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Show Erin Kaser Modern Dance THE MOTION OF FEAR Erin Kaser Department of Modern Dance, University of Utah "Have you ever held fear? Do you hold it, not move away from it... without trying to do anything about it, just watching it." -J. Krishnamurti To know your fears is to know that you are vulnerable. If one's fears become irrational, it becomes difficult to live in a logical world. The Motion of Fear has been a creative research project focusing on the physical manifestations of fear. Through creation of movement in the form of dance and projected video images, I have compiled the conclusions from my research in a dance pre-sentation about this state of the mind. Research was conducted in several ways. Background informa-tion was gathered through several sources including books on psychology and philosophy, films, butoh, and improvised move-ment experiences. For me, movement and dance have proven to be useful ways to examine how the body reacts to fear stimulus. In the rehearsal process, imagery was used to explore and create physical reactions to fear stimulus. These improvisations provided movement vocabulary to use as a foundation for the choreogra- phy. I focused on three physical reactions to fear: startle, anxiety, and escape. In addition, the issue of fear entering human rela-tionships is examined. Video is used in the performance to reveal the importance of time and thought in the situation of fear. It is important to realize that fear is based on our ability to replay images in our minds and to distort them with our imagination. Without the element of time as well, we would not be capable of creating fears from the past that we project into the future. Finally, we look into ourselves to reveal what we fear. We are frag-mented by our fear and by the observation of our fears. To reunite our fragmented selves, we see that the fear is a part of the person, not separate from the individual who can decide when and what to fear. Then we may ask ourselves, why is it that we want to have fear? My dance presentation serves to introduce questions and to provide a way to look into the self, finding personal answers. |
