Brittle Difference

We are finally reaching the end of the semester and I can't believe how much has happened in this short amount of time. From introductory choreographic studies to our final piece that was showcased in the Jr. Choreographer's Concert, I have learned so much about myself as a dancer, mover, choreographer, and person. From working individually, to working in pairs, small groups, then finally being in charge of my very own piece of work has been quite the journey, and it definitely came with some ups and downs along the way. We learned and experimented with several choreographic ideas and choices during our in-class studies, and I believe that without all of those options, I would not have been as prepared to work on my final piece as I was. The book Dance and the Lived Body by Sandra Horton Fraleigh that we read as a class provided very beneficial information that guided me into finding out who I am as a choreographer and mover and helped me to find my own personal aesthetic in my movement. Although I had these resources before I began working on my final study, I still came across some very difficult issues that I struggled with during my creative process. Over these last few weeks of working with my dancers on my piece, I learned a lot about what approaches work for me.


At the beginning of the creative process for our final study, we were to have a clear intent of what we wanted our piece to be about. This was my first struggle in the process because I am so indecisive and could not narrow anything options down. When I thought hard about it, I came up with a concept that I was set on, however, after consulting with my professor, realized it was a very difficult topic. My original idea for the intent for my piece was about one-sided effort in relationships. I thought about when people are in a relationship, whether it’s with their friends, siblings, parents, partners, or others, how sometimes it can feel imbalanced with how much energy one puts in the relationship. In some relationships that I’ve observed, one can put so much of their time and energy into that relationship, while the other isn’t giving as much and the result of this one-sidedness turns out to be a negative impact. In other cases, I’ve noticed how one doesn’t have to force a lot of energy into a relationship, but in the end, they have a positive and balanced relationship. So after discussing this with my professor, she immediately told me that there is too much of a narrative going on, and that it might be too difficult, when coming up with movement to support this intent. She then suggested that I go with the energy part of my original intent, and how low-energy vs. high-energy movement can cause different reactions and results.

Once I had my intent set in stone, my next task in this process was to create movement to support the intent. There were a couple of phrases from my in-class studies that I knew I wanted to bring back to this final study. I knew that they could work well with this intent because one phrase was slow, and light while the other was much faster and weighted. I thought that these could work for my two main low-energy and high-energy phrases and that from there, I would be able to come up with some simpler movement based on these two main phrases. I enjoyed this particular approach to the choreography because I wasn’t trying to throw a lot of random movement together that didn’t support or suffocate the intent. Instead, I could create smooth transitions, and bring parts of the phrases back to add repetition, and to give the piece a feeling of unity.

The greatest challenge of this process was finding the right music to support the piece and its intent. I struggled with exploring through the right genre of music and ended up working with a few different songs that were duds. As we got closer to show week, I still wasn’t happy with the music and due to all the of stress with this piece and the nerves for the performances in the Faculty Dance Concert, I finally just broke down… Luckily, my friend and peer Alek Trail came to the rescue and suggested I talk with her friend, who is a music major at UNT about some music. He happened to have an original song that worked perfectly with my movement, and supported it beautifully! I was so happy and relieved to have found a song that wasn’t mainstream, and that that fit the piece.

We ended up finishing the piece just days away from the show and had to clean it up quickly. I was fortunate enough to work with dancers who were very cooperative and willing to do the movement over and over and over again until it was right. The day of the show arrived and I was so nervous about my piece opening up the show! I knew that this was the final stage of my choreographic process: having an audience witness my work. I was very pleased with the performance and though it was a nice way to open up the concert. The piece was about 5 and a half minutes, but it seemed like it was over so quickly. It was a bittersweet moment when my piece ended. I thought of all the hard work I put into this process and all the hard work my dancers put into the rehearsals. Looking back through this semester, I feel like I have come along way since my solo study, to this final piece “Brittle Difference”. I’m really looking forward to choreographing for my Sr. project in the fall, and will definitely look back to everything I have learned from these studies and my professor to create an aesthetically pleasing piece.

Video from Rehearsal 4/27/11

These aren't all of the final costumes but it is the jist. They will all be wearing a dark gray dress or long shirt that comes up right about their mid-thigh. Christina and Monica don't have on what they will be wearing in this video. As far as hair goes, I'm going to have them braid the top of their hair and wear it down. When we run this again before the show and their hair seems to be getting in the way, I will have them wear a low pony tail. The ending is still rough, I was doing some last minute changes.

