercise.
(this method allowed the people to improvise just from the words/concept)
2 – TEXT AND DRAWING
The second way of giving the task was to give participants one of the pages of the Book of Beings, explain to them the process and objectives of my research and asking them to:
- Wear clothes that are a bit unusual
- Make a warm up
- Read the descriptive text and look at the drawing for the 1st time in the studio prior to the improvisation.
- Take a camera, record yourself doing a 15 minutes improvisation embodying the imaginary being – and allow yourself to decide at the end if you want to send it back or just delete it.
- Take a moment to write down/draw something on a paper reflecting your thoughts, experiences or associations during the exercise.
(this method also allowed the people to improvise just from the words/concept, but gave them more freedom in the structure)
3 – DRAWING
The third way of giving the task was to give participants just the drawing of one body from the of the Book of Beings, explain to them the process and objectives of my research and asking them to:
- Wear clothes that are a bit unusual
- Make a warm up
- Look closely at the drawing for the 1st time in the studio prior to the improvisation.
- Take a camera, record yourself doing a 15 minutes improvisation embodying the imaginary being – and allow yourself to decide at the end if you want to send it back or just delete it.
- Take a moment to write down/draw something on a paper reflecting your thoughts, experiences or associations during the exercise.
(this method tests out what happens if people use a visual representation rather than words/concept representation – also in a free structure.)
In this phase, I decided to work with people that I know and have worked with before, this aspect allowed me to go faster into the actual work due to the time limitations I had. The fact of knowing them also allowed me to choose for each one a specific body that I thought would take them out of their comfort zone and push them to explore unusual possibilities. However, I do believe that with more time and more in studio work, any of the beings would be inducing new material from any performer, therefore I highlight the fact that this methodology that I used was strictly tied to circumstantial realities.
I received the video of exploration of 12 different people and their physical reflective material on paper. All of the participants decided to send me their videos. After watching and analysing the material, I chose 5 specific experiments that I believed would create a constructive output to coining methodology for inducing “wild states”; I selected these particular 5 because each had an important element and they were very different from each other allowing an interesting diversity of results. With these 5 people specifically, I continued a longer conversation in which I shared my observations and listened to their notes regarding them. We focused on many aspects, some more physical and some more psychological, questioning whether they found movement or voice material that they had never gone through before and if they were able to push their boundaries and explore things they hadn’t touched on before through the embodiment of imaginary bodies.
Follow the line to watch some extracts of the experiments made with the performers, my reflections, their reflections, our thoughts and their drawings.
Chami – Using breath , using the dynamics between body and voice.
One element that was very present in the improvisation of Chami was breath, throughout her whole improvisation she let the movement of her breath guide her and take her inside the body. She also focused on the relationship between movement and voice, one influencing the other, each bringing new motion into the other. At moments she also uses the inner impulses created from the embodiment to lose control, propelling herself from side to side, again confusing her body to explore unknown layers. Speaking with Chami after watching her video, he highlighted again how it was very liberating to melt inside the new imaginary body, as if she could finally let go of her own. This feeling of liberation from possession is recurring in this work, as if we are almost tired to keep on playing only one role, only one body.
Rakela – USING RECURRENT MELODY
Rakela allows the melody that emerges to take her altered states. The melody accompanies her in the process, she flows in the repetition, repeating and entrancing herself, using one clear stable rhythm. This specific melody path is what becomes her structure, it allows her mind to be busy with something, not to feel lost and to wonder what to do – the melody is a clear path allowing her to move without thought following a circularity.
Rica – USING CONFUSION AND SURPRISE
Rica attempts to reach the wild state through fast and confusing movement. I can clearly see that he tries to move faster than his thoughts, he uses the element of surprise, of clouding himself to find new movement. When we discuss what happened, he also tells me that he tried to let an “outer” unknown force move him, as if it was not him all the time.
In the reflection he writes at the end of the score, he makes parallels between his movement experience and his personal life. The body that he explored was the “Strobo death” which is a being that is stuck in one place and cannot move. He related this experience of being stuck to the fact that in that moment he felt stuck in life due to some pains in his articulations that kept coming back.
It was really interesting to note how he used this being as a way to give vent to his frustration. It was as if the being became a metaphor and embodiment of unpleasant emotion.
Dereo – Embodying form, sticking to the task.
I realized in watching the improvisation of Dereo that he used form, shape and esthetics as the gateway inside the character. I could really see in his improvisation how he is also watching himself from the outside. He is living the character through different perspectives, one inside and one outside, which is also a very interesting and present aspect of performing arts. You are experiencing something while knowing that you are being watched – so you are watching yourself being watched. After a discussion, Dereo confirmed that he was often coming back to the description of the being in his head, attempting to embody it and to share the embodiment. He also extensively spoke of how he found this exercise extremely liberating, which was a positive feedback on the wider aims of the research.
Dimitri – Transforming physicality, transgressing social disguise
With Dimitri I was able to see a developing process throughout the score. I could really see how he put himself in the character and slowly pushed it further and further.
Dimitri explained that he found most effective in finding this strangeness and this strance was to push himself through a physicality, like for instance tensing all his muscles to the maximum and then releasing them. These tricks he found would put him in unusual places pushing him to explore unknown places. Therefore, he was using the modifying of the physical aspect to transform the mental aspect.
I also noted that his improvisation contained something that was less present in the others – he took pleasure in being what could socially be described as “disgusting” or “ugly”, as a way to transform his usual self and put himself inside another body.
“firstly, just the description of the being you sent in words is incredibly layered, mystical and beyond existence.
