I’ve been trying to create movement within my piece that will be aesthetically pleasing to my audience. “Primary to a definition of dance is its aesthetic intent” (Fraleigh 43). This is the idea that has been keeping me in check when continuing on my choreographic process. Anytime I watch my choreography and start to get bored I know that it’s not working which helps me to edit my work in a timely manner. During the first rehearsals that I had I basically put out a bunch of movement ideas that I felt would communicate the intent I am trying to work with. One concept that has really helped me in finding my personal aesthetic was found in these words, “being moved in feeling is the end result of the aesthetically affective” (Fraleigh 45). Because I am dealing with a not so beautiful concept, my movement is reflecting that. The idea of circus freaks has brought me to the use of a mangled or awkward way of moving my dancers that will hopefully strike the audience with the mixed feelings of intrigue of the unusual as well as experiencing empathy toward the sorrow of being shunned by society. “Good has no moral connotation in the aesthetic realm but is, rather, a qualitative measure of perception, valuation, and evaluation” (Fraleigh 44). The idea of good being pretty or pleasing in a way that evokes a sense of pleasure from beauty is completely valid and works wonderfully, but this is not the direction I want my piece to go in. I feel that beauty within my choreography can serve a purpose of contrast, but for the most part the specific aesthetic for this piece will be full of asymmetry, quirkiness, and what most would call “ugly”.
Because the dance that I’m creating is being performed for others, I have to think about how I’m communicating my intent to a subjective outside audience. In Fraleigh’s book, Dance and The Lived Body, she quotes Friedman on page fifty seven, “Viable in its own exclusive and quiet reality there is a communion between the noticed dancer and the unnoticed spectator.” The reality that I’m dealing with at this moment when speaking in terms of my choreography is that I have an opening solo that is strong with movement and dancer’s ability. Even though I know that my group dancers are capable of being just as strong I hold a responsibility of developing movement so that this balance between strong solo and strong group work can occur. The problem that I’m encountering with this challenge is discovering a way to incorporate my group dancers within the piece so that they are not seen by the audience as props, but rather as fundamental pieces to the puzzle work of my art. “Some valued quality of this feeling passes between the dancer and the audience in its experience when dance is valued as art” (Fraleigh 61). I don’t want my piece to be seen as movement put on dancers that aren’t connecting to the concept. This makes the dance come off as superficial with no passion or feeling to be transferred from dancer to audience member. I want the piece as a whole to affect the audience in a way that shows the piece as a valid form of art.
With this in mind I am also taking the existential phenomenology idea of “feeling is not a matter of simply receiving a message… “To feel is not to receive, but to participate in an immediate way”’ into consideration (Fraleigh 62). This means that I have to choreograph in a way that reaches my audience on a higher level than just observation. The audience must be intrigued into experiencing my piece through the dancers’ performances of the movement I have created. Whether the audience understands that my piece is about the emotional and dark side of the life of a circus freak is not as relevant as them being able to feel the essence of curiosity bringing about pain, manipulation, and being stuck within an ominous situation. One way of doing this as Ellie had suggested is to take some of the strong movement of my solo work and transposing it differently onto my group dancers. I felt better about this idea being able to bring about an affective quality to my dance when connecting it to this idea: “This initial emotion absorbs us, and we return to it as the object (in our experience of it) begins to separate from its background” (Fraleigh 64). Instead of throwing away the artistic idea I have for my group dancers I’m going to attempt to use the strong solo work as a way to connect them to the concept I am working with. I will continue with this idea as well as giving them as much imagery as I can to improve their ability to embody my choreography.
It is so important for dancers to capture their choreographer’s movement and intention because without doing so it is hard for the audience to connect. “A dance can only be of value when the dancer clearly manifests her intention in her movement; then she becomes what she signifies, what she marks for us- be that the truth of our common humanity or the play and work of life seen in movement itself” (Fraleigh 70). Embodying an intention so that it can be deciphered by that outside subjective someone is the only way a choreographic piece can be successful. With the same idea as talked about previously, the audience must me moved aesthetically for a piece to be an affective art form, and this is done by properly embodying the choreographer’s intention through his/her movement. Instead of using verbal communication as poets do to share our artistic ideas with others; dancers use the human lived body for such expression. “Dance takes us to the bodily lived source for language” (Fraleigh 71). Because the body is moving through a lived manner, dance is made affective by its living form. I hope that my dancers realize that they are living my choreography so that they will appreciate and understand their important role as the medium of my art from my mind to their audience.
Progress video:
The music I have chosen:
Since this song isn't long enough I took the song and reversed it in audicity to play after the original.
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