Gail and I wanted to make our video more interactive with the audience, we decided that a flipbook was a good way as it is a physical book and fun to play with.

Gail and I thought that it would be appropriate to express our feeling of loss and forgetting through poetry, talking about our own personal experiences.

This was displayed on a TV.

film plan

all black and white

scene 1

wearing all white

standing apart, facing away,

both turn to face each other

walk towards each other

put our hands up, touching

lean into each other on either side

lift hands and touch hands again

hands back down

walk away, out of shot

scene 2

wearing all black

walk towards each other, standing a foot apart

look confused

puts hands up reaching but still apart

move hands down, then walk around each other, keeping the space

walk out of shot

end

This dance illustrates a story of two people who once had a connection, shown through the use of touch and the colour white as it is pure and innocent. The connection is then lost after seeing eachother again as we try to connect but can’t, symbolised through lack of touch and also the colour black in our dresses as black conveys that the bleakness in our relationship.

This video was projected onto a wall.

Bird is an up and coming young poet whose poems are raw and don’t really mess around with overly complex language, she often references pop culture like in her poem “Monica” which is a poem which starts off as almost like a rant about how she hates the character Monica from the 1990’s sitcom ‘Friends’ but then actually delves further into speaking about her own relationships and concluding with another rant about the show.

“I’m more interested in poetry that allows room for ugliness and error – I prefer that on an aesthetic level.” – Hera Lindsay Bird

Her themes are mainly based around relationships, sex and pop culture, she is a very modern writer.

We decided in the end not to use Mozart’s Requiem as we felt that even though there was a lot of meaning behind using the song, it really did not fit with the vibe of our video as music felt too jumpy and not as slow as we wanted it to be. We felt that Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata was more effective as it was slow and dramatic and so fit the mood perfectly.

The meaning behind this particular sonata is quite important too. He dedicated this song to his pupil at the time Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. This shows that his connection towards this pupil was so strong that he dedicated an entire piece to her, wishing to marry her but he couldn’t because of class differences, showing how important connections and relationships are in life and how these connections can be lost over time due to many factors.

Requiem definition – “an act or token of remembrance”

Aristocrat, Franz von Walsegg, commissioned this piece from Mozart to commemorate the anniversary of Walsegg’s wife’s death, although he remained anonymous for years. Mozart himself was ill at the time of the request and thought he was cursed to write a song for his own funeral. In 1791, only partly completed, Mozart died. The job of finishing this iconic piece was given to his pupil  Franz Xaver Süssmayr.

This piece has been used in film to express intense moments, usually of loss. This is what we want to use this piece for to represent the loss of connection and friendship in our film/theme.

Under Suspicion – Stephen Hopkins

A lawyer is under suspicion for the rape and murder of 2 young girls, he is interrogated and many of his deep, dark secrets are revealed. Requiem is played in the film which seems fitting as the song was written while Mozart knew he was dying and so felt like he was writing a requiem for himself for his own funeral much like what the main character must have been feeling as he is interrogated and faces the threat of life behind bars.

Eyes Wide Shut – Stanley Kubrick

Requiem is used in this film for the moment that the main character discovers that a young woman has mysteriously died, this woman had died to save him. Ironically, Kubrick died only 6 days after screening the final cut of the film and therefore wasn’t able to experience the reaction to his work, a bit like how Mozart died part way through writing Requiem.

The start of contemporary dance was with Isadora Duncan (1878-1927), American-French dancer who deserted her ballet career which she deemed as too robotic and restrictive to free herself and create dance that is inspired by the ocean. Her love of nature was shown through her organic, flowing movements, using her solar plexus (the bundle of nerves at the pit of your stomach) as the basis of all her movement. She was also inspired by Greek culture and dance, often wearing a Greek tunic and bare feet for a costume and danced femininely, using her arms and hands to freely express herself.

Example of Isadora’s dance, recreated in 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq2GgIMM060&index=2&list=LLkh-ZbiZxSrYWvbk_2oqWlg&t=0s

Pina Bausch (1940 –2009) was a German modern dancer who helped resurge the Tanztheater style which grew out of German Expressionist dance from about the 1920’s. One of her most famous choreographies was her reimagining of ‘Rite of Spring’, originally choregraphed by Vaslav Nijinksy with music by Igor Stravinsky. Her version was controversial, including the dancers performing the routine on dirt on the stage and a woman being ‘sacrificed’ to satisfy the misogyny of the surrounding men. She is very influential In the world of dance for the way that she revolutionised the way we think of modern dance: “I’m not interested in how people move; I’m interested in what makes them move,” she put a lot of emphasis on peoples emotions and inspirations rather than just the pure mechanics of dance itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VqaGkKQRCU&t=39s

 

Costume for contemporary dance

English National Ballet – Rite of Spring

 

Scottish dance theatre

Contemporary dancers tend to wear very similar outfits. This creates a sense of continuity and therefore tells the story in a more effective way. The colours they wear also are important in conveying the mood of the piece.

Me and my collaborative partner Gail want to show from personal experience how someone that you had a really strong connection to whether it be a friend, boyfriend, family member etc. can be lost and forgotten over time, losing that connection that you once had.

This is a very relatable experience that happens more often that you think, forgetting people and moving on is important in life in terms of progression. The people that you were best friends with in school may not be your friends now as everyone must follow their own path in life. This is a natural process yet when we think of it can elicit many strong emotions as you think of the memories created with that person and how they influenced your life in that particular period.

Researchers say that we make around 400 friendships throughout our life but only maintain a handful of them.