Day 4

This morning, the choreographers used a really interesting technique to get the dancers to move in a certain way. They played some “extreme music” like heavy rock, and told the dancers to close their eyes and react to the music, perhaps like they would in a nightclub; to just do what felt natural. It was developed into bigger, faster movements. Then the music was switched off and the dancers had to carry on, then the dancers danced without any music at all. It was a very effective way of getting such extreme, over the top movement and performance out of the dancers. Instead of the music, speech is used over the top; a dancer goes to the microphone and speaks a passage, which is about some kind of scientific idea. The science, the choreographer explained, was to represent chaos and the whispered Lord’s Prayer in another section represents order because religion is very certain and absolute; everything is black and white, whereas science is complicated and encases many ideas; nothing is very concrete. I think this is a really clever way of getting the ideas of order and chaos across to an audience.

Next the dancers worked on gestures based on compliments, which I mentioned on day one. I talked with some of the dancers as they did this, I was able to watch and give feedback on their phrases, which I hope was useful to them. One dancer said that they found it difficult to make it convincing because you weren’t actually being complimented so it was hard to act like you were and do the little habitual movements you would do when being complimented. These phrases were put together so that one person would stand in a spotlight and repeat their phrase, dancers would then filter into the light and do their own phrase; this gets faster and more desperate as the shyness fades and the dancers become more competitive. The idea being that the dancers are jostling for attention and secretly enjoying the spotlight. I think it was difficult for the dancers not to be nervous in the spotlight and act as though they were desperate for the attention, but after a few times it became easier for them. 

The end of the piece was then arranged, the dancers come one at a time to the microphone and say their name. This draws on the group vs individual identity idea. The dancers are being identified as individuals rather than just a group of dancers. The sections were then pieced together and were rehearsed as a whole dance which ended up being about 22-minutes, but talking to the dancers afterwards they felt it went really quickly. After a full run through, there was a lot of feedback from the choreographers, the more general points were to remember that the stage is smaller than the studio so not to travel so far, to respond to things naturally so that it doesn’t look choreographed; for example not to hold out your hand for someone to help to up, wait for them to reach down first. Also, when walking, the attention should be up and out, into the distance almost, and when you’re still in the dance don’t fidget, which is good advice for any dance because in stillness little movements are really obvious. Finally to be aware of those around you and be prepared to move a little to give them space. These points mostly apply to any dance work so I can take these in, even though I’m not dancing in this piece. In any case I’ll be helping in rehearsals, so it’s probably a good idea for me to note these points so I can make sure that through rehearsals they don’t get forgotten. 

This is my last day as I have my hospital appointment tomorrow. I have gained a lot from these last few days, even though I haven’t actually been dancing. The experience of just being able to see choreographers work in a different way to what I have seen before is experience in itself and may give me ideas for when we do group choreography later in the course, or even in solo choreography this term. The new ways of creating movement from the tasks that were carried out has been very interesting for me. The experience doesn’t end this week though, because, as I’m not dancing in the piece, I’ve been given the task of making sure the tech people in the university theatre know the lighting arrangements and to prompt them on the night as I will know the piece back to front by then after all the rehearsals. I’ve done back stage work in little school productions when I’ve not been well enough to learn the dances but I’ve not done lighting or anything on this bigger scale so I’m looking forward to that. I’m quite obsessively organised so it will probably be a good job for me. The week as a whole has been very interesting and enjoyable, a shame I couldn’t dance but that’s the way life is, and I’ve taken a lot from the experience all the same and maybe a bit more in some areas as I was able to observe the work between the choreographers and dancers as well as being able to watch and think about the piece as a whole. I think I’ve been helpful to the choreographers too as I was able to film and time sections, while they were able to watch and give cues and corrections freely. I’ve been really enthusiastic about the week as a whole and I hope the piece will be amazing when it’s performed near the end of the term.  

