DANCE COMP I

/Final Study/

- Incorporate/use a previous study 

- Between 2:45-3:15 

- Clear decisions and choices with previous studies 

notes from work days

SHAPE / SPACE / TIME / ENERGY

  Because I just got out of Vanessa’s comp III rehearsal, I think my body is happy to be moving quicker, as I do enjoy more involved, high-energy movement, yet I tend to shy away from it because a) it sounds like more work to choreograph and b) maintaining good technique in it stresses me out, as I don’t have a lot of faith in my abilities to do that. 

  I started in a turned out grand pile in 2nd, with a forward curve and kinda moved from there. 

thoughts/notes from my first video/work:

-needs deeper pile   - could do more of the bigger arm swings    -let it wind more  -feet flexed on those side lunges    -how do the circles and lines connect

part two of setting movement:

was kind of stuck as far as where to go in order to connect the circles and lines,  so then I just stared analyzing what I already had: shapes/pathways/tempos/etc. 

once I did this, and began to recognize what I had/didn’t have I realized three things. 

1. Everything had been pretty fast paced and I wanted more of an adagio section

2. What is a followed a traditional ballet format with the final coda/ pas des dux/ solos format, stealing the elements and tempos but in a much smaller time frame. 

3. I wanted to use elements from my piece “Morning, Again”, specifically in how I developed that movement, and using the begging as the ending. 

Below are a few notes/thoughts/observations from our energy studies. 

Me: “Trying” 

- Intreating sound every time I ‘typed’

- Compelling tapping turned into a modern vernacular (aka style or grouping)

felt: relatable. one person connected the backspace

-Quality of time stood out 

-Falling slam wasn’t understandable 

- Cohesion is important-> the relationship of time/structure is important because it allows people to feel comforted. 

^the above comment was the result of an interesting conversation/observation about connecting movement throughout pieces. It can be small/large/different tempo/whatever. But there has to be cohesion throughout choreography or else it feels meaningless/scattered/dissatisfying. 

Maria: “Three Girls”

- Shapes created intrigue 

- Didn’t come across as three different girls, as there was no clear differentiation between movement/shape/space

- Shape were similar and executed with similar qualities, which added confusion in separating the people with three different qualities 

- Happy emotion

//// “DANCE DOESN’T HAVE TO COME FROM AN EMOTIONAL OR STORYTELLING POINT OF REFERENCE: SOMETIMES IT SIMPLY COMES FROM FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS AND DOING WHAT FEELS RIGHT”////

Aleska: “Bored by Myself”

- Satisfied by repetition of beginning and end pose being the same.

- Invested in relations of shapes

- Didn’t feel like there was clear transitions, more continuous movement 

- Sense of stalling was clear and relatable 

///////

For this assignment were asked to create movement based off our human movement observation. After we reread the study, we were to pick to movements or gestures and create a 0:45-1 min piece with these guidelines:

> Gesture 1: explore in two ways or with two different movement qualities. Continuing with gesture one, move that movement/gesture/quality to a different body part. 

PART B: 

>take gesture B, and explore it in two different ways and in two different body parts. 

^take one of those qualities and add to a different scale^

*Then it’s up to you on how you want to connect all those things. 

///////////////////////////////////////////

This assignment was confusing to me at first, but once I asked fifty-million questions, it clicked that I literally just had to pick two motions and go from there. 

GESTURE 1: hunch/hunching of shoulders and upper back 

GESTURE 2: texting with fingers 

 // Girl sitting at table in Mocha’s //

Knees crossed lightly/parallel 

Shoulders hunched, downward gaze into phone, arms lightly resting against the table and body as she texts

Putts phone down and slouches body over table to begin writing in notebook meticulously, as if working on a detailed journal or math problem. 

Her body crevasses the table, almost touching it from all three angles with her crossed legs making a 90 degree angle.

She writes off and on, staring at the page intently. 

She checks her phone, reading the notification. 

Overcoming the urge to respond to whatever came in, she looks back at the thin notebook. 

Staring staring staring

the focus focus focus turns to blank stares 

her body appears almost frozen and stays put for a solid minute before she jolts her head, flickering her eyes and refocusing her brain. 

November 1st Participation + Inspiration Post

1) m u s I c

I love love the beginning fast under-beat that plays continuously between the violins and chord progressions. It then takes a break for softness that breathes for a surprisingly short amount of time before finding that quick melody against more instruments. This music makes me feel slightly anxious, and has a clear sense of purpose.

2) t e x t

“Do you think things always have an explanation?”

“Yes. I believe they do. But I think that with our human limitations we’re not always able to understand the explanations. But you see, Meg, just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean that the explanation doesn’t exist.”

“I like to understand all things,” Meg said.

“We all do. But it isn’t always possible.”

