Ozma Has an Invisible Posse.

[parasitegirl]

This is inspired by Princess Farhana’s latest blog (http://princessraqs.blogspot.com/2010/10/know-your-motivation-dance-and-dramatic.html) , a Bhuz thread about expression,  by wonderful teachers (like Karim Nagi!) who have brought the music to me as well as my general musings right now as I thinking about teaching. (Crossposted to FB)

It’s hard to really known what your strong suit is, to listen to the comments, complements, and critiques of others and to accurately find yourself in them. I’ve got some doubts about some of my strong points in dance (and in life!)…but I’ve heard this one enough times to believe it: I have a very expressive face. I show emotions. Dancers here comment on it positively.

 

Some of it is cultural. I’m an American who comes from a family that likes to tell stories and can’t sit still while doing so. We show you our stories.

I also live in Japan so my cultural background is more vividly noticeable (where in America that cultural background might be average). It is not that Japanese people can’t or don’t show emotion, but the general range, size, specifics of showing those emotions in this culture are calibrated differently. Eva Flemming addressed this point while teaching here once, talking about how she is aware of this cultural difference due to her own background and how her ways of showing emotion in her face are differently nuanced depending on her audience ME? Western? Asian? (yes, there are a million difference nuanced within each of those groups, but I am giving an overview.) My cultural background has primed me to, if I am showing my full range of facial emotions, read clearly and powerfully (and sometimes too powerfully) in the culture I live and perform in.

But it has only primed me…it isn’t my biological/cultural destiny. I’m not automatically expressive when I perform BECAUSE I am American. The same holds for my Japanese counterparts, their cultural background isn’t going to limit their potential range of expression on stage, it’s just going to place them at a different starting point and give them a different perspective. No amount of cultural background, depth of experience to emotionally draw from, awareness, or goals are going to make a dancer express with his/her whole body AND FACE if they don’t work at it.

When I practice, I bring my face with me. I don’t let it rest on top of my neck as my body does all the work. If you bring your head to your practice sessions, you won’t lose it on stage.

I also fill my practice space with invisible people.

I’m not crazy…well, not for that reason…

It’s just the practical thing for me to do. You perform how you practice and if you plan to perform you need to think about the people watching you. I haven’t the cash to pay members of the GP and the dance community to sit around my practice space and respond to me and let me respond to them, so I imagine my intangible companions.

I will perform the way I practice. All my good intentions and performance goals are going to fall away if I haven't drilled them. I can warm-up in a tiny bathroom, or backstage, telling myself “Level changes, level changes, integrate more level changes…” but if I haven’t been working on those level changes at home…over and over again…making them part of how I respond to the music…it ain’t gonna happen. Or, worse, it will happen because my brain will shout “LEVEL CHANGE!” at a random point in my improvisational performance and I’ll go for it because that was something I wanted to work on but the music isn’t asking for it and it’s just shoved in there.

That’s not to say that a pre-performance concentration on your performance goals/visualization/getting into the headspace that works for you isn’t valuable, but it’s not the time to SET those goals. It’s too late.

And this makes sense, right? Yet many people start thinking about their face only when an upcoming performance looms. They drill as usual, or learn that choreography inside-and-out, and then days before or backstage they start telling themselves “I SHOULD SMILE! SMILE!!! GODAMNIT!” or whatever stage direction they think their face should be doing. Then they go out there and that planed face falls away. Or, worse, their brain starts shouting SMILE SMILE SMILE! and BLAM time they shove that smile on…and you can tell the eyes aren’t with the smile or the smile isn’t with the music.

Making sure the face you want is there when you want it…that’s why I don’t practice alone. That is why I bring my invisible friends to the party. As soon as I have a solid feel for a move or a combo, I need to drill it as I’d want to dance it...with my face on. I look at my phantom audience and communicate with them. They aren’t just in my mirror, just like your audience is rarely just in that small area in front of you. My make-believe crew are everywhere. My studio contains multitudes.

“Hey, computer playing my practice DVD, this is fun, isn't it?" "Random stain on my wall, you're out there but right now I am inside myself, I'll be back in a sec." “Oh, floor lamp, you’re never going to love me and I am ok with that, this music brings me such solace” "Where the wall meets the ceiling, my balcony buddies, I feel such longing for you" "Light switch, don't be shy. You can look..."

I swear, the piano’s been drinking, not me.

You may feel foolish giving your lamp encouraging glances or smiling slyly at your laundry in the privacy of your own room, but you'll feel far more crappy watching a video of yourself performing with your "thinky/worry" face or no expression.

When you look into the mirror and you're watching at your hips... keep the worry away from your face. Encourage your hips, be positive about them. Think "Hey there hips, you can do this...there you go...yeeeeah..." and let that show. You can look down at your hips to guide the motion, but (as Aziza would say) be AMAZED.

If you can’t be moved by your own capacity for movement, why should anyone else be?

This dual thinking, this confidence in yourself, your music and your movement is a skill you need...because someday you'll look at the audience and see someone who intimidates you, or who is never going to like you, and you still have to perform.

If you can't face your own hips and your own walls, how are you going to survive a succubitch in the audience? When the audience gives you positive energy it feels great...but the audience isn't going to do that all the time, it's not their responsibility to give you the energy you need to be a vibrant performer...you need to find that in yourself and in your music.

Princess’s article has many good ways to think about accessing emotion and you’re going to have to find what works for you. I personally am not about finding a character or setting a narrative, for others this approach works or is a good place to start. My narratives in dance tend to be abstract, my concrete narratives are the ones I write. Still, what facets of my personality are on display is motivated by the music and I do access emotions.

Which takes me to the point of why you don’t want to be flashing that huge smile in the middle of a moody taxsim or suddenly do a level change were it doesn’t make sense: The Music!

I’m not a fan of tight “when the music does X you do Y” formulas but there is no doubt in my mind that music should be the motivation for your movement. Some moves will seem jarring or nonsensical when paired with certain musical moments.

With your face and with your body, don’t forget to drill WITH the music, not on top of it. If your music changes in the middle of your hip-drop drill, be aware of how it has changed and change with it. I’m not just saying to change your speed, but that may be there, but try to make sure your quality of motion, your facial expressions, change with the music. Is it time for a smaller hip drop, a more delicate thought on your face? Is it time to change your position, focus on a new friend, and really let that drop reverberate? Will you hold back an expected hip drop, look playfully at your lamp-friend, and THEN bring the hip drop back on the next dun?

Same goes for your combos. Once you know those moves…change your drilling music and make sure you’re not just laying the same count of 8/16/whatever on top of different music. Think about the quality of the music. How does it make you feel? What does it access in you? Do you know the lyrics? What do you want to show? How will the size, quality, angle, speed, flavor of your body and face have to change to bring the music up through your combo?…and drill THAT. Bring the music up through your emotions, your motions, your body, and your face. Drill THAT.

If you can drill your whole body and face to hear and to respond to music: You will have your motivation when the audience isn’t buoying you up and you will have the mental/muscle/emotional ground work that will help with live music/new music. In a live show the musicians are bringing themselves through the music, listen to them, listen to what their instruments are telling you to do, and join the music.

Simple. It takes work to be that simple. It is wonderful to be that simple. When you music moves through you and your audience absorbs it is magic…that magic takes a lot of work, but it doesn’t make it any less thrilling or wonderful when it happens.

And that is how my imaginary friends and I roll.