MISCHA BAKA: June 2018

Friday, June 22, 2018

Fill a large space in a soft malleable way.

Voice June 22, 2018 0

The Song Keepers in Concert:

The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir

The Sydney Opera House, In the Concert Hall

Today Rebekah and I arrived at the opera house to accompany the woman’s choir, provide support and document some of the experience. We travel with the choir to America in two days.

Barbie saw the Concert hall and felt the urge to sing. Andrew Kay seized on the moment and championed the tiny performance. This moment was indicative of Andrew’s work with Morris, Barbie and the full choir.

Andrew, Barbie, Rebekah and Morris

I love that three members of a family can simply walk into a cavernous space and fill the whole space with their voice. The voice reaches out, the walls are touched, the ceiling touched, every corner, and the space speaks back acoustically. The family, and the space now know each other. It is a beautiful reminder of the human capacity to fill a large space in a soft and malleable way.

Members of The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir

Monday, June 18, 2018

Effective communication and presentation skills workshop.

workshop June 18, 2018 0

‘Using actor training strategies, Rinske Ginsberg and Anna McCrossin-Owen offer the opportunity to experience powerful and fundamental vocal and physical techniques. Learning is delivered in an experimental / active participation format allowing you to discover your own communication strengths and identify unconscious or habitual practices.’

The first day of this workshop was everything it promised to be and more. I had listened to Rinski the night before on a podcast. I liked her wisdom, clarity and humour.

The exercises that resonated with me:

Game: Moving around the room and following directions; Walk, stand, clap, jump, name and ‘dance’. Each direction is introduced over time in sets of two. With each set the meaning is eventually reversed, so that Walk means Stand and stand means walk and so on.

Trying to follow the inverted directions was challenging. Rinksi warmly laughed out our strange mannerisms that arose as we made mistakes, fumbled and quickly corrected ourselves. It was a good way to uncover awkward moments as the body tries to catch up with the right action, but also a way to become comfortable with making mistakes, becoming aware, but not critical.

This image is not from the workshop, but represents its style. Taken from dance workshop with Rebekah Stuart.

Game: The class makes an audience before the door. Each participant takes it in turns to enter through the door into the space and introduce themselves, “ Hello, I’m Mischa Baka and I’m pleased to be here.”

Before entering the participant must choose to present themselves as portraying a certain level of status relative to the space and the audience. 1, was described by Rinske as not even entering the room. 2. Performed by Rinske as an example, was, shy, anxious and afraid. 5. Is natural, or equal to the space. 9. Is high status and dominating the space.

The beauty of this game was guessing each person’s status after their entrance and describing what signalled that status. We discussed what physical and vocal language informed the stutus of each participant. The task provided insight into personal mannerisms and habits of relating. Mannerisms that weren’t necessarily bad or good, but we were learning how to be aware of them, so that we could have more control over the power they posess.

A simple tilt of a woman’s head made her endearing with a look of love. Walking quickly and talking as soon as entering gave a sense of anxiety and lowered the status. Interestingly, playing bold, strong and high status sometimes gave the impression of being insecure.

Anna McCrossin-Owen shared a series of paragraphs that target different sounds in our speech and help understand what parts of our body struggle when making speech. With Annas observations and feedback I found that relaxing my lips helped me deliver the final paragraph.

Anna McCrossin-Owen had us present our research and vary qualities in our delivery; speed, loudness, pauses and liveliness. We listened and Provided feedback to each others presentation and suggested just one quality to be improved. This was a successful way to help each other without providing overwhelming feedback. We found ( As Anna intended) that often just one quality offered as feedback would help improve various aspects of delivery. The simple feedback allowed complex development to branch out.

Anna McCrossin-Owen used the concept of ‘Cirlcles of presence’ to define a feeling of being ‘ present’ when performing. A concept taken form Patsy Rodenburg. In brief we presented our research to ourselves ( first circle) to the universe ( third circle) and then we found the second circle between the two that has us connect to the people around us with presence.

I found that I lean more towards the first circle, often presenting to myself, talking to myself. This helped understand where I needed to take my delivery.

Anna McCrossin-Owen had me hold a heavy bag straight over my head and present my research. This had me standing very straight. A magic thing happened, my voice was clear, resonant and I felt connected to the people listening to me. Feedback from the group made it clear that they also felt connected. On reflection with Anna and the group I descried how the heavy bag prevented my body from collapsing into any mannerisms that help me shy away from the group or hide in my posture. I was straight, open and clear. This was a revelation. It brought me out of the first circle.

The class ended with a relaxation on the floor and I felt very grateful for what these amazing and generous teachers had shared with me and the group.

