Name: Thea Lorraine U.

Renon

Section: BPeA 3-1

Journal # 1

Date: April 8, 2024

Topic: Physical Theatre and Post-dramatic Theatre (Unit I, Module A and B)

Before the day of our synchronous online class on April 8, our professor
sent readings about Physical Theatre and Post-dramatic Theatre for us to read,
study, and discuss them within the class. As for me, I have analyzed Physical
Theatre as a genre of theatre and performance that focuses on using physical
movement, body language, and non-verbal communication to portray a story
and convey emotions. In making this performance, elements like dance,
mime, gestures, acrobatics, even daily life movements are incorporated.
Often, it does not involve any lines or dialogue because it relies heavily on the
physicality of the performers where the body becomes their medium of
storytelling.

On the other hand, post-dramatic theatre is the type of theatre that

deviates from the conventions of traditional drama. In this kind of
performance, emphasis is given on the other elements of theatre such as the
visual, aural, and spatial dimensions, rather than the script or text. The
performance are often being experimented to challenge the conventional
ways of mounting a performance by making a difference in the creation of its
structure, character development, and the relationship between the actors
and the audience.

From our discussion, I have learned that physical theatre and post-
dramatic theater comes hand in hand because both don't rely and focus on
the literal interpretation of the text to create a performance, but rather creates
a structure of movement that would portray the context of the text as well as
its subtext.
Name: Thea Lorraine U. Renon

Section: BPeA 3-1

Journal # 2

Date: April 15, 2024

Topic: Fundamental Elements of Dance and Movement (Unit II, Module A and
B)

Tackling Laban Movement Analysis, we conducted an asynchronous

session in which we are going to read and study the Laban Cube, Laban's
Kinesphere, and Laban's Eight Efforts and do the assignment about picking an
activity of continuous movement in an ordinary life, observe it and desribe it in
terms of Laban's Kinesphere and Laban's Eight Efforts.

As our house is under construction, I picked the activity of painting a wall

to describe the incorporated Laban concepts on how it moves. In connection
with Laban's kinesphere, which refers to the personal space in which a person's
movements occur, I described the painter's movements to be an extension his
limbs in sagittal plane, exploring the front, left, and right dimensions as the man
paints. The man can also explore the high, middle, and low dimension as he
paints the most top part of the wall, the most bottom part of the wall, and
when bends to dab the roller on the paint tray. Only the back dimension would
not be explored because the man has to paint facing the wall. As for the
Laban Eight Efforts that can be found on the activity of painting a wall, I
observed that the movement has a direct direction where the painter paints
in linear, sustained speed as the painter paints in a continuous process, heavy
weight as the painter has to put the roller heavily on the wall, and bound flow
as the painter has to control its flow of movement- all of which result to the
Laban's Press Effort.

In this assignment, I realized that our daily life routines can have a definite
structure of the process of how it movements and can be described by Laban
Movement Analysis, in which we can also apply when making a movement
performance that represents our day-to-day behavior.
Name: Thea Lorraine U. Renon

Section: BPeA 3-1

Journal # 3

Date: May 6, 2024

Topic: Fundamental Elements of Dance and Movement (Unit II, Module A and
B)

On May 6, we had a face-to-face class and showcased our assignments

about Laban Movement where we have to make a 32-count phrase exploring
the sagittal, horizontal, and vertical planes, and show variation of emotions in
an excerpt of our chosen text, incorporating the Laban Eight Efforts.

On the 32-count phrase, our goal is to understand in physical the Laban

cube which refers to the three-dimensional model used to map and describe
human movement in space, visualizing it in a structured way. As we explore
the three-dimensions: the sagittal, horizontal, and vertical dimension, we were
moving like a robot as we can only stay at one place and move our limbs in
limited directions. This activity helped us grasp more about the concept of
Laban Cube which represents the spatial orientations and pathways that we
can only move to.

