The genesis of “Searching for Something” came out of a simple reflection on my experience in college. I realized that so much of my college experience has been a result of serendipitous occurrences where I discovered a new opportunity or something about myself that I had not known even existed. These situations often led to wonderful experiences, so much so that I have now become more comfortable with trusting the universe and rely less on frantically seeking out what I am looking for. With this realization in mind, I wanted to make a dance that encapsulated the feeling of discovery in an unexpected moment.
I initially wanted to do something involving flashlights because I find them to be a symbol of searching activity. I experimented with multiple flashlight options before I completely switched directions and decided on a dance that involved a chair. Very fittingly, this idea came to me when I wasn’t even thinking about my dance at all. I wanted to use a chair because I think that a sitting on a chair is one of the simplest most mundane actions we do. I wanted to explore the many different ways I could use the chair while I moved, both as a prop and as an object for me to discover. I ultimately settled on a movement score that involved me searching for the chair, exploring how to use it, giving up, and then finally discovering that I could in fact sit on the chair.
In order to start movement, I needed to find a spark. For me that spark came from circus camp. During elementary school, I had a fascination with acrobatics and remember going to watch circus performances where performers balanced on chairs. Therefore, I started trying out moves I remembered watching as a kid such as balancing on the chair and running over it. I made several iterations of my dance and while I no longer use the more acrobatic elements that I was experimenting with, I still cite them as my initial sparking moment.
Interestingly, I also felt like I had a second sparking moment much later in my creative process. I was feeling stuck with the movements I had created and wanted to add in more variation but felt lost. I decided to switch up the music I was dancing to and with this change I also changed how I approached my movements. I switched from a more abstract approach to using text and movement analysis (Miller, 2018). I found that I was much more comfortable analyzing song lyrics and then creating movement off of specific words than I was just creating movement from words I had in my own head. I used many of the techniques Miller (2018) references including “redundancy” when I repeat an overhead justure in reference to the word “light” which I also liken to the action of searching. I also use the “details” and “meaning” techniques to help generate movements from lyrics like “walking through the night” or “waiting” (Miller, 2018).
An issue I struggled with early on was focusing too much on incorporating the chair into my movements. I spent a lot of time trying to do all of my movement with the chair as a prop and dancing to a song that had a steady beat but not enough substance in terms of lyrics. However, through text and movement analysis I was able to create more movement that was motivated by the text by changing songs. I needed to find a balance though of making sure the chair still stayed as a focal point as I wanted the chair to be my “unexpected discovery.” The music I chose and the lyrics I chose to draw my movement from was key to this balance. I chose the song “Marion” by Beacon which has a lot of lyrics relating to finding “what you need” at the right time. I felt that this song had a more dynamic beat from which I could work off of and vary my movement patterns and it also had lyrics that I could indirectly connect to my theme.
The overall message I want audience members to take away from my dance is that searching for something and having goals is a normal part of everyday experience. However, it is also just as normal to search for something and then get lost. In fact, getting lost is sometimes where we do the most discovering and find the things we need the most.
References
Miller, Celeste (2018). Text + Movement Methods. Grinnell College, Grinnell Iowa.
