Stop This Madness

 1. “When my students, Marie Lynn Haas, and I began to write this chapbook, we looked to refine a language that could articulate the communication processes that occur in our practice. When we first imagined who our audience might be, we thought they will be dancers, particularly improvisers, since movement has been central to our discoveries. But finally, we see it is for anyone interested in a dialogue about improvisational processes and the meaning carried within them, whether scientists, musicians, or city planners. The phenomenon of ‘Emergence’, when a new pattern is created because the sum of our interactions is greater than any one of our individual contributions, is an experience we want to share with all who might be interested in this journey” (Sgorbati pg 6). This is one of the ideas that seem to continually slip the mind. Who is the audience that a dancer is performing to or the author is writing to. It is easier to think of the author to audience ratio, but when it comes to dancing we forget mostly about the audience consisting of many more people than only dancers. While this is in relation to an author and their audience when it comes to dance shows many dancers go to dance shows or people that love to immerse themselves in the ideas and concepts of dance. It gets difficult over the years to think of the audience including those that are not in the profession of any part in show business. This feeling transfers to books about dance as well because of how mainly dancers read books about dance. The idea of those not in the dancing profession watching a performance or reading a book is an interesting idea that should be remembered any time there is a dance performance or book that is created for public viewing and reading. Anyone could be an audience member and one must take that into consideration when creating any type of art form.    

2. “...improvisation...was always a part of dancing. But the idea to take it seriously as a form for performance-- that there are skills involved, that it could be practiced, that musicians and dancers were working as equals-- was radical for the contemporary dance scene at the time”(Sgorbati pg.11). Again this reminds me of the idea that the Africanistic style of dancing was created by improvisation when in reality it wasn’t. African style dancing does have steps to perform to specific beats, but the idea of “Improvisation” not being taken seriously just has a profound impact on how I see dance today. By which I mean the idea that improvisation could have been not considered a serious dance form is a bit foreign to me. I do not want to forget that idea and keep seeing this as an important idea that should not be forgotten. Comparing how Improvisation was thought of in the past and how the dance is seen today is a part of the history of dance as well as the world. To forget this idea is to not realize the struggles of those that fought for the freedom of their own dance form so that I could learn those dances and free my own dance spirit today.

This dance is about following ones heart and how the heart can change from one decision to another. In this case the decision is where the “heart” wants to be in the body. Going from one part of the body to the other. For most of this dance the dancer is very content and going where their “heart” is taking them. In some points the dancer will show playful joy instead of contentment were they go to a spot they feel happy in.

This dance begins with the dancer standing with their head down. 

With the chest leading the movements starts. The dancer performs a few body rolls of the spine. 

In the next move the dancer lifts their head up as their chest moves them forward.

They move towards the audience with their chest leading the way till a time that feels right for the dancer to switch from the chest leading them to their arms leading them forward, back ward, and or to the sides. (Either all of these movements or in one particular direction depending on how much passion this movement can hold). 

The arms that are leading are elongated almost as if their heart has jumped from their chest to their hands and is leading their arms in what ever direction they feel they need to go in. (one or two hands will suffice for this). 

At one point the dancer has both arms lift over their body and (almost putting their heart back in their chest) swings their arms forward and down. Their chest elongates towards the ceiling head back with an arched back. 

In this moment the dancer slowly goes down to the ground (or at another point that the dancer feels prepared to go to the floor). The dancer while laying down stays still for a few moments and then does lifts with their chest.

Their heart is trying to decide if they want to be up or down and when the dancer finally sits up they start to do some chest compression while sitting. They continue the compression till they stand up.

With a few extra compression the dancer then does a few motions where their “heart” transfers to their feet. 

Their feet lead the way across the stage. 

At some point the dancer changes from the metaphorical heart leading their way to the heart of personality. By this I mean they dance with joy. 

Excited about some new toy they dancer just got, or the idea that they dancer will now be going to see a friend at the park, or the realization that their hard work on a project is finally paying off. I can not decide which specific  joy I particularly want, but the emotion must be excited and feel anticipation (even slight anticipation).

Some times jumping for joy sometimes screaming for joy this part is all over the stage and energetic. 

There are a few spins (not ballet) and maybe a split in the air. 

