As my performance comes closer I took the time today to have an Alexander Lesson focusing on the first few minutes. The performance is improvised so this is not about planning what I will do – but rather how I will do it.
As is usual in an AT lesson I showed the teacher my movement – and my teacher with some questions and hands on helped me consider the key elements of the activity and my use of my body in movement in the space.
We considered gaze and focus – we thought about speed and timing – we talked it over and I tried out different ways to say hello to my materials as I began. I had been concerned about how to start as in the show I will need to begin before I enter the space – and thinking about how I will walk and then how the ball will take my attention revealed my concern with getting down to the floor in a way that doesn’t distract from my saying hello to the ball. The hands on helped me re-calibrate the dynamic poise of my head in relation to my body as I looked – I can gaze with less movement – and show attention with less energy. The softness I experience as I release in extension helps me fill the space – to fully inhabit my body and the activity. I begin to be less concerned about getting down to the floor and the whole movement becomes free-er and more fluent.
We turn out attention to ending – again the sense of where my axis is as I look makes a big difference to the quality of the movement – paying attention to this makes it very clear to the viewer that I’m fully engaged with the ball – and also makes it very clear when I am not – this is another kind of release – as having said hello to the ball in a new way every time – I will also be saying good bye to it in a new way each time.
This linking of extension with a kind of release – letting go – another element of being free to move – emerged recently as I was writing about my work. I realised that there were more links than I had initially understood for myself – with the three performances I had done before – including the one with the sorting out of stuff. The sorting out stuff images will be the basis for future work that I can combine with the balls – for now I like to both and either or of the two balls – so won’t add a third dimension either to my performance or to the projected or printed images.
