Sunday 20 March 2011

Points Of Focus

1. Fluidity of movement transitions
2. Maintain strong arms at the beginning
3. Running in sync
4. Could we possibly make it longer?

Colour Score

2011 012 by c_27
2011 012 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Claire's Interpretation

2011 011 by c_27
2011 011 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Fiona's Interpretation

2011 010 by c_27
2011 010 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Direction Score

2011 013 by c_27
2011 013 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Work In Progress Feedback

During our work In Progress sharing I felt that myself and my partner had created a thought provking and detailed research, however we hadn't completely captured that detail into our studio rehersals just yet. As a result, any feedback that was to be given was essential for our work to continue to develop further.

Comments from the floor:
Repetition is really clear
Running could be more powerful
Explore the idea of falling into the running because it's quite static
Think about where you place the audience and which directions you face them

Comments from Kayte:
Play with the idea of a narrower runway to enhance the repetition
Pathways are clear, but could become stronger
Embody the material and what the memory is your playing with
Create a better connection with the ground
Don't use material from class phrases
My role as a dancer needs to be stronger

Thursday 17 March 2011

Improvisation

Improvisation Class

We had an Improvisation class at the start of term that really gave me some food for thought! I was given some words that really feed into dance that I hope to remember when I perform and choreograph.
1. Empowerment
2. Passion
3. Inclusion
4. Celebrating the individual
5. Translate
6. Facilitate
7. Creative

We were also asked two questions that really made me think about the way in which I move.

What stops you, what blocks you and why?
After creating a very short improvisation I found that what stops me from really exploring as much as possible is the lack of space that we have in the smaller studios. I find myself constantly having to be aware that I don’t stand on someone’s hand or foot, and that I’m not taking up too much space either. As a result I can’t travel as freely as I would like to do.. What really surprised me about this improvisation was that when we were asked to move with a partner I really would have preferred to work on my own. This is definitely a new feeling for me, as I normally enjoy having another person to bounce off. I hope this means that I’m becoming more comfortable within my own movements and have a stronger need to explore them.

What do you celebrate about your dance and what do you need to do to feed it in your practice?
I am slowly beginning to appreciate the simplicity of my movements as I think this allows me to be more creative in what I do as I’m not overly concerned about making things look “pretty”. I think I can feed this into my practice by continuing at a steady place and not rushing movement transitions.

Repetition

Wednesday 16 March 2011

White Man Sleeps

White Man Sleeps was choreographed for Siobhan Davies new company in 1988 and was a piece created for five dancers. However, over the years Davies has continued to rework this piece in order to achieve even further how she wanted the piece to look and feel.

The use of lighting and music in this piece really reflects the dancer’s movements. I think the dark lighting helps to emphasise each movement and the music creates an overall fluid feel to the dance as it performed to a string quartet. There is a strong use of repetition in this piece that is present in both the duets and group dances that helps to emphasise particular movements. The movement vocabulary mainly consists of strong leg movements, hand connections to the head, spirals and soft but fast feet movements. Throughout the piece the dancers come into contact with each other a lot of the time and this is particularly evident through the various lifts that Davies includes in this dance. I found it interesting to see how the dancers would work together in a group, but they would still be reflecting each others movements. This helped to focus on the movements that were being conveyed and it also emphasised the idea of repetition again in the dance.

Overall, I think this piece is interesting to watch because of the fluidity of the piece and the close relationships between the dancers.

Body Story Ideas

As I'm now starting to think about my body story, I have decided to investigate an hip injury that I've had for over 2 years which affects my movement on a daily basis.

In terms of the injury itself I am aware that over a period of time fluid has built up in my right hip socket which has lead to it becoming extremely tight and allowing minimal movement.

It has an effect on my dancing every day as I struggle with movemnets such as:
upside down movements
Rolls over the head
Movements initated from the pelvis
Yoga based exercises
leg swings in ballet class

Monday 14 March 2011

Improvisation Class

2011 004 by c_27
2011 004 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Score Rules:
Lean into the cirlce that you make

Change direction

Change speed

Pause

Go backwards

Train Station Score

2011 003 by c_27
2011 003 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Zebra Crossing Score

2011 002 by c_27
2011 002 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

50 Acts-Wendy Houston

I found this piece of work interesting because of it's limited use of dance context in the way that most audienec memebers would know it best. Instead of using flowery and decorative movements, Houston stripped it back and used simple, everday movements to explore the theme of a spirited retaliation against ageism.
In her piece she used:
Random Acts
Small dances and big ideas
Invisibility
Ghostly apperances
Apologies and errors
Stupidity

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Lea Anderson On Screen

As part of Nottingham Dance Festival we went to listen to a talk given by Lea Anderson on the relationship between choreography and film. She spoke about three different ways in which you can use film to create a piece of dance.

