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CoCo Loupe
Introduction to Laban Movement Analysis
Professor: Melanie Bales
March 14, 2006

Looking at Effort to Analyze Choreographic Choices: In The Clear

The basic purpose of my MFA research was to investigate the source(s) of creative impulses that lead(s) to choreographic choices. I built a 2.5-minute phrase of movement with the purpose of repeating that material in a looped fashion for a designated time several times a week. In theory, the repetitive nature of this practice was supposed to allow the cast members and I to spend more concentrated time with the material and thus to become intimately aware of its basic qualities and truest nuances. From this awareness and subsequent web of physical knowledge, we garnered ideas and concepts for both the detail and thematic material of the final work.

I approached the project from this direction (internal transformation as opposed to external designing and crafting) precisely because I wanted the piece to emerge from the interaction of the physical information in the phrase with my imagination and the imaginations of the cast members. Knowing that each movement and any of the movement's qualities, components, and nuances would for any number of reasons spark a multitude of varying responses from each person, I allowed the dance to manifest as an interactive sketch of human reaction to physical stimulus. What has to be acknowledged here is that quite expectedly the knowledge base of this piece changed with every repetition due to the infinite conglomerations of sensations, feelings, perceptions and translations that human embodiment of abstract movement material can suggest. This was the exciting part and in the end, what was dealt with in the studio was what stuck in the minds and bodies of the people involved, namely, me and the cast, and we all took the piece from there.

Moreover, many different theoretical lenses ranging from the psychology of movement, ideas of proprioception, and issues of biofeedback, to name a few, may be used to analyze this methodology. On a truly fundamental level, as I begin to write about my MFA research, it is evident that referencing these theoretical structures is necessary. This necessity rises from the fact that essentially choreographic endeavors are the study of movement and the way individuals choose to construct that movement into works of art. This meeting and negotiation of the physical self and the intellectual/intuitive self always results in an opportunity to cross reference fields of study and delve into complex movement research. For me, this crossroads of information continually proves to be the reason that I make dances.

Recently, through a Laban Movement Analysis class offered in The Ohio State University's Department of Dance, I discovered yet another lens through which I could look at this specific work. Because LMA combines physical notions of body, space and effort with more inner motivations such as attention, feeling, intuition and sensing I thought it provided an excellent platform on which to disassemble In The Clear and look at its inner-workings and its development. For the purposes of this article, I will dig deeper into the movement material's "power of suggestion." I will investigate whether or not the core phrase resided mainly in one or the other states or drives and if it did whether or not the latent characteristics related to those combined efforts made specific types of suggestions that resulted in more or less predictable creative decisions.

Prior to taking the LMA class, I had various explanations as to how In The Clear became the dance that it did. They ranged from kinesthetic interpretation of anatomical mechanics to minimalist representations of psycho-social drama. Simple intuition and personal preference for particular modes of visual design and movement style were influences as well. The movement analysis information has simply allowed me to hone in on one particular aspect of the choreographic development for this piece. That aspect involves shifting the perspective from thinking that the mover's interpretation of the movement is what instills the material with meaning to the idea that the movement has inherent meaning that is suggesting certain interpretation on the part of the mover. It sounds fairly revisionist and a bit like a semantic roust-about but for the sake of investigating the process as thoroughly as possible I think that this angle shift can shed some light on a considerably complex conversation between the body and the dance-making mind.

An example of how this perspective change can apply is in how I decided on the overall tone of the piece. The original phrase had over 40 spiraling actions in it. These reminded me of a shaded circle and that image for me relates to hidden meanings that exist in social interactions. Thus it was decided that the performers would be constantly engaged in hiding and revealing things from and to themselves and the audience. The initial premise here is that the spirals were just physical movement phenomena and after observing their existence, I layered social and cultural meaning on them according to how I feel about spirals as performed by the body in space. (I make a note to myself here to notice that I am assuming that movement has no meaning and is inherently abstract until it is seen and associated with or translated into something. This note either ends with a period or a question mark depending on how I feel at the moment and for now I simply can not decide.)

Through the LMA lens, which assumes that movement does have basic human meaning attached to it (gathering/scattering, fighting/deflecting, refinement/baseness), I can surmise that the spiral is a wringing action that is simultaneously direct, sustained and strong. These qualities are connected to space, time and weight that have associated with them psychological and motivational ideas of attention, intention and decision-making. These spiraling actions, if I consider the LMA theory, could have in and of themselves suggested a larger idea to me of personal agendas (attention), hiding and/or revealing those agendas (intention) and when and where and why to do any of it (decision). I find this analytical potential exciting and provocative and in the following paragraphs I will continue to move the magnifying glass around In The Clear, to see if the LMA theory had more to do with its development than I would have initially imagined.

