I honestly had difficulty in the ‘5/8’ study – the movement theme of the prompt was unnatural to me as I move with a lot of circularity and rarely do sharp, linear movements. I found it hard to improvise movement while in this mind-frame of 5/8 meter, and that lead to a block to the creation of movement for my study – I could not figure out how to piece anything together that fit the ‘5/8’ theme that I actually felt comfortable presenting.
I believe my main problem was attempting to translate my circular movement into something that was linear. As if with language, I was trying to directly translate my each movement rather than trying to rewrite entire phrases in the new language. The solution was to think of this study with a perspective of what I knew to be most linear to me – ballet, Horton, and Cunningham – and using this vocabulary to generate movement from. Thinking in this language gave me the freedom to form my own phrases, and everything seemed to flow more naturally in the creation process. In overcoming this challenge, I relied on the knowledge that I have but needed to think about the situation in a different way and gain a new perspective.
My study was combined with the study of Alize Raptou and set to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. The juxtaposition of the 5/8 meter of the study with the 4/4 meter of the music created a very interesting piece.
Marissa Thomas 