Hayley Izzard

I was really interested to watch a final solo piece of an MA programme, just to see what kind of work was involved if I wanted to progress down that route in the future. With the title 'Body Stories', it didn't really give me much clue as to what theme the piece could have, it could have been about anything but just have a huge emphasis on exaggerated body movement. The start of the piece where she had a scarf and was familiarising herself with the scarf reminded me of past IPP performances that I've watched. I interpreted the piece as expressing negative emotion, it was a bit hazy for me as to what she was expressing, whether it was depression, being controlled or some sort of mental illness. I loved her repetitive movements everytime the song hit a particular moment in the track, it was really effective and emphasised that she was maybe trapped or kept to a boundary. When talking to her after the show, her inspiration was totally different to how I interpreted t...

We are currently creating a dance piece to be performed in Coventry, for the arts festival on June 30th in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham and also to be performed in Coventry for June 9th in aid of the Olympic Torch. This video is a dance routine that we learnt with a choreographer who specialises in Kathak South Asian dance, that we are incorporating parts of into our overall piece, combined with Yoga. Our aim of the piece is to explore the concept of Fire. Feedback and tell me what you think.

Feedback from my IPP Performance Greta and Tara providing me feedback on my performance that they watched in IPP1. I'm very pleased with this feedback and it also helps me to look back and keep viewing this video whenever I need to, if I forget how to progress or if I just want to know a way forward. I'm glad it came across as shocking and effective, as that was definitely the aim. Some of the feedback surprised me as I didn't notice there was an energy change in my performance, I guess that's also an added bonus. I agree with Tara and Polly that I should slow down and focus on the smaller details of my piece instead of being quick to throw away the movements.

'The traces left behind' - Fiona Jackson  A movement exploration looking into the different ways we imprint ourselves onto our surroundings in our day-today lives. I really liked this piece as I was fascinated with the collages in the gallery space of handprints smudged across the pages on the wall, seeing all the the delicate markings of the feet. On one of them there was a 'Start' and 'Finish' where she'd journeyed across the paper, and seeing the comparisons of the traces. The feel of the piece reminded me very much like it was an art exhibition. As I was witnessing Fiona drawing circular patterns with chalk, I saw in the process her foot went through the chalk line and the chalk scattered far over the page, which was interesting. A phrase stood out to me,'The movement is fleeting, the marks remain'. This phrase interests me as it says to me even though as humans were constantly progressing, travelling, moving forwards with our lives, ther...

The Trickster The Child The Innocent The Mother The Hero The Old The Whore - to name a few! These are all examples of sterotypical characters that are easily accessible to portray in theatre. This is easily acheived through playing around with undulations. Undulation is: bending knees, slumping your body over, pushing your pelvis out and returning upright to lean back into your hip joints. In each of these positions a character can be born, for example: in the bending knees and slumped over form, its easy to play 'The Old'. The same for 'The Mother' leaning back can portray pregnancy, and theres so many more. If you lead with your head, you can play 'The Hero', strong and willful. If you lead with your nose, you could play 'The Geek' or even 'The Nosey'. So many possibilities evolve just from playing around with physicality, and which part of the body to lead with. This technique was used as a form of 'Commedia Del Arte...

Ive said about the Arthrometric model in another post but the lesson plan we had today was putting the model into practice I think. We had to work in trios, and experience aswell as giving, with the rocking exercises, gripping the legs, arms and torso area. To Give: When rocking Katie and Janiece the momentums of the rocking were so different. Janiece had a slow and steady pace, whereas katies rocked quite fast, especially when her legs were involved. When the legs were involved on both of them, I noticed the partnership of the other person on the other side would quickly become out of sync, and we had to work together to stop the receiver feeling disjointed. I noticed that katie struggled to let go of weight, especially with the exercise of letting Janiece and I move her muscles, but I think we all struggled with this area. It was either weight was given in the leg or in the arm, never both at the same time. I think Janiece was the best out of all of us in giving weight, you coul...

