Constanza Brnčić IN RESiDENCE at the School Josep Comas i Solà

EXPERIENCES DIARY. PRESENTATION

7 NOVEMBER 2018
WE'VE STARTED MOVING
Hello, we've begun the first movement and rhythm sessions run by the artist Constanza and in collaboration with the teacher Marián Rivero.

We are a group of young people from the Institut Josep Comas i Solà, from the Open Classroom (OC) group.We are made up of eight boys and seven girls and we are happy and looking forward to being able to take part in this project.

WE’RE MOVING ALL TOGETHER!
We've been moving using our whole body at different levels.

MIRRORS
We've been imitating our classmates and their movements, identifying ourselves in the same movement.

 

21 NOVEMBER 2018
ALONG THE FLOOR
They worked with Constanze in two groups. One group had to follow the movements of the other group, keeping on the music. Afterwards they rolled across the floor in their own way and then went on to drag themselves along and slide.
-Immediately afterwards, the sliding had to be with four supports, and they had to keep on moving forward.
-They then had to rise and jump and spin.
-Finally, they moved in pairs along the ground, with four contacts, and maintaining visual contact.

ME-YOU
This is a video of the exercise worked on in class with the physical education teacher in the third hour and we worked on contracting and extending the body. “Inwards - outwards”.

“CREADORS EN COMAS” CLASSES
We do team and individual work in our expression and dance classes. We count the time of the movements, respect turns, collaborate, learn to be patient, to listen and to stay silent and also to move in different ways. We're learning a lot!

ALLIBERACIÓ _ME/YOU
- Today we moved around making it look like we were carrying items of different weights which we had to pass on to our classmates.
- Afterwards we moved around as puppets, gaining awareness of our body’s weight and playing with weight and weightlessness. We had to hold our body and let it fall.
- Partner weight, one has to move the other as though they were a puppet. The puppet has to let itself go and not make any movement, as it's the other member of the pair who will direct their movements in a slow, controlled way.
- The same exercise but now we had to lift or pull the puppet.
- To round off, we worked on grouping and extending the body, using two speeds (slow/fast) and three levels (high/medium/low). We were stretched out at the high level, hunched down or sitting at the mid-level and stretched out at the lower level.
- Finally we did relaxation exercises.

 

5 DECEMBER 2018
PLASTICINE DOLLS
We worked in pairs, one moved the other as though they were made of plasticine, slowly, listening to the music. I got my partner to move like a ballerina. The same exercise, changing partner. I then invited students to do this exercise but with a more continuous movement, so there would be more movement. The same exercise but now moving in a circle, carrying our partner. The same exercise, and afterwards the one that moved stands still to one side and the other tried to repeat the movements that had been done to them; we had to feel and remember the movements we had made and repeat them.

 

12 DECEMBER 2018
IMAGINARY THREADS
Now whoever moved their partner did so from a distance as though there were imaginary threads; the other person had to move as their partner told them to.

Once we had done this activity, we had a rest. Reflections from our interior. Hi, I’m Carlos, we did a relaxation exercise during the last hour; it was about thinking about what we had done in the previous classes; we were told that we had to choose the best class, the most significant for us, and which expressed what came to us.

A DAY TO REMEMBER (CONSTANZA)

This photo was taken the other day by Marián. It's of Richard, Yeirelis and Carlos.  When I saw it I thought of three birds. And it looked to me like a picture of a landscape with lots of movement, lots of wind. It also gave me the feeling of being an eye, watching myself: Carlos, the pupil. And a kaleidoscope. And the eye of a tornado.

Today I also saw lots of landscapes during the session. I saw two “bandoleers” (Zaida and Yeirelis) travelling along inhospitable paths. I saw a beautiful girl moving elegantly (Isma). I saw “supermen”, “spidermen”, “karatekas”, “kick-boxers” (Gian Carlos and Waqar). I saw a clear and attentive, delicate and subtle presence, that of Mansoor.

A school of fish, windmills.

I also felt pleasure. Pleasure at looking. Pleasure at moving with Zaida. Pleasure in hearing her laughing. And strength: strong looks like Kimberly's, forceful movements, listening and attention. Difficulties too, but keen to be there, keen to try, like Maria.

Even though Natalia, Laura, Richard and Jesffryes did not come, we also included many of the things that they proposed the other day. In fact, I feel that each session was creating more and more material that came directly from what the group was being allowed to discover.

We kept on sketching this piece made from movements and attention, beauty, tension and relaxation, body stories, doubts and questions. Things that we liked too. I asked them to take photos of everyday spaces that were special to them, as well as objects. Things and spaces they liked to look at. Here are some of the things that are special for me:

This Japanese dog looking after my house and which I was given when my daughter Gabriela was born, my dance teacher Hisako Horikawa. She brought me it from Japan, from the region she’s from.

I also took a photo of a green glass ball my mother gave me and which, when the sun shines on it, makes really beautiful reflections on the wall. I’m very curious to see the pictures you’ll bring. Thank you for these days!

Hi, I’m Marián and I also want to share a few objects with you that mean something to me.

This is a bonsai which my mother used to look after and now I’m looking after it. This is the only gift I remember from my father, which I keep with plenty of love.

And, finally, a picture I painted which represents melancholy, among other things

13 DECEMBER 2018

From outside and deep within.