To begin, with its multitude of slashing, gliding, dabbing, flicking, floating and wringing actions the core phrase appears to function solely in the action drive. One of the only exceptions to this assessment is the very beginning of the phrase. It consists of a successive dip of the head/spinal column resulting in a static flat-backed pose complete with fists and a sequential breakdown of that shape into a contracted ball and then a loose stacking of the spine to a stiffer vertical. This section, unlike the action drive of the rest of the phrase, is redolent with a flow quality that cycles in a repeated fashion from free to bound to free to bound. Upon reflection, this cyclical flow and its associated feeling of impeded progression can be considered a preparation and/or build-up for the more energetic punches of material that follow.

The question that is so intriguing to consider is this: Did this simple sequence of movements, being so different from the rest of the phrase with its abundance of flow and lack of weight (more feeling and less intention), suggest that the people performing the material were actual people in a social setting? People with feelings? People with ideas? People with needs? Not just mechanical structures in space? Furthermore, did the sudden shift from a more vision-like drive to an action drive make these people appear to be fighting for or against something? Acting with more definitive effort and more intended cause and affect? Without the beginning's presence of flow would the rest of the phrase have had the psychological impact that it had as a breaking out or lashing out against something? Of course, I will never know this because in fact the core phrase exists as it does or did and the resulting piece is the way it is. However, in this case and I assume in many other cases, the efforts as explained in LMA can help turn this speculation into supportable truths by which the very esoteric, ephemeral process of making dances can be explained.

Because the core phrase consists of movements that exhibit efforts in the action drive, I can use those combined efforts to reflect upon the contextual circumstances of the piece and how these movement analysis factors extrapolate out to the overall feeling of the work. I can analyze the "suggestive power" of movement and deduce that because the action drive is the convergence of space, time and weight in the absence of flow, the final piece will probably have certain characteristics. It will consist of movement and ideas that are indirect and/or direct, sustained and/or sudden, strong and/or light and have an overall capacity for conceptual ideas related to attention/thinking, decisions/intuition and sensing/intention.

After looking closely at the events that make up In The Clear, it appears that the combined efforts had quite a bit of influence over how the subject-matter (if I can make myself call it that) of the piece developed. The dancers interact with each other as if they are manipulating pawns on a chessboard. The whole piece is a small battle of the wits or at least a battle for space or ownership. It is absolutely devoid of emotion. There may be glimpses of desire but desire as it exists on a very intellectual plane. I never feel as if the performers are experiencing true emotional attachment to one another. Conversely, the action of the piece drips with isolated detachment.

Even when slapped or bitten or pushed, the dancers continue on as if nothing happened until it is their turn to calculate their next move. The whole piece is colored with a very watchful, gauging, calculating, suspicious, and instinctual psychological hue. One could say it is about "circling territorialism" if they felt so inclined. What is tremendously provocative about the piece, and I think the LMA effort qualities allowed this to occur, is that I was able to choreograph fairly sexual/intimate/fleshy material with the dancers without it translating as melodramatic emoting. The dancers seem to be constantly in the process of making odd physical decisions that make them appear to be disconnected emotionally but completely invested intellectually and intuitively. The assumption here is that the lack of flow in the core phrase and predominance of weight, time and space suggested certain kinds of movements and movement structures that pronounced the analytical mind and body at the expense of the feeling heart and sensitive human.

When I think about all of this word/action play that comes with analysis through the LMA efforts, the word "subterfuge" as a sound bite for this piece comes to mind. It usually connotes a secretive, subversive action that requires intellect, intuition, and intended action but not a whole lot of emotion. It makes me think of spies or undercover agents or hitmen. These people do their jobs usually with the utmost premeditation and calculation but with not the slightest amount of emotion. The dancers in this piece could have easily been the abstracted representations of such people or more simply four people involved in very petty interpersonal sabotage.

Either way, the fact that this dance emerged through the "power of suggestion" and the translation of those suggestions is enough to make me want to make another dance. I do not think I will ever use the LMA theory as a starting point for making a piece but now I know that it is quite possible that the movement I think I have so much control over may very well be leading the way down the choreographic path. I just have to be patient enough to wait for the good suggestions and a practiced-enough listener to hear the suggestions when they came along.