Little Red Riding Hood A Story Untold or

Little Red Riding Hood A Story Untold (or at least unspoken) Jessica Mumford Movement as a Language March 6, 2007 Paper #1

Project Concept For my project, I video taped three different people telling the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” without using words. I supplied each of the participants with identical copies of the story in order to freshen their memory about the details of the plot. After filming each individual, I analyzed the film, specifically looking for similarities and differences between each of the participant’s stories. I noticed many similarities in whole body movement, specific gestures, facial expressions, and body carriage when the participants slipped in and out of telling the story; however, each storyteller had unique ways of interpreting the story. Each of the following slides will discuss some of these similarities and difference between each individual’s interpretation of gestures and specific characters in the story. The descriptions are accompanied with short video clips demonstrating the universal and individual characteristics of the participants’ storytelling.

Before we begin, let me introduce three participants. Stjepan Samantha Kristen • Above are each of the participants’ full telling of the story “Little Red Ridding Hood. ” • Some of the participants took long pauses to look at the printed story, so I cut them out. (Hence the breaks in some of the footage. )

GESTURE Between the three participants, there are many similarities in specific gesture choices. The similarities in gesture are not only linked to action verbs, as to demonstrate an action in the story, but they are also linked to nouns. One reason certain gestured nouns remain the same for all three participants may be because many of the nouns have to do with the body. In my gesture section I analyze both verbs and nouns that appear in two to three of the stories. The gestures I choose to highlight are: • • Knocking Walking and Running “Hood” in the name Little Red Ridding Hood Pointing to the Eyes, Ears, Nose, and Teeth

Knocking One action verb which remains consistent throughout all three participants is knocking. All three individuals gesture knocking by making a fist and moving it forward and back as if hitting it on an object, such as a door. One possible reason this significant knocking gesture may be found in all three participants is because it is a very common way of asking for someone to answer the door in our culture. This knocking action may have then been culturally abstracted into a gesture of the same knocking movement. Although each individual performs the same knocking gesture, they each approach it with a different quality. Stjepan appears to knock at an even, medium tempo, mainly bending at the elbow, while holding the wrist stationary. The entire knock looks to be evenly bound, with no significant increase in binding during the directional changes of the knocks. Samantha, on the other hand, appears to knock at a much more rapid tempo. The more she increases the tempo of her knock, the more she emphasizes the bending at the wrist in her gesture. Samantha also appears to sink as she knocks where Stjepan remains erect. Lastly, Kristen also appears to utilize the bending at the wrist in her knock more than the bending of the elbow. Her knocks appear to be quick like Samantha’s, but with much more lightness. Like Samantha, Kristen also sinks and encloses into her knocks. Both Samantha and Kristen also appear to bind more heavily during the directional changes in the knock, unlike Stjepan. Aside from the differences between each person’s knocks, each individual also differs between each of their own set of knocks depending on which character is performing the knock within the story. This is most prevalent in Stjepan’s last knock where he gestures the knock of the woodsman with his imaginary ax on the door. This Knock is much more aggressive than the other knocks and performed with both hands. Stjepan demonstrates this knock much larger, faster, and more forceful than the other knocks.

Walking and Running Walking and running also appear in all three participants’ stories. The two specific ways walking or running are demonstrated is through using two fingers to mimic legs traveling in a line or by pumping the arms up and down to mimic the actual motion of the upper body when walking or running. Stjepan only uses the finger gesture, Samantha uses both the finger and the pumping gesture, and Kristen only uses the pumping gesture. The finger gesture appears to be very quick and light as the fingers skitter in front of the body. Stjepan demonstrates the difference between Little Red Ridding Hood and the Wolf by changing his approach to the gesture. For Little Red Ridding Hood, Stjepan uses straight fingers to walk with his eyebrows slightly raised and his mouth tensed to the right. For the wolf, he uses gnarled or bent fingers with both hands and scrunches up his face in an evil furrowing scowl. The pumping gesture varies between Samantha and Kristen. Samantha uses the pumping gesture for both walking and running. The differences from walking to running are most noticeable in the increased tempo, binding of the arms, and use of facial expression. As Samantha demonstrates walking, she has a sense of momentum before she binds on the directional changes of the arms, but when she runs, her arms appear bound the entire gesture. Samantha’s face also opens up much more during the runs. Her eyebrows raise and her mouth stretches and opens in correlation with the heightened emotion of playing Little Red Riding Hood running away from the wolf. Although Kristen does not demonstrate the difference between walking and running in her face as much as Samantha, she does increase both her tempo and the amount of binding in her body. One last interesting difference apparent between the two participants’ running gesture occurs primarily in the torso. Samantha seems to rise in her torso when she runs; on the other hand, Kristen sinks into the increased binding of her arms when she gestures running.

“Hood” in the name Little Red Riding Hood Although hood is a noun unlike the prior action verbs, knocking, running, and walking, all three participants gesture to the hood. I believe that “hood” is referred to by each individual because it is an object which relates to the body. Hoods, as we know, are typically placed and worn on the head. This is shown differently by each storyteller. Stjepan demonstrates the by framing his head with his hands and moving them down and around his head with a small wave at the bottom. Samantha more literally symbolizes the hood by placing her jacket over head. Kristen goes for a more action-based approach by pretending to physically place the hood on her head and tie it at her neck.

