Blog Post Three - Choreographic Devices - Practitioner Study
To influence our solo choreography we began looking at practitioner Wayne McGregor. McGregor himself is obsessed with the technology of the body and when choreographing uses the dancers as objects to think with. (TED Talks, 2012) He likes to use the phrase 'misbehaving beautifully' (TED Talks, 2012) which I think is a great way to express how as dancers we must avoid creating pieces that follow conventions and challenge our usual movement habits. (Welcome Collection, 2014) When creating movement McGregor likes to ask ask the dancers questions such as if you were to think of a certain colour how would this effect the movement of the body? I think this is a great way to add layers to the movement and is something that really helps me if I get stuck creating movement. (TED Talks, 2012) A great thinking tool McGregor also uses when choreographing is visualising imagery. Thinking of the image in your mind and translating that into movement in the body, we began to use this technique to begin creating choreography for our solos.
We started by visualising our image and listing in a table; actions, dynamics, space, and choreographic devices that would appeal to our stimulus. For example our image has lots of sharp distorted lines so our action could be slice, with a sharp dynamic from a high to low level and repeat this movement twice. So we have then used and action, dynamic, space and choreographic device to create a movement that has a direct link to our image. Each action, dynamic, space, and device also had a level of meaning in relation to theme of our piece. Our theme explores perceptions of ones self and how this can be distorted by our minds. Therefore the slice represented the harsh stigmas we hold against our self's, with the sharp dynamic expressing the struggle of trying to break free from these thoughts. The use of the space from high to low to show how these thoughts can fluctuate and the reverse device representing the translation of the movement in a reflection.
We used this table to create short sequences that were a great starting point for creating choreography. To conclude I found this way of creating choreography really helpful. I was struggling to start with creating something but writing it down and relating it back to the stimulus helped me to have a lot more intention behind my movement rather than just going back to things I would usually use. It really challenged me to think of new ways of moving and I was really happy with the final outcome of the short phrase I created.
Comments
Post a Comment