It felt like it was too much imagination for my little head to be able to fabricate and feel so quickly, all this together!
the experience for me, is as usual as any moment i surrender to playing along your imaginary beings, it's challenging, breathtaking, and i always feel that i am not elastic / flexible, not out-of-this-world enough to be able to play on these strings!
but i (kamikaze) my way in, because i know you will always find your way through finding your inspiration.. as much as i feel as a (performance) it could have been a bit dull, not as crazy / as pushed further. not sure if i found the totality of this being, i was scratching at the surface..
as for (how strange / how much madness i could put in this ) i really did fall into a loop of the voice i was repeating, it was hectically taking over me, which i loved ! yet, again, not enough madness of the being itself ?
at some point i stopped knowing who i am exactly ! the being? the story? farah going coocoo cause its the only moment she can since a while ? I really dont know.. nontheless, it did expand some craziness, some personal state of trance (of nonesense maybe!)” Rakela -
“ the element of water put me in a certain state, and at first I think I got a bit stuck in a quality of movement, in general I know that I could have taken the embodiment further, to crazier and weirder places, but I felt I needed time to allow the being to enter my body and 20 minutes were not enough.
What was interesting to me was this this notion of "going into unfamiliar positions or states" because it was forcing me to keep on opening doors
At some point it was very pleasant to let myself go to this creature, it gave me a feeling of freedom and deep connection with an inner movement, inner material, when I heard the alarm I was a bit frustrated because that was when I was becoming more free and into it.” Chami
outcomes
As a general result, I believe that the experiments were successful in the sense that most participants felt that they felt an easiness is finding new movement while trying to embody a body that wasn’t their own. The performers felt that the practice engaged them to be driven somatically to discover unfamiliar configurations of their agglomerate body and reach for unexplored movement material. As a result, the experiencing of something unknown stimulated them into nuances of enhanced states of being. However, a recurring feedback was that participants felt the need for a longer time of experimenting; the short 15/20 minutes improvisation score left many frustrated as they felt that going on for a longer time would have allowed them to go deeper into the state. Yet, due to the Covid19 restrictions, the research had to remain framed into shorter explorations, since it was to happen only online or at distance.
Below I highlight some of the main methods and techniques that came up with some or many of the performers during the experiment.
Techniques and findings
Escaping thought – appealing to movement that would distract their thoughts, silence their minds and thoughts.
Altering rhythm – going very fast or very slow to modify their state of being
Surprise – shock themselves to change the pattern, using surprise as an element to disturb the usual train of thought.
Repetition – repetition in melody or movement as a tool to enter a trance, allowing the repetition to guide them, not judge and not decide in advance what movement should come next
Outer eye embodiment – focus on reaching unfamiliar forms by watching oneself from the outside and considering what would look unfamiliar to an observer.
Conceptual Focus – Focusing on the conceptual aspect of the imaginary body and keeping it very present all along.
Breaking social taboos – pushing oneself to go into directions that are unusual in the social world.
Extreme physicality – using muscular forces to induce alternate states
Concious physicality – mindfulness on breath or on specific body parts, dissecting the imaginary body onto one’s own.
After the experiment it was very interesting to discuss with the participants how they made relationships and associations with the body they embodied, making it their own and channeling it with their bodily imagination. What was very rich was that each created a net of meaning and actions that were sometimes metaphorical, related to one’s personal life or body.
“It was liberating to have a body is made of stone, feeling heavy was exactly what I needed that day.”
“I felt I was embodying the character mostly inside my hand.”
“I was switching from being the climbing plant and being surrounded by it.”
“my mind wouldn’t stop judging me unless I moved so fast that I lost control and felt a bit dizzy.”
“I tried to imagine how this being would breath, and I allowed it to guide me.”
“ I was feeling the pain of being stuck in one place and it felt exactly like my feeling stuck in life.”
“I felt how beautiful it is to be disgusting.”
(notes from the participants)
I believe that each association made had also a reflection about the actual person, allowing them to discover something about their present state of mind and maybe using the “other” body to liberate it. The actions they improvised turned into moments of liberation for them.
I did not observe huge differences between the 3 scores/methods I used to experiment with. I observed that the Audio Score was successful in keeping the performer active and going in a straight line towards a more pushed performance; while in the 2 free improvisations starting from text and drawing, the participants went in a less linear pattern, having waves of intensity. I think that finally both ways can work and also may vary depending on the person and the experience one has in dealing with such work.
As a feedforward, I will be using these patterns and findings in my on-going work, to create experienced that will also be more specifically focused on some of the techniques I encountered in this research. This approach will allow another layer of inquiry where each thread will divide into more threads, creating a wider horizon of possibilities of experimentation and further findings. Going into the details of technique is also something that will allow me to structure the material into a flexibly choreographed work. This will be the step of finding the balance between impulsiveness and structure that I wish to be the base of my work as a choreographer; to stage performances that are structured but keep a space the rawness and wildness of the improvisation. This is a notion that is extensively developed in the work of Jerzy Grotowski, Polish theatre director and theorist, which has been one of the main sources of inspiration in my artistic work. According to Grotowski, discipline is an important element of theater work, which he believed must be structured and spontaneous concurrently. In his opinion, a lack of discipline would create chaotic and amateur working results, so he searched for ways to create spontaneity through discipline (Griffith, 1998, p. 15).
This act of softly structuring the improvisation of performers is the link to the expanding the work and proliferating its motives through presenting it to an audience. Watching the process, in which the performers are a medium; are vessels that empty and fill themself allowing the spectators to enter their bodies.
