Dance and the Lived Body Related to My World

                I’ve never been fond of philosophical readings only because it becomes so time consuming.  I can’t just skim through and somewhat grasp what the reading is about; rather I have to truly understand one sentence before moving to the next.  The idea of dualism as straying away from the Cartesian thought from a soul and mind separation to “recognizing a dialectical and lived dualism” was difficult for me to grasp at first (Fraleigh 4).  Every time I read or hear the word dualism I automatically go to the Cartesian dualism idea, so trying to give this word a new meaning was highly frustrating.  This explanation of how phenomenological existentialism is different from the old way of thinking helped me to put these two terms into understanding.  It makes sense to me if I think about how one’s environment and past experiences can structure the way in which new happenings are experienced within the lived body.  A very elementary way of connecting this within my life was thinking about how I had always been taught that making mistakes and taking risks in class were unacceptable as a young person, coming into college my lived body took a long time to adapt within the idea that these aspects of dancing are good for me. 

                The idea of phenomenological reduction helped me in developing a first draft to my choreography.  ‘This involves “a narrowing of attention to what is essential in the problem while disregarding or ignoring superfluous and accidental”’ (Fraleigh 6).  Instead of allowing myself to be distracted by ideas or movement not related to my intention within the piece, I focused on only the idea being portrayed in the here and now.  Cool tricks and how to clean the piece were not on the forefront of my intentional consciousness.  Cleaning is for later, and cool tricks aren’t relevant to a piece of art pertaining to movement. 

                Through taking classes such as Somatics and Improvisation, I can remember being told to let the body take over for the mind.  The idea of separation between the mind and body as Cartesian developed dualism.  “As the existential phenomenologists emphatically reject traditional dualism, they reject instrumental definitions of the body” (Fraleigh 8).  I have always had trouble with grasping the concept of allowing my mind to go into a sedated state while my body works in its place, moving how it wants to move and not how my mind wants it to move.  There have been times when I felt this sensation, but I’m now wondering if you can every really separate the two, mind and body.  The idea of “the whole person as a minded body, not a mind in command of something separable, called body” makes so much more sense when thinking about dance (Fraleigh 9).   I can still see how the body could be thought of as an instrument for the dancing artist, but instead of the mind playing the instrument the mind and body work as one.  Even though the mind and body can play against each other at times, Merleau-Ponty’s statement that these two entities ‘“can never be distinguished absolutely without ceasing to be”’ (Fraleigh 12).  The mind needs the body as the body needs the mind; each one giving the other purpose.

                Freedom within this body having to do with phenomenological existentialism also gave me another idea when forming movement for my piece.  Even though I still have a lot of work do with my piece, I already have lots of movement to work with and edit.  Instead of being “limited by being this particular body, which is mine and mine along” I am able to create movement and intent for others to communicate for me (Fraleigh 16).  I now have other dancers to utilize in doing movement that I create but may not necessarily be able to portray as well as these bodies I have been given to work with.  “Embodiment is thus the ground for all experienced values, for both intimacy and alienation, freedom and limitation” (Fraleigh 17).  The intimacy and alienation from my body-mind unit is being used in the process of creating while I have more freedom and less limitation in one sense.  This is the sense of capabilities within my dancers that are not found within my body, yet I have to work on communicating the movement that is intimate because of my individual alienation.  I do not worry, however, that my creations will not come across as unique and true to my choreographic style because “all works of art bear the stamp of individual creation” (Fraleigh 22).  Throughout working with others in this composition class, I notice that some choreographers create movement that is similar to others.  Sometimes it’s a simple gesture that one takes from another or even an act of repeating a shape or skill, but I’ve noticed that this use of other’s movement or movement ideas is unintentional.  I used to fear that I would find myself doing this at some point, but Fraleigh’s statement above reminded me that even if something is repeated by someone, the creation of the art is always going  to be individualized by the specific choreographer to make it their own.