Final Project Blog #8 - Week 4 of Rehearsals

Final Project Blog #7

April 14, 2011

The third week of rehearsals for my piece has flown by and I can’t believe how close we are to the show. At this point of the process, the piece is still divided into sections, with no fluid transitions to connect them together. The piece does not yet have unity, and this is something that I really need to focus on. I’m also lacking a climax and a clear relationship between my dancers, as well as the dancer’s intent. Last week’s reading helped me to understand how knowing what my aesthetic in my movement was would help me to better connect to my dancers’ understanding of the movement. I had discovered knew ideas on how to use my time wisely during my rehearsals, as well as working with a knowledgeable awareness of my aesthetic. This opened my mind up to thinking about different aspects of my piece other than the structure.

The reading for this week was over two chapters in Part II of Dance and the Lived Body.  Fraleigh discusses the role of tension as it relates to existential phenomenology as well as dance in Chapter 5 called “Dance Tension.” A focus that stood out to me which I could relate to my creative process was Martin Heidegger’s view of art as poetry.  The chapter states that “any action which is the cause of a thing emerging from non-existence into existence might be called poetry, and all the processes in all the crafts are kinds of poetry, and all those who are engaged in them poets” (84).  I instantly related this statement to my connection with my creative process and my dancers. Through this thought, I can consider myself and my dancers as poets working together from non-existing motion to existing motion, creating a piece of poetry, or art together. When I think of us working together in this way, I feel a sense of community and feel comfortable with my dancers about putting new material and ideas out on the table. It is important for me to feel comfortable through this process because I often second guess myself and my work, and can be extremely critical, which can disturb my creative process. 

Unity in my piece is something that needs much work and development. The sections that I have so far are coming along; however, nothing is bringing them all together. There’s something missing, whether it’s a connection between the dancer, my further exploration on the concept of energy, or both. In the chapter, Fraleigh writes, “no single movement means anything by itself; yet every movement contributes to the expressive tension and meaning of the whole.” (89).

Final Project Blog #6 Rehearsals Continue

April 7, 2011

As I continue my creative process for the final choreographic project, I have found many influencing factors presented in the book.  As a choreographer, it is my job to provide aesthetically pleasing choreography in my work.  I strive to create meaningful movement that touches the dancers as well as the audience.  Being new to choreography for dance as an art, I’ve learned many different ideas to experiment with during my creative process. It is important for me to understand how I want my dancers to perceive the movement and feeling of the movement, so that hopefully the audience will feel the aesthetic intent that I’m going for.  In order for my dancers to understand where I’m coming from or how I want them to do the movement, I have to be very clear in my body and explain the aesthetics.  I have found this step of the process to be more challenging than expected, but the reading has encouraged me to dig deeper into the true aesthetics that I want to show through my work.

The third chapter of Sondra Horton Fraleigh’s Dance and the Lived Body introduced ideas and concepts about the role of aesthetics in dance.  The author discusses that the purpose of dance is its aesthetic intent (Fraleigh 43).  If the dancers aren’t feeling the qualities of the aesthetics of the movement through their sentient life, chances are that the audience isn’t going to understand the aesthetics of the piece, which to the choreographer, results in failure.  Then author then makes a point that “the experience is valued when the aesthetic is realized” (Fraleigh 47).  A goal that I have for myself through this choreographic process is to experience the aesthetics when creating movement for the piece.  The following steps would then be to provide these qualities to my dancers so that they can hopefully complete this process by making these qualities clear to themselves and the audience. 

To prepare myself for this process, I’ve been getting to my rehearsals about an hour early to do some improvising in the space to the music I’ve selected to work with.  This brings my focus into myself and I concentrate on how I feel when my body is moving in certain ways.  Through this step of the process, I then feel mentally and physically ready to work with my dancers when they arrive to rehearsal.  This week I worked with two of my dancers, Sammi and Christina who I have doing a short duet in the piece.  After meeting with my professor and showing her some rough footage, she suggested that I go with a different connection between the dancers that I originally.  I changed up their intentions of effort, and it seems to be coming across as more aesthetically pleasing.  As I watched the two dancers rehearsing the movement, that their aesthetics appear to be different than how I feel them in my body, therefore it doesn’t look how I imagined it would.  To fix this, I need to find imagery that reflects what I’m feeling and give them the images to use when they move. Hopefully through imagery, I will see a difference in a positive way. 

