Lauren Elizabeth

Semester Re-cap

Wow what a time! This semester feels like it ended so early. I definitely learned way more than I thought I would in comp I.

Looking back from the beginning all the way to our last pieces I can see just how much everyone grew as choreographers. While it was a challenge for me, as I am not a natural choreographer, I feel a little more confident and knowledgeable on the process. 

Before this class I viewed choreography as throwing pique turns and tendus together with a flashy song. Obviously I knew it was a bit more than that. But this entire process has given me much more of an appreciation for choreographing and creating movement. 

I am now way more aware of the personal obstacles I face while choreographing, along with the movements I tend to stick with. While it may seem really simple, the most eye opening thing for me was honestly just the process of studying movement. I feel like as dancers we spend so much time studying techniques and styles that we forget to take movement for what it actually is. 

To throw another note in- it was mentioned that within comp I and the comp III pieces there was little to no fast movement/ahead of the music pacing. I thought this was very interesting and might even challenge myself to further study time with that in mind.

11/30 Final Piece: Of The Orchestra

For this piece I attempted to use all the elements we touched upon from this semester. We were set with the task of relating it to a previous study in class. I chose my favorite things study and set out to avoid using any shape that was in it. I made this decision because I have a habit of letting the same familiar movements creep into all of my studies. I wanted to be able to think outside of what I normally naturally move like.

Within my process I revised it over and over again as I felt the transitions were not initially smooth enough, the timing wasn't diverse enough, and i was not using my facings to their full potential. After really thinking through how I could connect all the dots by playing around and moving the phrases around I finally came out with the above product.

In order to get out of my normal go to way of thought process I took some time to study how different instruments sound and how I think they would move if given a body.

 I think this piece received helpful feedback, I have not currently had time yet but I would like to seek out some more feedback on what I could improve within it. 

I appreciated a lot of the statements of meaning such as the effective and intentional transitioning and sequencing. While initially making the piece I was worried about the transitions and played around with them a lot. But in the end I am pleased that they were readable and fluid. 

My question was whether or not the movements embodied instruments. I discovered this was definitely more of a perception of the viewers sort of thing. Some were able to see the instruments while others saw more of a melody or contrasting tunes each section was creating. Either way I liked both interpretations. 

When I first started choreographing this piece I was solely focused on a piano theme. However, this was not communicating well and I was at a loss for what else to include without making it the same unvarying couple of motions again and again. This is when I thought about possibly portraying an entire orchestra with a conductor. 

At the beginning I chose to walk out as the conductor and present the orchestra. I then used different sections of the dance to become snipets of the orchestra. At the end I then used the entire space to tie each section of the orchestra together before ending once again as the conductor. 

Pointe Notes:

Swan Lake act III

Gillian Murphey and Anthony Dowell

Composer:  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pointe Notes:

American Ballet Theater 

Gillian Murphey + Angel Corella

Three acts

Shelby’s Comp III Piece

The comp III class individually choreographed pieces on a group of dancers for their final. 

Shelby’s piece was set as a trio. The theme (which was pre decided for them along with the music) was perseverance. She chose to loosely base it off the video game Undertale. 

The process of learning the piece was quite simple and enjoyable. I think she incorporated a good range dynamics with time and energy as well as definable shapes. However, I felt the transitions through space were slightly lacking at some points along with the choice of space used. For example, there were not always clear reasons as to why we were running to the opposite corner. But over all I don’t think these decisions hindered the piece enough to make it too confusing. 

Looking back over the music these confusing transitions in space might have been more of a reflection of the chaotic feeling of the music. However, I felt personally like they still could have been refined a bit.

I did appreciate her use of direction though. I think all of the directional changes she used positively impacted a lot of the movements and shapes. It also helped make the dance more interesting as it was constantly changing up facings.

All of the accents she used were well placed within the piece and complimented the music. The music was very fast pace and full of energy which she maintained and reflected in her movement. 

