The Process Behind My Contribution to the Group Piece


The section of the piece that I'm responsible for represents the subject trying to seek help/treatment after coming to accept that their DID had flared up again. There is a slight build in the music with a sense of urgency and desperation and I tried to create movement that reflects this.

For example, I included a hand crawling up the side of the body and swirling around the head to convey negative thought patterns and behaviours creeping back into the subjects mentality I also included lots of urgent reaching with the arms to represent trying to get help and these movements are often followed by a drop in levels to represent falling back into a dissociation or perhaps feelings of shame surrounding their condition. 

I began choreographing by filming myself improvising to the music. I focused on the context of the piece, but overall I tried not to overthink what I was doing. Then after watching back the footage, I picked out sections that I liked or wanted to develop. I then assembled these sections into a phrase where I figured out how each movement fitted into the theme of DID. Following this, I added some more details that I wanted to include and set specific counts of the section.

A challenge that I faced during this process was feeling that I wasn't good enough at choreography and in the beginning this prevented me from making any progress because of this mental block that i had. Something that helped me overcome this a little was filming myself improvising. This technique helped immensely as it removed me from the mindset of trying to create something useful and allowed me to alter the movement later.

Moving forward, I need to look at how I am going to link Gabbys section and mine in terms of how it will work with the movement and also what the spacing will be. I want to develop it further by clarifying where the eye-line is, adding more dynamic, and enhancing levels (e.g. deepening a chasse) as I think some parts of the movement are lacking. 

Comments

  1. Miss Davis11 November 2020 at 06:46

    I love seeing how you came up with the choreography, with your improv and adapt, including the small details with the fingers crawling. I would love to see some imagery that you mention for DID and the research you have taken. Do you think your choreographic process matches or contracts with the practitioners you have learnt about? I'm thinking in particular about Matthew Bourne?

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  2. Isabella House (Ell)11 November 2020 at 07:48

    I really love the video and it is good to see where it comes into the music, I also like how you have explained your movements and how it relates to the stimulus of the dance. I think you could maybe add in what your thoughts are on the music at this point, do you feel like by the end of your section the DID has been resolved?

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  3. Eleanor Blackburn15 November 2020 at 03:30

    Hello Ciara, I really like the process you went through to come up with choreography for this section and how well the movements you have choreographed link to DID. I also like how you included a section about what your goals for the future are and how you're hoping to improve. Perhaps you could consider talking about another movement that you have in your section of choreography and then talk about what is reflected in that, with regards to the stimulus and the various meanings around it.

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  4. Sylvia Hall15 November 2020 at 09:05

    Your choreography that you you have created is very different from the rest of the piece but in a very good way! I really like your creative thought process for the hand crawling up to your head. Perhaps you could say some other movements that represent urgency.

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