THE BODY IN MOVEMENT
The Human Body in Movement is a project concerned primarily with dance and physical theater, to some extent also with everyday corporeal expression, and with athletics where aesthetic aspects of body movements are important. In all ages, performers like dancers and actors have used their bodies as the foremost element of their creations. In contrast to painters and sculptors, they invest themselves in corporeal form in their work. The focus of the project is on aspects of principle concerning human body movements in the aesthetic field, not on the history of the performing arts or on individual artists’ manner of moving.
A prominent aspect of the project concerns the visual experience and memory of body movements. Therefore, performers and onlookers alike are studied in a comprehensive perspective. This is manifested in the liberal use of still images and videos, representing body movements, where traces of fixations and saccades allow us to investigate the eye movements of onlookers and, indirectly, their perception.
This does not mean, however, that the project is based on one special method of investigation, like eye movement filming or psychoanalysis. On the contrary, it constitutes a complex web of ecological psychology, perception psychology, memory studies, creativity studies, media studies, biomechanics, semiology, and the history of ideas. It is also based on the empirical and theoretical knowledge found among stage artists like William Forsythe, Jerzy Grotowski, Doris Humphrey, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Daniel Nagrin, Yoshi Oida, and Mary Overlie, as well as among movement specialists like Moshe Feldenkrais, Erving Goffman, and Rudolf Laban.
For a number of years, the project has got economic support from the following Swedish foundations and institutions: Elisabeth Rausing Memorial Foundation, Längman Cultural Foundation, Magn. Bergvall Foundation, and the University of Dance and Circus, Stockholm. Just as important has been access to studios and other facilities at the following institutions: the Theater at Folkparken, Lund, Lilla Teatern in Lund, the Division of Art History and Visual Studies at Lund University, the Humanities Lab at Lund University, Malmö Art Academy, the Inter Arts Center in Malmö, the Danscentrum Syd in Malmö and the Dance Station in Malmö. From some of these I have also received valuable advice and assistance. To all of them, I would like to extend my expression of gratitude.
June 2011
Jan-Gunnar Sjölin
Lund, Sweden
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STILL FRAMES
Body movements in still frames from videos are displayed above. These videos were filmed in 2009 in the studios of Danscentrum Syd, Malmö. They are used in tests concerning the visual attention to body movements and the memory of them. The dancers are Aleksandra Sende (in blue) and Julie Schmidt (in gray). The postures are inspired by or reflect choreographies by Birgit Åkesson, Fernanda Lippi, Ingun Bjørnsgaard and Eva Lundqvist, among others. Other postures are derived from a Kabuki exercise as taught by John Martin and from a Hatha Yoga exercise as taught by Jerzy Grotowski.
VIDEOS
The short videos that you can watch here, lasting from 8 to 32 seconds each, represent a selection from about 180 dance solos and exercises, filmed in 2009 with Aleksandra Sende, Julie Schmidt and Amy Nordqvist in the studios of Danscentrum Syd, Malmö.
These videos have been used in tests of subjects’ visual attention to body movements and their active and passive memory of them. Choose a quiet surrounding where you will not be disturbed during the 8-9 minutes that it takes to watch them. Just look at them as you would at a normal performance. Don’t read what follows, until you have watched the whole video sequence once.
When you are done, take your time to think about what you have seen: Were there any postures or movements that you especially remember? Why do you think that you recall these particular passages first of all? There were certainly more in the sequence than those that you immediately recall. Try to remember them too! How many can you recall? How many video excerpts do you think there were in total? Did you get any associations to other dancers or dances that you have seen? What do you think about the individual ways of performing and moving of the three dancers? Are your memories of each excerpt isolated or do you remember in which order they were shown?
One or two days later, it is time to ask yourself the same questions once more, without having watched the videos again. Is it now easier or more difficult to remember what you have seen? Are you paying attention to the same aspects when you are now trying to remember the videos, or do you remember them in a new way? Are the results of this informal experiment what you had expected, or in some way a surprise?
Any observations about the outcome of this test are appreciated. You can communicate them under CONTACT.
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