What is body?
What is body, were lectures taken by Olu Taiwo which inspired me to create the peformance we have for Extended Practise.
A subject which we looked at was Choreology - 'The study of dance movement and dance notation.' (Lexicon, C. 2003) Our bodies are made up of many hinges and pivots and curves and circles, which we use every single day. We negotiate with our body to get to the positions we want.
Below I have entered a video of dance at Laban which had been created whilst studying Choreology:
‘Choreology is the logic of circles.’ (Taiwo, O. 2010) We create circles with our body every time we move, whether we do it intentionally or not, and these circles can create wholeness, competition, unity, eternity and emptiness. When you set up a circle, you create potential for anything to be possible, and usually, the centre will be the most vital part, in which the audience will always focus on. A circle is made up of an inside, outside and centre, and a radius, diameter and circumference. All of these have metaphysical and computational significances.
Metaphysical is when something isn’t real. It is things which you think of or what you think you can see that do not really exist, like a circle, created by people standing around a performer. The circle isn’t actually there, yet we perceive it to be. Us as human beings are also a metaphysical idea. We are made up of many atoms and molecules; however we only see a body or person, not the atoms which we are made up of. Metaphysical is an illusion, something that is invisible. This relates to trace form, which is the journey from one movement to another. The line in which the movement creates, however isn’t really there. ‘Virtual Spatial Forms are lines/forms in space that are perceived to be there but are actually not there.’ (Preston-Dunlop, V, Sanchez-Colberg, A. 2002. P.86)
Computational is when you add something up. They are devices/objects/systems which help you to compute. A washing machine, for example, is a computational device. You put your clothes in the washing machine to clean, and the machine computes to do it for you. Computational devices allow you to minimize the task in which you are trying to achieve, and helps to complete it.
We create virtual lines through movement, such as pointing in a certain direction or holding are arms in a circular shape without our fingertips touching. People perceive there to be a line, however there is not. ‘Their focus – in face or chest, or energy projected out beyond their fingertips, out beyond the thrust of a knee, for example – creates virtual lines through space.’ ((Preston-Dunlop, V, Sanchez-Colberg, A. 2002. P.86)
We then looked at choreutic units. This is about the way in which we can perceive a body in an abstract way. ‘They occur as spatial projections when energy is thrown into the space through the dynamic of the dancers’ performance.’ (Preston-Dunlop, V, Sanchez-Colberg, A. 2002. P.86)
A good example of this would be a physical journal. A physical journal is linked to every single person. It is our own personal journal, a timeline of movement which stays in your body, and when you die, it stops, however the timeline remains in that body.
Spatial progression is the transition from one movement to the other. The trace of a line from one movement to another.
Body Design is the potential shapes your body can make, that people perceive. A shape that is made when your body finishes the shape, for example, creating a circle with your arms where your fingertips meet.
Spatial Tension is the space between you and the shape which you are making. A line that is not actually there but people perceive it to be.