Day 3

I discussed with the other dancers, who had been in the class on Monday, what the piece as a whole was based on. I gather it focuses on the line between chaos and order, groups and individuals, and group mentality and identity. These ideas are quite open and could present a deeper, social and political view of the dance. Now that I have discussed this I can see how these ideas have been used within the dance and would go together with the idea I had about the dance having a tribal feel. Today, the individual phrases were developed, added on to and pieced together into a 10-minute section. The main phrase, the one I wrote about yesterday, which had a tribal feel, was developed with an exploration of breathing and movement. The breathing follows the movement so that a falling motion is done on an out breath and rises on an in breath. The effect is quite mesmerizing as it forces you, as an audience member, to match your own breathing with that of the dancers, to a certain extent. The sound of breath, although perhaps the most natural of sounds, is quite sinister when so many dancers are breathing in unison. It is very raw and very human, which is perhaps why I found it made the dancers more human because the movement was coming from inside, from the breath. I’ve seen this before in Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s “Rosas Danst Rosas” and I find it quite ethereal and deeply emotional. Whispering was also added to this piece, I find talking within a dance very intriguing. I think because it is not expected it has an impact on an audience, there is no reason why speech should not be added into a dance, personally I find it brings deeper meaning to a piece. In this case perhaps showing order and group identity. The development of the duets involved splitting up the group to perform at different times around the space. A lot of time was spent developing a phrase danced in a clump, where everyone stands very close together. It was interesting to see how the choreographers worked with the dancers, using different ideas, assessing them and then deciding which worked best and being ready to change things. The phrase itself presented a lot of the ideas about chaos and order, and groups and individuals. The marching style four-step phrase suggests order, even more so when the group is huddled together in a clump. Some travelling movements let the group disperse slightly but the marching kept bringing them back to the clump. The use of a microphone here is quite innovative and not something I’ve seen before in a dance work. The use of live singing from a dancer in a work focused on dance is also something quite new to me but I found it worked really well to get across this idea of group mentality and individuals. The group stopping an individual expressing, and rejecting them when they do, expression being represented by the microphone. This is what I gather from the piece anyway. The dance is an exploration and any audience member may have different ideas about it.

Day 2

I was unable to dance again today but felt that I still gained a lot from the experience of watching the tasks, the choreographic process and working with some of the dancers as they created duets. The first thing I found very interesting was a task where a dancer walked purposefully, while another dancer had their focus on the walking dancer’s feet and followed them with their own feet. I have seen this idea used in the professional work “Inside” by Jean Abreu, and it was good to learn how to do it. The aim for the “follower” being to stay as close to the floor as possible, and to move ‘economically’, that is to say with the least effort. For the “walker”, the aim was to find a purposeful quality of walking, keeping the head up and almost ignoring the other dancer. The development of this idea led to following the walker’s feet with the hands rather than feet, and then led to more dancers following one walker. It was interesting to see how the followers experimented with different ways of moving across the floor quickly. The dance phrase, which was taught yesterday, was very exciting, in terms of choreography, it had a kind of tribal or animalistic feel to it because the movement was quite unnatural in some ways. There wasn’t many movements you could describe using codified dance terminology because it was too unique and unusual, which is of course a very good thing. I think it looked really effective with the whole class doing it at once as it heightened that tribal idea; the movements are quite strong so with the big group of dancers doing it in unison it has a big impact.

The next task was a phrase designed to get the dancers to experiment with the weight of their heads. The phrase involved letting the head be quite heavy and never letting it be in the normal upright position. The development juxtaposed the fastness of the phrase with slow walking, which worked really well. I think the first and the latter task have highlighted the importance of development, that even though you have a really good idea it’s important to work with it further, to experiment and develop the ideas, and to push them as far as you can but still understanding if it works or not.

The duets that were taught next were based on the line between care and control. I found this quite touching, perhaps because of the very close contact of the two bodies, sometimes invasive, and the gestures, which gave the impression of control and were a little sinister. I helped those duets that were being developed by being an “outside eye”, watching their material and giving advice: saying what worked, what didn’t work so well. It was quite strange, and interesting, watching the way people worked together, there were some couples where one dancer was more dominant than the other, and some where both dancers were equally trying to give ideas. It was interesting to see that those couples where one dancer was dominant were getting more done in a shorter space of time because they were spending a lot of time discussing which very ideas to use. Also those who were more active whilst finding ideas seemed to be more experimental in their movement than those who were just standing and discussing. I think this is because, while carrying out their movement ideas and pausing when wondering what to do next, they were able to find out what worked and what didn’t and they could see how one movement was going to link into another.  

Day 1

Unfortunately I was unable to attend most of this day as I was hoping to get to the hospital to get my pacemaker looked at, as its been hurting all weekend, in the end though I couldn't get an appointment till this friday. In the mean time I have to be a bit careful when moving around so I can't dance too much this week. However, I will be able to take a more outside role and still have the chance to collaborate with the other dancers without running the risk of further injury. Tomorrow I will be able to get a lot more involved than I have done today. I'm now excited to get stuck into the project!
Watching today, I was intrigued by the task in which the dancers were asked to think about how they felt when they were being complimented and use that feeling to make movement. It was interesting to see that the most subtle movement and the most honest worked the best and I was surprised how much I felt for the dancer. It was quite raw and different, self-awareness being something everyone has experienced I think it made it very relatable and real.