Thursday 17 February 2011

Everything is Connected, Nothing Stands Alone...

VISION:

everything is connected, nothing stands alone


Keeps going - never and end, 360ยบ in every direction, one object leads to another

Paper Following...

One person moves on top of the paper whilst the other traces/marks their movement.

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Does the paper score left behind make more sense to the drawer than the mover?

This score is now a log or the actual dance on paper ... Could this be a cross over of art forms? ... Will an audience member gain the same experience from viewing the score? ... Possibly team up with an art student to explore this further

Hannah and Charmaine: Moved the audience around the space as they danced ... reminds me of 'Disgo'... I love the idea of "shepherding" the audience and would like to look into this further.

Conversation in Simple Movement...

My partner joined me at one point and I turned away, she said she felt offended. We ended up doing similar movement and this reminds me that when you know someone really well you tend to have too much in common. When you speak you talk about the same things.
I find this a really effective way of building relationships and characters.

Gaps in conversation
Argue/confront
Speak at the same time
Backchannel
Pause
Monologue/length of time

The outcome depends on how both dancers and audience members interpret it. Like listening to a foreign language. Every time you work with a new partner you must translate their language.


Similar to what we worked on in the first term....

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I think I may like to look into this movement conversation idea a bit more maybe even as a foundation for my duet.

Duet ...

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Level 3 Balcony ...

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Curves, lines, light, shadow, bright, subtle, eyes relax, patterns, Installation piece, art, like everything has been pieced together to please the viewer, not just your typical building.

Buzzing, rumbling, scratches, voices - distant and unusual unrecognizable noise.

Creative Enterprise...

Task: To form a business in the creative industry that is unique to its field.

We should teach children to be versatile in dance and teach a variety of dance styles... including contemporary dance as we often don't start this until later in life. A dance school that offers more than the typical tap, ballet and modern and incorporates sections of theory and choreography in the lessons would definitely prepare the children more for a career in dance. We could also see some amazing choreography from the imaginations of younger children.

This dream of mine could be achieved by the Alexander Technique ... Starting in neutral and expanding to any extreme but being able to return.


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Dancer in a Glass Box...

Endangered Species is an unusual dance piece. It combines the mediums of dance and media; the use of projection being something of a trademark for her work.
Initially, Siobhan visited the Arctic and found that she wasn’t inspired by the landscape but more how vulnerable her body became within this landscape. She concluded that “…expression in the sub-zero temperatures of the High Arctic (were) severely limited in nature and range.”¹ I find this fascinating and had never before thought of the effects a certain atmosphere has on your movement. For example being in a really hot room makes you become lethargic and slow where as in Davis’ case, the cold weather physically tightens your muscles and makes movement small and rigid. During the piece we see the dancer restricted by the rods in her costume and at first this can seem to give a new environment for her to explore but gradually more are added and she becomes entrapped.
The rods are often manipulated by the dancer into bending almost in two. As an audience member we wait and wait for the plastic to snap but this never happens. This intense power struggle between rod and dancer reflects the fragility of the body vs. the motivation to move, a concept Davis explored in her choreographic process.¹ When we think about the body in relation to the landscape we (being the dancer) are inspired or ‘motivated’ to move however we become restricted and fought against by the atmosphere and intense cold (being the rod) showing ‘fragility’ in the body.
Endangered Species is not performed as a live show but in fact a projection of the dancer in a glass box. Siobhan Davis has manipulated the dancer’s image to represent something not so human, like a past or future evolution of the body and encased it as a museum exhibit. I don’t quite understand the meaning of this other than possibly hinting at the relation between landscape and evolution. I have the impression that Siobhan longs for an evolutionary change in the way we move as dancers to overcome these restrictions; we should be leaving behind the old ways of moving and displaying them in glass cases as a reminder but moving forward in a new liberated style without the representational rods of restriction.
Over all Endangered Species reminds us not only of the fragility of the human but the fragility of movement. It has opened my eyes to recognise in myself the atmosphere and whether or not my movement can survive within its boundaries.





¹ http://www.siobhandavies.com/dance/dance-works/overview/endangered-species.html