Here are 4 little video studies 1-2 min each and some comments about things we discovered while in the process.
The passwords for all are: "loop"
1. Take a section of the existing kathak sequence and slowly morph it on a gender spectrum from ultra-femme to super butch.
Feminine sequence:
Fem phrase from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
Femme to butch:
Femme to Butch from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
2. create a series of masculine gestures (approx same number/length as part 1) in classical Kathak (If need, may also make non Kathak gestures influenced by rules of masculinity as noted by Gere on p. 351, 365 and Shah on p 4.)
Masculine sequence:
Masc sequenc from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
3. Switch back and forth between the feminine and masculine gestures in part 1 and 2. Try different transitions: once "blurring" the transition, another time making it fluid, and once emphasizing the rupture between the two characters.
Gender Morphing Sequence:
fem to mas sequence from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
FEEDBACK QUESTIONS
1. Babli noted in her theory assignment 1 response that 29 Effeminate Gestures works from a "single-mindedness" whereas 29 Subversive Gestures works from multiple/fluid positions. How do our new explorations deal with the idea of multiplicity vs. singularity of positions? Is the multiplicity or singularity confusing or effective?
2. Do these explorations deal with abhinaya as methodology or as signifier of Indian-ness, and how? 3. Compare and contrast these explorations with our previous Highways draft.
4. Note moments that you find satisfying or pleasurable. Note moments that you find confusing or boring.
5. Any other thoughts?
NOTE: CYN AND SHY WILL POST REFLECTIONS ON OUR PROCESS
The passwords for all are: "loop"
1. Take a section of the existing kathak sequence and slowly morph it on a gender spectrum from ultra-femme to super butch.
Feminine sequence:
Fem phrase from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
Femme to butch:
Femme to Butch from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
2. create a series of masculine gestures (approx same number/length as part 1) in classical Kathak (If need, may also make non Kathak gestures influenced by rules of masculinity as noted by Gere on p. 351, 365 and Shah on p 4.)
Masculine sequence:
Masc sequenc from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
3. Switch back and forth between the feminine and masculine gestures in part 1 and 2. Try different transitions: once "blurring" the transition, another time making it fluid, and once emphasizing the rupture between the two characters.
Gender Morphing Sequence:
fem to mas sequence from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
FEEDBACK QUESTIONS
1. Babli noted in her theory assignment 1 response that 29 Effeminate Gestures works from a "single-mindedness" whereas 29 Subversive Gestures works from multiple/fluid positions. How do our new explorations deal with the idea of multiplicity vs. singularity of positions? Is the multiplicity or singularity confusing or effective?
2. Do these explorations deal with abhinaya as methodology or as signifier of Indian-ness, and how? 3. Compare and contrast these explorations with our previous Highways draft.
4. Note moments that you find satisfying or pleasurable. Note moments that you find confusing or boring.
5. Any other thoughts?
NOTE: CYN AND SHY WILL POST REFLECTIONS ON OUR PROCESS
Some thoughts from working with Cynthia on the assignment:
ReplyDeleteEMOTIONS
Not surprisingly certain emotions easier to portray/access as female: seductive, elegant, innocent etc.
When portraying male a lot of the gestures appeared angry, even if that wasn't the intention. We later found more variety for the male: self policing, awkward, desiring, aggressor etc.
COSTUMING
It helped her feel comfortable in each role, wearing a duppata in a way that marked maleness or femaleness. That could be a very simple costume signifier if we wanted to simplify the costume.
MORPHING
it was a lot of fun to spend time investigating the in-between spaces.
Blurred
Cynthia found a way to do blurred that I thought was very funny, taking smaller components of a male movement or a female one and doing them simultaneously. Like showing a female signifier of long hair and a male signifier of a beard back and forth. We could probably find other ways of blurring the two - we were originally confused about the difference between fluid and blurred and I think that fluid is actually one way of approaching blurred.
Fluid
Fluid sometimes seemed very aesthetic/dance like, but also at times seemed like a Dali-like melting out of one thing and then settling in another. It seems like the fluidity really extends and changes the starting gender and then lands in the ending gender without much change to it.
Rupture
We thought that the traditional way of moving from one character to another is itself quite a rupture...because it is a sudden cut off and then taking on a completely different persona, sometimes with the palta (turn) between like was mentioned in. Another way of rupturing that Cynthia discovered was the self policing, with one side of the body manipulating the other (usually the male side making the female side more masculine). I found this quite striking in relationship to Gere's article.
I wonder if there are other ways to morph that we could try? Perhaps looking at video editing transitions could offer some interesting avenues to try?
Reflections on Process
ReplyDelete1. Femme to butch phrase: As a dancer, I found it satisfying to work with making feminine movement tandava. It felt like a different approach to discover variations on a movement level, rather than a narrative or rhythmic level, and one that might invite different possibilities than working with classical Indian male character types. Generally movement became more energetic, incorporated more footwork, and became bigger – the kinesphere expanded and there was more traveling through space. For some reason my movement variations sometimes ended up looking vaguely African (sedimented bodily memories, I suppose). Watching the sequence, I notice that the sequence gets increasingly louder as it goes from femme to butch.
2. Masculine phrase: As anticipated, it was hard for me to come up with masculine movement and to perform the character with as much emotional detail as female characters. It started to feel a little better – less like caricature -- once Shy and I settled on more details of the character, such as his age, social class, occupation, etc.
