Research As Practice
Create a solo piece of choreography informed by a lived experience
During my final year at Liverpool John Moores, i knew that for my final piece of work, i would want to do something that was close to my heart and would have my full attention This lead to create a piece about my Uncle (Left) who passed away. i chose to do my piece about him as he was a very influential person in my life and i wanted to celebrate his life on stage.
Aim
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How Autobiographical methods can inform a solo work
Objective
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Reflective process - improvisation work into a structured piece
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To create a piece that has been influenced by a lived experience
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observe and research autobiographical work to inform the creative process
Methodology
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After looking at what my piece will entail to complete, the paradigmatic framework that will best suit my research will be performative, this will consist of qualitative research so that i can create a piece of contemporary dance
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Also to add to this, i will be using practice- led research throughout the process.
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As a choreographer, i will be using interviews, reflective journals and peer feedback to complete my research
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My overall aim is to create a piece of choreography, that not only shows the audience what this family member meant to me and my family, but to also show how a lived experience can influence the style of movement that is presented on stage
Charlie McDonnell
Creative Process
My creative process started in January of 2015 and had to goal of creating a piece of work based on a lived experience by March of 2015. My journey of self discovery, choreographing a piece and going through the emotional roller-coaster of revisiting the memories of my uncle, i had a lot of work that needed to be done in the little time i was allocated.
In the video on the right, this shows the creative process that i had to go through to ensure that my piece delivered the emotional views of my family members. These interviews where initially done for myself for inspiration, but as the piece progressed, i felt as though my family had just as much as a right to be in the piece and express their views just as much as i did, even though their views where put across with their voices, i knew that their emotion and expression would be just as powerful as me on stage.
Once the interviews where completed and the video was made, the piece automatically took off in the direction that i wanted it to go in. This made the creative process have the feeling and emotion that i wanted to have from the start. Hearing the voices of my family members and their views towards the man that had such a huge part in my life made sure that my movement and the execution of the movement had the emotion and feeling that i wanted it to have.
The final product, which is displayed in the video on the right, was performed on the 27th March 2015 at Liverpool John Moore's theatre.
