Dance&Drawing: Thinking with the Body

So things that I've been up to over the weekend.

Firstly, 'Thinking with the Body' by Wayne McGregor at the Welcome Collection. Wayne McGregor is very well known for his 'physically testing choreography' and collaborations made across dance, but also including other things such as film, music, visual art, technology and science. We can all see how these subjects might link together. In 2000, he with his company, took on a number of projects where they investigating the creative aspects of dance with fields like cognitive and social science. The exhibition was an insight mainly into the rehearsal time with the company and performers of McGregor's new work 'Atomos' at Sadler's Wells. It was also an insight as to how 'the process of choreography and how mind, body and movement interact with each of us.'

Thinking with the Body: An Introduction

As I'm doing a rather important project based on dance and movement, this seemed like a fantastic way to start my research and gain inspiration. Unfortunately I came away really struggling to understand what exactly McGregor was trying to achieve. I'm sure there was plenty of reason for him to have created the performances he did however, I couldn't seem to find any explanation or development towards this whole idea of 'thinking with the body'.

When I watched a performance at the beginning of the exhibition, 'Random Dance', on screen I genuinely thought the movement was beautiful, I felt I could see the unusual shapes the dancers were making with their bodies, how they interacted with each other and how the transitions of the steps complimented or conflicted with one another. I thought I could see 'thinking with the body'. As I moved through the exhibition though I felt I was just given his ideas; his sound ideas, his movement ideas but not where they ideas stemmed from. This I felt was a shame as I would've loved to have seen McGregor's thought process to get towards his final performance.

I thought later in the day that perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing that I'd come away confused because the whole thing had really made me think. I was desperately trying to understand what McGregor wanted to do and I couldn't, but maybe that was what he wanted. I'd be lying if I said that I could happily settle for that 'confused' feeling, if I watch a performance I like to enjoy it, but I did think the contemporary movement was beautiful. The way bodies intertwined and weaved in and out of each other, the fluid transitions from step to step and the simplicity of clothing, allowed me to really focus just on the movement so evidently I was thinking 'about' the body.

Notes and mind maps for ideas on timeline.

There was also an exhibition of sculptures and unusual mirrors and shapes which were interesting. Again I didn't fully understand these but I thought perhaps that by looking into them and seeing how they distorted your body could've been the response in movement in the performance.