Final Essays

 1

 

 Sophie Mok in The Soldier's Tale. Studio B. Wellness Center.  

University of Miami Embodied Movement Practices Nov.16, 2022

 

 

Nov. 28, 2022

 

The Soldier's Tale

  Sophie Mok

 

The piece is inspired by the composition of Igor Stravinsky. It is about a soldier who made a deal with the devil and regretted after realizing the true price he had to pay. I want to  tell the story as a third person, just like the narrator in the original composition. To show how  the soldier's greed and hope of fluke got him into the devil's plan, and how Stravinsky always  liked to complicate things.  

 

This course expanded my idea and imagination of how I can move my body. None  of my daily life movements involve so many kinds of movements in these levels and directions,  they are also rarely used in my own profession on stage. The difficulty of doing those 
movements makes me realize how “underused” my body is.   

 

I think the process is constructive and we are guided step by step. We are encouraged to move  in the way we want and are capable of. The factor that we must figure out the choreography ourselves also pushes us to be creative and to think out of the box if we don't want to repeat the same gesture 10 times.   

 

In conducting, keeping the focus is a prominent tool. It helps to give meaning to our gestures. While moving with a focus point, our gestures tend to be more directional and specific, and the  purpose of the gesture is more prominent. When I conduct, if I focus my attention on a group of musicians, my gesture improves and is usually more connected with what is going on in the  music. As for the gesture, I may not be able to apply everything on the podium, but the idea of  all directions can help to expand my "vocabulary". So, instead of just moving up and down, and  left and right, I can also consider moving diagonally when the music allows me to.  

 
 

 

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