Dramaturgical Connections to creative responses for Assignment 1

This is where I am so far…

The videos of the responses to assignment 1 inspired me to think in episodes and snapshots. Seeing them over and over, I began to notice certain motifs emerging, which to me became recurring in all the assignment responses. A gesture or action was maybe not literally being repeated, but surely when looked at closely, for me there were connections between some gestures, movements and expressions that began to emerge.

A few elements in particular, stood out for me, especially when I re-looked at the videos after reading all the feedback everyone had given to each other’s assignments. The thoughts that I have collated here are an attempt to articulate a structure that could possibly emerge from this first round of dialogue.

The element that I am most intrigued by, not just taking into account our videos, but also, the whole concept and performance of cabaret, is that of suspense and surprise. I feel that there is a very strong sense of concealing and revealing, sharing and holding back of information, political opinion, and secrets both individual and political, etc., taking place during a cabaret performance. To me it is this quality of the cabaret, especially cabaret artistique, and how it has always been used in cinema in India, that led to a possible first episode for our piece. The episodes need not be played out in the order they have been written; this is just our starting point.

I viewed the works from two positions; one separating myself from the Helen-Bollywood-cabaret legacy and the second more as a Bollywood audience member, who’s reference point for cabaret comes from the Hindi Film Industry and from performers like Helen and Cuckoo. Interestingly in both cases I felt that the works could be seen as coded messages. Some that were hiding something and some that were revealing. This for me started a narrative where all these assignment responses could be developed further to be choreographed around a theme or political stand that these messages either hide or reveal or maybe even both, as they are performed. So if one theme is about racial politics and looks at the position of people of colour in the context of American Cabaret, the other could be about how cross-dressing was used in cabaret in Hollywood (Victor-Victoria) and Bollywood (Aamir Khan in Baazi), etc. The sections created, based on the themes chosen could be comments on the theme, but with a clear rooting to the region of choice and the nature of cabaret there. This sense of rooting could come from the choice of music, costume and movement style.

We could pick some motifs from the movement material generated, which become motifs for secrets or revelation (e.g. Shy’s eyes and Jazz hands) and these could then run as connecting motifs throughout the episode. These movements could be interpreted and maybe slightly tweaked, only if necessary, to fit the thematic requirements of the individual sections. Also, a phrase could be created that gets repeated in each piece, at different times, and is performed once by all the performers in their individual sections.

Though the full structure is beginning to develop hazily in my mind, I feel the opening of our piece could be a collage that is put together by collating the pieces that are individually choreographed by the performers. Following which each episode could be thematic and even be focused on the work created individually or maybe as a duet. The hiding and revealing section could probably be the first section/episode. This section thus would be an edited version of the works individually created, collected, collated and put together as the exploration of the concept of ‘hiding and revealing’.

The second point, which we all have in common, is the Indian-ness factor. It appears in each of our works differently, but it is very much there. So what comes to my mind is a video montage where all four performers are placed together on the screen, side by side. Even though we are in different places, the attempt for this section should be to create an atmosphere in our individual videos, through lights and props, so that it appears that we are all sharing the same space. So the use of darkness and light is very critical. Here when we create the videos we individually light up certain sections of our bodies and then begin the movement. We can use a split screen, one frame divided in 4 parts. If divided vertically then we place all four performers side by side. If divided horizontally then we place the performer one on top of the other and start from the bottom of the screen. All sections need to be partially lit and the light is to be focused on one particular body part. So if we work with a vertical split then we have a sort of a diagonal being created through the screen. If split horizontally, the placement of the individual sections should give the impression of one full body being created, knowing that these are 4 different people performing 4 different parts. 

We begin with Sandra’s camera focused on her legs and light up only her legs not revealing the rest of her body. Sandra’s image stays on one part of the screen doing her movement very slowly. If required it could even be looped. The second part of the screen comes alive and we fade into Anjali’s frame. Here Anjali’s camera captures only her hip sway movements including her action of hitting the side of her hip. Next Cynthia’s section opens. Here we playback a short phrase created by Cynthia focusing on the movement of her arms and torso. Next we fade into Shy’s frame focusing on her eyes and Jazz fingers. Then everyone stands up in her frame. The orientation of the screen might need to changed, if working with a horizontally split screen. 

Upon standing all the performers are visible (partially, maybe half lit) and they go on to reveal something. Like Sandra let’s her saree slide down, Cynthia reveals a male costume wore by a woman so on and so forth. All this happens in silence. The highlight here needs to be on the Indian quality that each of our movement pieces have which somehow feeds into the movement language that Bollywood thrives on. So to take this further and to add to the kitsch, what if after standing every was to pull out an eye mask, cover there eyes and break into a Bollywood cabaret number performed by Helen. Maybe one of Helen’s signature steps could be used but each performer makes their movement phrase with their choice of movement language. Once all four begin dancing, the focus shifts to individual performances and one by one the movement pieces are individually played out. The frame is then dedicated to one person at a time and as a closing to this section, we can return to the split screen with everyone ending the piece in the same way. Here the last move can be put together in way that it appears that everyone ends the section in sync. 

Depending of the duration of the piece, we could use this as a trailer for the whole piece or even treat it as full episode.