Lesson 1 and 2 choreography

In our first choreography lesson we began by reviewing different stimuli that had been dotted around the room based upon political art protests, here are a couple of pictures we were given to annotate:

In groups we made our way round to each stimulus writing down any thoughts or feelings, as well as what we thought the artist was trying to portray through their work. As we got to the last few photos, we found it harder to think of new ideas due to previous groups writing down similar thoughts. Once we had completed this task, as a class we discussed each stimulus in detail comparing the different opinions and concepts each group had come up with. Next, in our groups we chose one picture to create a short motif upon, here is the picture we chose:

we felt this photo portrayed a wall dividing different classes of people who want to be in union yet are forced to be apart. In the Picture we noticed that one side was clean and tidy and the other dirty and cluttered with people, which could perhaps portray the two opposite classes. From this, within our phrase we begin as one trio performing calm and gentle actions in unison leading on to two of us splitting apart and one person acting as a wall keeping us away from each other by building a barrier separating the two dancers. In our second lesson each group in the class had to bring in a stimulus of their own based upon whatever they wanted, from this again, similar to the previous task we went around and wrote down any thoughts or feelings we felt the picture/objects portrayed. As we got round to each stimulus, I found it interesting to see different people’s perceptions and thoughts towards each picture/object. Here is the photo we chose as a stimulus:

We were drawn to this picture as we felt there is a lot you can depict from it, for example you could link it to the idea of DNA and the information displaying someone’s personal individual details. You can also see lots of different patterns, shapes and pathways as well as links between all the lines within the hand. After we had completed this task we came together as a class and discussed each stimulus picking out individual words in which we felt the pictures/objects portrayed. From this, in our groups we had to choose 3 words from any of the annotated stimulus. We chose the words Contrast, different pathways and intertwining, with this we created 4 movements of at maximum 8 counts for each word meaning we would have 12 actions in total. For example, for the word contrast we focused deeply on displaying different dynamics such as soft and sharp to clearly show this word within our movement. After we had created our different actions, we labelled each one from 1 to 12. Our teacher then rolled a dice presenting us with an order of numbers, This was now the order of our movements , some movements had to be repeated due to the dice rolling certain numbers twice, however this added affect to our piece using the choreographic device repetition. We added all the actions together creating transitions for the in between sections. And then finally we chose a number from 1-4 which decided what piece of music our dance would be performed to. We chose 3 so therefore our work was to the music “Legions” (war) by Zoe Keating. I enjoyed this task as it allowed me to find a new technique to help with the process of creating choreography. I found it interesting as it was not something I would have thought of doing before when trying to create movement, however I feel I will really benefit using this method if I am struggling to create choreography in the future. References: 5. Artist: Amy Scaife Title: Human Cost – Protesting cultural institutions for taking money from companies that have connections to unethical/immoral behaviours https://news.artnet.com/art-world/boards-museums-money-2019-1600507 2. Artist: Banksy Title: Scar of Bethlehem – Depicting a wall that represents that of the one between Israel and Palestine with a bullet hole as the star of Bethlehem due to the ongoing conflict between the two countries. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/22/banksy-nativity-with-bullet-hole-in-place-of-star-unveiled-in-bethlehem 3. Artists: Rael San Fratello Architects Title: See Saws - See Saws put up along the US and Mexican border wall so that people on either side can interact and play together https://www.dezeen.com/2019/07/30/rael-san-fratello-us-mexico-border-wall-seesaw/ 1. Artist: Adrian Brandon Title: Stolen - Portrait of Breonna Taylor 26 years old = 26 minutes of colour https://www.adrianbrandon.com/stolen