Carmen
Movement, space and dynamics are used in Mat Ek’s work Carmen to portray the various characters throughout the piece and to determine their relationships therefore gaining a greater understanding of the characters and the narrative. Micaela (M) is a respectable and adequate woman who is loyal to her fiancé but is always leading him and influencing his behavior in life. The first movement we see from M is at a low height with collapsing, repeated contractions which give us an initial idea of her silent presence amongst her fiancé Don Jose while he is conversing with the other solider portraying the idea of her intimidation of other men. Her movements are curved in shape though still very forceful, sharp and have a punch like force about them which gives the idea she is conscience of Jose, giving his directions and guidelines of how the behave. She then progresses into a lot of sustaining movements, which she continuously motions upward, giving the impression and the resemblance of appreciation of life and her faithfulness toward Don Jose. Symbolism of a wish to have a child occurs at 0.33 through the use of curved “cradle-like” motions which shows the couples desire to settle down and be a family. There is also a repetitive floor pattern as M often travels away from Don Jose but then travels directly back towards his representing her dedication and loyalty as she always returns to her fiancé and also the idea of her constant presence. M’s dynamics then take a sudden change as she is not longer performing contracted, closed movements in a repetitive nature which portrayed her ideal feministic nature of being loyal and she now has a less controlled nature about her performing asymmetrical kicks and contrasting shapes as she seems to let loose the further she ventures away from Jose which symbolizes her soul connection to him as she always returns back. The duet performed by M and Don Jose see’s M return to her original circular, curved shape movements and we see