Interns: Building and Adapting Phrases

By Laila Fatimi

This week, we’ve been working on building phrases. Before building a phrase, Nicole had Elyssa and I read a chapter from “The Intimate Act of Choreography” by Lynne Anne Blom and L.Tarin Chaplin. While reading the chapter, a few concepts stood out to me. One: there should be a distinct beginning, middle, and end to each phrase no matter how long or short. This gives the phrase a structure. And two: There should be a high point at the beginning, middle, or end of the phrase.  “The impulse serves as an impetus out of which the movement flows necessarily and organically” (Blom & Chaplin, 25).

 We then had to build phrases of our own, using what we had just learned. Once we finished our phrases, the task was to  pick 3 characters, and represent each character through the same phrase. Depending on the different characters we were focusing our phrase on, we would emphasize certain parts of our movement. For example, make our movement slower, or make it faster. The characters I used, were Carmon (from Spy Kids 1, 2 AND 3), Gatsby, and Willy Wonka. 

 For Carmon’s version of my phrase, I made my movement quick and sharp. A drawn out develope turned into a powerful kick. For Gatsby I made movement slower and more grand. And finally, for Willy Wonka, I made the phrase slightly faster, happier and added a couple skips in.

 This exercise taught me how to adapt a phrase, just by changing the feeling behind the movement and to make the phrase own a different identity.

Works Cited

Blom, Lynne Anne, and L. Tarin. Chaplin. The Intimate Act of Choreography. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, 1982. Print.

Best Foot Forward

By: Elyssa Berg

Beginning my internship with Monkeyhouse along side Laila Fatimi our first day consisted a lot about learning how to conduct and act in an interview. Karen Krolak and Nicole Harris explained to us how interviews can both be helpful to our future as an artist or also portray us in a way that wasn't intended.

How people perceive us is extremely important. It can determine who we meet, the opportunities we have, and even the jobs that we do or do not get. The person that we appear as is not always the person that we are, and sometimes that can be our own fault. Karen and Nicole explained to us that when being interviewed it is important to put your best foot forward, making sure that you are showing the you that you want everyone else to see. During an interview the person being interviewed can have as much control as they are willing to take. As someone being interviewed you can direct the conversation to things that you want to talk about. Maybe your working on a new project or maybe you just received an award or honor. It is up to the interviewed to consistently remind the interviewer of what you want to be remembered by at that time so that it sticks in their mind and there is no way of editing it out of the conversation. On the negative side, getting off topic during an interview can bring up awkward conversations, controversial topics, and a whole bunch of invaluable information that can distract readers from what is important about you.

On another side of interviewing is the actual publication of the interview. Laila and I were taught that an interview should be a conversation. It should give insight into who someone is and what they are doing at one point in time that would interest others. When publishing an interview you do not need to include every question and answer that you have. Interviews are unpredictable and can take many different paths that weren't intended, leaving it up to you to weed out the good information. What you were planing on asking someone may not be what they wanted to talk about and that will show in their answers and the derailment of the conversation. One word answers, or answers that don't stir up a good conversation generally aren't going to spark any interest to anyone reading the interview. As a publisher of an interview it is up to you to help others see the interest and importance in the person you are interviewing.

I look forward in the future to applying this lesson of conducting and acting in an interview myself. Laila and I will first begin our interviewing experiences on each other to try and learn the art form of interviews and how we can use them to our advantage and also how to portray the other in the most effective and interesting way possible.

Two Interns and a Blindfold

By Laila Fatimi

Elyssa Berg and I have been honored to do our senior internship with Monkeyhouse! Today being our first day, we were fortunate enough to start a very interesting improvisation exercise. In the first exercise we were given, one person was blindfolded and the other had to control the movement of the one blindfolded.  Having your sense of vision taken away during a partnering exercise, only leaves you focusing on your sense of touch. 

Improv Exercise #1

While being blindfolded, I was able to observe things that are harder to recognize while not blindfolded. At different times I felt we were in sync with each others movement, in the way Elyssa (non-blindfolded) was creating our movement. We were moving like one. At other times I felt we were not in sync, and almost more aggressive in the way we were not moving with each other. While blind folded, I felt like I was totally out of control. Naturally, I tried to fight that (which never helps), so I let go and let Elyssa just take control of our movement.

Improv Exercise #2- Similar to the first exercise, the only difference is that the one blindfolded is now leading. 

Leading with the inability to see, means that Elyssa and I always had to be connected to each other. If you are not, you can lose the person you are trying to move. I also felt that we spent more time on the floor this time. I think this may be because more of our weight was connected to the same thing, making it easier for us to locate and move the other person.

Improv Exercise #3- Similar to the second exercise, but now the person being moved has to react more to how the blindfolded person is moving them.

This exercise, I believe, was the hardest out of all the exercises. Elyssa reacted more to the way I was moving her, making it harder to stay connected. And at some points, It was difficult to even find her (Since I was still blindfolded).

This exercise forced me to think about the types of skills dancers need while partnering; learning to let go and not think or worry about what the next move is going to be. This can be applied in our daily lives as well. The longer and harder you hold on to something, the less control you have over it. I also recognized, that while partnering we needed to stay connected to each other to make our movement flow. The second we detached from one another, our movement had stopped flowing.