Luca's first full draft ToP

I have been working on further developing my embodied artistic practice into new ways of moving image making within my practice. I have been taking the next step in combining dance/movement and film in the work I make. I want to evolve as artist to someone that really works from within the body. That uses this embodied artistic research to make work that embodies dance / movement / choreografie as a hole and becomes it. In structure, time, space, flow, physicality etc. To dive deeper into this fusion of dance and film. The question I ask is; how to make film dance? And how do I not only show dance and movement, but let the hole work feel like or embody movement/dance?

My previous work has been more of a performative/video registration format. Letting the choreography guide the story line and the camera being the forte wall. A new working method I have been developing to create more fusion between film and dance, is linking the view points method to elements of filmmaking. ’Viewpoints is a set of names given to certain principles of movement trough time and space; these names constitute a language for talking about what happens onstage. There are 9 view points, within time and space. Tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, repetition, shape, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship, topography.’ This allows me to have a vocabulary from my background in dance that I can translate to structuring a moving image work. And provides me with a new skill of approaching it through a different lens. Expanding the possibilities of presenting movements.

To unpack my research question I have been working on a work called Falling, Floating, Being. I wanted to focus on the physical sensation and versatility within one movement. The movement I worked with we call in dutch ‘the candle’. In my work it’s performed without using the support of arms and hands. The question I asked was; How to create a physical landscape with only one movement? And within this landscape show the complexity and contrast of this movement. Creating a physical sensation.

I worked with the viewpoint shape. The shape is ‘the candle’ movement. But how do I capture this movement? I’m fascinated by the complexity of the movement, the opposition of needing strength, control but at the same time being soft, relaxed and letting it happen. With a camera on movement I find it interesting to go into the details and have a close up look. This you can not do in the theater. Zoom in on parts of the body to capture the physicality. I started exploring the body through filming. Which part touches the ground, what is shaking, where is it tense and where soft. Different angels of the position. During the editing process I really got interested by creating the question from the viewer perspective ‘what am I looking at?’, what is it that is see?. I like this extra layer of not knowing how many bodies you’re looking at and who’s body it is. This because I like to play with how we look at bodies, interpret and read them. Because of de fact that we in our subconscious constantly judge if someone is male or female and adjust our expectations accordingly. I want to delay or confuse this moment. I’m working on creating my practice in a network where I can work with performers that represent gender fluidity, queer community and representation of a range bodies. I’m interested in the story of the body. The physical expression, body languages. De spine, body hair, skin marks, muscles and everything else. To emphasize the physical sensation I used sound of the body. I played with tempo and rhythm to create the intensity of the movement.

I’m drawn to the theoretical material of Legacy Russell in the book Glitch Feminism. The way they see the body and gender I resonate with. And give me new perspectives on how I want to present the body in my work. Other artist I relate to are Sharan bala and Marleen Hendrickx. Their works surround the intersex people. I don’t have an intersex body, but the subject has influence on all of us. How would my relationship with my body be different if I grew up with the knowledge of the existence of the non binary body?

A new project I want to work on expands on these questions. I have in interest in this idea of the range of self. We are stripped of the right to feel, to transform, to express a range of self (quote of Glitch Feminism). This is related to how we perform gender. I also read a story I which the person talks about how you are a different person with different people. And she ask the question how are you able to know yourself. An other quote I find interesting is ‘a self with multiple selfs part of them selfs’. How can I translate this into a dynamic work with different sides to it.

Besides this fascination for the body and gender expression. I feel the urge to make a work about my grandmothers house. My grandmothers both died this year very close after each other. One house is very quickly sold the other one they are still cleaning out. I find it interesting how this place that gathered people. Went through changes. With all its objects now and now where will they go? I asked myself the question how is this relevant to my practice. As I mentioned before I make work that is close to me. It has something to do with identity. It doesn’t have anything directly to do with the body or movement. But I also find this very interesting how can I make a work that doesn’t have a relation to movement still embodied the feeling of a dance choreography. I see this taking shape in editting. I think I will approach the house as a body. And capture it in close ups like I did in Falling, Floating, Being. Related to the body there are also questions to be asked. What is the experience of being in this space. What is the bodies relation to a space. How is the body related to the room? How does it move through the space. Do we need to see the pov of the body? Or the relation/ contact with it. The house is the protagonist. And for know I focus on the selling process, the house getting empty. How will it feel then. Who is getting what item and how does it new home feel. Approaching the house as a body. And then to make it into a work that embodies dance choreografie. I’m motivated by the challenge. And excited to push my work in in new direction this way.