Jaques
Le-Coq Exercises
Wednesday 10th
December 2014
Our final
session into ‘Jaques Le-Coq’ and his impact on the world of Contemporary Theatre
had us take part in several practical exercises. All of which would help us experience and
physically understand ‘Jaques Le-Coq’s’ technique to make the inanimate
animate.
The Seven States
of Tension
Before
beginning the practical exercises our teacher had us look at seven key areas of
the human emotions, all of which cause bodily tensions, plus can tell a story. The seven states of tensions are:
1. Exhausted
– Knackered, Sloth and Jellyfish-like.
2. Laid
Back – Relaxed, Lazy, Koala-like.
3. Neutral
– Comfortable, No Story.
4. Alert
– Squirrel and Meerkat-like.
5. Suspense
– On Edge.
6. Passionate
– Opera, Powerful, Dog-like.
7. Tragic
– Ghostly and Petrified.
Referring back
to these states of tensions it was our first task to create a story arch within
our physical being. Beginning by walking
around the room, emotionless, we firstly showed signs of exhaustion, causing
some of our pacing to slow down and bringing us to a standstill or sitting
position. From this we came to a laid
back posture causing little to no movement and near silence within the
room. After a little relaxed posture we
then came to a neutral state, bringing forth no emotion within facial or
physical structure, yet still giving off an imagery of comfort and
relaxation. Then suddenly leading to
alert, as if someone or something bad was about to occur, causing slightly
faster movement and usage of facial expression to show concern. But leading to suspense meant that there was
to be faster and tense movements, almost beginning a state of panic. Although passionate came to an extent where
we showed emotions physically and mentally of wanting to solve the problem
before time runs out. Yet concluding
with a tragic state as the bad event unfolded and we would stand petrified
knowing we had failed and fallen.
I found these
exercises to be extremely interesting, as they explored human emotions, yet had
a constant emotionless state. Meaning
that audience members would be able to understand the story without the usage
of dialogue and facial expressions for reminders. As we did the practical exercise the bad
event was that there was a bomb in the room and we all had to show our states of
tensions and responses to other people in the room and the thought of the
actual event itself. I think the
exercise was a success and slightly reminded me of the video clips we saw last
week. As the footage showed many
performers having no dialogue and facial expressions in their performances, yet
connecting with the audience by showing human-like emotions and responses.
Making our own
Inanimate Object
Our final
practical exercise of the day had us use devising methods to create a creature
or an object of some kind and make it animate for our audience. Splitting into four small groups we created
our inanimate objects using items of everyday use to bring a real creativity to
our main performances. In my group we
decided to create a dragon-like creature.
Combining ideas to create a true structure and characteristic state of
our creature, we then began to make the creature and bring it physically to
life for our upcoming audience.
I found this
to be a really entertaining and thought provoking experience. We succeeded in bringing our creature to life
and showing our audience its several states of emotions towards other objects
in the room. Plus the process was
thought provoking because it strongly linked towards our other Contemporary
Theatre work. In devising workshops to
bring forth multiple group ideas and suggestions to make an excellent result
that was satisfactory to every member of the group.
No comments:
Post a Comment