ANYA SIRINA (Guest Writer) - Ein Hanes Ni / The History of Us

Sut allwn ni greu iaith gyffredin? Gan Anya Sirina

Ein Hanes Ni - Blog Myfyriol

Yn Gymraeg:

Scroll down for English.

Rwyf mewn ystafell rithwir gyda thri dawnsiwr arall. Rydym yn dod o ddiwylliannau gwahanol, yn gweithio dros ieithoedd a pharthau amser gwahanol, felly gofynnaf i fi fy hun, sut all y pedwar ohonom greu iaith gyffredin? Gofynnaf y cwestiwn yma cyn i ni rannu ein hymarfer drwy 10 sesiwn gweithdy. Dyma fy ymgais i ateb y cwestiwn ar ddiwedd y broses.

Yr iaith Gymraeg a fy Ymarfer:

“Rwy’n defnyddio fy Nghymraeg ond rwy’n ei ffeindio hi’n anodd mynegi fy hun a fy syniadau yn yr iaith hon. Beth yw ‘practice’ yn y Gymraeg? Dwi ddim yn rhy siwr os taw ‘ymarfer’ yw’r gair cywir. Daw teitl y llyfr ‘Beth yw ‘performance’ yn Gymraeg?’ gan Heike Roms i’r meddwl.” - dyma fy myfyrdod ar ôl y sesiwn gyflwyno lle’r oeddwn i’n profi cael fy nghyfieithu o’r Gymraeg i’r Saesneg am y tro cyntaf.

Cafodd fy ngeirfa dawns ei ddysgu a’i ffurfio yn Saesneg. Gan fy mod heb fyw yng Nghymru am chwe blynedd, galwad ffôn achlysurol adref i’r teulu yw’r Gymraeg y byddaf yn ei siarad. Cwestiwn a gododd o fewn yr anhawster hwn i fynegi fy hun oedd, sut felly, y gallaf ddod ag ansawdd yr iaith Gymraeg i fy ngweithdai? Mae treigliadau amrywiol y Gymraeg a’r modd maen nhw’n galluogi llif barddonol a meddaldod yn fy nghyfareddu. Roeddwn yn chwilfrydig i weld os oedd modd dod â’r nodweddion hyn mewn i symudiad  a hwyluso fy ngweithdai mewn modd fyddai’n llifo.

Nodweddion: 

Ffocws fy sesiwn gyntaf oedd defnyddio nodweddion fel stimiwlws ar gyfer ein symudiad. Fe wnes i osod tasg ysgrifennu cyn y gweithdy lle wnaeth Tianshi, Marcus a Meilir fynd am dro i leoliad o’u dewis; tra eu bod yno, gofynnwyd iddyn nhw nodi’r nodweddion gwahanol o fewn eu hamgylchedd a’u cyrff. Yna, fe ddefnyddiom y geiriau hyn yn sgôr ar gyfer ein gwaith byrfyfyr. Rhai enghreifftiau: caled/meddal, golau/cysgod, dirgrynu/llonyddwch, trwm/ysgafn.

Fe wnaeth y cydymdrech a’r frwydr i ddawnsio’r nodweddion cyfosodol hyn droi’n iaith gyffredin rhyngom o fewn y sesiwn hon. Roedd hi’n heriol gweithio yn y modd yma. Teimlais fel pe bai diffyg llif neu gynnydd. Fe ddes i i’r casgliad fod angen datrysiadau ar yr holl archwiliadau hyn. Teimlai ein harchwiliadau yn unigol iawn o fewn ein blychau Zoom ar wahân. Fe wnaethon ni geisio dawnsio gyda’n gilydd a dilyn ein gilydd, ond fe wnaeth yr oedi digidol amharu ar gytgord.

Iaith Byrfyfyrio:

Yn fy ail weithdy, fe wnes i rannu fy ymchwil ar ‘amser’ a’r ‘corff anamserol’ drwy ddangos, egluro ac ateb cwestiynau. Roeddwn am greu amgylchedd lle byddai rhai eraill yn teimlo fel pe baen nhw’n gallu chwilota a theimlo eu bod yn cael eu cadw o fewn fframwaith cysyniadol. Dangosais enghreifftiau o waith artistiaid eraill rwy’n ymgeisio at gyrraedd. Wrth gynnig enghreifftiau gweledol o fy syniadau, fe wnaed hi’n haws i ddeall fy namcaniaethau mwy byrbwyll.

Yn fy nwy sesiwn, fe ddefnyddiom waith byrfyfyr i gynhyrchu ein symudiadau. Roedd dysgu coreograffi ac ymadroddion yng ngweithdai fy nghyd-artistiaid yn gyffrous am ei fod yn ffordd mor wahanol o weithio i fi. Rwyf wedi fy nenu i’r broses o ddod o hyd i symudiad drwy waith byrfyfyr am fy mod yn credu bo gan y symudiadau wirionedd a’u bod yn unigryw i’r unigolyn a’r foment honno mewn amser. Gall fod yn brofiad sy’n eich gwneud yn agored a brau, byddwch yn symud drwy emosiynau gwahanol, byddwch wedi eich sodro, byddwch yn synnu eich hun ac yn y pen draw yn canfod symudiad neu deimlad na fyddech wedi dod o hyd iddo fel arall. Wnes i ddim sylweddoli cymaint mae’r broses hon wedi fy nghyfareddu hyd nes i fi fyfyrio ar hyn. Roedd hyn yn foment dysgu allweddol i fi.

