Man Against Himself

Creating a 3 minutes solo was one of the specific requirements of the Choreography workshop class. The first idea that came to mind was reworking and presenting the 3-minute solo that I performed at the audition in January. That piece was and is still very dear to me as it brings memories of my mother whom I miss so much. Missing her got me homesick which resulted in the creating of the piece. I wanted to challenge myself, so I decided to work on something completely new.

As usual, I went through my music collection in search of a song that I can work with. I came across the song “No more, My Lawd” by the Mississippi and Louisiana State Penitentiaries Prisoners. I listened to the song continuously hoping it speaks to me (This is how I created my audition solo too). It might be both a strength and weakness that I am motivated by the songs I listen to in my creative process. But for this class, I was challenged to create some works before finding music which I did for some of my pieces. 

I realized I wanted to create something about fighting an internal battle. Immediately, I cast my mind back to my undergrad days in the Department of Theatre Arts in Ghana as we studied the term Conflict. Man against Himself was one of the types of conflict I studied about and I decided to name my piece “Man Against Himself” (It is my first time finding a title to a piece before the actual piece is created).  I started improvising in my bedroom while the song played, and I began exploring and connecting movements. I came up with a two-minute version which I presented in class as the first showing for my solo. I received positive comments which encouraged me to build the piece. I had a second showing which was quite different from the first and the main suggestion was to incorporate the floor movements I had in my first showing. I took some time to delve into what I wanted to portray and how I can showcase that precisely. 

 I finally had a solid piece that was ready to be presented to my colleagues and professor.  In addition to the piece, I wrote this note which after reading inspired certain gestures that shaped up the piece for the final presentation. “Sometimes people fight internal battles/conflicts which take them to a place where no one understands and knows. It is impossible to fit into one’s shoes to know exactly how he/she is feeling. You might empathize with the person because you have been in that situation before but definitely, the feelings and reactions wouldn’t be the same. This piece is based on individual struggles and pain that people go through, the mental imprisonment they are experiencing because of whatever their problem is. Whatever you pick from this piece might be different from what the next viewer sees and resonates with. Enjoy and ponder over this food for thought.”