I do think she could have manipulated timing more than she did. There was relatively no slow parts. Or sections that got ahead of the music. There were also parts within the music where she seemed to not know what she wanted to do with so they became awkwardly placed moments of stillness. While moments of stillness are important I think they require more intention to not seem void. 

I think I learned something in terms of decision making throughout this experience. There was a varying amount of choices she made about direction that really intrigued me. I personally would not have thought of them, but I really enjoyed how they all walked together and complimented each other. 

Basic Re-Cap and Reminder For What The Final Study Should Contain 

SHAPE:

Body parts

Scale

Organic + Angular

Symmetrical + Asymmetrical

SPACE:

Level

Floor pattern

Pathway

Stage space

Facing

TIME:

Tempo

Momenteum

Duration

Accent

Stillness

ENERGY:

Active + Passive

Force

Dynamics

Movement Qualities

Percussive + Sustained

For both these classes we talked a lot about forming, structure, and transition. I think these concepts definitely help me figure out how to make a foundation for my studies and help in directional decision making as well.

Compositional Structures

Operate independently 

Do not sit in set order of priority 

Frameworks or Structure

Sequential pattern

Determine overall structure

Choreographic Devices

Ways of developing movement

Original material + manipulated and amplified

Developing and filling out movement seeds

AB Form: Theme + Contrasting Theme

Unity still important

Same common element

TRANSITIONS Between:

Abrupt/sudden (AB)

Gradual/slow/smooth (AaaaB)

Forming

Forms Natural Existence

Beginning/middle/end

Idea of climax

ABA

Theme of variation

Unity/variety/contrast

vs

Birth/life/death

Volcano

Day/night/day

Four seasons

Human race

Form:

Carry message or BE message

Grows with/supports idea

Median message format compliment/contribute to one another

Forming:

Dual function

Process of developing material

Process of giving structure

Transitions:

Between individual movements

Between phrases

Between major sections

Sequencing:

Single moments to short/long phrases

Sequences/sections---> full completed pieces

Dynamics

 Couples force with time and produces an entity of its own. Movement qualities describe ---> used to discuss and define movement. 

Examples:

Gooey

Weighted

Cold

Serene

Straight

Airy

Espansive

Sassy

Carving

Sliny

Smushy

Sensual

Soft

Rag-doll

Spicy

Hoppy

Slippery

Robot

Regal

Dizzying

Percussive vs Sustained 

Percussive: Staccato. Nature of which is detached. SHARP starts and stops. Abrupt or sudden. 

Sustained: Legato. Nature of which is smooth. Flowing, prolonged, and drawn out. 

***Sustained has a range of duration while percussive does not. However, percussive can be multiplied by how many times it is done.***

Break Downs:

Percussive/Fast/High Energy

Percussive/Fast/Low Energy

Percussive/Slow/High Energy

Percussive/Slow/Low Energy

Sustained/Fast/High Energy

Sustained/Fast/Low Energy

Sustained/Slow/High Energy

Ballet- Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty Act III Bluebird 

Paris Opera Ballet

Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev 

11/7

The Soul Eater

I received a lot of useful feedback for this study, I think it turned out fairly well. After hearing some of the feedback I almost wished we could re-do this study again! Hopefully I’ll be able to include this study in something in the future.

Some of my feedback included my spread out use of dynamics throughout the study. The dynamics helped the audience stay interested in watching. It featured slow and steady consistency with “spicy moments.” As well as a mixed variation of changes between crazy and normal movement/feeling. There was more eye contact that helped develop the story.

It was also pointed out to me that one repeated action I did (focus on hand) almost took away from/did not fit right in the piece. After hearing this feedback I definitely have to agree that had the context of the movement either been changed or removed the piece/story line would have flowed more. Originally I did not consider this action much at all, it was more created off of one of the inspirations for the piece and therefore became comfortable or natural to do. I think if I were to re-work this study I could still possibly include the hand if I changed the focus throughout the piece.

