A few thoughts post-BARE

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The number three has always been a key factor within our work, so doing the piece three times was an obvious progression for the work. Focusing on the use of threes or factors of three throughout linked the different sections of the performance together. I expected that each performance would feel different due to the different chosen times. The earlier performance being quieter and more peaceful compared to the later performance being muggier with the Fulford Ings being a lot busier, with passing people.

 

Something that I didn’t expect was the variance in my own feelings towards the piece. Repetition allows for each movement to feel and flow in a slightly different way.

After successfully walking and leading the group for the first performance I became more relaxed and was able to allow more time for personal reflection within the later performances. I was able to see each performance section in a different way as we walked the same path three times. My chosen extension was a white flag. This became part of me as a performer. Initially, It represented a flag of surrender; A white flag being common iconography of this idea. The connotations of this white sheet altered each time I waved the flag. With the underlying story being that of death and struggle, the ideas of innocence and purity became prominent. The white garment being worn and white flag that I carried became tarnished and dirtied from my surrounding as I traveled through the walk. This later became a representation of innocence being dirtied by our experiences throughout life.

 

My opening sequence, where I performed a string of movements was my initial, personal, introduction to nature. Conducting the nature, welcoming the nature, and then me surrendering to the nature. By the later performances the idea of surrounding encompassed more than just my surrender to nature, beyond me baring all to my environment. It became about surrendering to innocence and surrendering to my own path in life. Each performance piece ended with a moment of simultaneous movement, finishing with us all falling to the floor. As I fell, the white flag was waved overhead and hit the floor as I did. Within the three performances this represented to end of my surrender, the completion of the surrender, fully baring all the nature but also became the death of the innocence described previously. The flag never previously touched the floor, from the moment I raise it at the beginning until at the end of the work where we all fell together. The raising of the flag went from being the initiation of the surrender to the start of the fight against the death of innocence, a leap I did not expect.

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                                                           Imogen