Blog three - My stimulus and Further Research

The stimulus I chose for my solo was a piece of artwork called ‘Metropolis’; which is a series exploring how we are dwarfed in society today and how we are often lost in it. (Schaller, 2019) This image stood out the most to me as I liked the abstract idea and how it could represent many different things - I felt like it would be the most interesting image to work with. To aid the creative process of my solo I began to research about shadows, linked specifically with psychology. From this I found a concept by a psychiatrist named ‘Carl Jung’, which describes aspects of our personality which we don’t like and choose to reject, repressing into our unconsciousness. (Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Ultimate Guide to the Human Dark Side, 2022) These repressed characteristics become known as our ‘shadow self’, almost like an ‘alter ego’. (Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Ultimate Guide to the Human Dark Side, 2022) From this, I could tie together the idea of everyone having different perspectives on life and the split between an individual’s conscious perspective as well as their unconscious from their ‘shadow self’. I was originally planning to research about the metaphor of being someone’s shadow and the importance of being yourself, because if you try to be somebody else you will live in their shadow. However, this can still link to the ‘shadow self’ theory and finding self-love and acceptance within yourself because ‘’for a person to love, accept and acknowledge him or herself, the known self and the undiscovered or emerging self must embrace each other.’’ (Shadow Identity: Inside You, Someone Waits to Emerge, 2022) This suggests that in order to achieve self-love you must accept your conscious and unconscious self – with your unconscious self being your ‘shadow self’.  

In my choreography I could explore these two different ‘personalities’ linked with similar themes such as split personality disorder and achieving self-love. Since I am using the motif of shadows, I will include the use of levels in my choreography to show the contrast between the conscious and unconscious personalities. I will also include floor work in my solo to represent shadows on the floor – as they are in everyday life. In addition, to help create the illusion of a shadow I will include movements which are more held in place to create shapes and lines; as this would be how a shadow is created when light shines through an opaque object with an obvious shape. Below is an example of movements I might try to use in my choreography to help create the idea of shadows (taken from a YouTube video of choreography based on a similar idea with the use of shadows, which I may use as inspiration for my own work). (DWM - Mikaela, 2022) 

 

(DWM - Mikaela, 2022) 

Bibliography  

Brian Collinson | Journeying Toward Wholeness. 2022. Shadow Identity: Inside You, Someone Waits to Emerge. [online] Available at: <https://www.briancollinson.ca/index.php/2011/02/shadow-identity-inside-you-someone-is-waiting-to-emerge.html> [Accessed 12 October 2022]. 

DWM - Mikaela, 2022. Shadow dance, Colours of the wind. [image] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=156XRFzqgIQ> [Accessed 16 October 2022]. 

HighExistence. 2022. Carl Jung and the Shadow: The Ultimate Guide to the Human Dark Side. [online] Available at: <https://highexistence.com/carl-jung-shadow-guide-unconscious/> [Accessed 10 October 2022]. 

Schaller, A., 2019. Metropolis. [Photography].