- A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle

/// This quote from A Wrinkle In Time inspires me to create inquisitive, repetitive movement. I think I would do an expressive, more modern piece that started with confusion and questioning. I think I would use moments of fast/rushed/twisted in between slower transitions. Using side and diagonal angles, I would try to not give a direct interaction with the audience, instead making them feel like the were watching this conversation take place.

3) i m a g e

4)  v i d e o

A few years ago I got to dance in a piece inspired by Bob Fosse’s The Rich Man’s Frug and fell in love with the movement. I didn’t really understand it and I wasn’t really capable of performing the movement, so after the piece was over I didn’t give it much thought. However, earlier this year I became obsessed with the movement and music from Sweet Charity this has to be my favorite piece.

On Tuesday we were asked to come up with words related to time. It could be a quote, song lyric, book, etc., as long as it directly was contact to time in some form or fashion. Because we didn't know the assignment guidelines, I choose to use my journals as my inspiration. I started journaling off and on in 5th grade, and the top of each entry/page as a single line dedicated to the date. These pretty notebooks contain everything from comments about middle school crushes, to pain-filled prayers. They’ve evolved over the years, and contain much of me. Small things, big things, questions, answers, song lyrics, laughter, explicits, and everything in between. They represent time passing in my life. 

Upon entering class on Thursday (10/25/18) we learned a little bit more about the choreographic requirements. Using our understanding of timing we were to make a (slow) 15 count phrase using our written time inspiration. 

>> Because my original inspiration was so large, we decided it would be best if I narrowed it down to one specific entry. 

THUS I picked January 28th. 

January 28th I spent auditioning for Oklahoma City University, and it was a crazy weekend! It was right after I had auditioned here, and although I enjoyed my time at AU I really felt like I was supposed to go audition at OCU. It was exhausting and stressful and fun, all wrapped into one weekend, and I sat in a bed January 28th, and wrote the following lyrics, 

“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders” 

And although Oceans is an extremely overplayed song, I found it to be so comforting during that day. The idea that God had lead me to another state, that I might get to dance beyond high school, and that I simply need to trust the process. And that line played over and over in my head, as I walked through the 7 hour audition, unsure and scared, yet trying to trust in the unknown. 

When going to choreograph my movement, I simply followed the lyrics and counts of the chorus, which turned out to be a mid-to-slow 16 count phrase. I then added a small transition to piece the single-time version and double-time version to my original paced choreography. 

(10/23/18)

LIKES:

- opening of arm representing car door/ door in general

- skipping section on 2nd pathway was joyful + lighthearted

- rhythm of “train” movement

DISLIKES:

-”lowness” of floppy movement in beginning

- too many circles on both ends- should have just been on R side in order to give balance

- arms should have been different in “train”

- last 2 times were very circular + back which perpetrated sense of “lost” but not in a good way

- because of above ideas, it made viewers get lost and it became less clear

- needed better posture throughout entire thing

-THINGS THAT NEED DEVELOPING-

There are a lot of things that need developing in this piece lol. Looking purely at movement/ movement quality, I would work on changing the choreography on the “turns” at the end of my lines on SR. There were too many turns, and they simply didn’t fit with the overall purpose of the choreography the majority of the time.

I would also work on the last two ‘zig-zags’ and play with making them simpler vs. more complicated, to see what would be more engaging. I still would want to convey that tired, “how close are we” feeling, but in a captivating way.

- IF I WERE TO CONTINUE… -

If I were to continue this piece/ spend more time with it, I would potentially make my zig-zags smaller as I moved upstage, showing depth and making the movement smaller and more intense. By intense, I mean more athletic, demonstrating physical demanding movement but still getting smaller. I think making the zig zags smaller with make it feel more angular and less predictable.

Predicability was prominent in this piece, and here are a few reasons I think why:

- The pattern never changed scale, and was very repetitive

- Circles and circular/organic movement was calming, which wasn’t the exact vibe I was looking for. Yes, maybe a hint of calm, but I would rather that have come from all the movement lumped together, as opposed from individual movement.

- Same beat throughout entire piece, except at very end.

(10/11/18)

On Wednesday I got a concussion and a giant deal was made about it, so needless to say I was banished from dance for the day. (And really was feeling pretty miserable) 

So I got to simply watch. 

And although I certainly wasn’t the best audience member, I do have a few thoughts:

- We as a class have started using the word “intreating” instead of “interesting”. Although they have slightly different meanings and intreating definitely sounds more sophisticated, I think it’s almost lost it’s meaning because of how loosely we’ve been using it. 

- I’ve started to notice more personal and distinct choreographic style among my classmates. I can see patterns in themes and tempo, and I’m finding I have a general idea of what to expect. I appreciate this in that it shows we are finding our choreographic styles; however, it also kind of concerns me personally, because I’m such a new choreographer I don’t want to narrow my horizons too soon. So thinking about making choices diverse, and trying to use my expanding tool box with my creativity.