I spent some time in the studio with my solo dancer, Sammi.  For her solo, I though it would be interesting to work together and see how she moves in a relating way to what I’m doing.  “Often the choreographer and the dancer are one in the same, or the choreographer may constitute the dance as he makes the dance for someone else” (Fraleigh 50).  As we were moving together in the space, I could feel that our energies were matching up and the aesthetics in each of our movements were connecting together on the same level.  I feel as though she took on the aesthetics that were coming across in my movement and felt them in her own movement.  I was very satisfied with this rehearsal time and know that with some cleaning and better imagery, the solo will provide the aesthetics I want the audience to feel. 

The reading has opened up my mind to many approaches in my creative process and is providing hope that I will end up with a satisfying product that is aesthetically pleasing to my dancers, the audience, and myself.

   

 

A Trip to the Modern

During Spring Break, I decided to take a trip to the the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art. I haven't been to many museums, but I will say that The Modern is my absolute favorite out of the ones I have visited. The beautiful architecture of the museum itself takes my breath away every time I visit. After walking around and viewing all of the artwork, I decided to go outside and sit on the patio and just observe my surroundings. It was so peaceful to just sit by myself and take in everything I was seeing. I could've stayed their for a few more hours if I had the time.

My mission for visiting this museum was to select a painting or sculpture that was inspiring to me and to propose the idea of choreographing a piece based on the piece of art I selected. I saw so many beautiful pieces, that it was hard for me to select which one I'd want to choreograph to the most. One piece I imagined choreographing with was Slit, by Carl Andre.

 

The smoothness of the steel and copper gave me the idea to work with texture in my movement and to feel the material on against the bottoms of my feet to then inspire me to discover the texture of my own skin. I enjoyed the room and space this piece was displayed in, and it also appeared to look like a runway which also opened up more choreographic ideas of space. I could have some dancers start behind the white wall, while others were already in the open space. I would definitely want there to be an intereaction with the art and the dancers, and to not just dance around it. I imagined the audience viewing the piece in front on the floor, as well as upstairs looking down onto the lower level.

 As I continued to walk through the museum, I came across the next piece that inspired choreography, Aschenblume, by Anselm Kiefer. I was immediately drawn to this piece of art by its size and texture. For this piece, I would not want the dancer or dancers to make contact with the art, but to perform in front of it to create dimension and space through the room as well as the space that seems to be created in the art.

Once again, texture comes to mind when I think of how I would start to create the movement. There is a thick, bound, heavy quality in the art, so I would want to do some improvisational exercised to play with these dynamics. I could see much of the movement done on a low level, either lying down or on the knees, and focusing both out into the space as well as looking in and beyond the art to enhance to effect of the walls that appear to be in the art.

After viewing this piece for a few minutes, I turned around to then be stunned by the next beautiful sculpture by Kiefer, Book with Wings.

The circular that this piece was displayed in I though would be a very interesting stage space to perform in and have the audience view the piece. I would have them line up behind the white line on the floor and observe the dance. For this piece, I could see myself working with a narrative approach to my creative process. One narrative that came to mind is to have my dancers appear as angels, wearing white flowing dresses that hung all the way down to the floor. The book, in this case, would represent the Bible. I could see simple, light and free movement happening around the sculpture. I imagine beautiful moments of contact among the dancers and a caring, supportive relationship with one another. I can see gliding through the space, as well as lightly running with soft, graceful arms. I also would work with forming shapes in stillness to add onto the already beautiful picture of the sculpture in the space.

Once I walked through the entire museum, I went outside to just relax in the calming atmosphere and to think about my next choreographic project. Out of all the pieces I saw that day, Conjoined by Roxy Paine was the most inspiring of all.

Conjoined is a piece that, in my opinion, was made for choreography. The energy between both stainless steel forms is very captivating to observe, and I believe that having dancers in the atmosphere of this sculpture would attract a large, diverse audience to witness a very compelling performance. Given the opportunity from the administrators of the museum, I would greatly appreciate the experience of connecting movement to this sculpture that already has a feeling of movement within. I could see a very detailed and intricate interaction of the dancers by contact movement that would reflect the feel of the piece. Lifts taken into the air would add excitement and energy. An interesting idea that also comes to mind is having the dancers move in and out of the water to create depth and surprise to the piece. I would allow the audience to view this piece from across the water, from inside the windows, and even the back wall, to get an up close experience with the art.

Visiting the museum was such a great experience to help gain ideas for my creative process through choreography. I would love an opportunity to see a performance in a museum that is inspired by a piece of art and see how the choreographer intereacted and connected the two.