                After assessing the material I had given all together since day one on Wednesday I realized that I did not have a lot of continual movement other than that of the solo performer.  I hadn’t read the second chapter of this book yet, and now I want to try to embody the idea that “when I become my dance, it becomes consonant with my consciousness.  The difference between the dance and myself disappears” (Fraleigh 40).  I feel like I should try to embody my intent with movement rather than depending on costumes that I have in mind.  Now I’m wondering whether or not to make my intent so obvious through the medium of costumes rather than my movement.   I would rather the phenomenon of my dance be noted by its “discernible structures and qualitative characteristics” through the movement (Fraleigh 35).

                I learned some valuable information from the first two chapters of Dance and the Lived Body that I didn’t connect with myself until reading it over for a second time.  The philosophical nature of the intent was hard to decipher, but once understood it was easy to relate to the process of my choreography as well as performing.

Inspirational pictures to my piece:

Carnival Evening by Henri Rousseau

by Greg Simkins

by James Ensor

by Toyen Paravent

Whirlwind of lovers by William Blake

Reality?

                Throughout each study within this class I have used different stimuli to create my movement.  With this study I decided to create movement for movement’s sake.  The only stimulus that I had was my imagination.  “The conscious recall of suitable movements for communication of liveliness occurs within the imagination of the composer” (Smith 213).  With only the four movement qualities of light, heavy, direct, and indirect to give me compositional motivation, I found it surprisingly easy to create the phrases.  It wasn’t until trying to fit them together that it became difficult, especially with using the element of chance. 

                When I began creating the movement for the four phrases to be used in this piece, I had an idea of using one movement idea throughout each phrase.  “The composer, with this in mind, then begins to manipulate material to fit these conscious images, and thus start composing” (Smith 213).  Instead of having a lot of material, I wanted to simplify the movement.  After hearing the feedback from my class, I realized that this didn’t work choreographically throughout the entire dance.  Ellie made the comment that the direct section was very clearly movement that was made from my vocabulary, but that the other sections just looked as if I gave them improvisational words pertaining to the Laban dynamics I was attempting to portray.  This was true for the transitions between each section as well as the use of structure improvisation for the indirect section. The problem with this was that the transitions lasted longer that I had planned them to.  Instead of being invisible, the transitions took over.  The indirect section was also structured improvisation that was meant to use the indirect quality of focus.  I originally wanted the dancers to use only their focus to portray the indirect quality as they simply walked around the space and each other.  While this plan worked within my head, I hadn’t planned for the dancer’s to interpret the structure differently on the day of the performance.  This was a risk I hadn’t taken into consideration. 

                I decided to ask one of my roommates to randomly draw the numbers out of a hat to figure out what order my phrases would be put into.  My roommate said, “three, one, four, two” without drawing any numbers.  I then asked him again to please draw the numbers then read them to me.  As he drew the numbers out of the hat, it was the same order as he had said.  I would have thought that he somehow cheated and saw the numbers before drawing them, but I had written out the numbers on the paper myself and made sure that they couldn’t be identified by looking at them.  This was a weird experience that just added to the “chance dance” madness.  These numbers put my dance in the order of heavy, direct, light, and indirect. After randomly selecting my props to be put into my movement phrases I had a hard time making sense of them and connecting them without being cliché.  

                I felt like my group members who performed in this piece performed the opening section pretty well.  They had a “clear use of focus to communicate the dance idea” (Smith 180).  I wanted the floor crawlers to have their focus on the objects in their hands so that the audience would be interested in what the objects were.  After the performance, Professor Ellie made a note that when objects are small, the audience can’t see them unless they are introduced properly.  I know that she had made a similar comment the day before in reference to how well the introduction of a paper clip was, but I wasn’t thinking about my objects still being in the smaller sized category with this reference.  Due to limited time in rehearsal, I hadn’t seen Christina using the brush to brush Jake off of Amy to the back instead of where the audience could see the action.  Since this didn’t show up as a problem in rehearsal, I never thought to specify the placement of the action.  I would seriously take these ideas and notes into consideration if I ever decided to rework this piece.  The other two props within this section were a candle and a pair of glasses.  As the three surrounding the duet in the middle were making their way toward the middle I had them use their props to make noise.  The only problem with this was that while Christina and Isis were able to make noise, Yuki wasn’t able to with the eyeglasses.  I hadn’t thought that this would be a problem, but during the feedback someone had mentioned that it didn’t make sense for two to make noise when Yuki hadn’t been able to.  I also used Yuki putting the glasses on the back of Jake’s head as a way to remove the props from the phrase, but since one of my dancers didn’t give the remaining third prop to Jake, this didn’t make sense either.  If I could change this in the future, I would highlight Jake’s transition to give this idea more clarity.