To generate ideas for my 'Transformation' project, I wanted to add some personal experience to my movement piece, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to show my journey of my experiences at University so far. There's been so many ups and downs, and it would be an easy way of showing this comparison. Using levels to show the highs and lows, and using theatrical practice to display the emotion. These movements are displaying my emotions at the start of this course, like I was hitting a wall and finding it hard to break through mentally, and how I manage to break free. This movement was created when exploring with the score of 'battling with myself''. These are just sneak peeks of the performance I've done so far, any feedback?

The second session: In Voice, we were practising the art of carefully pronouncing vowels and consonants. For example, my warm up exercises were: Maa -Faa -So - La - Ti - Wa Bee - Bi - Bick - Boh Shcrap - Mi - To - Da - La We had to say these to the group and recite them over and over. She would individually give us feedback on how we would say certain sounds, which I thought was really good as its almost 1 to 1 feedback. We then had to say a piece of text and she would individually go around the group and listen. Again, we'd recite them; my feedback was to play with tone, but she didn't have alot to say. I think I have quite a neutral voice but I do have a slight birmingham accent, which isn't too big of a problem.

To start the session by melting when a partner nudges you was a nice experience for me; personally, I like moving in this way. It eventually progressed until four of us were doing it, initiating the movement for each other and receiving, which became our own 'nudging dance'. The next exercise reminded me of what we did earlier in the week in theatre, to do with suspending the torso. It's amazing how its so much difference when you suspend your torso and manipulate your weight into different areas of the body and how much difference it makes. Posture looks so much better when lifting, and you find that it actually takes more energy to walk normally than to walk with your weight lidted(torso suspended). It also reminded me of the rib and pelvis work in movement tasks. I was trying to imagine the spaces inbetween my ribs, but I could mainly picture the pelvis. I find it harder to picture the ribs for some unknown reason. I found gliding while the torso was suspended awkw...

Free Writing: Can't explain the words, but I was trying to write without thinking which was really hard. The colours are how I see these words. Lesson Picked 3 objects, put them together with other objects. Rearranged these objects in groups. Put all objects together, started changing around and manipulating the objects to make them into our massive art piece. Picked an object and explored all if its possibilities, the way it moved, the way it can be manipulated. Feedback At the start I was bored with just rearranging the objects. We found we ended up putting things in similar places and my attention span quickly faded. Although it is interesting to see how objects can look in different ways, and how they have endless possibilities on how to rearrange them. Creating our massive art piece was really interesting, loved it. When we focused on one object I was wrapping it around me, letting it float, even dancing alongside it. It has a million and ...

To start the session with practicing moving about with hands and feet firmly on the floor was a great help to me as I got to practice from the previous lesson. I'm definitely finding it's coming more natural to me now. Then we explored with levels, which I'd never really explored indepth before. I always think with 'levels' that it's from upright to the ground, and then to the floor. It's easy to forget that there's so much space inbetween the three. Admittedly, I prefer either upright or the floor, which are the two extremes. They are my comfort zones. This is because I have a long back and the inbetween levels makes it feel awkward and I couldn't stay in these inbetween levels for long. We started at Level 1 (upright) progressing through to Level 10 with hands touching the floor and through to Level 20(on the floor). I found at first that I was moving down more rapidly than I should have and somtimes moving slower than I should have. When movi...

Learning about Neutral Mask was valuable for me, as I've been intrigued about it since the start of the year, of what it is. It's a training tool for actors, developed by Jacque Copeau. He was a frenchman who wanted to develop readiness for the actors on stage, this involved training the actors to 'neutral act'. Jacque Copeau http://www.landrucimetieres.fr/spip/spip.php?article1403  To do this, there are two masks: a male mask and a female mask. Between the two you can see the massive differences between the female and male facial components.It's similar to normal maskwork as the mask requires you to cut out old habits that you've developed such as, fidgeting or touching your hair/touching your face. If you touch the mask, it stops the illusion of the mask being an actual being. The type of exercises Copeau used to practise with his students were developing the art of neutral acting. For example, an exercise we did were 3 people had to 'don' th...