Ymarfer Iaith Gyffredin: 

Mae ymarfer rhywun yn rhywbeth personol iawn. Mae’n dystiolaeth o sut y byddwch yn deall a symud drwy’r byd. Er mwyn dod â’r project i’w derfyn, fe wnaethon ni gymryd rhan mewn ymarfer oedd yn golygu disgrifio ymarfer rhywun arall. Fe wnaeth Tianshi siarad am fy ymarfer innau. Fe ddewisodd dri gair allweddol yr oedd o’r farn oedd yn greiddiol i fy ngwaith: cysyniad, ymchwil a dylunio. Llwyddodd hyn i egluro ac amlygu’r ymddiriedaeth a dealltwriaeth a gynhyrchwyd rhwng y pedwar ohonom.

Fe wnaethon ni ganfod fod yna un peth cyffredin wrth galon ymarfer-dawns pawb, sef pwysigrwydd symud o - a chreu - ymdeimlad o rymuso.

Drwy gydol y project hwn fe wnaethon ni greu iaith gyffredin oedd yn rhagori ar eiriau neu iaith lafar. Roedd ein hiaith yn u o ofod/teimlad - iaith o gefnogaeth, cydymdeimlad, amynedd, ynni a grymuso. 

Byddaf yn dod â’r myfyrdod hwn i ben gyda rhai cwestiynau mae’r project hwn wedi peri fi eu gofyn. Sut ydych chi’n ymarfer ymarfer? Beth yw’r gwahaniaeth rhwng ‘ymarfer’ a ‘gwaith’? Sut olwg fyddai ar ein hymarfer cydweithiol? Sut alla i barhau i gwestiynu a holi fy ymarfer tu hwnt i'r project hwn? Beth fydd yn digwydd i ymarfer pob un ohonom nawr?

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[Paratoi’r corff i fodoli mewn amser yn wahanol]

Performance Cyfnodol: Y Corff Anamserol gan Raegan Truax

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How can we create a shared language? By Anya Sirina

Ein Hanes Ni - Reflective Blog

In English:

I find myself in a virtual room with three other dancers. We are from different cultures, working across different languages and time zones, so I ask myself, how can the four of us create a shared language? I ask myself this question before we share our practices through 10 workshop sessions. I now attempt to answer the question at the end of the process.

The Welsh Language and My Practice:

“I am using my Welsh language, but I am finding it difficult to articulate myself and my ideas in this tongue. What is practice in Welsh? I’m not sure if ymarfer is the right word. The title of the book Beth yw ‘performance’ yn Gymraeg? (What’s Welsh for Performance?) by Heike Roms comes to mind.” – my reflection after the introduction session where I was experiencing being interpreted from Welsh to English for the first time.

My dance vocabulary was taught and formed in English. Having not lived in Wales for six years, my Welsh is now only spoken on the occasional family phone call. A question that arose within this difficulty in articulating myself was, how then, can I bring the quality of the Welsh language into my workshops? I am fascinated by the various treigladau (mutations) in the Welsh language and how these foster a certain softness and poetic flow. I was intrigued to see if it was possible to bring these types of qualities into movement and facilitate my workshops in a way that flowed.

Qualities: 

Using qualities as a stimulus for our movement was the focus of my first session. I set a writing task prior to the workshop in which Tianshi, Marcus and Meilir went for a walk to a location of their choice; whilst there, they were asked to take note of the different qualities within their environment and their bodies. We then used these words as a score for our improvisations. Some examples: hard/soft, light/shade, vibration/stillness, heavy/light.

A collective attempt and struggle to dance these juxtaposing qualities became our shared language within this session. There was a struggle in working this way, I felt as if there was a lack of flow or progression. I came to the conclusion that these explorations lacked a resolution. Our explorations felt very individual in our separate Zoom boxes. We attempted to dance together and follow one another, but digital lags discouraged harmony.

The Language of Improvisation:
In my second workshop, I shared my research on ‘time’ and the ‘untimely body’1 through showing, explaining and answering questions. I wanted to create an environment in which others felt they could explore and feel held within a conceptual framework. I showed examples of other artists’ work that I aspire to. Offering visual examples of my ideas definitely made quite heady theories more easily graspable.

In both of my sessions, we used improvisation to generate our movements. Learning choreography and phrases in my fellow artists’ workshops was exciting as it is such a different way of working for me. I am drawn to the process of finding movement through improvisation as I believe the movements hold truth and are unique to the individual and moment in time. It can be a vulnerable experience, you move through different emotions, you get stuck, you surprise yourself and end up finding a movement or a feeling that you may not have found otherwise. Only upon reflecting did I realise how fascinated I am by this process. This was a key moment of learning for me.

Practicing a Shared Language:

One’s practice is very personal. It is evidence of how you understand and move through the world. To draw the project to a close, we took part in an exercise which involved describing someone else’s practice. Tianshi spoke about my practice. She chose three keywords that she believed to be at the core of my work: concept, research and design. This was clarifying and also highlighted the trust and understanding generated between all four of us.

A similarity we found to be at the core of everyone’s dance-practice was the importance of moving from - and to create - a feeling of empowerment.

Throughout this project we created a shared language which transcended words and speech. Our language was a space/feeling - one of support, compassion, patience, energy and empowerment. 

I will draw this reflection to a close with some questions this project has ignited for me. How do you practice, practice? What’s the difference between ‘practice’ and ‘work’? What would our collaborative practice look like? How can I keep questioning and interrogating my practice outside of this project? What happens to all of our practices now?

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[Preparing the body to exist in time differently]

Durational Performance: The Untimely Body by Raegan Truax