Creative Movement Qs

Kayla Mally
Flexibility: I have a weird range of flexibility; because my mind, body, and spirit all have very different ranges. Physically I can never seem to get very flexible, even when I was a gymnast in elementary school. The left side of my body especially refuses to become flexible. My mind is decently flexible, though I tend to get stuck into certain modes of thought that take awhile to break out of. I am most flexible spiritually, having adopted methods of meditation long ago and combining them with theatre I can twist and bend as much as I see fit.

Barely more flexible than this guy... I can at least touch my toes.... With slightly bended knee

Creative Play: I have problems having fun just letting go and moving freely. I would rather someone tell me how to move and add my own spin to it than come up with my own movements completely. It takes a specific place in my mind to do something and not care at all what people think (Or even just what the random outcome could be).

Tension and Release: I am definitely holding. I can let go most parts of my body but where I hold tension has yet to completely let go. I am too tight in my jaw, neck, and back/shoulder areas, and the only place I would think to be too loose is in my core (As a singer I struggle with loose and free breathing while using my core as support to hold myself up). I honestly have yet to find a way to become very free and loose permanently but am able to become precise with a lot of repetition/practice.

Creative Movement Questions

Hello! So these are the three answers I chose. I hope this posts correctly! Right okay here we go.

7. Sensitivity: This is a hit and miss topic with me as well. There are certain times when I am completely aware and in control of me and my surroundings, and then there are times when I will bulldoze through situations and accidentally run into walls with no regards to consequences because I’m not aware of them. Picking up on correct social cues has been an issue for me since I was little and thankfully I am getting better at it.

12. Spontaneity: It depends honestly, there are times where it is quite easy to react freely but there are also times where I get stuck in a habit and have a hard time getting out. It is not one way or the other, it is both.

13. Adventurousness and Daring: I am usually scared to take the first step. To make a choice that could have a huge impact on my life. I’ve realized that I need to take baby steps when it comes to the really important things in life. There are times when I definitely jump in feet first though so it really depends on the situation.

www.mnartists.org Black Label Movement, "Visceral" was on stage Feb 10-12. Photo by William Cameron. Courtesy of Black Label Movement

Creative Movement Questions!

1.   I am very familiar with my shoulders, my neck, my face, and my legs but I am not very expressive with my hands, arms or torso. I think that my legs are particularly alive, not because I am an amazing dancer or gymnast, because I run every day and love the feeling of harnessing the power of my leg muscles. Body awareness and movement relate a great deal to awareness of feeling, emotions and intentions. When I am aware of my body and when I am treating it well, there is a big difference in my attitude, openness emotionally and drive to achieve goals and when I am eating junk food and not exercising I feel much more blocked and stopped up in terms of energy and emotion.  
2.   I am definitely able to have fun moving around while investigating myself, others, and the way we relate to each other.  My favorite part of last Friday’s class was getting to watch and interact with other people as we built our characters from our walks.  I was amazed by the influence of the physical movements each person chose and the transformation into a character from the outside in.
3.    What I learn about the way I move and my body will be useful and relevant to my personal and professional life in many ways.  Learning how to let go of restrictions I put on my movement and how to play through movement will undoubtedly enrich the way I live.  Learning about movement as a communication tool will help me personally and professionally because being aware of the message I am sending with my body movement will be helpful in every context where I am with people and knowing how to better interpret people’s movement will also help.  Professionally, because I want one of my careers to be acting, learning about my body and movement will be an enormously important tool in building characters and improving my clarity of movement.  Investigating movement is an essential part of performance because, as opposed to a painting on the wall, it relies upon movement for a method of telling the story.  One of my favorite parts of performance is the process of exploring and building a character and movement is one of the fastest ways to portray that character to the audience and figuring out the way a character moves can be another method of building them.  

Haley. April 9, 2011. Smile: Jumping on the Bed. [photograph]. Retrieved from http://raindropsonpeonies.blogspot.com/2011/04/smile-jumping-on-bed.html

Creative Movement Questions

Hey everyone!!!
These are my best answers for the three questions we could put on here.  Just as a disclaimer, I did these questions in a word document first so I am going to copy and paste them on here.  Oh! And Jenn, if you could let me know if you've received my email with the entire list of questions that would be great!  I don't know if it went through or not and it is being a little temperamental.
Here we go!

1.    2.   I have noticed that the movement of individuals typically is constricted when it comes to their hands and their legs when they are nervous.  When this happens, it consists of someone being in an audition, giving a speech, or performing a musical piece for a live audience.  I believe that the most successful exercises to help free the body are yoga, jaw massages, and stretching.  This allows for people to get loosened up and have a lesser chance of tension arising.

1.     6.  I feel as if I am fairly good with my body and the spatial awareness I set for myself in space and even in myself.  I am not sure if I am completely comfortable with props and others in the same space.  This is due to the fact that a lot of times I end up just sitting there not knowing how to use my prop and utilize the people around me.

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                                                              http://www.hermes-press.com/man.jpg
The way I know my body and how I use it is highly beneficial to my everyday life.  It helps me calm myself down when going into an audition, it helps me feel free to do what I want to do and not have the weight of a million things on top of me.  The investigation of movement applies to performance by understanding the human condition and being able to portray someone else while also not damaging yourself and making it realistic and believable to your audience.

Creative Movement Questions

I would like to start by saying ... I am not a blogger! So I'm not sure of the proper blogging edict. Was I supposed to start a new post? Hope so because here we go.

My 3 favorite questions (or at lest their title & my answers):

Body awareness:

I am a dancer, ex-medical massage therapist and yoga teacher with fibromyalgia, so I am extremely in touch with my body. Sometimes it is my body that will let me know what emotion is about to arise. For example, I may not yet know I’m grumpy, but I am very aware that I do not want to be touched at that moment and I’m walking very heavily.

Spontaneity:

I wouldn’t say I am locked in categorical habit patterns of movement, but I do have some good old faithful things I fall back on quite often. I would say I’m unlocked, but the hinges could use some WD-40. Hopefully this class will help me with that, wink-wink.

Musicality and rhythm:

I’m a little scitzo in my personal rhythm.  I can go from 0-100 in 1 second flat, and likewise from 100-0.  Sometimes I am in a super slow rhythm, but I have to go in and teach my Zumba class, so I put on my fake-it-til-you-make-it smile, which actually affects my real rhythm and turns it up to 100. I love how that works.

Almost forgot the picture!

Photo by Jen Archer, "Sistine" performed by Ascential Dance Theatre Colorado 2012. From left to right: Jess Eggart (ME!), Leslie Merril, Tobi Compton, Jessica Garcia, Diana Tobias.

Hope that is what you were looking for. See you all on Friday.

Another Semester Begins!

Welcome to a new and lovely Spring semester for Stage Movement! We've all gotten tired out by our first day full of Crazy 8s and locomotion, and are rarin to go!

Please to enjoy this picture of me in a musical this past summer/early Fall. The play was called A...My Name Will Always Be Alice and the number was called "Trash," about a woman who gets carried away fantasizing about romance novels.   ~Prof. Jenn

Erich H. and Jenn Z. in "Trash" at the Theatre Company of Lafayette's production of A...My Name Will Always be Alice. Kirsten Jorgensen, director, Brian Miller, photographer (and light designer).