Improvisation with Lines :
Dancing bodies and Chinese ink painting
by Yinfu & Xiaoying
in Giessen & Frankfurt
Giessen
Time : July 30th 2023, 17:30-20:00
Location :Schiffenbergweg 117,Giessen
Participants:8
Workshop concept --Yinfu
The workshop “Improvisation with Lines : Dancing bodies and Chinese ink painting” is to share my practice under the research-based project “I AM MY HAIR”, which is about hair, women's bodies and gender identity in Chinese context. In the process of improvisation with hair and body movement, I think of LINES.
MY HAIR AND DANCING BODY ARE AS FREE AS LINES MOVING IN THE SPACE.
It reminds me of the practice in the Chinese ink painting course offered by Xiaoying. We practiced how to draw one line with ink on Xuan paper non-stop. Drawing a line freely on paper is exactly like the body drawing/dancing a line in space.
Therefore, I started improvising with Xiaoying by doing a simple practice :
I dance, my body draws lines in space.
Xiaoying draws a line by only watching me dancing without looking at the paper.
This became a basic routine for every week, each time we changed a bit of rules for the task. For example, we experimented with different materials, like instant coffee powder, or we tried to use water to blur the ink line intentionally, to show the aesthetics of imperfection.
Dancer :Yinfu &Siwei
Painter :Qian & Yaqi
Video editor : Yinfu
Music : AK-IV (feat.Mapps)
Workshop Report -- Xiaoying
Last Friday, we presented a cross-border workshop combining dance and ink painting in the theater.
Our theme is "Lines: Dancing Bodies and Chinese Ink Painting", which means to present the line of the body in the form of ink. The workshop aims to pay attention to the breathing of one's own body, feel one's hot and powerful pulse, talk to one's body and create a connection. Express your emotions through dance, connect your body with the space every moment, and then describe the emotions in the space with traditional ink.
The workshop is carried out in the form of games, and I hope everyone can do it in a relaxed and happy mood. In the game, everyone will have two identities, painter and dancer.
Through a variety of game sessions, the role sense of the dancer and the painter is further deepened, both of which require peace of mind. As an observer and a feeler, the painter needs to capture every rhythm of the dancer; as a feeler, the dancer also needs to feel his inner world and express his emotions delicately.
At the end of the workshop, the works of art created by everyone were very free. We hope to stimulate the insight and spatial imagination of the participants through the cross-border cooperation of dance and painting, and hope to gain creativity in the process.
Frankfurt
Time : July 7th 2023
Location : Haus Sindlingen Frankfurt
Participants : 24
7th European Confucius Institute Student Theatre Festival
Report from Yinfu
I feel like writing a report after the workshop and taking some notes for myself, so I can improve it better and develop further practice. After the workshop, we received a lot of feedback from the participants by sharing thoughts in the group and writing the evaluation questionnaires on their own. So I will structure this report according to their opinions.
I was glad to offer the workshop to 24 participants who came from Paris, Belgium, Germany and China. They are initiators and performers for the 7th European Confucius Institute Student Theatre Festival. I have to give my compliment – – the participants are pretty open-minded and innovative people! Not only about dancing & painting, but also the professionality in giving feedback from an artistic perspective.
1, try different music types for the dance improvisation
One participant really pinned the point and shared her thoughts by raising the linguistic example :
The bouba/kiki effect or kiki/bouba effect is a non-arbitrary mental association between certain speech sounds and certain visual shapes. Most narrowly, it is the tendency for people, when presented with the nonsense words bouba /ˈbuːbə/ and kiki /ˈkiːkiː/, to associate bouba with a rounded shape and kiki with a spiky shape.
(resource : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect)
In the workshop, I played some soft music for the dance improvisation. The movement also looked very soft– which in a way also influenced the ink painting. I would love to take this suggestion and experiment with some different types of music, for example very rock&roll, pop music or with fast-tempo.
2, instead of two people in one pair, what about three or more people ?
One participant pointed out that the practice could involve the third person, because the painter connects the dancer by watching the dance movement, but the dancer doesn’t connect the painter. Therefore, a third person can connect the dancer (for example, by doing contact improvisation, etc).
3, the vibe created for relaxation is very good
One of the participants told me the workshop created a relaxing atmosphere so that one didn’t feel surrounded by strangers. I guess the workshop was an ice-breaking occasion for people to get together.
Another participant said listening to the instructions to relax the body worked very well, especially after 5 hours taking the train, the exercise helped a lot.
July 10th, 2023
Yinfu
Report from Xiaoying
In the sunshine of the summer, we danced, painted and immersed in the freely creating atmosphere.On the Haus Sindlingen in the beginning of summer, the actors of the theater clubs from Paris, Belgium, Germany and China were preparing for the 7th European Confucius Institute Drama Festival. In order to warm up the actors before the start of the festival, our dancing and ink painting workshop was organized.
The event took place on July 7, 2023 in Haus Sindlingen and consisted of a workshop with dance and ink drawings, the first part, through warm-up games, lying on the floor and meditation, vascular roses, the dance of body, eye contact, and dancing freely in space. This section aims to all the participants familiarized themselves with each other, the atmosphere of strangeness gradually disappeared, and then the participants were asked to pay attention to their own hearts and to connect with their bodies, and the atmosphere of the workshop gradually came to a climax.
In the second part of the workshop, we chose to combine traditional Chinese ink painting, which has a strong Chinese cultural flavor. First, we introduced the basics of Chinese painting, and then we did a small task of combining dance and painting. In this process, we can understand and experience Chinese culture, improve observation, spatial transformation ability and creativity, and at the same time, we can hear different interpretations of the artworks in the sharing and exchange session, which is exactly the interesting part of the workshop.
In the third part of the workshop, coffee powder, which can be found everywhere in our daily life, is integrated into the paintings to produce different visual, olfactory and tactile artistic effects.
At the end of the workshop, everyone visits all the works and takes a group photo. Sitting in a circle, they share their insights and opinions. We not only got feedback from everyone on the spot, but also collected suggestions as well as ideas on a questionnaire.
Reflect from Xiaoying
1.Throughout the workshop, I feel that the preparation of materials, the distribution of tasks and the seating arrangement of the participants need to be further considered.
2.Advice from participants on music, the bouba/kiki effect.
3.The questionnaire revealed that participants held polarized opinions regarding the section on painting with coffee. Next, this section will continue to be thought about and upgraded again.
July 16th, 2023
Xiaoying