                The direct, light, and indirect sections were all easy adaptations to the use of my props within the phrases.  During the direct section, I had selected my favorite sweater and Sudoku book.  Instead of having the props spread across the space, I decided to have Yuki use both of them so that the audience wouldn’t have a hard time processing what the props were.  I had decided to have Yuki put the sweater on her legs instead of just having her wear it as it would traditionally be worn.  I also played with facings and groupings with the other four dancers put into pairs with one pair facing toward one another and the other facing away from one another.  With the class feedback in mind, the audience felt that this section worked.  In the light section, the sweat pants were used as a barrier for three dancers while Jake performed the movement with the heating pad wrapped around his neck.  Because the cord was so long Jake was able to play with the use of his new attachment while dancing.  Lastly, the tennis ball, body spray, and socks were quizzical at first, but simple explanations led to the final section’s success.  For one, I know that Jake loves to slide around in his socks. Secondly, I know that he wouldn’t want to smell like a girl all day.  Lastly, I needed a counter balance for the audience due to the chaotic motion in the background.  The strongest feedback for this section was that the audience wanted it to last longer.

Fighting the End

                I found it difficult to develop an intent when starting this assignment.  Thinking so much about the requirements for the project took away from my artistic thought.  In order to get some inspiration for an intent I began listening to several different musical choices in an exploration for what I truly wanted.  The first piece of music I came across that gave me the inspiration to choreograph was Agnus Dei by Samuel Barber.  Upon listening to this piece of music I felt a sense of Angelic presence with the encapsulating vocals.  The only problem I had with this beautiful music was that I didn’t know how to use such a popular piece.  I also did not want to produce cliché works in class since this music brought about the idea of angels swooping in and out of our lives on earth.  When I found Hindemith’s “Viola De Arco” I could hear that the music was slightly less dramatic than Agnus Dei, but it still held dramatic qualities and depth.  Even though this musical choice is beautiful, I didn’t want to develop beautiful movement.  I was really hoping to develop a different way of moving with an awkward yet satisfying manner.

                The picture, “Physical Disorientation,” by Ashley Dcrouse gave me the idea of thinking that the body is broken into separate fragments that can be manipulated with those different kinds of body initiations we were supposed to be working with.  With the visualization of my body being in that situation I began to use improvisation as a tool to find movement motifs that could be used throughout the piece.  As I improvised I came across the development of a walk initiated by the pelvis, a hand initiated turn leading to an odd shape, and a running back and forth initiated by the head.  Knowing that I wanted to stay away from movement that is obviously pretty in nature, I continued to search for inspiration leading to a unique intent.  When looking into my musical choice I found that the composer had lived and created within a world of Hitler and the Nazi regime.   I read somewhere that the composer wrote the viola de Arco as a funeral piece.  This gave me the idea to work with the idea of the fear of death.

                The use of mixed meter was one of the hardest tools I’ve used in choreography since this class started.  The complexity of having to use different quantities of measure than that of the music was hard to grasp.  A clear example of this difficulty was the part in my dance in which Christina and I were on the floor in front of Isis.  The hand motion of swooping to the left, right, down, and up in a cannon was supposed to have different lengths for each person.  I was meant to do this in a four, Christina in a seven, and Isis in a nine.  After watching the video of my piece I realized that this wasn’t clear because my group and I were having trouble counting the music.  This was found throughout the piece.  I would have set counts for the movement, yet they wouldn’t be clearly presented because of the lack of being able to count against the music.