Our next activity, on the other hand, would require as to recite the
excerpt from our chosen text, Be Not Defeated by The Rain, and incorporate
a few of Laban's Eight Efforts. On my end, I used the emotion on the different
ways of giving advice to a person which are:

(1) being soft-spoken, represented by the Float Laban Effort;

(2) firmly and with conviction, represented by the Punch Laban Effort and;

(3) with thrill and pressure, represented by the Wring Laban Effort.
Name: Thea Lorraine U. Renon

Section: BPeA 3-1

Journal #: 4

Date: May 27, 2024

Topic: Dance and Movement in Contemporary Performance (Unit III, Module

C, D, and E)

On May 27, we were required to show a movement combination from

our text piece incorporating the improvisation technique of William Forsythe,
as well as the Gaga movement by Ohad Naharin. Before the showcasing of
our assignments, we were given modules to better understand the concept of
Forsythe and Naharin before integrating it in our movements.

From William Forsythe's Improvisation Technologies, we tackled the

Points and Lines in Space wherein it encourages dancers to think about their
movements in terms of geometric points and lines, imagining that their bodies
are drawing shapes in space, creating a more precise and intentional quality
of movement.

On the other hand, the Gaga movement by Ohad Naharin, is a

movement language that emphasizes exploration and self-awareness,
focusing on enhancing physical sensation and imagination.

On our performance piece, we showed first the normal movement

where our bodies move according to the emotion of the text which has the
combination of sharp and flowy movements. When integrated with Forsythe's
Points and Lines, we moved more sharply like a robot and omitted some of our
original movements to cater the connecting points and lines. While with Gaga
movement, we used the prompt of being overwhelmed by the seasons and
made our movements wrigglier and more exaggerated.

We also had our last activity that day where we used the same thematic
movement, but this time, we have to incorporate variations in time and space.
Name: Thea Lorraine U. Renon

Section: BPeA 3-1

Journal #: 5

Date: June 3, 2024

Topic: Showcase of Draft 1

June 3 was the day to showcase our first draft of our final movement
piece based on the text, Be Not Defeated by the Rain. On this draft, we are
expected to perform the beginning of our piece, introducing the premise of
the story of our chosen text. To begin our movement, we developed the
concept of being the four virtues possessed by a man living in a rural area. We
started the performance by incorporating different variations of running away
and coming back to the group in order to represent the turbulence in the mind
of the man. From completely running away from each other, it then
transitioned to a synchronous stop and walk towards our formation,
accompanied by the clock sound. We then made the same movements we
did from our previous session in which these would represent the peaceful but
boring life of the man.

Behind the making of our performance, we had the concept-making

first before we thought about the movements. Although we had a clear
concept in our minds, we were quite stucked in creating the movement as we
were being careful not to make a movement that would literally interpret the
text. We decided to incorporate the abstract in our movement and focused
on portraying the general context of the text which is to attain happiness by
being good towards others.
Name: Thea Lorraine U. Renon

Section: BPeA 3-1

Journal # 6

Date: June 10, 2024

Topic: Showcase of Draft 2

June 10 was the day to showcase our second draft of our final
movement piece based on the text, Be Not Defeated by the Rain. As we
transition to the second draft of the piece, this time, we are supposed to
showcase the conflict of the story. We began our story with the turbulence
within the mind of the man and the portrayal of his peaceful but boring life, so
for our conflict, as he tries to be the good man to attain his happiness, the four
virtues he possesses, represented by us, which he was supposed to uphold all
together, can only be shown by him one by one. We portrayed this in our
movement by giving each of the four virtues a spotlight to show their distinct
movement, then slowly being copied one by one by the other virtues,
symbolizing the dominance of that virtue over the man.

Behind the making of draft 2, again, we had a clear concept in our

minds but had difficulty in creating the appropriate movements for this. We
were quite skeptical of our work, and sure enough, our professor told us that
our conflict was not very clear and the movement we did could only be an
extension of our draft 1. We were advised to add a movement distinct from
our first draft to build up the conflict and make a clear concept for it.