b'Spider Music, Spider Movement lifts. Additionally, William lifts Margret, with herup into a squat, with pizzicato violins, and jumps leg out, spinning her in a pose that I associateand lands on a perfect cadence. In The Spider, Essay with joy and trust. However, when she is lifted,Sidorovas choreography brings out a playful, an imperfect cadence occurs alongside musicalcurious nature in the music, by matching up the Asher Regal dissonance, the music connoting a distrustful at- emotive and rhythmic connotations of the music mosphere, while the movement sequence, confus- and movements. Neither are secondary; both the ingly, conveys the inverse. The violins continue tomovements and music enhance each other.In this reflective essay for the Physical Performance module, Asher Regal discusses the spiders movements as inspiration forhold dissonant harmonies, the guitar repeating its music and stage choreography, framing this with reference to pieces by Frantic Assembly and Milena Sidorva. motif as the couple explore the kitchen, twistingCook states music is suffused with human values, over each other and jumping over the kitchen ta- with our sense of what is good or bad. [] Music We all dance to music, swaying along in con- liam and Margret, in a difficult and busy week ofble. Here, the music doesnt seem to synchronisedoesnt just happen, it is what we make it, and cert halls to each musical crescendo, twistingtheir life, who start to hallucinate their youngerwith the movement in any way, from the move- what we make of it (2000:22). Sidorova approach-and moving our bodies to each beat, and bowingselves, in the earlier days of their relationship.ment rhythms being out of beat with the music,es dancing with the music, aligning music and when the music finally diminuendos at the endThe problem with using music as only an emo- or the emotive connotations that the movementsmovement together emotively and rhythmically. of a performance. This is how I came into thetive-context generator for the audience is that ithold, juxtaposing the music. It is clear, to me:By doing this, she infuses the music with play-mindset where my movements would follow themakes music aesthetic, using it only as some- music became secondary in this scene, becomingfulness and curiosity, using the full potential of music. However, this is problematic as by follow- thing pretty to listen to, ignoring any furthersomething only pleasant to listen to, with themusic as a connotative/semiotic agent more effec-ing the music, we fail to reach the full potentialmeaning or subtext that could be conveyed. Thismovements occurring in a separate semiotic/con- tively than Frantic Assembly in Lovesong did, only that music has on movement. Inversely, by lettingresonates with Nicholas Cooks comments aboutnotative space from the music.using it aesthetically.the movement inform the music, I suggest that ifa long-seated academic tradition of thinking music is used to its full potential, as a connotativeof music as purely musical, as being nothingThe second moment to investigate is when theMy approach towards music in physical/move-agent, where a scurry informs a flurry of notes,but itself(Cook,2000:22), where music is onlyolder version of Margret dances with the young- ment-theatre, was to make the music conjoin with an aggressive step calls for a dissonant chord,used atmospherically. Music has an abundanceer version of William. Here, they seem to movethe spiders movements, using my observational and a kiss begs for a perfect cadence, then moreof connotative and semiotic meaning within it,more in synchronisation with the music rhyth- research of spiders in nature to guide me. Watch-meaning is made than movement or music alone.even within its musical scores. Cook affirms this:mically and emotively, but there are still issues.ing how a spider moved informed what I would Though this essay, I will investigate how myThere is a level at which you can talk of mu- For instance, at one point, Margret is suddenlywrite in the music. I chose piano as the solo observational research of spiders informed howsicabout what music meanshow it is (how itlifted and thrown around Williamss body, but theinstrument, because when spiders move, it looks I would compose the music for my groups per- can be) that music operates as an agent of mean- music remains with a constant motif, not even alike fingers playing notes on the piano, scurrying formance. Our performance was an investigatorying. For music isnt just something nice to listencrescendo or any notation that could have empha- across the black and white keys. This dexterous performance exploring the binaries of a spider,to(Cook,2000:21-22). Music should be more thansised that lift further. Overall, in Lovesong, musicquality of a spider primarily stood out to me, its creepy and terrifying aspects, in opposition toa secondary element in movement theatre. Itis separated from the movement, where theywhich I reflected in my music on its score. Mor-its graceful and beautiful nature, staging thesecan convey a wealth of meaning: for example,occasionally move to the music, but dont enrichton Feldman, a composer, talks about the power as physical movement to give further insight intomusic in a major key typically connotes happierthe music further by exploring the semiotic con- of music on its score in an interview with Everett spiders. I investigate how practitioners like Fran- contexts; music in a minor key conveys the in- notations in their movement sequences, which IFrost, and how it can have additional meanings tic Assembly utilised music for their movementsverse. Clashing notes convey dissonance, versusassert, diminishes the potential power that musicbeyond passively listening: thats whats marvel-in Lovesong, and inversely how Milenaharmonious consonance. This can all enhanceintrinsically has.lous about music is that, well, you get it and you Sidorovas performance The Spider uses her move- movement sequences. However, in Lovesong, Fran- accept it [on a surface level], but a lot of people ments to imbue the music with further meaning.tic Assembly seems to limit the power of music,Juxtaposing Frantic Assemblys pure aesthetic usereally dont know what the composer has done in I will take these approaches to music, in analys- using it only as something pretty to listen to asof music in their movements with Milena Sidor- order for somebody to respond to it (Frost,1987). ing my music, and how a spiders movements,the characters dance. ovas The Spider, a dance that explores spidersThis is how I approached music, by writing with almost, composed the music Misunderstood andmovements, Sidorvas movements align with thethe intention of conveying extra meanings in the Creepy-Alert Spider itself. A moment I will investigate in Lovesong is whenmusic (Anitas Dance by Edvard Grieg), bothscore, by transposing the spiders movements into the younger versions of Margret and Williamrhythmically and emotively, enriching the musicthe music itself. Approaches to Moving alongside Musicengage in a movement sequence, with violin andwith further meaning. Sidorova performs swift, guitar music in the background. The characterscyclical sways with her body, when the violinsMy observational research on spiders originates When combining movement and music, thedont move to the beat/rhythm of the music,start to ascend the scale, with short musicalfrom Lecoqs teachings, where there arecount-traditional sense in theatre is to dance/move tofilled with legato droning violin notes and guitarmotifs. Her movement and the music collective- less characteristics that can be observedin the music, either playing a song under a move- crotchets, at a lento (slow) tempo, all connotingly convey curiosity and a circular directionality,everything that surrounds us.[Observation] ment sequence to bring out the emotive contexta flattened/wistful atmosphere, with hints ofin sync with each other rhythmically and emo- of nature is one of the key points of Lecoqs of the movements, or to establish the atmosphere.playfulness from the repeating guitar notes. Thetively. Later, Sidorova remains aligned with thepedagogy. Thisis combined with the poetical There are examples of this across theatre, but Iactors ignore the music, relying on it to conveymusic, side-stepping and frantically waving herintention that feeds the artistic creation (Sachs, will analyse Frantic Assembly, specifically theirmost, if not all, of the emotive atmosphere, thehands out in beat to the repeated motif of three2016: 51),All of this observation boils down to 2011 play Lovesong, about an older couple, Wil- actors exploring round-by-throughs and a fewswift, conjunct, falling notes. She then climbsidentifying specific dynamics: how things move 26 27'