Enhancing the Performer's Experience of Absorption through the Choreographic Process and Structure

Through the creation of three dance works over the course of the second year of my MFA research, I explored the question of how the process and structure of a choreography could enhance the experience of absorption (bliss, focus) for the performer. The factors that most notably had an effect on this experience were: relationship, most strongly the relationship between performers but also the relationship of the performer(s) to myself as director and the relationship of performer(s) to the environment and objects, both imagined and real; the nature of the imagery employed and the transpersonal emotional bridge it can facilitate between performer and audience; the nature, wording and rate of direction given to the performer; and increasing specificity and structure to build complexity and energy.