Movement creates life. 

That’s how the story goes. Movement is another form of expression which requires people to feel through vision, through seeing someone’s limbs swaying and making interesting compositions through the lenses of the eyes. Dance is an art form that encompasses the way the body moves, anatomy, and music, rhythm. An harmony of multiple things that create beautiful imagery. 

At first, I had a set of inspiration images from other sources that created my vision. The surreal depiction of emotions, transcending through time, intertwined with multiple waves of emotions. 

These inspiration pages at the end created the moods, the imagery and vision I had for this project, depicting the movement and shots for each scene I wanted to create. 

I was especially drawn to Nick Cave and his spotlight scene. Though the depiction of his world does not align with my emotional narrative, it’s the surreal scene that allows the story to carry its own light into the world. I was absolutely captivated. 

I believe that the form of emotional expression, the process of grief, can only be thoroughly and accurately depicted through dance.

As a little girl, I have been fascinated with movement, sports, and dance. This hold especially true when I experienced performance myself, learning different types of dances, being on stage for plays and musicals, and even dabbling in sports such as figure skating. It’s within the alignment of rigorousness and elegance, that allow me to be astonished if I find anyone who can master such fluidity. 

On particular dance movement that has attracted me over the years, creating harmony between roughness and grace, is contemporary dance. I found myself imagining contemporary dance as a way to depict the stronger and weaker emotions. Contemporary dance isn’t really classified as being soft or angular, instead, it can be depicted as both, depending on the choreography and the emotional impact. 

As I found the person I wanted to work with, I also found that her movements gave the garments an astounding aura, livening up to the way that the garments flow on her, and using her body to lift the fabric (that isn’t quite light) and moving in a way that is unimaginably beautiful. It was through her, Audrey, that I found quality in movement and emotion, giving the process of grief a sense of tension yet relief. The duality in her movements allowed each contrasting element to live to its potential to the fullest. 

With the combination of both talent and vision, I was able to visualize the world I wanted to create that depicted not only my world, but also the artistic lens I wanted to have for this project.

NEXT UP: SHOT BY SHOT