To stat the dancer will stand up with their head down feet shoulder length apart and arms handing at their sides. 

Throughout the dance the dancer will just look as though they had just getting out of bed. Doing what they can to wake up the body.

Sometimes they are on the floor “sleeping” and on their feet. When they are on the ground and “sleeping” the dancer will curl into a little ball and show contentment that they are “sleeping”. 

Having random moments of jerking arms legs and just weighted movements.

Some pauses (maybe snoring?) 

Just move across the floor with eyes slightly closed as if they are still waking up. 

At one point the dancer has one arm up and leans a little backward as well as walks backward with snoring to emphasize they are sleeping. 

(note: the dancers eyes are mostly closed for the first part of this dance till the second part)

When the dancer finally does “wake up” their attitude changed to “feeling the sun rising” (this I think should be shown with yoga stretches and both arms towards the sun almost making the sun rise up).

The dancer just dances around the stage happy and full of joy that “oh boy the sun is shining, the air is fresh and so warm. Why did I not want to get up again?” 

 They somewhat skip across the stage, but since they are still waking up their skip is not yet high and possibly a little wobbly. 

They end by standing in the same spot they started and hug themselves so happy to be a wake.

For this idea I have converted the “dance fight” to have a square grid so that the dancers are “dancing in a circle”  like they are fighting only this time they are going around each other in a box formation. I liked the idea that the two dancers should look like they are “fighting” almost like the sword fight of walking in a circle around each other. With the added box formation it really added to a idea that the characters are trying to size each other up especially with the contrast of switching form one dancer being up and the other being down. The next point that I just purely added in was that the wash should be a second “dance fight”. At first I had absolutely no idea where in the choreography I wanted the wash I couldn’t think of a moment that it would be appropriate or why would there need to be a wash in the first place. Then I had the idea that instead of doing the contact improvisation right after dancer B walks away form the staring at dancer A to the floor there is where the wash could happen and the added notion of another “dance fight” felt like the perfect stop and reason to have a wash in that part of the choreography. It feels as though dancer B is still contemplating being friends with dancer A and still needs to be convinced by dancer A to be friends. Then while performing there was a moment when Dancer A put their weight on Dancer B and dancer B leaned over away from dancer A as they go down to the ground before dancer B reaches for dancer A three times. I felt this actually added to the idea that dancer B is finally giving in to Dancer A and seeing how they could be friends and dancer B’s interest in now being friends with dancer A. Finally I added the Tablou Vivant at the end to show a picturesque friendship the the ending of the dance to show “we are now friends”. Finally seeing how interesting both dancers expressions were in that moment I decided to have them sort of dance off stage in a way that I think adds to the idea of the piece just a little bit because the ending is showing the silly friendship that can come from finally accepting someone as a friend and then becoming best friends in the end of everything (in general not just the dance’s ending).  

1. The first idea that peeked my interest was the quote form Jacqui Malone saying “What these dancers value most is not the exactness of frozen choreography and set routines developed by others, but the joy that is inherent in improvisational flights of freedom”. I do feel a contrast to this idea for some aspects. For instance when given freedom to improvise I have noticed an almost hesitant reaction from my fellow dancers to improvise, and yet they feel at home when given specific movements to follow. I believe that many dancers love a happy medium between improvisation and a set routine, but one that is mostly directional. What I mean to say is that when the choreographer knows what idea or emotion they want to convey dancers tend to feel more at home than simply being told to mostly improvise. I my self thrive on improvisation look forward to it even as opposed to a structured routine which does terrify me. It does interest me though that in the dance score I really remembered my movements well enough to create a routine that is structured with very specific movements and yet I myself do not always feel at ease with structured dances.    

