Stimulus Discussion and Final Group Decision

In this weeks lesson we began to look at stimulus ideas for our piece with the goal in mind of deciding by the end of the session. 

Prior to the class we had each individually found a stimulus of our own and gathered some research in order to help us pitch our choreographic ideas to our fellow group members. 

I chose to use the stimulus surrounding a metaphorical bubble around a person.

I think its so significant as each person will have their own "imaginary" personal space bubble that surrounds them as a boundary to prevent uncomfortable scenarios with other people. (Yourtherapysource, 2019)
Everyone's metaphorical bubble will be different and those bubbles will "change in size" as each person grows and experiences fluctuating mental health, or has negative/positive encounters. And throughout life you let a range of different people in and out of this bubble, some may stay for a long time, others could simply be there to teach you a short life lesson, but I thought as a group piece we could use a lot of distant work where we choreographed it to make it look like we almost bounced off each others "bubbles" and then throughout the piece people would "burst" them and come in and out of each others personal space, perhaps following a specific narrative and each exploring our own characters feelings and emotions.

We sat in our group and each proposed our ideas, there was also:

climate change

dementia

3 stages of the conscious mind

sexual assault and its effects

Everyone got the chance to pitch there stimulus and then we as a group decided on two that we liked over all, these being, 3 stages of the conscious mind and sexual assault and its effects.

I found the 3 stages of the conscious mind very interesting as its not something I had explored or even heard of before and it opened up clear pathways for possible structures with the thought of possibly representing these stages throughout sectioning the piece or with individual dancers representing the conscious, preconscious and unconscious mind.

After discussing further we noticed there were more opportunities choreographically with the sexual assault stimulus as Emma had displayed her research including the long list of possible effects of sexual assault, we then realised we could implement a large range of styles and a variety of structures to compliment the many different ways people can feel subsequent.

After some further deliberation we then had a blind vote and came to the choice of sexual assault and its effects.

With this stimulus we definitely hope to take it as more of an opportunity to raise awareness of the growth and positive outcomes that can come from someone overcoming a sexual assault encounter, whether you are a direct victim or a family member or friend of someone effected. We want to explore the different effects it can have on people and delve into some different ways people may deal with the trauma. 
We've also discussed opening the routine with a powerful and intimidating section that could perhaps isolate an individual to represent the way in which someone may feel after experiencing sexual assault, however we would convey it metaphorically with some of us making use of powerful and  abrupt movements, to represent the oppressor, and a soloist reacting to those oppressors in a vulnerable and shameful manner.

Bibliography

Yourtherapysource (2019) Personal space bubble - what is it and why does it matter?, Your Therapy Source. Available at: https://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/2019/09/17/personal-space-bubble-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter/ (Accessed: November 28, 2022).