Claiming Space

Space

In London and in my life and training I have become more and more interested in the use of space. In terms of efficient use of space for an activity, space within the body for characters and tasks and how to transform spaces.

In London it seems you have to claim your space and commit to what you want into order to get it. I did find people a bit robotic when I arrived especially those in transit, which is all of them. Everyone is going somewhere that is far more important than where you are going. Along with this slightly absent quality there is an efficiency of movement. I stand at the top of the escalator in the tube and watch the patterns of the rushing bodies and it is actually beautiful once I stopped being scared of it. Like a well trained ensemble they rarely collide, they are responsible for their own bodies in space and the effect is mesmerising.

I started to be bold with my use of space and to make my shape and use of space clear so that London could move around me. You have to have a constant, a fixed point so that the rest can be in movement. Sometimes I would stand still in a place that I wanted to rather than constantly adjusting for the flow.

Watching Rian by Fabulous Beast, a dance piece fusing Irish and African movement, I was amazed by how the cast of about 14 negotiated the space full of instruments, bodies, furniture and cables. They really put themselves in the space that they had and knew how to organize their bodies accordingly and no doubt organically. This was a joy to watch. I love precision more and more.

Studying the nervous system yesterday I was taken by my ability to walk backwards in a room full of others doing the same and not collide.  Again once I focused on my body committing to my movement in the space the movement pattern from the tube came into play.

This is interesting to think about now that my feedback from tutors is that I have a big presence as a teacher and in an exercises that I was leading I occupied half of the space in the room and the rest of the group had half between them. This was unconscious, well not really but I didn't say anything about it even if I thought they were far away. So the implication is that my confidence in moving possibly or my presence makes students take a step back when really I want them to take a step towards me. I think anyway? do I? This is an interesting question.

So maybe it is my small complex that makes me project big vibes and my petite nature that draws me to the grotesque/ comedic/ crude ways of playing. the oppositions that I battle without knowing it. Or maybe none of that I'm just scary or i'm just human? I do want to be a human tutor, not a robotic, neurotic, over sensitive, softly spoken.

SPACE I take up alot!