Video 1: Eiko & Koma, My Parents

About Eiko and Koma
Nature is Eiko and Koma’s inspiration. They consider human body as a landscape and landscape as an extension of the body. They want to dance about the most elemental human conditions within an archaic landscape. Eiko and Koma believe our nameless, naked and vulnerable self is our commonality as people.

Movement
They make use of nature like twigs as props.  Their movements are mostly slow and they held each other in an intimate manner as they writhed in the dirt. It seemed like they were being infused into the soil.

Another shot showed them embracing on the shore while falling and getting back up again. It looked as if they were mimicking the movement of the waves rising and breaking on the shore.

Here, the mover’s relationship to the box is not as prominent as the box is quite open and the dancers do not interact with a physical wall but dance within the space.

Sound

There were environmental sounds of birds humming, crickets, and possibly other animals.
Instrumental sounds were later introduced like sounds of the flute and the drums.

Voice overs:
I love trees, just touching them i know nothing is in their mind. They are born here, they are dying here, and going back to the earth.
Sometimes when i dance, i think about extinct animals or insects. It’s sad but if you have a companion, life before you disappear, you might be happier.

I fantasised being a dancer only needs the body and nothing else. I thought that  would be the least materialistic way of living.

Video 2:  Motion Control

Movement

There are movements where the dancer is restrained in a box. She moves around it, examines the spaces needed to step within the box and makes contact with the walls and all corners. At times her leg would stretch out of the box then come back in. The box becomes smaller, then she falls out of it.
Movement in the dress consists mainly of her upper body leaning backwards, forwards. Her arms also move around. It seems as if the dancer

Camera angle constantly changes, even going upside down. I noticed that compared to Eiko and Koma, Liz shows an awareness of the camera and directly gazes into it. It makes it appear as if she is staring at the viewers of the video and connecting with the audience in a more confrontational way.

Sound

Reverse sounds of filming and machine sounds are heard. other foley sounds like the cat sound and the creaking of the bed is added in as foley sounds.
The sounds of the dancer’s breathing and the emphasis of cracking of the bones is also heard.
movement here is related to sound ie. scratching, walking, tip-toeing.