Working with Suzanna Recchia for a full day was brilliant. In IPP1, she got us to explore the space, filling the space that someone else leaves, working silently in unison with one another as we interact with each other. One thing in the session stuck out in my head as being a really useful skill for the future and that's to recall a memory that comes to your head instinctively. Just to write 4 thoughts, emotions, feelings or any imagery that comes to mind about that memory, and then to turn that stimulus into a short piece of a few moves. Here were my words about a memory of going on hoilday to greece and we went to a water park. I wasn't a big fan of rides and I remember feeling awkward, while tom is on the 'black hole' ride.. and I'm standing there watching him from the viewing platform. Surreal, looked fun though!

Following a while back with my stimulus I had for that 'transformation' tree I liked so much in a performance I saw, I've decided to use it as the theme for my piece, the theme of 'transformation', that's what I've named it. I've also used it to have as scenery. I originally thought I want my piece to be site specific in a woodland area surrounded by trees and leaves on the floor, but then I thought how interesting it would be to bring that to the stage, and make it so it's deliberately fake with cut out shaped trees and leaves on the ground, quite an abstract effect. In the studio today I worked on a sequence of moves I could potentially put in for my project. It's the technique that Glenn showed us in one IPP1 class. To think of some adjectives and make it into one continuing static phrase. I want to put some of these moves of these vids to my dance piece of 'Transformation' somewhere. I'm also debating whether to say the words ...

Task 1: Learning about the Arthrometric model was interesting for me, I tended to notice what movement was coming from my hips and shoulders in the central zone. When running around the room, I was practising articulating my feet (using my metatarsals, hinge joint) and the gliding joints in my feet. I find that knowing the terminology for different parts of your body helps to image them when moving. I didn't fully know what to notice or understand the purpose. Learning about the radial symmetry was informative, ie; elbows and knees are biaxial, cannot alter direction but can offer full range in movement, and the joints from the knees to the ankles are triaxial, as are joints from elbow to hand. It's quite complicated and would take a few physical exercises of exploration, to fully grasp . The Arthrometric Model Source: Andrea Olsen -  Body Stories Task 2: It was interesting to learn about the ribs because I didn't know much about the anatomy of how the rib...

In Improvisation with Amy, I find that I shock myself with how creative I can be with what I write without thinking. Here are a few verses that I've wrote over 2 sessions in my artist journal: "When I am part of a group, I feel the freedom to create what I want, it's a pleasure to work with others. We dance together, it works. We create together, it works. I like to share the spotlight, aswell as to have it." "A constellation of dance can be in all shapes; horizontal, vertical, sideways. Shapes - hearts, stars, squares, triangles, ovals. Patterns in the floor Patterns in the air Group patterns are so effective, working closely together." "Between people there is a natural bond, used through dance and real life. There is a deep connection expressed practically and silently, working in harmony, working as one. Broken bonds are with people who struggle to let go, struggle to breathe, struggle to see."

In experiental anatomy, we focused on moving through the floor through the hands and feet. We had a score of just moving across the floor in one direction, starting to move standing and gradually working your way to the floor and with this, I decided as a personal goal to focus on keeping my feet and my hands particularly grounded. It is an awful habit of mine to overbend on the pads of my hands and cause unnecessary tension in my wrists, which always leaves my wrists aching afterwards. http://www.footelastic.com/index.php?p=1_13_Your-Feet-Are-Miracle-Of-Nature I found that I like to move rapidly across the floor but actually, whilst slowing down I got all the benefit out of it, as the slower I went on my own, the more fluid and diverse my movements were across the floor. We then carried this score out in partners and, again, this made all the difference in the fact that the self consciousness of what I was doing went completely out of my head and i...

