Week 7: Lighting

Today we explored lighting and how it can enhance movements. We started off by improvising in the space with side light either side of the space when dancing I could see that the space was really well lit as everyone in the space could be seen easily. The lighting also created lots of shadows on the walls and floor which created lots of interesting patterns and shapes. I then watched the second group  improvise but this time one of the side lights was changed to a blue this really changed the space as it created a warm area and a cold area the dancers played to this idea as they mainly stayed in the warm yellow/straw area compared to the blue light which only one or two dancers were in making them look isolated and lonely.

We then split off into groups and were each given a light and we had to create a sequence of movement using the light. My group decided to put the light at  medium and put it down at an angle towards the floor. This created a really interesting shape on the floor which was really intense and then faded out the further away from the light you get. We placed the light at a diagonal from down stage left to upstage right. This inspired us to move along the light starting in the intense light. We intertwined ourselves on the floor and developed it by getting higher every time this created a start, middle and an end. In between the pictures we inserted movements that related back to the light for example covering our eyes with hands, sitting looking at it or trying to escape it by going into the unlit areas. We sat our audience around the light so they could see the progression of the movement away from the light. Our audience agreed that they could see the progression of our movement away from the light and they said that the lighting really enhanced the movements. The video below shows half of the sequence we created.

Overall today really taught me that lighting is a really useful tool that can easily enhance a piece of movement. I would also love to experiment with different lighting states when choreographing my own pieces.

Chloe x