Hi, I’m Marián. I'd like to point out that, when it comes to the work being done by Constanza and our students, it's not just the moment the exercises are being performed which is important, everything around them is very significant and relevant too. So, being a member of the audience also makes you a participant, connecting to the working classmate by maintaining energy and attention.

Even rest time is a continuity that enables us not only to relax but also to remain connected from another perspective. Sometimes magic moments and contacts arise that bring us ever close day by day and make us more human!

20 DECEMBER 2018

ARTIST'S BOOK, Constanza
Yesterday was the last session before Christmas. A very intense day. Extremes: a great deal of attention, incredible dancing, moments where everyone dispersed.

I brought them some notebooks I'd ordered. The idea was for students to use them as an artist diary, to write and sketch in them and attach things to them… about the process. A lovely time, everyone focused on their notebook.

SKIES
Yesterday we also looked at the photos students had taken of spaces they liked, of their favourite objects. A lot of skies came out. And a lot of poetry!

17 JANUARY 2019

We are building a journey of movement. This is a structure that is being created from those movements and states that appear residually, by accident in each one. This structure is a container, a space itself made of relations.

We've also been writing down in our notebooks the things we have seen, from when we got up to when we got to school. And what we felt. There seemed to be nothing at first, but everyone's landscapes, state and the focus of their attention gradually appeared.

Another sky from Natalia, which Kimberly likes, and a duet from Richard and Laura.

 

13 FEBRUARY 2019

OUR EXPERIENCE AT THE SALMON WORKSHOP
We, the entire group, attended the Salmon workshop last Wednesday, 6 [February], at the Fabra Coats. We were able to enjoy the experience of sharing, with other centres, other projects and ways of working and operating. Students were eager and ended the day feeling quite happy, both with the activities and with having been able to get to know other students taking part like them. Maybe because they had taken the dance – creative movement classes with Constanza, they were expecting to do more movement activities and were initially a bit stuck, but later on they gradually entered the dynamics of the day.

As she left, Marián asked the students about their experiences, feelings and perceptions of what they had experienced. The students began to come out with the following comments:

Kimberly – “People were calm and pleasant”.
Zaida – “You were treated well, helped and respected”.
Laura – “I liked it because I was asked a lot of things and I like being asked about things, as I want people to know about my life”.
Isma – “I liked people’s attitudes. We moved our hands around. There were other groups and we were confident that no one would be made fun of”.
Giancarlo – “What I liked most was the ribbon dance, because it was different from everything else we’d been doing – The thing I found most boring was telling a story about Barcelona”
Yeirelis – “I really liked it, the chair-show activity liberated me quite a bit, the threads activity helped me a lot with my imagination”.
Richard – “I thought it was good, I was bored at one point and didn’t like it at another because it was all talk, I liked the chairs activity”.
Natalia – “What I liked was that it was fun and didn’t get boring and I preferred being there to being in class”.
Mariam – “It was really fun, I made friends, it was all very creative and I learnt a lot”.

11 APRIL 2019

OUR BODY TALKS TO US
I’m Marián and I’m really happy to see how the students have progressed, learnt things and managed to express themselves much more and better.  Their work and delivery have enabled them to let themselves go and get their bodies talking and in a much more fluid, free and natural way, showing their own experiences and making them into group experiences by sharing them.

On the other hand, I’d like to thank Constanza for her exceptional and highly professional work and whose approach to the students got them to open up and take part.

As for me, it was a really useful, pleasant and enriching experience.

GENERAL REHEARSAL
We gave a rehearsal at the Fabra i Coats. The whole class liked where we danced.

S’APROPA LA MOSTRA
We have been learning lots of things in every class and are moving differently.

UNIQUE EXPERIENCES

· Guillem Mont de Palol and Jorge Dutor's show Los Micrófonos (30/10/2018):
Mercat de les Flors treated In Residence students to a performance show which they were moved by. The work, which combines theatre with movement and pop culture, gave us an opportunity to talk about movement without having to talk about dance and presented an aspect of body work that was different from what they were used to. Before they saw the performance, the students were given a tour of all the Mercat's facilities, and were told a bit about the theatre’s history and shown its main spaces, offices and dressing rooms.

· Contamination session (29/1/2019):
The contamination session involved all the students and was put on for the teaching team, the ICUB and the district's other representatives. It was a very tender moment during which a small sample of various scenes they had been working on during the sessions were shown; the audience's proximity made the young people feel relaxed and they appreciated the positive feedback. For many teachers it was a surprise to see them in a different work place, dancing and talking through their body. It was the first time they had started reflecting aloud on the process they were experiencing.

· Salmon Festival session (6/2/2019):
The get-together session under the framework of the Salmon Festival was very stimulating for the students as they saw other creators in action and also got to know other schools, although the day was also more intense for them and they were quite exhausted by the end. It should be pointed out that the SÂLMON< Festival enabled the Príncep de Girona and Barri Besòs schools to come afterwards and see the public presentation of Comas i Solà at the Mercat.

· Official opening of the “10 years of In Residence” exhibition (11/4/2019):
The ICUB suggested the group should make a little presentation of their work as part of the exhibition’s official opening. The proposal was very well received by the centre, the students and Constanza, who was in favour of giving other possibilities for displaying besides the presentation. It was an experience that had a big impact on the young people, as there was a large audience and they were very nervous, but that played to their advantage when it came to the presentation in the theatre, and they were able to see other centres carrying out discourses through different creative processes.