LUCIA 1-1 - NARRATIVE + STRUCTURING

I don't usually reflect on my supervisor 1-1s in this learning journal, but we talked a lot about and developed ideas around the structuring and narrative of the piece and checking in practically. Going into this 1-1, we planned on discussing the structure of the piece as we previously agreed that I would roughly try to plot out some of the sections to the music. I came in with my timeline and we talked about different sections we'd created and how I would use them to propel the narrative of the piece.

I had some thoughts about the narrative the day before and jotted them down in my notes. These were very reflective in terms of what duality means to me personally, and the different ways that I perceive the narrative of the dance.

My Narrative Thoughts:

• Through their styles and outputs of energy, I have established that Emily more so represents the Internal Self and Tilly the External Self
• External Self: Something that feels so controlled, energetic and intentioned can spiral out of control and feel everything greatly under the surface
• Internal Self: Something that feels introspective and soft can find strength, but can't necessarily recognise it in itself
• The internal self fighting to support the exterior self
• Feeling of Mental Stability: Struggles of a whole self in finding balance and equilibrium between the internal and external. Where the inner and outer self blend together into one the system is at equilibrium, when their distance grows, there is more cognitive struggle. 
• The Internal Self struggles in of itself but can be brought up by the experiences of the external self.
• The External Self is supported by the stability of knowing who you are on the inside.
• When the External Self comes crashing down with overwhelming stimuli, burnout, and its performance to the wider world, the Internal Self has to fight to support it, draining its own self energy.
• Or is it that the Internal Self's struggles taint the External Self's energy, slowly draining it and pushing the External Self to keep going beyond exhaustion with so much going on inside, with that drain then weighing more heavily on the internal.

We then talked about how audiences will have different perceptions of this narrative and that's okay. These ideas from myself are important in creating the product that goes on stage, but then the perception is in the audience's hands. This raises interesting questions surrounding ownership; the piece that I have ownership of is not the same as the piece that the dancers have ownership of, which is not the same as the piece the audiences have ownership of, which is the beauty of it. This all goes back to one of my starting points, the differing lenses of perception that interact with the work. In the same way that I listen to and relate to songs in a different way than the artist does, I watch and relate to my choreography in a different way to the dancers and audiences; I share a creation process with the dancers, and I share an external perception with the audience, and everyone who perceives it comes from a different background and life, with a different 'self' driving their body. I think I articulated this quite appropriately in my marketing copy for the work.

"Superficial Thinking explores the duality of a person through internal and external perception; You the audience are an observer, seeing two sides of a mind from the outside. Through a contemporary dance duet, we invite you to perceive two sides of a self, and the interweaving relationship of their existence together."

I have tried to use the music to enhance this narrative, starting out quite slow and flowing, then moving into one with a steady beat (representing the constance of a heartbeat alongside the self), and then moving back into a violin track, but with more urgency as I want there to be a climax of the external exhausting themselves and the internal struggling to keep them going. 

I also found out during this 1-1 that one of my dancers has a back injury, so I've started taking this into account moving forward, checking in on her before each rehearsal and after, and making sure the rest of the movement we create is made with caution to her lower back. I went into this project intending to make the studio a safe space for the dancers both mentally as we were dealing with a deep topic and physically within the movement, so I am planning my next rehearsals with consciousness surrounding her injury, both physically in what I'm asking her to do, and mentally checking-in.