Tuesday 31st March
Rachel Lincoln - Movement Director,
Rachel is an actor and theatre maker who trained at
the
The session started with work on clothing.
All the actors worked with their own coat carefully
observing how they put their coat on and off, then under different conditions -
freezing cold, hot, at speed, slowly.
Then the coat becomes uniform - a soldiers uniform,
how dies that effect your movement?
The body has antennae - these increase your scale, you
become aware of taking up more space. Rachel asks the actors to change their
rhythm of movement.
Actors reflected on the effect of this work -
increasing rigidity in body, taking up more space and this increased status someone
felt they were taking on the quality of the material itself.
Rachel suggested working in costume boots as early as
possible.
Observations about the male and female bodies were
discussed including and acknowledging the cliches and stereotypes as a part of
this.
Work was done to explore some of these physical
differences and work to access how this might feel in the way one moves and
occupies space.
- Transferring
weight
- Space
in stance - legs
- Pelvis
is forward
- Footsteps
heavier
- Feet
bigger
- Less
movement in hips
- More
sure footed
- Space
in the chest/shoulders/arms - all one unit
Some time is then spent existing in this body -
standing, sitting, walking, running, tying a shoe lace.
Working in the Factory
Rachel asked the cast in groups of 4/5 to create a
sequence of movement based on activity that could be undertaken in the
factory. Various props were used, bottles, boxes, crates to give the activities
purpose. Rachel watched and fed back on each groups work making suggestions
about the equality of movement – was it appropriate to the task “are you
handling something dangerous?”. Rachel also gave notes about how to open movement
up to the audience.
The pieces were run again with music and Rachel
stopping and starting individual groups and individuals to create depth and
texture to the sequence.