Flesh and Blood
This was the first time she had ever tried to use film as a starting point for choreography
Used Joan of Arc, the silent movie, as inspiration
Tried to remember what the film looked like in fast forward and therefore didn’t watch it back
Tried to embody something that she couldn’t completely remember, but still had a vague idea of the feeling it brought her.
Anderson didn’t play the video to any of the dancers as she wanted to commit to her imagination of what she remembered and then embody it.
Strong memory of head gestures which she conveyed in her choreography
Tried to look for a different movement vocabulary in flesh and blood, and she felt that the use of film really helped this


42nd Street
The movements that were created were taken exactly from the film. The only change was the mannerism in which the choreography was delivered.
Each dancer had to watch a particular dancer from the film and re-enact their movements
Anderson copied exact camera movements. For example, if there was a close up, only one dancer would remain on stage.
Believes that this was a “breakthrough in the idea of recycling work”
Would rather encourage dancers to try something new and observe other peoples movements as opposed to improvising.


Edits
Worked strongly with the idea of on and off stage
Found off stage choreography more difficult because of particular timings, such as taking off costumes
In this piece she was “looking for the invisible movement”
Found that the character became the costume rather than the person
Used two of the same character to create what was a mirror image of someone in a film
The three rectangles were used because the piece had to cut from close up to close up and therefore it was too difficult to emphasise that in the centre rectangle.

Improvisation Group Score 2

2011 044 by c_27
2011 044 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Improvisation group score

2011 043 by c_27
2011 043 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Dancing to different sounds

In our duets we picked a small piece of choreography that we had and performed it to three different types of sound. As a result, we found that each piece of sound somehow altered our dance and the way in which we performed it.

Tea For Two- Carlos Bica
Easy to follow my partner and stay in time with them
It was very easy to make the dance follow the rhythm given

Woodland Bird Song
Soundscape
Draws us out of our images and rhythms
Difficult to follow some type of rhythm
Aware of other sounds in the background
Didn’t tend to go at the same pace as my partner

Classical
Created the image of a garden party
Difficult to stay away from the rhythm

Questions on my response to sound and music

How do you experience music?
Listen to it
Listen to it more than once to take in something that I find interesting or that I like
Dance to it

How do you experience sound?
I concentrate more when listening to sound as opposed to music
Freeze when I hear something alarming/different
Tense if the sound is too loud
Sound is something that is ambient
Sound shouldn’t be a decoration

What can you hear now?
Pens and pencils
Door squeaking
Footprints
Rattling of boxes
Chalk pieces clicking together
Trouser material moving on the floor

When do you listen to sound/music without lyrics or in a different language?
Irish dancing
When you make your own sounds through the body such as singing, playing an instrument or using a tap routine
Using everyday sound

Sound Response

2011 046 by c_27
2011 046 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Herbet Art Gallery Score

2011 002 by c_27
2011 002 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Duet stimuls

2011 001 by c_27
2011 001 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

I wanted to explore the idea of repetition in our piece and therefore feel it could be of use to look at repetition that occurs in every day life.

I want to look at repetition in:
A train station
Shopping check out
Zebra Crossing
Cafe
Planes
Waves

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Improvisation Group Score

2011 042 by c_27
2011 042 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

We could enter and exit the floor as we wanted to and as often as we liked

We had to put ourselves in space in relation to another person

Being avaliable as you wait on the side

Keep it playful

No To Spectacle...

No to spectacle no to virtuosity no to transformations and magic and make-believe no to the glamour and transcendency of the star image no to the heroic no to the anti-heroic no to trash imagery no to involvement of performer or spectator no to style no to camp no to seduction of sepctator by the wiles of the performer no to eccentricity no to moving or being moved.

(A.Carter, J.O'Shea 2010. The Routledge Dance Studies Reader. 2nd Edn. London: Routledge)

Start of Duet

After reading an article that had a list of words I picked out a few that I would like to work with for this duet.
I chose:
Repetition
Puncuation
Emphasis
Frequency
Diversity

In particular, I think the word repetition could prove to be an interesting movement to explore and I want to look more closely at this in my duet.