2. Another point that stuck out to me was the line “It mistakenly suggests that if one could overcome a particular set of oppressions, all would be well, thereby eliding the fact that there are always multiple and diverse strictures in the world”. This sentence is talking about the idea that freedom is not given out easily and that one must always work hard for that freedom. This sentence suggests that that idea is wrong simply because the idea of freedom is different for everyone and how one person’s actions while meaning full can seem to be oppression to another person. My example of this is when one plays music too loud and another asks politely for them to please turn the music down, but instead of seeing the please as the polite thing to say the person with the music takes the sentence as a form of oppression and instead turns up the music. In this instance the person with music is claiming their right to be different and have loud music when the other person wasn’t intending nor gave any indication of being rude by politely asking for a lower level of music because of any number of reasons (their ears are genetically sensitive to specific sounds, they have an early day in the morning and can’t get sleep, they are talking to someone and can’t hear them, or simply they have a head ache and can’t handle loud noises in that particular moment). However unless the person without music says turn down that racket I don’t like it there is no way that is music then they are not intending to oppress the person with music, but they person with music may see that question of turn down the music as a form of “oppression”. While there are oppressors out there it takes time to see those that aren’t oppressing us as non oppressors and people with a different opinion than us.I think were I was going with this is that routine dancing can only be as “oppressive” as we think it to be as well as improvisational dancing. We must let ourselves feel the dance before we know how oppressive that form really is (over a period of a few years I think).

3.  The next point that I think is important to think of is how Bill T. Jones  “Want[ed] to dispel the notion that dancers don’t think while dancing” and how he created an improvised dance routine with specific moments of focus on body parts to do this. I have been wondering of the idea of improvisation and the idea of the old tribal dances of West Africa and Native Americans being similar in the historical stereotype of dancers simply letting out energy without thought. This is a grievous error that has been cemented in the eyes of history for centuries. That any form of tribal dance is considered “primitive”, “exotic”, and or “sinful” simply because of the idea that the dancer is letting go of energy without thought or rhyme (at least to those that did not stop to notice it) to movement. For generation after generation it has been thought that these types of dances were “primitive” due to the “lack of thought” in movement, but nothing could be further from the truth. Over the years Native American Dancing has been realized to have specific movements for specific dances but many forget that West African dancing also has it’s share of steps for specific occasions as well. One can not simply perform the Lamban (a tribal dance to celebrate life in the village) without being taught specific sides ways steps and hand gestures in order to properly perform the Lamban. West African dancing and Native America dances have been thought as “primitive” due to the idea of releasing of energy while dancing yet Improv has never been thought to be strictly primitive for the very same reason that West African and Native American dancing has been. Improv is in essence a release of internal energy and emotions and yet has never been seen as primitive. Let me make it clear I do not think or believe that any of these styles are primitive I just find it curious that Improv has not been ridiculed in the same manner as other forms that were thought to have the same idea. Also the idea that any dance is performed without thought is very ridiculous. I mean one must think before they leap to know how to not twist their ankle while landing. There is no reason to let out energy without forethought of how to accomplish a specific movement even if it is a few moments before performing specific movements.  

Part 1: What I learned from this experience about setting my dance score on dancers is that while descriptions help with keeping to the original idea a very wordy description can make things a little confusing. While I do not have a degree in writing my over description comes form a creative writing class were the teacher once said “Show me a story don’t just tell me a story” meaning there is a difference between just saying someone is hurt or feels fine and their pain was red hot or their contentedness felt like a bed of soft silk wrapping them in a tight embrace. That is just where my mind comes from when writing any kind of description down. Also I really need to space the description of the dancers out more (I kept loosing my place while teaching the dancers their moves). Also while what I just said is about the dance score being too descriptive can be distracting I have noticed that dancers love description because it helps them to know exactly what they are supposed to do. That being said I believe I need to find a happy medium of description and visual separation on paper between dancers so that not only will the dancers understand what I wrote but so that I remember what I wrote as well as not loose my place so many times. 

One of the main ideas that struck me about this reading was the part that discussed an improvisation assignment that was not only performed by the dancer but by the musician as well. Meaning that in the assignment both the dancer and the musician improvised their ideas about a specific concept. In doing this the dancer and the musician performed in very different ways and even with moments of similarities the dancer and musician mostly had a very diverse reaction almost as if each were in their own world. Oh to watch something like that would be very interesting indeed. It almost sound like the opposite of what I have learned from West African Dance class were the drummer and dancer must react to each other and either the dancer or drummer must change in order to become one with each others beat and flow of movement. I wonder how this type of improvisation would look and how strange improvising to improvised music would feel to the dancing body that is so used to dancing to a specific beat.