COMP III EXTRA CREDIT
I was asked to be in 2 comp III dances. One dance was choreographed by Jenna Winters and the other was choreographed by Mikayla Fields.
Jenna’s piece was the first dance I was asked to be in. Her piece had a very contemporary/jazz feel to it. The choreography played a lot with the music which I really loved. I admired her use of musicality within the piece. The song had so many different beats and sounds and she used them all to her advantage.
I really loved how Jenna taught, it is very similar to the way I like to teach choreography. She taught a few 8 counts and then would run the piece from the top. Then we would learn a little more and begin again. This was very helpful in learning the choreography. We only had 1.5 hours to learn the whole piece so this teaching style was really effective.
One thing that Jenna executed very well was her uses of ripples and cannons. This was really effective in both making the choreography easier to read but it also flowed very well with the music. Jenna said her inspiration came from perseverance and the ocean. I did not know this until after we had performed for their final but once I learned this it made a lot of sense. The ripples in choreography made it look and feel like the ocean crashing on the shore.
I really enjoyed working with Jenna for this. I am glad to have gotten the opportunity to dance her choreography and hope to work with her again in the future.
Mikayla’s piece took a different take on the same song. Her piece worked again with ripples but not as many. She played more with using the same phrase in different timings which was very interesting.
One example of this was that she had an arm and hand gesture that was repeated a few times throughout the piece. We did this phrase at different tempos that were determined by the music and as a dancer I know this was interesting for me so I am sure that it was more also interesting to see from an audience perspective.
Mikayla taught at a more fast-paced tempo. She taught larger chunks of choreography that we would review and then would teach more to then piece them together. I also enjoyed this way of learning choreography. I feel like this was effective but it was a little overwhelming. I was able to keep up with her but I had to ask more questions that I was expecting to because it was faster paced.
Overall this was a really great experience. I loved getting to work with both girls. Their styles are so different in both choreography and teaching styles. I feel like working with Jenna was better for me and the way that I like to move. Jenna and I seemed to click more with the style of choreography and how I was picking up her choreography whereas with Mikayla I was struggling more than I thought I would have.
I am honored to have had this opportunity to work with both of these girls and hope to work with them more in the future whether it’s here at AU or in the professional world!