My partner also picked out a few words that she wanted to explore. It was interesting to see that we only had one word in common, in contrast to other groups who had 3 or 4.
Her words included:
Colour
Complexity
Purity
Technique
Diversity

Joining another persons activity

2011 041 by c_27
2011 041 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Reading Week

2011 040 by c_27
2011 040 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Making decisions is a conscience action not a reaction

I think and therefore I am

Staying with one thing is difficult-can't stay for longer than what is comfortable

Learning to committ!

Points of Focus

1. Remember to be "seeing" all the time!
2. Keep pelvis low in crawling back
3. Move into each transition with fluidity
4. Rolling from pelvis

Movement Class

Cunninghams working proccess

Chance

Define the word collage
A work of visual arts, constituted of heterogeneous parts stuck together.

Chance
Cunningham used chance methods to decide how to sequence choreographic phrases, how many dancers would perform at any given point, where they would stand onstage, and where they would enter and exit.

"When I choreograph a piece by tossing pennies by chance, that is, I am finding my resources in that play, whcih is not the product of my will, but which is an energy and a law which I too obey.
( Cunningham, "The Impermanent Art" 71)

On using space Cunningham said
" The space was done by taking pieces of paper and making the imperfections in each piece-if you look at nay piece of paper...you see little dots- I would number these dots, and by chance means decide where somebody started in each space and to what space he went next, the next one and so on. Each dancer had different dots. I superimposed them to see if there were any points that came together, and where they did, I would have sequences with people together
(Merce Cunningham, "The Dancer and The Dance" 90-91)

Repetition

Last term we were encourgaed to explore our movements as deeply as we could and I often struggled with this. However, I feel this simple repetition exercise will help me this term in exploring movements and will also enable me to create a stronger piece of choreography. I think this exercise would also be useful to use when needing to strip complicated pieces of choreography back and simplify them.

Repetition

Monday 7 March 2011

Duet

Articulation of the Feet

2011 011 by c_27
2011 011 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Articulation of the Feet

2011 012 by c_27
2011 012 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Articulation of the Feet

2011 013 by c_27
2011 013 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Articulation Of The Feet

2011 014 by c_27
2011 014 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.

Points of Focus

1. Travelling across the floor
2. Keep leg low
3. Keep pelvis dropped
4. Work on turn out of the leg

I feel as though this needs a lot of work and a deeper understanding of how my skull and pelvis work together through this exercise. I need to also work on loosening up my chest and relaxing my shoulders, and most importantly remembering to breathe!!

Leg Swings

Cutting

2011 005 by c_27
2011 005 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.
I decided to cut out the part of the journey that was ripped and about to drop off.

I was intirgued to see what the overall picture would look like without it and if there was another journey that I could investigate within the smaller page.

Rhythms

2011 003 by c_27
2011 003 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.
I thought it was interesting to see how my partner had marked out the rhytms that I had created in my dance.

Journey

2011 001 by c_27
2011 001 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.
What I noticed :
There are no pen marks in any of the corners

Pen marks are more predominant in the centre of the page

The centre of the page has a huge tear

Lines appear to be big and flowy

Began dance slowly, gradually built it up to become faster

Worked on different levels

Spins ripped the sheet apart

Finished the dance abruptly, slowing down straight away

Mark Making Scores


Mark Making Scores

As I moved around on a large sheet of paper, my partner marked out my movements, rhythms and change of speeds in different colour pens.

Space

Define the term polycentric?
Having many centres

What is proscenium theatre space?
This is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large arch wich is near the front of the stage. As a result there is no audience on eitheir side of the stage.

In my duet I want to explore the idea of moving an audience into the space that I perform in so they aren't facing what is commonly percieved as the "front"

Skinner Class

2011 001 by c_27
2011 001 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.
I really enjoyed this class and picked up some interesting things to remember when I perform any dance.

We spent some time in this class working on the idea of soft feet and travelling across the floor without making any noise. I found that I had to really use the support of my knees to do this by bending them slightly. It was a challenge to travel quickly across the floor and keep the feet and knees soft at the same time.

We also worked with the idea of puppet strings being attched to the top of our skulls. This helped me to think about our skulls floating and to remember to let go of any tension I had in order to do this correctly.

Points of Focus

1. Fluidity between spins
2. Keep head low in turning
3. Stretch leg behind, before first spin
4. leg and arm extend at the same time
5. Find the fall at the end before running

Movement Class

Sunday 6 March 2011

Improvisation Class

We had an Improvisation class at the start of term that really gave me some food for thought! I was given some words that really feed into dance that I hope to remember when I perform and choreograph.
1. Empowerment
2. Passion
3. Inclusion
4. Celebrating the individual
5. Translate
6. Facilitate
7. Creative

We were also asked two questions that really made me think about the way in which I move.