Day 2

The idea we kept coming back to was to develop an awareness of our habitual and natural ways of behaving and performing so that rather than perform unconsciously, we may be conscious of our behaviour and make it work for us.

Today we presented some of our research to the group. Working with Anna and Rinske you feel the depth of their knowledge when receiving feedback. They know small suggestions and observations that speak to much larger and complex systems of behaviour. For instance, simply asking me to perform with one hand in my pocket was key in shifting my energy away from the ceiling and grounding my presentation. Bringing my performance back down to ‘second circle’ with the group. These type of small but powerful observations and suggestions were offered to everyone in the group. Anna and Rinske have such a soft and strong energy, you feel safe and assured in their company. I thought of the cliché drama school teacher who might ‘ break’ their students for the sake of their development, and thought how unlike Anna and Rinske.

They have a beautiful understanding of habits, mannerisms and behaviour as not being good or bad, but simply a quality that can be mediated and balanced with other qualities. This meant that it was hard to feel judged or attacked. There feedback just felt insightful.

Much of the work offered insight by exploring the other side of a quality, be it slow, fast, loud, soft, forward backward, high low. The expertise of Anna and Rinske connected these qualities with emotional, communicative language, so we knew what we were shifting in our behaviour. These qualities felt so simple and yet spoke to complex modes of behaviour in the body and voice.

GAME: I loved one game at the beginning of class that had the group send energy around the circle int the form of, lust and excitement. A chain reaction formed that was thrilling and intoxicating.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Dance Choir - Rebekah 1st Rehearsal

Stacey Lake June 17, 2018 0

Rebekah 1st Rehearsal with Candice Polglase, Dale Polglase, Ben Jamieson, Ella Baxter, Stacey Lake, Sarah Hotchin, Sophie Thompson.

The song and dance Rebekah shared with me yesterday was today shared with the group. The feeling of the song could be seen in each person as they let it flow over them. Dale said it was like having a long ago memory that was both beautiful and sad, but not bad, and not necessary a memory of his own.

The group singing was powerful. I think Rebekah is really onto something with this combination of dance and choir, I can’t wait to see the idea expand and be played with in future workshops. I think the group were similarly excited.

Dale, Ben and Ella

In a presentational formation on seats Rebekah also had the group enact a series of directions one after the other( written down for each person). This sets up a complex web of inter-relatedness as cross contamination of mood, feeling and action ripples through the group.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Choir Dance Company - Genesis

Rebekah Stuart June 16, 2018 0

Tonight Rebekah performed for me an idea she is thinking of developing with her friends. She moved through a series of postures and dance moves while singing along to a pre-recorded song she had written when in her early twenties. She harmonised with the recording of herself. It was beautiful.

I suggested that her dance company be called, ‘ Choir Dance Company.’ I was very inspired by her performance and thought it perfectly combined her families history of singing and choir work, with her love and history of dance.

I described how contemporary dance often tries to include text and voice with mixed results or success. But that her background in choir brought a depth and strength to her combination of the two.

Candice and Sarah, image from the next day.

I think good creative work often draws on a deep history of family and tradition. From our parents history, occupations, troubles, passions and skills. Sometimes moments arise when we find a way to draw on that deep history and make it a part of our own work and journey. These can be powerful moments, because the work itself becomes imbued with that history and power.

This relationship with personal history and culture informing our creative work can be so varied, sometimes subconscious, sometimes troubled, sometimes too confronting. When you find that history working for you in an honest and powerful way, it must be sized upon.

I think this is such a moment for Rebekah, she can draw on her history, of her father and mothers success with choirs and music and channel it into her dance to create something new and exciting. It will be new, but will carry with it the depth of her families own history and journey.

I love that a choir lifts the spirit by making notions of community, togetherness and expression immediately experienced and felt. It goes straight the heart and makes you feel connected to humanity. I love that dance speaks directly to the body, it inspires strength that is pliable, soft and full of life. Dance and Choir together is a sublime union that speaks to the soul.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Saltbush The long take

Siobhan Jackson June 14, 2018 0

Saltbush Rehearsal - The long take

Siobhan Jackson and I decided to establish a performative space that is entered into for long stretches of time. Starting with one hour. We wanted actors to become comfortable with existing in the films world without thinking of an end or what might be expected in the short term. We asked the actors to fill the room. There would be no ‘ audience,’ or ‘ fourth wall’ but for the gaze of the camera, which was to be ignored. The time allowed actors to become comfortable with the camera roaming about.

They started the hour with glances at the camera but soon disregarded it. The whole space started to come alive with an inner logic. Groups of teens formed, unformed, conversation strands travelled with them, collided, expanded and constricted. I was reminded of the manic energy from my own teenage years that would consume my friends and I; excited, yearning and unreal. The teens harnessed their ability to conflate everything and anything as a way command attention. The best thing about today was seeing how comfortable the group of teens are in each other’s company, they are happy to chat, gossip and play amongst themselves, which adds a palpable realism to every task we give them.

