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).