What stops you, what blocks you and why?
After creating a very short improvisation I found that what stops me from really exploring as much as possible is the lack of space that we have in the smaller studios. I find myself constantly having to be aware that I don’t stand on someone’s hand or foot, and that I’m not taking up too much space either. As a result I can’t travel as freely as I would like to do.. What really surprised me about this improvisation was that when we were asked to move with a partner I really would have preferred to work on my own. This is definitely a new feeling for me, as I normally enjoy having another person to bounce off. I hope this means that I’m becoming more comfortable within my own movements and have a stronger need to explore them.

What do you celebrate about your dance and what do you need to do to feed it in your practice?
I am slowly beginning to appreciate the simplicity of my movements as I think this allows me to be more creative in what I do as I’m not overly concerned about making things look “pretty”. I think I can feed this into my practice by continuing at a steady place and not rushing movement transitions.

Alexander Technique

Having never really heard of this technique before, let alone taken part in a class, I was both excited and nervous when I was told that we would have 2 different sessions with Lucia Walker. Before the first class I read two articles on the technique to try to come to some understanding of what it was. Theses are a few words that jumped out at me:
Posture
Tension
Breaking Habits
Re-education of the body/mind
Un-doing
Energy awareness

During the session Lucia asked me if I was aware of any ways in which I moved. I explained to her that I tend to walk and stand with my pelvis tilted forward. I was relieved to hear her say that this was a common thing and I wasn’t infact the only human being to do it! She helped me to tilt my pelvis back into the place it should be and then helped me to pull up from my spine. This was a very unusual experience as from the age of 3 with other dance training I’ve been encouraged to pull up from the chest. I found that the minute she corrected this habit, my feet were more stable on the ground and I lost all the tension I had across my shoulders and hip. I also found it interesting to hear her say that many people who walk with their pelvis tilted are more likely to have a hip replacement than those who don’t. Having suffered from a hip injury for the past 3 years, I’m eager to find out if the two are connected in anyway!

Dance Conversations

001 by c_27
001 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.
Peole can speak at the same time in a conversation, whether they're agreeing on something or talking about different things eg:bus example

Gaps in a conversation and pauses are two different things!

Sometimes you can allow one person to talk for a long period of time like a monlouge.

Many friendships begin akwardly, become closer, have the potential to fall apart and the potential to get closer.

Duets

2011 031 by c_27
2011 031 a photo by c_27 on Flickr.
What happens if you remove a part of one of the above?

This is what removing a dancer from a duet should be like.

The essence of a true duet is that each performer is essential to the whole!

Points of focus

1. To create a tilt at the start rather than a circular shape
2. Don’t arch the back when turning
3. Left arm and knee to come up at the same time
4. Use more breath in the swing to create force
5. In press up position, remember to keep head down
6. Throughout the sequence be careful not to over extend the arms

Movement Class

SDD Feedback Session

Identify 4 issues you had with making your solo
Timing- trying to keep the solo within a 2-4 minute frame

Exploring- Found it difficult to keep exploring a particular theme or movement as deeply as possible

Space- Found it very difficult to move my dance out and use up more floor space.

Body Parts- Too strong a focus on one body part



Tasks to help these issues
Timing-Perform my improvisation constantly. Set an alarm to become more comfortable and aware of the time frame.

Exploring-Watch videos of my dances/improvisations back and from there pick out interesting and unique movements that I can explore more. Continue to keep relating back to the original stimulus for new inspiration.

Space- The more movements I explore and level’s I use, the more space I will be able to use freely.

Body Parts-Look at how a foot movement can be mirrored in the whole body which then allows me to use up more space on the floor and move at different levels.

So We Dance- Lott 12

As audience members took their seats the dancers began to run from one end of the studio to the other, in a linear line, one at a time. This immediately created a constant level of energy and repetition which was explored throughout the performance along with the nature of group. It also conveyed each performer as an individual, but still made me think about the company as a whole as they were performing the same action. The dancers broke apart to begin dancing on their own, again this was done one at a time. I found it interesting to watch the energy level increase as a variety of movements took place including running, rolling and pausing. As the movements were performed in a range of different directions this emphasised the idea of the group working together as a whole. I particularly enjoyed watching the strong repetition portrayed in the last section of the dance. All the dancers performed the same section, however it was broken down, performed in smaller pieces and then gradually built up again. The use of music and sileneces at particular points in the performance helped to emphasise the change in tempo and energy which helped to bring my attention to the details of the dance.