The hand focus was not necessarily bad or incorrect. However, it gave the audience a sense of inferiority/ignorance within those moments. I think think if the study has the potential to take that route of disregarding the audience altogether. But at the same time I think the contact with the audience received a lot of good feedback.

Reflection

With our continued discussion of energy we are re-working our previous study. Mine being Soul Eater. I am very excited to re-work this piece and apply more energy change and dynamics. 

Energy: Provides The “Go Power”

For this class we discussed energy and how it can affect/change/or manipulate movement.

Energy: Potential for force, capacity, or action. <<Active or Passive>>

Force: Magnitude or intensity of energy exerted. Exists on continuum. 

Dynamics: Interaction of force with time.

Movement Qualities: Distinctly observable attributes produced by dynamics and manifest in movement. 

STRONG<<---------------------------------->>GENTLE

Strong Positive: 

Bold

Dominate 

Power

Control

Strong Negative:

Inflexible

Hard

Stubborn

Blatant

Gentle Positive:

Soft

Pliable

Caring

Subtle

Gentle Negative:

Weak

Submissive

On this day we finished showing our time studies. (Mine was performed and posted on 10/26)

Kaliegh: Daydreaming

Due to her injury she spent her study on the ground. Personally, I feel that this did not limit her. She actually surprised me with the range of movement she used. I liked that she was discovering something on the floor with her hands while her foot was in the background almost looking as if it was drawing something else up. These combined movements very effectively portrayed daydreaming and they were honestly just very interesting. 

Meredith: Barely Breathing

I really enjoyed Meredith’s transitions between each section, they flowed seamlessly. She played around with facings to make the piece more interesting. I personally thought the facings could have had moire purpose or reason behind them but overall I still enjoyed the piece. 

Tewes: Ruins

Sarah played around with the idea of deterioration and slowing of time towards the end of the study. I found this very intriguing.

Cyera: Mixed  

Cyera experimented with different styles of dance, as suggested by her title, mixed. Her slowing down of one of the steps in particular was very interesting to watch each time as it changed, I think it stood out to me because she performed it with a lot of purpose. 

Rachel: Mystery

Something I really liked about Rachel’s piece was that in the beginning she was on her back using mainly her hands and arms. I had an urging to see her face while this was happening. I don’t remember who expressed it, but I agreed when they said they would’ve liked for her to keep her eye’s hidden until the end or for a prominent moment. 

Avea: Cringe

Avea had some very interesting movement in her piece. It portrayed cringe very well, especially the movement where she rubbed her foot on her opposite shin. I think she did a great job of exploring her idea and not getting stuck in comfortable familiar movement. 

Sarah Grace: Cold Rose

Meredith made a cool comment about how Sarah Grace has a very isolated focus in her piece. Once this was pointed out I could definitely see it. Her attention to one body part compels the audience to look at it as well. I am very curious to hear about the poem she based the piece off as she did not have time to read it in class. 

Highlights from our CRP’s that stood out to me:

The overuse of one set of limbs could inspire movement in another. (Example) Dancers who tend to use their arms more naturally could inspire leg movement off of what they do with their arms. 

Using scale to manipulate time. 

Texture can enhance natural movement. 

Action sometimes needs more meaning or purpose in order to be repeated.

Your title can indicate emotion.

Ballet - Maria Kochetkova & Daniil Simkin - 'Le Corsaire' Pas de Deux

In ballet we watched a variation from Le Corsaire and we are currently learning it on pointe. The composer of Le Corsaire is Adolphe Adam and the choreographer is Joseph Maziller. Le Corsaire premiered on January 23rd, 1856, Paris Opera, Paris. 

10/26- Soul Eater

I feel like this was definitely one of my most successful pieces so far. I was very excited to share this one because I was so inspired while making it. I also received a lot of interesting feedback from it- 

Good balance of organic and sharp movement

Kept slow quality, but was still captivating

Change of accents kept interest

Could have more contact with audience