How does a violinist dance? How does a dancer make sounds? Check out the video and read our reflections below!
Viktoria Grynenko (violinist) & Janita Frantsi (dancer)
As part of this project, we wanted to explore each other’s artistic disciplines and practices to contribute to our understanding of the artistic dialogue. This led to our ‘collective movement and sound landscape’ where we explored shared sounds through the use of breath, body, and small objects, such as coins, and found shared movements through our explorations and used the movements of the violin to inspire the movements of the body.
Viktoria:
As it is not common for musicians to move while playing, it was an interesting and somewhat uncomfortable experience. Janita and I came up with the circle movement that was incorporated by both of us in different versions. For me, the circle was mostly in the arms and was an extension of playing chords with the bow or pizzicato. It helped musically, the silence added while I was doing the circle motion with my arm was part of the musical material. I have also experimented with the leg sliding movement but it did not feel as comfortable at the time of the rehearsals. It was interesting to expand my movements, but during the improvisations that we had it felt more forced, like something I had to try, but our interaction did not really need it. As a result, I rarely included it in the public performances. I would be curious to have a piece where the overarching idea would require me to move, then, I expect it to feel more organic.
Janita:
Being a dancer and a mover, making sounds and creating rhythms especially using objects felt quite foreign at first. Creating sounds required a different kind of openness and stepping outside of my usual practices because it is not necessarily something I do regularly. However, I appreciated the creative and explorative atmosphere that Viktoria and I had in our rehearsals. Making sounds served as a way for me to keep the soundscape alive even when Viktoria wasn’t playing, and Viktoria’s movements activated the space differently and challenged the traditional organization of a musician staying in one spot. I particularly enjoyed the moments when we found a movement or a breath together, as it brought unity to the improvisation across our different artistic disciplines.
Using coins to create different kinds of sounds (sliding or dropping on the floor, clinking, etc.), I found it interesting how they also served as an element to inspire movement. Sometimes, we used them as “mini monuments” just existing in the space with us; sometimes, I followed the movement of the coins when tossing them in the air or dropping them to the floor.
I also loved to draw inspiration from Viktoria’s and the violin’s movements, and you can often see my arms out in diagonal lines because of that. There is so much movement in the playing of the violin: the position of the body to support the playing, the movement of the arm and fingers to create sound, and of course the movements of the violin - how the bow slides on the strings and how the angle of both the bow and the violin affect the sound created. You can also zoom into the micro movements of the vibration of the strings when the fingers press or pluck them.
This reminded me of how the body combines both dance and music together.
Follow us along as we share our collaboration process!
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Viktoria Grynenko (violinist), missgryn?h...
Janita Frantsi (dancer), janitafr?h...
This project is supported by the Edmonton Arts Council and the City of Edmonton.
24 июн 2024
