The Silent Woman: My Creative Process Part 2
The development of a tango sequence from the movement phrase was very much inspired by this instrumental track of Dance Me to the Edge of Love. Yet, I was not convinced that the tempo of the track would lend itself to the first part of the sequence which was the PTSD episode.
Earlier on in another of our discussions, Monika encouraged me to brainstorm everything I was inspired by in theatre. As well as images and elements that would work within my story. I have a fascination with distortion—much like the mirrors in a funhouse. They encourage a different perspective and challenge our perception of things. Maybe it’s why I like collage so much. It’s surprising and sometimes scary. Changing something from its original form into something different.
It was this idea, that made me play with the tempo of the Da Costa track. It is a beautiful rendition of Cohen’s song, but what if I slowed the beginning down. That sound of a tune playing at the wrong speed especially too slowly, can be very unnerving. It was perfect. The distortion of the music reflected the distortion of Oskar’s mental state in that moment. As he comfort’s himself with the stroking of his head, he begins to feel better and as he feels better, the music starts to sound better. By the time he gets up to dance the music is in full flow and he is in complete rapture with the dance remembering old times with Alma. At the height of the piece, the coat changes into the doll and it is here that we understand what has happened and how he comes to the decision to commission the doll.
I kept playing with the timings and worked it into my movement phrase for Oskar. And finally came to the track you will hear in Scene 4. I felt that I had successfully bridged the narrative from Oskar and Alma’s affair to Oskar’s connection with the doll.
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However, it became clear to me that I had to give context to his obsession with her. To his longing for her. I had to tell the story of Oskar and Alma. Since I had devised Oskar tangoing his way to commissioning a fetish, it made sense to include another tango at the beginning. Tango is such a rich expression of emotion, combining love, anger, and lust all in one dance. It would serve as a perfect depiction of their love affair through movement. Thus, Scene 1 in Act One was conceived. I wanted The Bride of the Wind to feature in this story, and so it seemed obvious to me that this would be how we start the tango. With the two lovers lying together as depicted in the painting. From there the love affair would be conveyed through dance.
Now I had another issue to contend with, choreographing the two tangos. I cannot dance tango. Thankfully, while I was conceiving of these two movement stories, I was still teaching out of my studio in Putney which was next door to The Dance Lab. Initially, I attempted to choreograph my own tango, which proved to be fruitful as it generated many ideas for what would become the first tango.
I am somewhat of a YouTube junkie; I could spend hours watching random videos and learning all sorts of things. As a Pilates teacher with a strong interest in anatomy, I was captivated by a particular video I came across in 2019 about the human heart being helical. This means that the heart’s muscle spirals around itself, contracting and squeezing as it beats, then expanding and releasing.
After watching many tango videos on YouTube, I remembered this concept and anticipated that the two ideas would complement each other well. There are numerous spirals in tango, involving many contractions and expansions. I wanted this tango to mirror the rhythm of the beating helical heart, reflecting the volatility of the affair between Oskar and Alma—the ebb and flow of love between them.
Having successfully identified the beginning and end of Act One, I needed to flesh out the middle. I already had Scene 3, where Oskar sees the dressmaker’s mannequin and sees Alma. I realized I needed to develop the story of Oskar going to war after his split with Alma and before his move to Dresden. This part of the story would also provide clues to Oskar’s mental state at the time of moving to Dresden and perhaps give some insight as to why he thought commissioning a doll was a reasonable course of action.
But again, I am getting ahead of myself. Before thinking about this, I had been deeply engaged in my investigation of Oskar as a man. My initial judgment of him was shaped by hearing the story of the doll, which painted him as a pathetic and creepy figure intent on dominating an ex-lover, which I admit was a rather brutal depiction. However, after extensive research and listening to his story told in his own words, I came to understand him better and gained deeper insights into who he really was. He was neither pathetic nor creepy. The fact that his obsession with his fetish did not lead him to an insane asylum but instead earned him a reputation as an eccentric, highlights societal norms of the time. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, if Alma had done the same thing, she would have undoubtedly ended up institutionalised and forgotten. This idea is referenced later in the play.
I had to decide what my stance would be on Oskar. What story did I want to tell? After learning about him and truly getting to know him, it did not feel right to demonize him or have others pass judgment. I chose to adopt a more compassionate view. I wanted to understand him rather than criticise him. I felt it was important to include the full story of Oskar’s journey to mental illness and neuro-disability, which meant I had to tell the story of the war.
The problem was that I had never visualized any scenarios in my head that conveyed this part of the story. I had no idea how I would express it. Initially, I thought about using a hobby horse (after all he was in the cavalry during the war), but I felt that would undermine the seriousness of the narrative and turn it into a farce. As I write this, with only five weeks to go until the first show, I still have no concrete plan for telling this story. I have no storyboards—only inspiration. It will be a surprise for all of us to see what emerges from the R&D process.
ACT ONE of The Silent Woman will be showing as a work in progress at the Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival on 13; 15 & 21 June!
