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.
