Choreography
choreography is a mixture of sequence and movement in dance. it is divided into four main categories which are MOVEMENT ;STIMULI ;MOTIF and CHOREOGRAPHIC DEVICES. These four categories help performers express their emotions and tell a story for example in the first dance lesson we watched a piece called rush by Arkadamkhan.
At first I thought that rush was about people who were locked up then set free and were happy to be out in open space. The teacher then explained that it was expressing the different emotions you get when you jump off a plane and open your parachute. MOTIF is made up of four categories these include :
- actions for example jumping and turning are the bases of any performance because without them the performers would be static therefore there would be not much of a performance. Actions work alongside the use of space,dynamics and relationships to form a performance. They can be often repeated to form a motif which can re enforce a point in the story or message the performer is trying to put across for example in rush the performers used a lot of rolls to express the feeling of letting go when jumping out of a plane. When you roll on the ground you let go of yourself and depend on the ground. I think that in rush the choreographer uses the floor as a metaphor of air because when you jump out of a plane and open that parachute you are dependant to the air.
-dynamics include how sharp or smooth the movements are done ,if they are done fast or slow. These are very important in a choreographed piece because they help the audience understand how the performer is feeling and also allows the performer to give the audience the wow factor when the contrast of dynamics are put together. Rush is an example of the effect of contrasting dynamics because they had a point were they moved very slow almost as if they were about to end the piece then all of a sudden had very sharp explosive movements that got my attention and made me want to know what was coming next.
-use of SPACE this includes formations (where performers are placed in the stage) . This also determines if performers are upstage or downstage and levels because if everything was done in one level the performance can be boring therefore choreographers play around with levels to make the performance that little bit more eye catching. Diversity are one of the most successful street dance crews and they are the perfect example of how much playing around with levels can change a performance for example they may be doing the same movement but some of them would be on their knees while others are standing up which makes the performance that extra bit special.
Relationships help the audience understand the storyline or message the performers are trying to put across. They are enforced by the use of space for example if it was a duet and the two performers were always close to each other or expressed the interest of wanting to be close to each other it can imply that they love each other. Relationships also work alongside the use of actions and dynamics to help the audience come to a conclusion about the storyline. Sometimes relationships can be between a performer and a prop for example someone may have a teddy bear and how they act around that teddy bear can help the audience come to a conclusion of the relationship that person has with the teddy bear. Relationships with pros can also help the audience know more about the characters for example if the performer had a teddy bear it helps let the audience know about that person's age. If the character has a teddy bear and they are 40 years of age it lets the audience know that the person may be lonely or don't easily let go because they may have had that teddy from a young age or maybe it was given to them by someone special to them which can also imply that they don't easily let go of things. The fourth wall was broken years ago therefore characters can have relationships with the audience for example in some physical theatre productions the audience may be involved in the performance. The relationship with the audience can just be simply how audience react to a character for example audience normally like the hero not the villain for example in classic theatre the audience would hate the character of Richard in shake spear's Richard IIV because of his actions in the play . In Greek theatre they are formed through the chorus because they comment on the character's actions and sometimes foreshadow what is going to happen. the chorus observe and comment which help the audience relate more to the performance because both the audience and the chorus are watching what is going on in the stage however the chorus can comment on the performance while it is happening which the audience can not do.
i was paired with John and Natalie to perform our interpretation of rush after we watched and ran though the whole choreography as a class. this was not an easy task because everyone in the group wanted us to perform the piece in their way therefore we had to find a way to put together everyone's ideas in the final product. half an hour later we had to perform what we had put together in front of the rest of the class, however we were not ready because we were having trouble with the rolls therefore we spent a lot of time trying to make sure that we got them right. one of the members of our group came out of character during the performance because all the other groups kept going longer than us therefore we noted this down to make sure that it doesn't happen in our assessed piece. Natalie was missing for the next lesson and rehearsal and she missed a lot therefore myself and John perform a duet of rush. during this lesson we had to write movements and dynamics from which we randomly selected six to use. we were asked to create three still images that express falling, initial ideas we heard were being upside down in different positions. some of the positions were kept however some we had to leave out for our safety after trying them a few times. the six actions and movements we selected were then used as transitions for our piece which allowed us to increase our time length performing our interpretation which was a problem in our last draft as it led to Natalie coming out of character. we recorded our progress and met up to rehearse after one of our lessons to make sure we do well in the assessment because we only have one lesson a week of an hour duration. our final piece went well considering the contrast of it to our first draft which was only three rehearsals ago, away from the room we both researched choreography to help us make decisions on how to alter the original rush piece and make it ours. we played around with different speeds ,John wanted our piece to start on high tempo so that our audience are engaged from the first second however I thought that it would be better if we started slower and gradually build it up because the set of movements we put together looked more effective slower. everything was going great up until the last few seconds as I dropped John onto the floor, in the future we would find another way of safely putting John on the floor from the last still image. the main reason i think this happened was because we didn't have a lot of rehearsal time because we rehearsed once outside the lesson and we were still worried we would forget some movements going into the final performance of our interpretation of rush.
My opinion on the initial view of rush was mixed because I didn't understand what was going on and everything kind of happened too quick. the performers were all wearing plain black clothing which implied that they were all equal. I thought that was a weakness in the performance because it did not compliment or contrast the light blue wash provided by the lighting. Performing the piece and being involved in the choreography was different from my initial thoughts about the piece because watching it for the first time I didn't like it. the reasons i didn't like it were that they used too many basic movements which made them lack that wow factor. If i was the choreographer I would have included some lifts and falls because it visually looks better and it would have made it clearer for the audience what the piece was about. this is something we improved in our piece to the audience engaged. the use of the floor was their main strength because they included a lot of rolls and quickly getting up then back to the rolls which made the piece a bit exciting to watch. their movements were sharp which i think is something the choreographer took sometime making sure was spot on.
Costume that we wore in our duo did not reflect or represent anything. I
