on stage

co-productions

residencies

AS IT FELL

MARISA CABAL & STAV YEINI

Outline

To what extent is the experience of a performance determined by the point of view of the observer?
A scene in cinema cannot be separated from the angle in which it is being filmed. In this project, we will treat movement in cinematic terms, movement will always be dependent on the perspective of the observer.
We will intermingle the movements of the performers with recorded images that will be screened on stage. It is evident that performance and film have different means of capturing, recreating and representing. They are not able to communicate the same things. By putting these two media next to each other, we would ‘pretend’ there is no such gap in between the two.
For instance: A projection in the back wall could show a close up of a head slowly bending forward. When the head would almost go out of the frame, a performer in the middle of the stage could take over the movement, now involving the whole body bending forward. Then, a close up of the hands could appear on a TV screen at the front, close to the audience sits. It could show the hands getting lower and finally touching the floor.
In this example, movement appears in three layers (projection, body, TV) and travels in space from back to front stage. The filmed images function as an extension of the performer’s body and vice versa. Thus, movement is not only located in the body, it travels through the stage jumping from media to media.
With the juxtaposition of film and performance, we could add several layers of perception to the movements, dissociate fragments out of the whole picture, refine or obscure parts of the scene and give emphasis to things that would otherwise pass unnoticed.
Following that path, the creation of our choreography would resemble the editing of a film. We would use editing tools such as cuts, cross cuts, transitions, sequences and montage in a context of performance. During this choreographic process, we will probably get confronted with certain limitations, due to the time frame and the specific location of the final performance. We believe that these limitations would lead us to a more refine and detailed work about the relation in between movement and the way it is being perceived.

Layers of perspective

For this project we will develop the movement vocabulary in layers. With each layer we will reinforce the link of choreography and cinematic vocabulary.
As a first step, we will choose scenes from films as the source of our movements. We will take the actions in those scenes, and adopt all their cinematic qualities: sense of time, soundtrack and spatial motion.
As a second step, we will film those same movement materials to frame certain parts, to zoom into details, or to change the angle in which they are presented.
As a third step, those images will be displayed on a screen simultaneously with the live movements that are taking place on stage. At this point, we would like to bring two layers of reality – the theater space and the virtual space – into dialogue. A dialogue that will make them interdependent and will allow us to re-create the theater space.
The next step, will be based on the different viewpoints of the audience, as well as on other potential viewpoints upon what happens on stage.
To give an example, if one of the actions is reading a book, we can look at the action from endless points of view: the reader himself, or another performer who is present in the same scene, or an audience member seated in the second row, or an audience member seated in the last row, or even from the point of view of the book, the floor, the ceiling or the walls... (The same ideas would be relevant to an action that moves in space. The effect, of course, would be different from a static action.)
As a last step, a live camera will function as 'an invisible observer' to show even more angles and reveal more details and qualitative aspects of the movements.
At times, the audience will be able to see a hidden detail of a live situation or witness the point of view of another observer. Other times, they will get simultaneously two different angles upon the same thing. Thus, by acknowledging the co-existence of simultaneous points of view, we would like to suggest to the audience a more active reflection upon their position as observers – observers of movement, performance, film and media. This may lead to a wider reflection on documentation through media as it captures reality through filters of information.

An illusion of linear time

We will work towards a structure that opens up the possibility to shift in between two time frames, linear and simultaneous.
We will present each scene as a singular event composed by movement, image composition, tone and texture. The piece will consist of a linear sequence of scenes, where each scene will follow the previous one. That may bring a notion of progression through a linear time frame.
The concrete actions in the films and the movements of the performers will remain the same and will repeat during the piece. But in each of their appearances, we will frame them differently, suggesting that the frame we have chosen is one of many possible view points.
Through a process of differences, repetitions and connections in space and time; we will give clues to the audience to connect all the scenes into one complete event, as if all the actions would be happening simultaneously. This process may retrospectively change the understanding of all the scenes in relation to time. Each scene could become a fragment of a whole event and/or an event in itself.
The shift from one time frame to another may occur, or not, in different moments of the performance – depending on the perception of each audience member.
The idea that visual as well as cognitive perspective is unique to each observer is fundamental in how we will treat and present As it fell.
 

Credits

• Concept, performance Marisa Cabal & Stav Yeini (Busy Rocks)
• Video design Ychaï Gassenbauer
• Sound design Stijn Demeulenaere

Production Caravan Production for Busy Rocks (Brussel, BE)
Co-production Beursschouwburg (Brussel, BE), workspacebrussels (Brussel, BE)
Residencies Beursschouwburg (Brussel, BE), Monty (Antwerpen, BE), Theater Zuidpool (Antwerpen, BE), Château de Monthélon (Montréal, FR), STUK Kunstencentrum (Leuven, BE), workspacebrussels (Brussel, BE)

Busy Rocks is artist-in-residence in Beursschouwburg (Brussel, BE)
 

Dates

Date 05/03/2012 - 17/03/2012 / Rosas

Other productions

No other productions found

Info

tour: 12, 13.04.2012 Beursschouwburg, Brussel (BE) PREMIERE
company website: www.busyrocks.org