Work with the movement director

Tuesday 31st March

Rachel Lincoln - Movement Director,

Rachel is an actor and theatre maker who trained at the 

ÉCOLE INTERNATIONALE DE THÉÂTRE JACQUES LECOQ in Paris.

http://www.ecole-jacqueslecoq.com/en/school_en-000001.html 

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.