                As the class gave their feedback I was pleased to hear so much positive feedback and ideas for making the piece better.  One outlook on my work that I was happy to hear of was Katy’s story to what my dance was about.  She felt like Isis and I were making the shapes of individual vultures throughout the entirety of the work.   To bring this idea into more depth Ellie elaborated by stating that Isis developed a character with immediate audience response as she breathed heavily, and with a fearful gaze.   Being that vultures are creatures that eat animals or carcasses that are already dead, this gave the intense feeling that Isis was going to “die.”

                I wanted to have a logical development of my piece, and I felt like I was successful in doing so.  “Logical development becomes apparent by virtue of repetition, climax, transition, contrast and variety in the dance (Smith-Autard 78).  I feel as if the main focus I would have if reworking my piece would be on variety.  “Without variation and contrast, repetition of the motifs would be dull if presented ad lib in their original form” (Smith-Autard 73).  Although I didn’t always repeat the motifs with their complete original form, I felt like I could have developed more variety after watching my showing from the class.  Between the lack of time and my slow start to finding an intent I lost the means of developing a strong variety in and among the dancers.  Hearing the feedback from others in the class I was able to hear that the contrast between the dancers from a two dancer to one perspective was clear.

                When I was working with unity in my piece I found that I didn’t want to use this tool too much simply because I was working with the contrast between Isis and Christina and I.  However, “the final shape that emerges when the dance is over is realized through unity” (Smith-Autard 79).  One idea that Ellie had was to use unity as the three of us creating shapes within each other yet being separated in a way by that difference in shape.  Looking back I had done this a few times within my piece, but I definitely could have done this more as a way of developing that relationship of the two dancers against one in a different, less obvious way.

                All in all I felt like I learned a lot from this assignment.  Even learning two other people’s choreography and seeing their style of development was very enlightening.  I was impressed with my group’s variety within the group, meaning that each of our pieces were completely different.   We all three had different interpretations of what the assignment was looking for, and found different ways of showing that throughout our own pieces.

Samuel Barber: Agnus Dei (Adagio for strings)

Physical Disorientation by Ashley Dcrouse
http://ashleydcrouse.deviantart.com/art/Physical-Disorientation-87081935

Inevitable Connections

Jake Bone and Jessica Holt

                Once again, I found myself over thinking the process for this assignment.  It wasn’t helpful that my partner and I shared the same avenue of intellect.  Both he and I were trying our hardest to create simple transitions, but what we forgot to consider was whether the transitions were effective.  This led to our piece being bland with simplicity everywhere but the transitions.  It wasn’t until our professor pointed this out that we realized our problems to overcome.  At first it was disappointing to hear the corrective criticism in that I felt like we should have known better, but then I realized that having a third person perspective with much more experience was part of the learning process. 

                At beginning of this process, Jake and I had the idea that our relationship toward one another within the piece would be a gravitational pull that caused us to orbit one another.  Instead of using any kind stimuli to develop this idea, we pretty much just came up with a concept.  This was a bad start for us.  After hearing the advice from Ellie we decided to take a break from the movement in order to listen to different music to find some inspiration.  “The music not only dictates the kind of dance, but also its mood, style, length, phrasing, intensities and overall form” (Smith-Autard 29).  Before even changing the movement we tried our movement to Sinfonia Concertante, Allegro maestro by Mozart.  After trying this just once, we were able to see so many ideas for change. 

                As we began to alter the dance we started to develop a relationship within the movement.  The idea of sibling rivalry and the path to contentment in that relationship came to be our new intent.  This opened up new ways to connect with one another and made it easier to work on creating shapes that were more intertwined and exciting.  As I was looking for more inspiration to help develop my character I came across this quote, “I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers.  It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage.  Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at,” by Maya Angelou.  I couldn’t help but picture all of the irritating moments and frustration I had with my siblings while growing up.  On the other end of the spectrum, there were also so many moments of love and companionship.  Sometimes being around my siblings would be comfortable and natural while other times it would be forced.  This concept turned our piece around completely.

