*This video plays scenes from the art research lab session where a group of performers engage in different workshop activities exploring their bodies and also scenes of discussions among the group during the lab.
Art research lab
In the Blue Houses Dreams the Mountains
The Arts Research Lab was the first step in developing the production of In the Blue Houses Dreams the Mountains. This collaborative two-day workshop session facilitated by Dr. Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren explores key sections of the working script as well as ways to blend together different art forms, methods for performing mountains, and expanding the script into a work that reflects the spirit of the collective as a whole.
As an intercultural performance that brings together artists and performers from different cultural backgrounds, it was through building a cultural imaginary for the production, that we began to set the foundation of this performance project for dynamic exchanges. We sought ways to imagine a new landscape where the performing body inhabits as we brought together mountain stories from different cross-cultural spaces and times. As much as the tapestry of talents, perspective, and life experiences contributes to this theatrical canvas, we also explored how to let our bodies speak and sharing the vocabulary of Laban Movement Analysis, an approach that helps provide a context to promote artists to work in the medium of a non-verbal landscape.
The mountain as an embodiment of memories
*Image description: A multimedia drawing with an illustration of human bodies interconnected like the nerve system in the form of a mountain, overlayed by the image of the performers composing the mountain form with their bodies
What is a mountain, and how can the mountain be experienced?
*Image description: Explorative watercolor drawings interpreting different ways of how to experience or feel the mountain.
Imagining the human body and rock body - A body, as it takes different transitions from shape-flow, to directional and carving state (Laban movement analysis) in the context of interacting with a stone or as embodied as a stone.
*Image description: a line sketch illustration series of bodies interacting with a stone in a space and being the stone with their bodies.
