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Expression and Movement
It is an interesting phenomenon that when we, human beings, actively try to succeed at a physical activity, we often adopt a strategy of limiting movement. Yet it is this limitation of movement that keeps us from succeeding. You wad up a sheet of paper and, without thinking, throw it into the wastebasket––it goes right in. Then, when you throw the second … you miss. And if you noticed, you probably started “thinking about it” on the second throw. Consequently, when you “thought about it” you also tightened your body to ensure you would make the throw, which limited movement and affected your body’s ability to coordinate. You missed.
If you want your conducting to be more expressive, you will have to move more of your body. To be more specific, a higher percentage of your total body will need to be engaged when you gesture. Conducting expressively is not about standing on the podium waving your arms. It is about using your entire body. This is no secret formula for expression. It is called coordination. It is how you are designed to move.
But when an individual is placed in a highly visible leadership role, like being in front of an ensemble, there is a strong tendency for that person to narrow their focus, putting it often on him or herself. That is to say, beginning conductors might be thinking about what they need to do rather than about how they might serve the music and the ensemble. Initially, this inward focus will cause them to limit their movement and/or hold parts of their body still, as in the example with the ball of paper and the wastebasket.
This occurs for a variety of reasons. As we just mentioned, it could be the result of a narrowed focus. When you put your entire focus on a specific body part, like your hand, the result will usually be that the rest of your body will not be moving.
Another reason we limit movement is that it creates the illusion that we are somehow more in control. This is evident when observing someone concentrating on an activity that is unfamiliar or when they are learning a new physical activity. A beginning trumpet player might hold their entire body still so that she or he can put their entire focus on their embouchure and the three fingers touching the valves. Even if it does help in the short term, eventually this lack of movement will become a problem.
My point is that there can be a lot of reasons why tension is involved in learning to conduct or in the process of improving the quality of your conducting. This is especially true if you ignore, and consequently lock, parts of your body in a well-intentioned effort to try (really hard) to control other parts of your body so that you will be ensured success. That strategy, of course, limits your entire body’s ability to move freely and organically. Creating tension, a result of limiting movement, will not be an effective strategy in your quest to increase your expressive potential on the podium.
The Expressive Body
I think there can be a lot of judgment involved in the process of trying to improve physical skill sets. So rather than proceed from the standpoint of this is good and this is bad, let’s start by looking at the expressive body. The goal is not to develop a “how to” guide but to examine how we perceive expression. By doing so, you might find some concepts that will help inform your ability to evaluate your own movement while and after you conduct.
The key, as already mentioned, is coordination. In a bit we’ll explore the expressive potential of your body. But for now, let’s begin by looking at how an artist might draw (communicate) expression. I am sure that you will be able to see the parallels to conducting. In the second part of this chapter, we’ll take a look at a few of the fundamentals underlying Tai Chi. The hope is that this brief look will provide you with a new way to approach thinking about the relationship between weight and movement, and how these concepts might inform your experience of moving your body.
Drawing
A Look at Drawing
This investigation of drawing is intended to provide a visual and an objective understanding of where gesture comes from, how an artist communicates it and how it is visually perceived. You will also be presented with some criteria that you can borrow when reviewing video of your own conducting sessions. At the very least, you will have been made aware of, and have a new context for, examining what you are doing on the podium.
There are two drawing methods that we are briefly going to look at: gesture drawing and figure drawing. Again, the purpose is not to teach you to draw but to find parallels to conducting inherent in the concepts involved.
What Is Gesture Drawing?
A gesture drawing is a quick drawing; for our purposes let’s say that the drawing takes from maybe thirty seconds to a couple of minutes to complete. The idea is for the artist to capture the essential gesture—the feeling, movement and energy of a pose—in just a few simple lines. The gesture drawing reveals what is happening quickly and simply. It expresses gesture through line, capturing the overall motion of the figure.
Without gesture, the drawing (even a more finished drawing) will lack life. The drawing will be uninspired and might also be described as dull, rigid, static or mechanical.
With gesture, the drawing is alive. It communicates the action and the essence of what is happening and being experienced. Emotional content, quality and attitude are all revealed through gesture drawing.
Gesture Is Expression
The most important concept in gesture drawing (again, for our purposes) is that a gesture drawing captures the whole body as opposed to a series of unrelated parts of the body. Similarly, when you are on the podium, every movement that you make involves the entire body as the body coordinates, balances and counterbalances.
A gesture drawing also captures the relationship between body masses (head, ribcage and pelvis). This can be expressed in the line connecting these masses and also in the twisting and turning of the body. Gesture drawings quickly reveal how the weight of the body is moving and how it is supported. Weight is an important concept for us. If you want to show weight on the podium, you will need to allow the weight of your entire body to move and shift naturally as a component of the overall gesture.
When artists are trying to show the flow of the movement (pose), they look for the longest line in the body. The longest line will connect the torso, arm and leg.
It is the longest line of the body that illustrates the fluidity between the body parts––the coordination. While conducting, every movement of the arms is part of a larger gesture that cascades all the way through the body right down to your feet.
When you are moving your baton, A line that is long and fluid will be perceived as being relaxed. As you increase the curvature of the line, it will begin to communicate more energy. The sharp corners of a zigzag, for instance, will communicate the most energy (and a very different sound quality) than softer or more fluid lines. Neither is better; it depends on what quality you or the artist wants to communicate.
Some things to take away from this brief look at gesture drawing are: gesture engages the whole body, the relationship between body masses (the concept of moving weight), and the longest line of the body (the gesture flows through the whole body). All of the above have one thing in common: They all involve the entire body, and it is the entire body that communicates and that is the foundation for the emotional content that an ensemble perceives.
Figure Drawing
Figure drawing, like the study in Figure 1.5 based on a drawing by Peter Paul Rubens, usually implies a more complete or finished drawing. Where gesture drawing is primarily concerned with line, figure drawing presents t...
