Cycle R&D
Day 1: Seasons, Stories, and Cycles
Our day one fell on the 1st of July, half way through the year, and so it only felt appropriate that we began with a reflection and projection of the previous six months and the next six months. In doing this, we each chose a word that we will take with us on the next six months; Katie chose motion, I chose space and Sanna chose something. Hopefully we can take the energy of these words forward with us as we embark on the project!
We then moved on to warming up and moving together. Having taken some time to warm up individually, we came together to play and talk through moving and working with music - bringing a sense of joy, curiosity and experimentation to the room.
Starting to centre ourselves more on the project, we began individual impulse manifestos based on the prompts: I believe…, I want to… and I know… - taking 5 minuets to write on each prompt. We then shared our writings and reflected on what it was like to try and gauge what it is we hold as truth, and what it is in the world we might want to change. We found differing levels of anger and passion between us and a unifying feeling of wanting to make a change for good. What was interesting for me was this sense of overwhelm we all held at the magnitude of the problems at the moment, and how powerless we felt in the face of the changing, violent world we live in. We also discovered a want for chaos and clarity: how to take clarity from chaos and how clarity can cause chaos. Katie offered that there is something interesting in being '“unashamedly truthful and clear to the people who need to hear it and unafraid of the chaos which unfolds.” Lots of questions arose from this around the need to be understood, and whether it is the responsibility of the listener or the speaker to understand or be understood - and how this might affect our work. By the end of this discussion, it felt we had a much keener idea of where each other were coming from and what we might want to do with this piece of theatre.
We then turned our attention to the seasons. We explored our initial and personal associations with four seasons we know through freewriting — memories, moments, and energies linked to spring, summer, autumn, and winter on 4 big A3 sheets. This kicked up lots of our innate views on the seasons and the associations we hold which we may want to work with or work against. Following this we turned to some more scientific research, gathering information on what actually happens in each season. When certain flowers bloom or birds migrate - to get a real sense of the natural cycles which we might want to work with. We found LOADS! Some key ideas that surfaced: the migration of birds who always seem to know the way home, the stickiness of spring, the explosion of summer - image of the last leaf clinging to a branch and the first bramble of spring who is early to the party!
With our research under our wings, we moved from the page to the body. Using physical improvisation, we embodied some of the specific images we chose – tulips, buds on a tree, hibernating animals, fast growing trees — finding tempo, weight, and space through movement. These scores grew from solo explorations into shared compositions, which we reflected on together. We found that our movement scores were strongest and most connected when the research had been deepest and we had a depth of understanding about the thing we were embodying.
We ended the day reflecting on what we found most interesting from the day and what we would be excited to build on the next day.
Day 2: Rituals, Memory & Personal Cycles
On the second day Ru and Alina joined the group so we again delved into our manifestations for the year and our hopes for the project. Following this, we went onto take a deeper look at the 24 sections of the Chinese solar calendar. We each took 6 of these terms and went on a deep dive to find out everything we could about it and then presented our findings back to the group.
We found some really exciting things in this research - the rhythmic pattern of the equinoxes and solstices, the change of sounds through the year which are associated with these terms, the dance that exists between flowers and bees on the right moment to pollinate and many more!
After lunch we split into two groups - the heat of the day was starting to get to us! One group chose to continue this research into the natural phenomena and the other group started to find action and drama within the images we had already found - focussing on the bee and the flower and the negotiation on when it is pollination time. Katie, Ru and I improvised and experimented with this set up, finding a physical language for the bee and the flower and then allowing them to meet one another work out the rules of their pollination game, and then through etudes we started to develop a scene from this story. On the other side, Alina and Sanna dug even deeper into the research, and found themselves taken with stories of migration patterns, the olfactory language of ants, the lifecycle of butterflies and much more!
At the end of the day we came together to share our findings and think about the next steps for the project and take stock of everything we had achieved!
These days were a return to source — not just for the material, but for the ways we want to work: collaboratively, responsively, and in tune with the world around us.
More is to come… watch this space!
