b'Gaze at the World and its MovementsSee What Its Offering You a more tangible movement than the mist on thegiven time. I found that giving the audience such hills, observing her movement rose questions offreedom with how to interpret my embodied Essay how things move and how this can be transposedobservations was freeing, allowing me to perceive to the body (Sachs 2016: 52), since my bodydifferent dynamics (Sachs 2016: 54) and present Annie Skopek obviously has very different capabilities. A consid- them together in an episodic nature to explore eration of the idea that the point is not to imitatethese without constraining them within tradi-what is real, but to recreate it in a way that willtional boundaries. Taking the audience through Annie Skopek details how she and her colleagues created pieces for the Physical Performance module, inspired by the observa- make an audience believe that one conveys thea journey of movement of varying manifestations tion of the natural environment, animals, and objects, following principles of Jacques Lecoq. feel[ing] (Dabashi 2016, 93) made it possible to al- by contrasting breath, gaze, timing and space is low something as simple as the way my pet moveseffective in creating different tensions and emo-In November, I went bowling on a Sunday after- including when I went on a walk in a forest. Itto influence my work. I moved my head jerkilytions. Even without a set story, the audience can noon. I left feeling emotionally moved and in- was raining, typicallymiserable weather, whichas if defensive and alert, and tried to capture thebe guided through an emotional experience when spired by the way a bowling pin span when hit byI may have complained about had it not been forunpredictability of her movements with contrastsone moment there is tension with the abruptness the ball. In this essay, I will consider and analysemy active thought about the task. Instead, I ob- between running and standing completely still.of the essence of the blinds tumbling down, and observational and compositional research of theserved the way the mist sat on the hills, so gentlyThis research task blurred the lines between thethe next there is an overwhelming calm created world and its movements as my area of inquiry,and caringly. Moving my thinking away from theliteral and the abstract, taking from somethingby the stillness of the lake.and how it led me to my reaction to the bowl- studio and into the simple daily things of lifethat literally moves in a more familiar way to ing pin and influenced my process investigating(Sachs 2016: 56) showed me how every knownhumans, and adapting it in a way that capturesOur brief for Micro-performance 2 outlined that physical performance this term. I will look at thestructuring principle offers a potential analogy forits essence while being possible in a human body.our work should engage with the foundational observational research tasks we were given andforming a piece of work (Evans 2019: 198). NotIt furthered a greater connection of [my]self toprinciples encountered on the module imagina-the work that came from them in the sessions,only did it open new ways of thinking about whatthe world around [me] (Marshall 2001, 103), andtively and be underpinned with embodied re-looking at more abstract elements of the worldmy work could be based on, but also how it couldallowed me to consider more possibilities of phys- search. After further experimentation, we found and more specific ones such as athletics or ani- be presented. This task encouraged the consider- ical performance, in what to be inspired by, andour initial idea of a starting point of womanhood mals and how these observations manifested inationof embodiment that feels true to what youhow to convey it.and liberation confining, and unable to facili-the Micro-performance 1, heavily influenced byare observing rather than mime acting, encour- tate the type of playful exploration we wanted. Lecoq and his 20 Movements. I will also look ataging us to consider rhythms, sensations andMicro-performance 1 gave space to showcaseConsidering our work in the module so far, we how these foundations inspired the work pro- feelings going beyond mere physical impres- these skills and observations in ten movements.concluded our piece would be drawn organically duced in the Micro-performance 2, created as ansions (Sachs 2016: 57). When recreating the mistLecoqs approach uses examples based on thefrom observation of the world and its movements appreciation of nature as a permanent source ofon the hills, I gently fell to my knees and movedobservation of natures manifestations (Sachs a celebration of the module, since the observa-inspiration (Sachs 2016: 52), as well as a consid- my hands in a curved motion, across and up and2016: 56), and this performance was inspired bytional work we had done so far had inspired us so eration of how objects fit into the very basis ofdown, following the shape of the hills as if lightlyhis 20 Movements, which require[s] us to creategreatlywe always return to the observation of the art of theatre, the connection with the diversi- brushing them. I was reproducing the specificour own form of narrative on our own bodiesnature (Lecoq 2000: 21). Through being asked to ty of the manifestations of nature and human be- dynamics (Sachs 2016: 52) rather than something(Evans 2019: 2). Putting these movements to- make our senses alert and tuned to the world ings (Sachs 2016: 57) through our use of a sheet.literal. This was the beginning of being openedgether in a performance space raised curiositiesaround [us] (Marshall 2001, 104) and taking the As Sachs remarks, one of the basic principlesto new relations with [my] surroundings (Foleysuch as, how should this flow? Does it need totime to deeply internalise the way it moves, we that underpins Lecoqs practice: the observationSherman 2016: 61) that would underpin my workbe obvious what one thing is, but then should itfelt our curiositygiving permission (Marshall of nature (2016: 56) is revolutionary in producingin the module.all be obvious? Does it have to provoke emotion?2001, 98) to explore it as a starting point from physical performance and even in transformingFollowing this, Research Task 2 encouraged usFor example, many of my movements were deeplywhich our work would be more organic, however our own relationships to the world, showing usto look at processes both natural and humancontrastingI expect audience members may notdaunting it first appeared to start from such an that part of us is what is around us (Evans 2019:(Evans 2019: 198) through observation of the[have been] able to identify exactly what the dropopen and abstract place. We asked each other to 201).specific movements of athletics and animals.of water falling into a lake was, but neither arebring back observations to explore in our next Similarly to the first task, it cultivated the analy- they expected to, since it was the observation andsession, which is where my experience with the Our work in the early weeks of the module wassis of movement in life (Lecoq 2000: 27), but thispresentation of a particular kind of movementbowling pin occurs. The specific and non-spe-crucial in developing the attention, the percep- time in ways perhaps more familiar or specific.in the way a human body can express it (Foleycific were bought in, including a beam of light tion and the absorption of the surroundingsIt is important to recognise that there is artisticSherman 2016: 60). On the other hand, swim- through a window, a poem about the night sky, (Sachs 2016: 56), in order to deepen our naturalexpression in everything that surrounds us (Sachsming is a more familiar and easily recognisableand a fascination with the elements (Lecoq 2000: capacity of replaying and playing and broaden2016: 51), even the specific and seemingly non-ab- embodied observation, but this does not make it44). This huge variety of avenues that techniques the borders of imagination through observa- stract, for example my chinchilla, Saphy. Viewingbetter or worse, since reality takes many formsof observation gave us to play with was exciting, tional research. Embodied Research Task 1 askedmy personal pet in such an analytical way showed(Prior, 2001). Varying observations of the worldbut presented the question of how can we even us to gaze at the world and its movements, andhow there are countless characteristics that cancan coexist in a performance and be presentedbegin to present these fascinations cohesively to look out and see what the world is offering yoube observed in each animal (Sachs 2016: 51) together without a set narrativemuch like theprovoke feeling? It could be said that the furiousa much different task to most university work.the flightiness and jitteriness of her movementworld itself, audience interpretation elicits thewind is the symbol of pure anger, of anger with I carried this task with me through the week,invoked humour and a feeling of frantic. Whileappropriate emotional response for them at thatneither object nor pretext (Bachelard 1943: 22 23'