We embarked on a new text – a prose work this time – the opening speech from Kuo Pao Kun’s Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral. Jon pointed out how it is published as prose, almost like a journal entry – even though it is commonly treated as a script.
I have come to realize of late that dreaming has become the centre of my life. Yes, dreaming. Dreaming all by myself. Alone, painfully alone, and floating away. But this loneliness is a potent one; it is an inviting loneliness. There is a vast space all around me. Endless. Haunting. Unknown. But promising. And seemingly reachable. I have a fear of this unknown. Ad yet this fear is also part o the yearning to depart, to leave the place I'm so used to - even when I know what I am going away from is a terrible insanity. Yes. Every day. Every day, I long to return to my nightly unknown. Was he also like this? Was he also like this when he was sailing across the vast ocean in the dark of the night, looking into the eerie distance alone at sea, forgetting at least for the moment the insanity forced upon him, forgetting the pain created in him by the removal of his manhood. In these dreams, the days were no more just fun, no more just cheerful and full of hope. In these dreams, being alone, I was able to look at myself, look inside myself and look through myself. And as I dived deeper and deeper into the stark loneliness of myself, I felt I had become closer and closer to him, closer to this 600-year-old legend of a molested and incarcerated man. Yes, each night, through my own fear and uncertainty, I discover more agony in him, more respect for hi, and more suspicion of him. And the more I discover - longing for him in the day and taunting him in the night - the more I discover, the more I am convinced that we were related, closely related - so closely related that I had to be a descendant of the eunuch admiral. |
Kuo Pao Kun, 1995
Once again we started with Aiden dancing to the text unseen. He knew the topic, since we had discussed the choice of the text, but did not know what the text said, or whose perspective it was from.
Observation : The density of the prose and the longer sentences (compared to the sparser poem) gave Aiden a more consistent voice to follow – he had the option to respond to the voice as an underscore.
This text offered us two characters – the persona ‘I’ and his obsession, the admiral. We approached them as a theatrical process would, extracting clues to their characters from the text. In this session we analyzed the text for cues to the “I” persona.
About “I”
dreaming a lot, and the dreaming is front & centre of his consciousness
alone, “painfully” so (and probably unused to it) – a “stark loneliness”
plagued by a fear of the unknown
his daily life is a ‘terrible insanity’
seeking a buddy – someone to relate to
used to have dreams that are ‘fun”, “cheerful and full of hope”
he feels “molested and incarcerated” too – by what?
previously not self-aware, now embarking on a journey to know himself
has empathy – is able to feel ZH’s agony while respecting and suspecting him
“longing” and “taunting” ZH – he develops a very personal relationship
feels contradicting emotions
traditionally brought up, which is why he remains tied to his daily grind – he has not placed his self-fulfillment above his sense of duty 9like ZH)
We discussed how character analysis can benefit the dancer.
Character-work for Dancers
In a very character-driven text like this, the words carry not only meaning, but character – it is like listening to a person pouring out his soul.
For an actor, the aim of this character discussion would be to enable him/her to ‘become’ the character wholly and ‘realistically’.
For a dancer, the goal is somewhat different – he/she does not aim to fully become the character as real, but to capture an essence of it in the dance.
Character analysis would enable the dancer to make character-rich choices in physical language; but the more important takeaway for a dancer is a stronger sense of what drives the text – what is being expressed, what is longed for, what conflicts exist. Understanding the character makes this subtext clearer; and subtext is what the dancer can best express, and perhaps needs to express.
Homework for next session : Research Admiral Cheng Ho and identify five things about him that are fascinating / curious / provocative.
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