Lesson 7 Choreography
In todays lesson we focused more on our group choreography. We began by reviewing the choreography we created in the previous lesson and then sat down to discuss music. After listening to a few different pieces we were drawn to the music “Prodigy” by Nathan Lanier as we felt it fit well with our stimulus creating a mysterious and creepy atmosphere, through the vocals which sing a repeated minor tune. The music also had a strong and powerful beat which was reflected throughout the piece. We are also going to mix this with a couple of other songs in which we are still yet to define.
We listened to the beginning of the music and began to create material going in correlation with the piece. We start are dance with one dancer in the centre of the stage standing still with strong eye contact with the audience, as the music goes on, one by one the dancers slowly walk in keeping the eye focus forward to their place in the first diagonal in which the vocals come in and we perform a phrase in unison, here the movement is quite steady and slow which gradually builds into a sudden change of dynamic where the music becomes a lot faster and stronger.
One of the sections within this beginning part is a triangle section where we gather together to form triangle formation with one dancer as the point at the front, here we perform sharp and rigid movements in both unison and canon, actions such as twitches, arm grabs and body ripples are included reflecting the different characteristics of a person living inside of a mental asylum.
Towards the end of the lesson we performed the choreography we had created to the rest of the class receiving both positive and critical feedback. Some of the points we were given were to maintain the fixed facial expression throughout the whole piece and to fill in any gaps where we had material missing. The positive feedback we received was that the triangle section looked effective and strong as well as the beginning walks which created a creepy atmosphere.
Here is a short clip of the choreography we created during this lesson:
https://youtu.be/do8uFuobVnU
In your performance I could clearly see you and your group have worked on your facial performance, I also found the triangle section very effective and strong. What are your next steps in development?
ReplyDeleteThank you for this comment Eloisa. During every rehearsal we have, we want to keep developing our piece creating more movement material and thinking of different formations and ideas to allow our dance to be finished in time for our assessment. So far the process has gone well and at the moment we are creating movement as we go along in correlation with the music, which seems to be working well for us, therefore I feel we will carry on with this method.
DeleteThis is a very detailed blog and you have explained the task very well, I also really enjoyed watching your piece. You spoke about the use of formations in your piece, have you got any other formation ideas for your piece?
ReplyDeleteThank you for this comment Megan. Within our piece we wanted to try and include many different formations in order to make our dance look more interesting. We have thought of some other formations such as circles, diamonds, diagonals, triangles and more.
DeleteI've really enjoyed reading about your choreography and how you have started to develop your movements! The facial expressions, motifs and gestures you have used are very effective at showing the storyline of your stimulus. How do you want the audience to feel during the first section?
ReplyDeleteThank you for this comment. I feel the first section of our dance is very important as it it sets the whole piece. This part creates a creepy and eerie atmosphere due to the fixed eye contact and facial expressions we have towards the audience. The aim of this section is to make the audience almost feel scared and not at ease. The music is very mysterious with its high pitched minor vocals and monotonal accompaniment. I feel this first part of the dance has to be dramatic and we must show this through our body language and facial expressions in order to get a reaction from the audience.
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