choreography - comparison between works week 9

Within this blog I will review and compare a section of work from each of the two choreographers’ in which have been an inspiration towards us when creating our piece. The first choreographer we have chosen is James Wilton. The work that I will be looking into is “The shortest day” which is based upon psychological effects on people when they know they do not have much time left. The 4 dancers are struggling to survive, hurting themselves and others willing to find hope in a hopeless world. The dance begins a male dancer standing still facing stage left. Gently the dancer falls to the floor, and three dancers are seen walking in the darkness with one arm out to the side. Suddenly a burst of light fills the stage to reveal the 4 dancers, the dancers run around in circles with one arm to the side and every now and then a dancer breaks free to perform a motif. The movement is grounded and there is real focus on the curve of the spine and use of arms. When I watch this, I almost feel the dancers have a sense of freedom as they let them themselves go. The action of running in circles with the arm out is repeated throughout the dance and therefore I feel it is a key feature within the choreography perhaps representing this idea of time. This is a similar factor in our dance as we have certain actions in which we repeat portraying out theme. Towards the end of the piece the movement becomes overly dramatic, the dancers perform chaotic contact work with one another, throwing their bodies, I feel this could represent the idea of them hurting one another in order to find hope. I feel this piece links to our personal choreography as our work is dramatic and powerful, there are many sections within our dance which are chaotic symbolising the idea that we are out of control The next choreographer we have chosen is Jasmin Vardimon. The piece I have chosen to look at is Medusa which is based upon Ovid’s story of Medusa the serpent headed gorgon. It also presents climate change, gender inequality and global warming. From watching different aspects throughout the piece, I can see that there is a lot going on with intricate props and fancy costuming. A clear story is told within the dance using acting and I feel a lot of emotion is shown through the dancer’s expressions. There is a particular moment in the work where one dancer is standing still whilst the other dancers crowed round her performing intricate hand gestures covering her face in which she shows struggle and the feeling of being trapped, I feel this links to our dance as throughout we perform small and intricate hand gestures demonstrating the idea that our bodies has a mind of its own, we also show this feeling of being trapped inside ourselves and struggle to find freedom outside of the mental asylum. There was also a section within medusa where one dancer throws herself to the floor and twitches like she has no control which links to our choreography as again we perform small twitches throughout the piece. I also feel our dance tells a story like medusa in which you can clearly see through our use of facial expressions and choreography. There are many similarities within these two works, for example I feel they are both immensely powerful and dramatic each portraying a clear storyline which is carried throughout the work. The movement within both dances is grounded and a lot of floorwork is involved where we see the dancers throw themselves to the ground which could perhaps represent this idea of struggle in which we see in both pieces. However there are also a number of differences between the two works, for example in Medusa there is a main focus on the intricate props and beautiful costuming which is changed throughout, although in “The shortest day” the dancers have very simple costuming and no props are involved bringing more attention towards the movement. As well as this there is a huge difference in numbers, In medusa we see a large number of dancers and variety of gender who are constantly coming on and off the stage and in “the shortest day” there are only 4 dancers which are on stage the majority of the time. References: https://www.thewonderfulworldofdance.com/jasmin-vardimons-medusa-a-re-conceptualisation-of-a-greek-myth-for-the-era-of-green-politics-and-metoo#:~:text=Vardimon%E2%80%99s%20Medusa%20is%20a%20varied%20conceptual%20exploration%20of,and%20the%20current%20socio-political%20climate%20in%20the%20West.