Today I introduced the group to a really fun term I like to use; doodling bodies. The group were confused at first, in fact one replied- ‘No your not putting a pen any where near me’. I came up with the idea a while ago whilst listening to some music. With my head phones in and a pen on my hand my naturally reaction was to draw to the music. I drew all sorts- Pictures that the songs reminded me of, the patterns created by rhythms and beats and even the lyrics. I found this as therapeutic as i find dancing so thought about combining them and using our bodies to draw in differing ways. When I explained this the group were excited they had no idea how we were going to using doodling and dance to create a piece of moment.
After warming up we got stuck in. I gave each participant a pen to hold and asked them to draw to a few pieces of music; only thing was they weren’t allowed to use paper. They were to draw on imaginary canvas. They could draw absolutely anything! Something the song made them think of, patterns that they could hear in the music, anything!
The first piece I played was a beautiful instrumental called ‘September song’ the piece was calm and relaxing and seemed to have the same effect on the rest of the group. When I had asked what they had drew they replied with waterfalls and trees and natural settings. One participant reminisced about a location he used to go to as a child with a stream and a rope swing hanging from a big oak tree. We continued listen to songs and responding. Each time I played a new song I was asking them to use more and more of the space until all participants were standing and really travelling around the space to draw their pictures. We continued to respond to various music and sounds. Although we couldn’t see any of it I’m pretty sure the room was full of drawings and doodles.
After getting rather hot I decided to seat the group back down for the next task.; Doodling to music! For this I gave each participant a piece of paper and a pen and asked them to sit anywhere in the room. I then played 5 tracks of music, each completely different in sound and rhythm and style. I asked the participants to put pen to paper when they hear music and take their pen off when the music to stop. Whilst the music was playing the group were to respond without taking their pen off the paper. They could draw what they could hear in the music or draw what pictures and images to match. Here were some of the results.
I then asked the groups to pair up and pick out 2 elements from each person’s pictures.
Once they had chosen 2 from each person’s paper I asked the groups to use these to create 4 different movements. And link them together to make a short piece.
The participants worked hard to recreate movements from quite an abstract idea. They worked hard with each other to make their doodles come to life changing the size and dynamic of their movements and finding movements to interact with each other using physical and eye contact.
One both groups were ready I introduced my final task. I wanted each group to perform to each other, but I wanted the group watching to draw what they could see. Each group performed their piece twice firstly without any drawing or doodling and the second time so that the audience could put pen to paper.
Here was one of the results;
What we could see;
What was drawn;
The Blue piece were what they had used to make their moment and the green were the responses from what they had saw.
After both groups had performed we were able to show and share what we had drawn and where our movements matched up to the images on the papers.
Today was a fabulous, create and inspiring session in which I thoroughly enjoyed!
