The proscenium stage was how I decided to present this act as it framed me within front and back lighting and allowed bigger free movement.
E5 Story Board & Breakpoints.
My breakpoints for consciousness were created from the performance idea, music timings, and skill durations. I intended to stay within the plastic sheet to represent a slow awakening over a duration of roughly one minute. Over minute two, I wanted to convey more awareness, bigger movement, and occasional eyes at the audience to solidify existence. From the third minute, I commence actual aerial skills displaying growth and consumption. At four minutes the biggest series of skills occur symbolising acceptance. And in the final minute, one last skill is presented, followed by a sense of resolve and a return to the original position on stage.
Overall, my tempo shifts from slow and writhing at the beginning, to fast, pushing and gliding in the middle, and then returning to a slow tempo to conclude the act.
Overall, my tempo shifts from slow and writhing at the beginning, to fast, pushing and gliding in the middle, and then returning to a slow tempo to conclude the act.
Movement.
During E1 my Laban movements are slow, writhing and pushing in all directions and specifically at the plastic. The feeling in E1 is of internal awareness. I almost return to these same movements in E5 but with less writhing to symbolise calmness. During E2 the movement becomes more vigorous and the plastic is torn down as external awareness is pushed and the tempo increases in distance and physical effort. At E3 the movement is brought back to the center for skills on straps, this connects to E4 where the skills are connected and the effort and tempo os maximum. One last big spinning movement is created in E5, where I then slowly finish to a crouch position as the lights go down.
Work in Progress Presentation.
This is where I discovered that I needed to source a more durable plastic. During the presentation, the plastic had a beautiful flow and quality but when it wrapped up with me during skills, I became stuck. The more durable plastic I ended up sourcing had a heavier quality, but the compromise was less flow and float of the material.
Feedback.
The class feedback was really helpful in allowing me to understand the audience's perception. I found that the lighter plastic gave the audience a perception of sustainability and plastic waste, which was something I wanted to steer well away from. I liked that the image of birth, being reborn, alien sac, and womb are some of the ideas people took from the piece as it's connected to the idea of consciousness. See my feedback overview and questions below.
This work-in-progress presentation seemed to leave a few people with more questions about what it is they just saw. As the act is quite abstract, I really didn't mind that it left some confused. It's open to interpretation for an audience to make up their own mind.