                At the very beginning of our piece Jake and I decided to contrast each other.  While I stood in stillness creating a striking image of face-on vulnerability toward the audience Jake walked hastily around the open space in an asymmetric floor pathway.  “To make an asymmetric floor pattern the composer would not repeat particular lines or curves” (Smith-Autard 53).  Within this pattern there were many curves accompanied by lines of forward and backward motion.   

                Between the upbeat intensity of our music with its rising and falling quality, our facial expressions, and general movement with one another, Jake and I had created somewhat of a comical dance.  “Essentially original or unusual ways of moving and relating to the environment and other people can be comic” (Smith-Autard 35).  Even though I had read about comic dance before working on this piece, I didn’t realize that we were actually creating one.  Many times when I get into a character I don’t even notice when I intensify my facial expressions.  I feel like this had a lot to do with how the piece was perceived by the audience. 

                The form of our dance took shape as the common binary form.  “The first section A is contrasted by a new section B, but the two have a common thread which binds one to the other” (Smith-Autard 70).  With section A we played with strictly making shapes with minimal, simple transitions.  As Ellie said in class, “transitions should be invisible.”  For section B we decided to spice up the piece with more movement, and in doing so our section B became the climax.  Within the climax of our piece Jake and I decided to play with symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes moving through the space.  As we danced in unison, “the dance movement takes place at the same time in the group,” we played with mirroring our moving shapes in a rapid pace and playing with separation into the foreground and background space (Smith-Autard 56).  With the reaction of the audience I would say this was an effective climax.  During this climax, I felt like the speed created a haphazard mood that was followed by stillness held in awkward shapes.  This only added to the idea of this piece becoming a comic dance.

                I was excited to see how the other half of class was going to do with their assignment of creating a dance piece from a haiku or piece of poetry.  There was one group that really stood out with this assignment.  They used their musical elements, eye focus, and movement to set an emotional mood.  I couldn’t even really describe the way it made me feel with words.  I was happy and sad with the bitter sweet message being sent.  The use of cannon, unison with contrasting movement, and gestures in which they supported one another created a movement phrase with much intensity.  The two would go back and forth between who was the support and who was taking the support so that no gender specificity took hold.  One of the most intriguing parts of this piece took place toward the beginning when the duet took their eye focus from one another in close proximity to both looking at a diagonal corner in the distance.  This was one of the simplest transitions I had seen all day, yet it was the most effective. 

                After learning so much from creating a solo movement during the first assignment, I wasn’t sure that there was much more to learn.  On the contrary, not only have I gained even more useful knowledge I also have the future assignments to look forward to learning even more.

Notes and Realizations Week Four

Feelings/Shapes:

Symmetrical                                        Asymmetrical

• Content                                   Apprehensive
• Order                                      Unevenness
• Calm                                       Grieving
• Balanced                                 Anger
• Relaxed                                   Chaos
• Equal                                      Hostility
• Unity                                      Unstable
• Wholeness                              Uneasy
• Ease                                        Broken
• Circle                                      Unbalanced
• Square                                    Rhombus
• Equilateral Triangle                Scalene Triangle

Body:

Symmetrical                                   Asymmetrical

• Bones                                    Organs
• Muscles                                 Muscles
• Skin

Choreography wise (but not always) modern art/dance tends to be more asymmetrical, and ballet tends to be more symmetrical.

Three kinds of shapes:  Curved (both), twisted (easiest asymmetrical), straight (easiest symmetrical)

Strange space design- subverting etiquette 

How to make a blank stage into strange space?

For assignment 2

• Foreground and background
• Depth and width
• Simple transitions (they should be invisible)

The Half Becoming a Whole

Perfect Love by Danuta Antas Wozniewska

            The biggest obstacle I had to overcome throughout this process was to not over think the movement being created.  The assignment called for movement with “like you” and “unlike you” movement formulated to reveal your identity.  The first step in this process was to list out these qualities along with words used to define your identity.  Although the words flew streamingly out of my pen, the movement required a much longer period of time to develop.

