'The Rainbow of desire' focuses on the idea of oppression within our emotions. During our lesson, however, we mostly just focused on the aspect of fear and oppression. The idea of the lesson was to study each others 'fear' and oppression. We were to see if we related to any of the emotions portrayed. Furthermore, this was overall, used to aid our own portrayal of such emotions.
To begin with, we laid on the ground and closed our eyes. Similarly to common yoga techniques, we began to almost drift into a sleep-like state. Once comfortable, we were told to focus on our 'happy place' and imagine how we feel and look in such a place. Personally, my 'happy place' was a comfortable bed with my best friend and family. Then, we were to imagine a colour and link it to how we felt and how it 'filled our bodies'. I imagined a gold colour radiating from my stomach and surrounding my entire body. It filled my veins and radiated warmth and happiness, this is how I picture my happiness and how I feel it looks and feel likes when I am in my happy place.
However, it changed hugely when we were instructed to focus on an 'unhappy place'. We were told to remember when we felt oppressed and small. We were specifically told to focus on a time when another person was making us feel this way. This was a lot harder than the original task as it brought back memories that I wanted to forget.
Next we stood up again and remembered how that unhappiness and fear felt. Then we formed a circle and everyone faced outwards. Almost to ourselves, we created a still image of this fear and steadily advanced the visuals of it- we added a repetitive movement. After the movement was added, we were instructed to add in a phrase which we repeated. This phrase was supposed to show how we felt inside, even if we didn't actually say our phrase when we were in the situation that we were remembering. I decided on the phrase "Go away". I added this to my still image and then decided that my movement should be added. My movement was clasping my hands and shuffling my feet. After we all created our movements and phrase, we turned inwards and focused on the others portrayal of fear.
After focusing on each others portrayals, we formed small groups with the people who we felt represented the same 'kind' of fear to us. Then we showed everyone our fears. We finally picked apart how we constructed the fear still image and compared how we portrayed fear. For example, my group were all clasping their hands around their chests and were uneasy on their feet.
Moreover, we 'flipped' the technique over and rather than portraying ourselves in fear, we portrayed our oppressors and how they felt. We did the same process yet focused on how the oppressors were feeling. We watched the others portrayal of their oppressors and surprisingly realised that there was a bit of relate-ability in the oppressors emotions. Although overall we felt opposed to the anger portrayed, many people realised that perhaps the oppressor was feeling different and weren't just our enemies- perhaps they felt hurt or lost. This showed us the true meaning of The Rainbow of desire; that there isn't just one overwhelming emotion and that even our oppressors feel emotion.
Finally, I believe that although this technique made me feel a bit uneasy and afraid, it was effective as it made me realise that fear is not so easy to replicate. Others have a different perception of fear and it is a very complex emotion to portray. Overall, I believe that this experience has aided me to develop my acting skills as a whole.
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