3. I noticed that Shy made clear choices about what kind of female character and male character I would embody: she choose the refined courtesan over the girly, simpering nayika, and the Muslim nobleman over the violent warrior. While I certainly understand her preference for those two character types, I wonder whether the point is to move between two specific characters, or between the widest range of gendered character types.
4. The gender morphing sequence was the most fun for me to do as a dancer, probably because it corresponds the most to my own preferences for gender presentation. We were slightly confused about what “blurring” vs. “fluid” vs. “rupture” might mean. Shy decided that “blurring” meant switching back and forth, while “fluid” meant a smooth movement transition, while “rupture” would create a break. Oddly, rupture was the most difficult one, because kathak already allows for swift changes between gendered characters, but this does not cause a narrative or ideological rupture. I was interested to find that the most rupture was created for me as a classical dancer when I mentally stayed in one character but switched their gender (for instance, the dice playing man and the seductive woman are the same character with the same aim of besting their opponent), rather when I mentally switched to another gendered character (say, between a nayika and her lord). So I suppose the question is whether “rupture” means a sudden break in embodied gender, or whether it means a break to the ideological codes of classical abhinaya?
5. In thinking about transitions, we came up with an interesting analogy to music and how ragas transition from note to note. See my response paper and choreographic ideas regarding reading assignment #2 for more.
Performative Feedback on Videos:
1. femme phrase: insert a pause between eyes and arms to register not being ready. Unclear why I get up from mirror.
2. masculine phrase: Start with legs slightly apart to read more masculine? Work on dhoti and turban, not quite clear what you’re doing.
3. gender morphing: Earring-dice switching is not super clear. Last section with chin, jatka, victory gesture, and changing leg positions is the most compelling because it is less hurried, more deliberate, and has different body parts occupying different genders simultaneously. Generally the “fluid” transitions are so short that it barely reads, at least on video (for instance, the shift from male to female sitting is supposed to be “fluid,” but I can’t see it at all); perhaps fluid sections need to be extended. It seems like the blurred approach creates the most interesting and clear transitions. Some parts communicate self-policing and gender confusion, while in other parts it seems empowering and easeful to move between genders. Interestingly I start more empowered (braid-beard) and end up confused. Perhaps we should add a self-policing part that makes me more feminine, not just more masculine?
ReplyDelete
1. I feel as though the sections, especially the “femme” and the “masculine” clearly explore different narrative positions. They are however separate and also self-contained; they are not interacting and the storyline do not meet. As a viewer I am not asked to switch. I can look at one, and then the other.
ReplyDeleteThe “femme to butch” for me somehow more reads as a transition of one “position” along a certain gendered spectrum. It does not read as two subject positions, because there is no signified switch (such as the turn) and clear break between two positions.
In the “morphing” phrase the switches between gestures/sections taken from the previous (femme, femme-to-butch, masculine) phrases are often very fast. It seems that often individual gestures alternate, overall giving a rather abstract choreographic effect, moving towards a deconstruction. However they do not establish narrative position that develop an emotional intent, primarily because the switches are so fast, but also because there is no story line. In that sense, I do not see them as multiple positions that switch, but rather as referential gestures that alternate and are in the corse of being deconstructed.
2. In extension of my explanations above, to me the “femme-to-butch” phrase has the potential of working towards abhinaya as a methodology. At this point however, I cannot yet discern what causes the change in the character form femme to butch. I also am not sure I sense an internal narrative (imagined emotions/sensations internal to the character CAUSING a change/reaction in the character, or fleeting emotions that pass through), which gives me clarity as to the emotional journey of the character, without me having to understand the details.
The morphing phrase to me uses abhinaya more as a signifier of Indianness.
3. I think its very difficult to compare the explorations. These new explorations, as compared to the Kathak phrase in the Highways version, are more clearly establishing different gendered positions than the previous phrase. Hence the Kathak phrase is not just one base element, but there are multiple gendered phrases that are interfacing.
Also, since the new explorations are not a composition and systematically structured yet, the build that is there in the Kathak phrase in the Highways version and its variations is of course more effective. Though this seems obvious, I mention it because I think the structure is central for 29 Effeminate Gestures, and will be an important element to contend with for 29 Subversive Gestures. In particular for employing abhinaya as more than base material and a signifier carefully thinking about structure will be crucial. This became particularly obvious to me when watching the “morphing” study.
4. Satisfying/pleasurable:
Femme phrase: the fact that it is a lot slower than in Highways version, makes it more luscious. Very satisfying.
Masculine phrase: throwing the dice
Femme-to-butch: the moment where she stands facing diagonal (at 41 seconds) and the following section: sitting down, looking in the mirror, lips...until she gets up and the walk on the diagonal; very satisfying transformation of material.
morphing: beard/braid works!
Confusing:
- in both femme phrase and femme-to-butch: the moment where she walks back and brushes something off her arm: intention/emotion, or why she suddenly does that does not come through clearly.
- femme-to-butch: the “going over-board” is confusing (see 5.)
- morphing: earring/shaking dice seems overly hectic.... I am following the energy of it
5. The femme to butch: femme seems very “traditional” whereas butch gets over the top more than femme. I would suggest exploring an even spectrum: either both go overboard nor neither. Cause the going overboard is, I believe an additional commenting and in a sense a “marking” in addition to “just” the transition.