In fact, every specific acting task we give them comes out of this base level of community they have developed, it provides a natural resting place they can return to in a scene, so that doing nothing, pausing or waiting never feels like an empty vacuum. Siobhan and I had a great chat after todays rehearsal fuelled by the productive and exciting energy that was so generous today. I think Siobhan Jackson and I are very good at providing counterpoints of inquiry or invention for each other. For instance, one of us may venture into an ambiguous description about what we are interested in that lacks any great clarity but is full of feeling and intuition, while the other offers a running interpretation that attempts to clarify and understand. This dynamic goes beyond supporting any deficiency in thinking and instead offers a dynamic that encompasses the qualities of two types of thinking. Structure, clarity, feeling and nuance dance together. (As they should on screen.) This is also akin to feeling the answer to a question, but not knowing the answer. In conversation the feeling is expressed by the speaker with all its emotion, stimulus and potency. The listener becomes an interpreter a little outside the experience whose brain can dance with the emotion and search for connections, meanings and insights. When these insights are offered in response, they are gifts won from the meeting of two minds. I think Siobhan and I are good at naturally switching conversational roles where we provide these kinds of counterpoints for each other. There is pleasure in bringing things to the other to find out what will be sparked, understood or invented.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Dance Film: Background, middle ground and foreground

Sarah Hotchin June 10, 2018 0

A dance film in the Melbourne botanical gardens with Rebekah Stuart, Sarah Hotchin, Ben Jamieson, Candice Polglase and Dale Polglase.

Candice, directing with me, had prepared the group the day before with a series of exercises and dancing.

Working together we explored camera movements that were motivated by performance. Head turns, traveling through the space with dance, and rolling along the ground all carried the gaze of the camera.

Camera movement was at times motivated by dancers in the background, middle ground and foreground and often shifted between the three in one shot. This dynamic helps the eye move into and around the image creating a sense of three-dimensional space.

Ben Jamieson in a tree.

For instance, Ben danced along a path in the background which led a pan of the camera over to dale in the foreground, who then walked us over to Rebekah, who then ran into the middle ground as the camera tracked after her.

Candice took up direction, music playback, and wrangling the team which allowed me more space to offer ideas and guide the shoot collaboratively.

The finished film ( In a quick assemble edit) was a good exploration of movement, relationships and emotions, it developed how Candice and I can work together and promised future possibilities.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Saltbush Trauma

Victorian College of the Arts June 07, 2018 0

Today we shared a passage from Jessie Coles ‘ Staying’ ( Page 248) to explore the idea of trauma within a character. We discussed how and what trauma can be and places in the body and environment that can accommodate and hold trauma.

We began a 'Together and Alone' dance series with guest dancer Rebekah Stuart dancing with Mark Wilson. Her energy and capacity to be bold and wild helped model how far the students can go in an abstract way.

When we gave the teen actors scripted text to include in their dance the dialogue came alive with a great sense of movement and choreography.

Rebekah was impressed by how authentic the dialogue sounded and how easily it was taken up by the young actors. All the dancing had paid off in allowing the body to drive the performance over the text/mind.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Seafolly Saviour.

Whil Bride June 05, 2018 0

A stills shoot in the city with Caroline Meaden, Alice Dixon and Will McBride.

This shoot was to capture more photographs for a calendar. The calander was offered to supporters of the dance troupes show, Lady Example.

It is a pleasure to work with this team. They are playful, creative and comfortable being themselves in front of the camera.

My roaming flash was broken and I resorted to my built in camera flash. This flash suited a concept I had been thinking of for some time, but never really played with.

Concept: People pose in front of large billboard and promotional fashion photos working themselves into the image and the ideals they represent.

An interplay between the common consumer and the ideal they are being sold.

Caroline Meaden Seafolly Mischa Baka

Alice Dixon, Caroline Meaden, Whil Bride

I would have liked to have found some more explicit images.

I do love the image of Caroline sacrificing her body in an attempt to shield the model, or shield the viewer from the image.

All the women love Will

Friday, June 1, 2018

knots and swimsuits

swimsuit project June 01, 2018 0

After the day shoot Mishka invited her friend Luke over to tie her up in the peach bathing suit. Gathering more material for the swimsuit project.

Luke’s art form of tying ropes and knots around the body was beautiful to watch. Observing Mishka and Luke relate to each other the process of tying, binding and finding what feels right on the body was captivating.

Mishka Beckmann

MISCHA BAKA