The most significant difference for me this term is Ballet.  After not having done ballet since I was 14 or 15, I couldn't remember even the basics of discipline for moves and I noticed last term that, particularly, when plieing my lumbar vertebrae near my pelvis would collapse underneath me and I think that was because I was being too forceful in trying to get low to the floor. I appear to have corrected that hopefully. One of my personal goals was to try and learn to pirouette, as I love them :) Because of yoga and pilates, my hips and adductus longus muscles (inner top of leg) are so much more flexible and accessible that I can acheive the turnout that I want, rather than my legs caving in as i spin. I'm so happy with my progression. Video of progression coming up soon :)

To me, Improvisation is another word for 'childs play' and it's one of those theatrical areas I find most challenging. In Dance I have so much more creativity and freed up movement, but for some reason with theatre, I can't 'realism act' all that well and tend to go towards over exaggerative action which is more comfortable, but still awkward for me. After a few sessions of this, I've learnt that it's so simple to practice but such a hard art to grasp but can only be obtained and carried out through practice. OBJECT ACTIVITY CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP SCENARIO These are all the key components to grasping scenework, aswell as 'ALWAYS SAY YES!' when improvising a scene, as if you don't then that leaves the other person or people your working with stumped and there's no way the scene can carry on for much longer. The process is a matter of give and take. Personally, Improv is my weakest area (theatre wise) as I'm very much a pe...

I'd never been to, or experienced a production of a physical theatre nature before. In a way, Frantic Assembly could be interpreted as a Dance Theatre Company also, as there were some combined techniques in the performance, for example; some beautiful contact improvisation mixed with weight giving back and forth, simple exercises such as trust exercises and also continuing that fluidity of movement when in awkward positions such as giving your full weight in lifts. It was brilliant how they combined 'natural Stanislavskian acting', although slightly exaggerated, with little bursts of contact improvisation. They 'broke the fourth wall' when talking to the audience at the start, almost involving us as though we weren't an audience and we were taken along on the experience with them. There were points where I struggled to follow but then came to the conclusion that pieces are meant to be interpreted however you wish, there's no right or wrong answer, and so...

I feel confident when exploring with the floor more, but i did notice I was flitting in and out of focus. I want to work with letting myself 'give in to the floor more', as Kirsty puts it, and i agree with her to an extent. I do notice my head leaves the floor at times when it could stay perfectly happy on the floor. Andrea confirmed today that moving through the feet was heel to toe. This feels a really unnatural way for me to move. From the previous term, I've noticed massive improvements. These are videos of the same routine, work in progress. BEFORE AFTER My fluidity has improved dramatically from the start of term. I'm noticing alot of moments in my 'After'  routine where moves could be more articulated, rather than just performed for the sake of it. I think I was performing at a comfortable speed for me, performing with momentum. It could be argued that it was maybe too fast in places. To work on the aesthetics of how the moves are...

'Angel Against the Odds' This 20 minute piece, to me, was my favourite. I loved everything about it. The storyline was showing inside an insane persons head and how he thinks there's a 'bad angel' out to get him, and all unfortunate incidents happen along the way, which eventually leads to the main characters death. The transitions were superb, they were so quick.They could transition from scenes where they were expressing the emotional state of the main character, to the next bad thing to happen to him, ie: all of his hair disappearing due to no reason, or an 'accidental' fire starting with no clue as to what started it. I had genuine chills when watching it because it was very haunting. I was gripped throughout the piece. I can't believe such good work has come from Year 1 students in Term 1. (no name) This group was the 2nd piece that I saw, after 'Angel Against the Odds'. This was when i caught on that I think all of the pieces had a r...

Watching Influx Dance Company countless times was an interesting experience for me. In ways, the performance struck me more as art rather than a dance piece, which shows how inter-linked art is to dance, a cross art form. The artistic elements were: the repetitive and different pitched sounds as they were travelling around the room. There was alot of multi tasking involved where they had a sequence of interlinking actions, repetition and sequences with the stamping of feet. They even used dance in a way of showing teamwork for example, when helping each other to slide under the shelf in the art gallery. This reminded me of a movement you would see when army men help each other to protect each other from bombs and to travel in secret or confined spaces. There were a few mysterious elements which left me thinking: 'Why did they do that?', for example the jumping onto the gym mat in no particular way, what was the reason for it? I think it's good when a piece can leave you...