Analyzing Erikson's Eight Stages Of Discovering Myself

Discovering Oneself
Growing up, people always asked “You was I before the world told me who to be”. This statement stuck because as an individual I was being me. Dr. Seuss states in a quote “Why fit in when you were born to standout” (Seuss). This quote is another spark for the interest in the development of oneself. The concept of this portion of the senior thesis project would be based on discovering oneself. This has been a topic of interest for a while now. Trudy Mercadal writer of Identity Formations states that “Identity issues are not confined to the individual level. They feature prominently in popular culture, media, and even legislative issues” (Mercadal). In today’s society people find anything to bring you down, including flaws,
how many social media followers an individual has, to who they voted for as president. These things do not define you as an individual and do not make you who you are.
When the audience is finished watching this piece of work, hopefully they will see the journey of finding oneself in this world. However the journey that the dancer is going through, will not be the same for everyone in the audience. The lasting impression that the audience should have is a question to themselves, asking if they have fully found themselves. Why do individuals allow the media, and other things in society define who we are. The dancer that would fit this piece of work has to be mature and be interested in discovering themselves. In an ideal world this work would be best done as a solo or done as a duet. Performing this work as a solo or duet would make sense because each individual discovers themselves in a variation of ways. The duet will allow the audience to see have each individual is unique in their own way. Having too many dancers on stage finding themselves might be difficult for the audience to comprehend what the concept of the work is.
This thought does fit a specific time period the twenty first century.
People discover themselves at different times within their lives. As an individual we are always going to be discovering ourselves because of different situations as well as the media. The media plays a role in the way people see us on a daily bases. Individuals should stand out, but also fit in with the crowds. Erikson's a growing psychologist developed the eight stages of human development. When looking at Erickson’s eight stages of development it starts when the individual is just born. The eighth stage of his human development happens when the individual is fifty years
old.
When thinking about the concept of this work, the music should not overpower the movement. The music should have an incline more towards the end because the dancer should be finding themselves towards the end of the work. Searching music through YouTube, iTunes, Pandora is helpful, but there are so several additional artists out there that is not as popular. Being stuck on the same artist, has made it an easy decision to ask some peers for some new artist to listen to. Being exposed to a wide range of artist will allow for this work to have the perfect music choices. This piece of work would be best set to soft music that is almost background music. The dancer will be very internal with her movement vocabulary. The costume idea for this work must be simple. This work is based off on a dancer who is finding themselves as an individual. If the dancer is wearing elaborate costumes, it may be distracting to the audience’s eyes. A simple black leotard spandex shorts and black socks would be simple enough for this kind of work. The dancer should have their hair in either half up half down, or in a ponytail. Having the dance in such a simple costume will allow the audience to pay more attention to the movement and what the choreographer is saying. The socks are only to help the dancer move fluidity throughout the space. The dancer should be able to run, slide and glide while doing the internal movements.
At the moment this work does not require any built set pieces. When thinking of the choreography for this work a mirror has appeared a few times. The mirror would represent seeing what the world sees of myself and being able to accept who we are. At the moment the mirror is not even necessary, but it is an option for the near future. The mirror would be oval shaped and on wheels, big enough that the dancer can see herself through it from across the stage. In the meantime the media does play a role in the development of oneself. Individuals want to fit in and are afraid of standing out because of being judged. Social media is consistently showing us what the ideal body should be and what is right vs. what is wrong in this world. Each individual is born unique in their own ways and should continue to develop into their own self.
As of right now this work does not involve the use of props. The mirror the dancer would not necessary dance with, it would be more of a reference to what the world sees. The mirror is there so the dancer can see that it is acceptable to not be perfect, but to develop in to continue to develop into their own self. As a choreographer if the mirror because a part of this work the dancer would have plenty of time to get used to where it was going to place on stage. The dancer needs to be comfortable with the way she interacts with the mirror and what she actually sees when looking at herself. The mirror will enhance the work because through social media, we see what the “Perfect Image” looks like, but no one actually looks like that. Also a mirror is something that individuals look at every day. Everyone can relate to the amount of time they look at a mirror too point out their flaws.
The dancer that will best fit this piece of work would have to be able to investigate themselves through movement. The movement will be very internal but needs to draw in the audience to explore this journey with them. With this being said the dancer needs to mature and not be afraid of what they might discover. Through this process the dance will be given a few sets of improvisational scores to work with. Having the dancers have an improvisational score will also help the dancer show their journey of discovering oneself. Also, the dancer should be able to movement, fluidity through the space. Moving fluidity while doing internal movement should also help the audience become more involved in the movement. If incorporating either spoken text, or recording within this project would help enhance the concept. The spoken word or text would involve what makes each individual unique in their own way. If using spoken word or text within the project, using it at the end of the project would help bring the concept together.
The audience can relate to this project because we have all found ourselves already or in the process of finding our self.
As Erickson found there is eight stages of development that start from the time you are born until death. The audience should care about this work because this is something that everyone goes through. Allowing media and other individuals define who we are, is not allowing us to discover our self as a unique individual. The ordinary person can relate to this topic because discovering oneself is something that everyone experiences through life. This area is worth investigating because it shows how each individual is unique in their own way plus how their own experiences to help develop them as an
individual.