Pointing to the Eyes, Ears, Nose and Teeth “But Grandmother, what big eyes you have. ” “The better to see you with, my dear. ” In the story of “Little Red Riding Hood, ” Little Red Riding Hood dialogues with the wolf about the strange changes in her supposed grandmother. Stjepan, Samantha, and Kristen tell this part of the story primarily by pointing to the eyes, ears, nose, and teeth. In some instances, the different body parts are not referred to by pointing; instead, they are emphasized using exaggerated movement to pull the focus toward the particular body part. For example, both Samantha and Kristen bat their eyes when referring to the eyes. Kristen also refers to the teeth by performing a biting motion. Stjepan points to every body part in his rendition of the story. His gestures become very rhythmic and direct with three taps on each body part. He points to each body part twice. Once as Little Red Riding Hood and once as the wolf. He differentiates between the two characters by using different facial expressions and either rising or sinking between each gesture. Samantha again takes a more literal approach by covering her face to be the wolf and then uncovering her face to be Little Red Riding Hood. Like Stjepan, she changes her facial expressions between the two characters in order to differentiate between them. While Stjepan points to his ear, Samantha cups is when gesturing to her ears. This same cupping gesture is also done by Kristen. Unlike Stjepan and Samantha, Kristen primarily demonstrates the actions as the wolf with the quilt over her face and little change in facial expression.

CHARACTERS Each of the three storytellers use specific gestures and movement qualities to differentiate between the different characters in the story. Each person tends to emphasize a different character more than the others. Stjepan and Kristen tell the story for a more narrative point of view, taking on each of the characters as they appear in the story. Samantha, on the other hand, tends to tell the story primarily as Little Red Riding Hood until the other characters require specific actions or dialogue. The three main characters that I focus on are: • • • Little Red Riding Hood The Wolf The Woodsman.

Little Red Riding Hood Stjepan does not give much facial or bodily expression to differentiate Little Red Riding Hood from the other characters in the story except for in the last clip. Most of the differentiation for Stjepan comes from his dramatization of the wolf. For most of his actions as Little Red Riding Hood, he keeps his face tensed to the right and his posture stable. Samantha, on the other hand, differentiates the characters by primarily emphasizing Little Red Riding Hood with both her face and her body. She smiles quite a bit and often tilts her focus upward. Her movements are very bouncy and she tends repeat quick movements somewhere within the body. She bats her eyes, waves her hands, nods, and bounces up and down on the bed. Kristen seems more calm in her rendition of Little Red Riding Hood. Her movements seem softer, lighter, and less sudden than Samantha’s movement. Many of Kristen’s clips show her with a thin, pleasant smile. Overall, Kristen does not express as strong of a difference between the different characters with her body. She tends to use props supplied by her immediate surroundings, especially with the wolf.

The Wolf As discussed in the last slide, Stjepan shows much more specific face and body expression with the wolf than with the other characters. As the wolf, he gnarls up his face and bears his teeth. His hand gestures become bent and quick, especially in the hands and fingers. Many of his movements are very sudden as to emphasize the element of surprise in the wolfs attacks on the grandma and Little Red Riding Hood. Samantha also show some suddenness with bent, clawed hands in her attack on Little Red Riding Hood. The rest of her wolf moments tend to be hidden under her coat as if hiding under the bed sheet. Kristen also does not emphasize the wolf as much as Stjepan in her storytelling. In the beginning of her story, Kristen introduces the wolf with her shirt over head and arms tight into her body. Similar to Samantha, she later uses the quilt to cover the bottom of her face when pretending to hide from Little Red Riding Hood. All three of the participants appear to sink and enclose as the wolf. Their arms draw into their body and they hunch down, sinking into their torsos. One particular action that appears universally between all three individuals is a quick lurch forward after or while emphasizing the wolf’s teeth. The size of this sudden advancing moment varies between each person, but it is apparent in all three.

The Woodsman The woodsman looks very similar for all three storytellers. Many gestures transfer across most of the stories. Gestures such as hold an ax, chopping, cupping the ear to listen, and running/traveling. The faces of all three participants look stern. They all tend to scrunch their eyebrows and tense their lips. As opposed to the wolf, there is a lifting or rising in the torso as to appear big and heroic. The movements in general are much grander and larger than the movements of the other characters. The chin appears tilted up, except for on Kristen swings her arms in large, fuller range swings to gesture walking, unlike her prior walks with small swings in front of the body. With these swings, her head finds subtle moments of suspension bobbing up and down with the pacing of her arms. Of the three characters, Kristen seems to emphasize the woodsman the most in her body face without the use of props. Samantha is the only person to break from the stern look of the Woodsman in order to accept the gratitude of Little Red Riding Hood and grandma. She does this by performing the common gesture of shaking the fists on the right and left side of the head, with a large smile.

CONCLUSION In analyzing these different interpretations of “Little Red Riding Hood, ” I find it interesting to see how different people preference different characters, gestures, facial expressions, and parts of the body in their stories. I feel that many of the universal gestures in this project could also be found in other people’s interpretations of the story if more participants were involved. Although at first glance many of the similarly used gestures appear to be performed the same across different people, I find it interesting in how different each person approaches the gesture. I did not expect for the storytellers to feel the need to use props within their story, but props are used quite a bit. The different points of view for telling the story amongst the individuals is also interesting. I am surprised that Samantha decided to tell most of the story from Little Red Riding Hoods point of view, while both Stjepan and Kristen keep their points of view more universal amongst the characters within the given moment in the story. I really enjoyed analyzing this project and getting the chance to extract different qualities from the movement, and I feel that my perception is more acute to subtle nuances than it was before.