            The authentic movement exercise that we performed in class was somewhat confusing in that it opposed the prior knowledge about my “natural movement language.” (Smith-Autard 17).  Throughout my time at this university classes such as improvisation and somatics have displayed that the movement which comes natural to my body contains slow, bound, direct qualities.  However, during this exercise, my movements were free-flowing, indirect, and light as I improvised through the space.  I know that for this type of exercise to work one has to repeat the process several times, and the movement preferences can change from day to day.  Personally, I feel like my movement preference was altered due to the lack of my senses.  Having my eyes closed while moving in the space gave me feelings of being vulnerable, off-balance, and awkward.  With the idea of being cautious with my movement, I continued to move in ways that were unfamiliar but within a safe distance from my kinosphere.  I realize now that I should have improvised in a way that was true to my bodily impulses instead of playing it safe.  I would like to continue studying the authentic movement in the future to see what kind of discoveries I could find about myself.

            During the first day of choreographing I created a movement that was “like me” in that it held qualities of the laban dynamics as well as qualities that would define myself as a person.  The problem with this was that there was no true form unfolding, and the intent was so broad that it was being buried underneath the busy movement being produced.  On the second class day the frustration was so overwhelming that I finally stopped reaching for movement from this approach to ask the instructor, Ellie Leonhardt, how to deal with this problem.  Trying to choreograph a piece that portrays my identity was conflicting with the movement true to my body.  The almost too simple solution to this was to use these two ideas as my reference point for the different sections.  The “you movement” then developed out of using the Laban dynamics of bound, direct, and slow while the “unlike you movement” came from the light, free, and indirect qualities of my personality.  In the words of Smith-Autard, I became “fully aware of the nature of the elements so that they may best judge how to select, refine, and combine them” (Smith-Autard 5).  I know had the idea of using the opposition created from the movement preferences of my body and the qualities of my personality to my advantage.  This gave my choreography a raw start to its inevitable completion. 

            The second obstacle that came about during this process was honing in on one part of my identity to really highlight and connect with.  This is when I turned to Dance Composition for words of wisdom.  “The experimentation with movement is confined to that which is suitable for interpretation of the music, and this kind of improvisation- although more limited- is commonly used as a starting point for composition” (Smith-Autard 39).  Music, art, and the thoughts aroused from the two gave me a starting point with which to experiment with new movement.  As I began to look for music, I couldn’t help but notice that many of the Baroque era musicians that I came across had pretty similar sounds using major key, harpsichord, and two-four time.  Throughout the search I finally discovered a piece by Bach that stood out with its beautifully played violin and ranging scale.  As the music played I began to improvise in search of discovering a connection between myself and the project.  It wasn’t until I came across a piece of artwork by Danuta Antas Wozniewska that I really found the intent of my work.  The painting is called Perfect Love, and as I looked it over I realized that my identity has been transforming ever since I met my fiancée.  This is where my intent unraveled into myself coming apart of a partnership in which I have to give and take accordingly.  “Composing involves moulding together compatible elements which, by their relationship and fusion form an identifiable ‘something’” (Smith-Autard 5).  At this point of the process I had a formulated that identifiable ‘something’ as my motif involving reaching, gathering, and giving motions in the direction of one particular corner creating a duet between myself and the pull of a presence that wasn’t physically in the room.

            The next obstacle that really had my movement mentally blocked was trying to move in a way that did not come naturally to my body.  Trying to utilize the opposing laban model “which emphasized that experiential, child-centered process of dancing as a means of developing personal qualities” was the most challenging moment throughout the entire process.  I found that when I attempted to use the free-flow quality throughout my body, it would be present in my upper body but not in the lower trunk and extremities.  With the same problem, I found that my upper body held in a bound position when my lower body began to free-flow.  It took lots of improvisation and visualization in order to refine how this quality would be interpreted by the audience.  I found that having a second perspective on the work really helps to find what the piece needs.  I requested that Jake take a look at my movement, and while doing so he was able to let me know when the qualities were being presented throughout my entire body. 

            Despite all of the obstacles, I feel like this study was all around successful.  The feedback that I gained from the audience gave me an insight to the exciting moments, and things about the piece that they would have changed.  I really enjoyed the process of this study and hope that the wisdom I’ve gained from this will carry me through the studies to come.