Week 7- Research

Wednesday 30th October

My chosen stimulus had many different ways you could interpret it, but the way I chose to look at it was that the man was suffering with a mental illness. Therefore, I decided to take further research into mental health, to find out the way it affects people. I will then attempt to portray these feelings into my choreography piece.

Firstly, I tried to identify the mental illnesses the image was implying the most. I came to the conclusion that the stimulus gave me the idea of depression, due to the fact the image is painted in dark colours, suggesting sadness. Furthermore, although we can’t see the man’s facial expression, I get the impression that he is sad because of the fact he is looking down meaning his body language is enclosed.

Firstly, I looked at the definition of depression, which is- ‘A mental condition characterized by feelings of severe despondency and dejection, typically also with feelings of inadequacy and guilt, often accompanied by lack of energy. I then took some research into the symptoms of depression, to then express some of these into my routine. Someone suffering with depression is usually: have low moods or sadness, low self-esteem and has no motivation or interest in things. Additionally someone with depression may feel also feel: frustrated, anxious and alone. I am going to show these feelings through my facial expression as well as movements using low energy to present the idea of depression. After further research I also discovered that someone living with depression has good and bad days, almost like an ongoing rollercoaster. Specifically this is extremely common for people suffering with bipolar depression, where there moods can quickly change from really high to really low. I think it was important for me to take research into the symptoms and feeling of the mental illness depression so then I can portray my chosen stimulus in the most accurate way.

I then went on to think about how I can express mental health; specifically depression into my choreography piece. The music I have chosen relates to the stimulus very well as the main idea is that the artist is suffering and needs help, however they don’t  want to give up, perhaps indicating the idea of suffering mentally but the hopefulness and determination to recover from it. I will present this idea by doing low energy movements and floor work to express suffering. Contrasting to this I will do high energy movement including jumps and turns to show the good days. As well as this, I will use the choreographic device of repetition with some movements to imply determination. Similarly I will constantly be changing levels to show the idea of fighting with an illness and having both good and bad days.

Bibliography:

Google.co.uk. (2019). DEPRESSION | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. [online] Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/dictionary.cambridge.org/amp/english/depression [Accessed 6 Dec. 2019].

nhs.uk. (2019). Clinical depression. [online] Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/clinical-depression/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2019].