The series of fast paced exchanges in Brain – Forgetting all take place in a narrow band of light across the front of the stage and each duet is a desperate, clingy and suffocating cry for help that is roughly and unceremoniously rejected.
- With a partner, try out some of the ideas and experiment to find your own. Choose your most successful duet and perform, as a whole group, in rapid succession. Couples may feed off the energy to decide when they enter for an exchange; incidental overlapping should not be a problem for an audience as the duets are so closely connected in theme. Record and watch for comment. What is the effect of the lighting and subsequent space restriction?
- Set up a narrow diagonal corridor of light in the studio extending from the top right hand corner to the bottom left. The task is to choreograph a solo that begins upstage and ends downstage and mainly stays within the designated corridor.
- Walk the length of the space. Do not stray beyond the light. Experiment with the sensation of reaching beyond the light into the darkness with a hand, an arm, a foot, a leg, a head. Is there an upper limit to the light? Keep one body part firmly within the light and explore the dark space outside with the remainder that is free. What shapes and movements come out of this? What happens if you fall from the path into the dark?
- Walk the distance again with your partner and perform one of your exchanges part way down. What kind of meanings are sparked (Restriction, limitations, struggles, entrapment, the safety zone vs the unknown?) Discuss possible dance subjects that might be effectively explored using this space and light restriction?
- Choose a subject for your choreography and work on ideas to occur at each stage of the diagonal. At some point (s) try to move beyond the confines – what happens? Do you eventually return – what pulls you back? Or do you break free? How does your solo conclude? What emotion do you leave the audience?
- Find or create a soundtrack for your solo.
