week 6- Evolving out stimulus

 Week 6, Evolving out stimulus 

In this weeks task, we started off the lesson by reviewing the small gestural motifs that we created last week, which accompanied us to continue the process of generating formations. While we were deciding the new formations, my group drew small images to assist us in understanding where everyone was placed. Alongside our drawings, we also thought about choreographic devices that we could include such as; unison, retrograde, cannon and embellishment to enhance the quality of our performance.

Once we had agreed on the formations, we went through everyone's individual phrase and elected transitional movements to conclude our small choreographic piece. Furthermore, we wanted the transitions to resemble a clear relationship towards our stimulus of a mental asylum. Because we were confident with our choreography, we decided to go through the dynamics and timings of the phrases. To elucidate this matter, we went through each section meticulously until the counts were distinguished. I found counting the phrases challenging due to the multitudinous amount of choreographic devices, along with the different timings people began and ended their movement. 

When we were content with our choreography, we used the rest of the lesson to research into some music that will help bring our choreography to life. We have 3 pieces of music so far, the first being 'The Chase' from the Stoneheart Asylum soundtrack that we are going to use for our entrance as it has an air of melancholy. Our next piece is 'Prodigy' by Nathan Lanier which has many ominous and menacing undertones. Our final piece was 'Tonight you belong to me' by the Lennon Sisters. I was most drawn to this one due to the vocals in as it suddenly created an ominous atmosphere. Furthermore, it links back well to our stimulus as Beulah Jones, (a woman who we have been inspired by), was referred to The Pilgrim Psychiatric centre as she started to hear voices. As a group, we had the idea of miming along to the words in the song, whilst looking agitated.

At the end of the lesson, we performed our choreography and got given some feedback which will help us develop our ideas further. Many people said that they enjoyed the sharp, strong movements, while others were captivated by our formations which are seen in the photo above. Nathan mentioned that my facial expression were engaging and that he could see the story behind by performance. On the contrary, we need to work on some transitional movements and clarifying our space.

Youtube link to our choreography:

https://youtu.be/AUwQ_josRro

week 5- gestures and deciding structure

Week 5, gestures and deciding structure

This week, our main focus was to devise a multitudinous amount of ideas about how we can structure our piece. Kate platts book, ' Choreography: Creating and Developing Dance for performance,' inspired us to contemplate the significance of the environment and atmosphere that we want to generate (Flatt.2019).

After developing our motif ideas from last week, we inaugurated a multitude of suggestions into what we want the audience to feel immediately as we step on stage. This concept accompanied us to our first potential idea on how to begin our choreography. After evolving mine and Storms translation task motif last week, we established that it will be an intense middle section due to the use of accumulation as well as our vigorous movements. More of our ideas have been noted below, but to conclude our idea, we wanted to portray mystery by having some moments of stillness to create a sinister atmosphere. Because of the unusual use of embellishment, we will have many pauses in our piece. This will contrast to end our section, where it's more chaotic and the movements will expand with the use of augmentation. We haven't decided on a specific ending, however, I believe that if we repeated the motif at the end, it will portray how us 'patients' are confined and we continue to be generalized. 

In the second part of the lesson, we developed six gestures using the words 'controlled', 'isolated', 'trapped', 'insane', 'crazy', and 'fright'. Once we had choreographed a gesture, we explored how to enlarge them, making them more appealing and captivating. 

Towards the end of the session, we considered formations for our gestures. We want our formations to be distinct due to the peculiar, but effective patterns we will illustrate. So far, the formations we have thought about are effective and work exceedingly well with our stimulus idea.

Formations 

Youtube links:

https://youtu.be/X5DeshErwh0 - Bella's gesture of crazy

https://youtu.be/J0KseEY2cpo - Bella's embellished gesture

https://youtu.be/OBVAuor65W0 -Sadie's gesture of isolated

https://youtu.be/_k_dt0zBzGk- Sadie's embellished gesture 

https://youtu.be/Ni8Nvr5U138- Sadie's gesture in a formation

https://youtu.be/y3K1m7LqNx0- Hannah's gesture of trapped

https://youtu.be/sDgKFsm0WZ0- Hannah's embellished gesture 

https://youtu.be/vH7-fcN61Ec- My gesture of fright

https://youtu.be/QUrK5HxxmbY- My embellished gesture 

https://youtu.be/eH7-tj3uJlQ- Storm's gesture of insane 

Bibliography:

Flatt, K., 2019. Choreography: Creating And Developing Dance For Performance. Ramsbury: The Crowood Press Ltd, p.158

Week 4- Our chosen stimulus

Week 4, developing a motif

After being put into our final choreography groups, the first half of the lesson was used to talk about our chosen stimulus idea with the rest of the class. My group discussed how we were inspired by week one's task of looking at idiosyncratic images and evoking movement out of them. We came across this photo of a dark corridor and examined our thoughts on it, whilst keeping in mind how it made us feel. Because the photo is exceedingly airy, we integrated our ideas about seclusion and concealment to come up with the idea of a mental asylum. 

                 (Scary Hospital Corridor stock photos, n.d.)

The image to the left is a myriad of information about  The Pilgrim Psychiatric Hospital. This specific hospital influenced and inspired many of movement ideas with the details that were gathered. I decided to look into the history of the hospital to see if anything could dominate our group's theme. I discovered a substantial amount of information that will help bring our group's choreography to life.

After we voiced our information to the class, our teacher asked us some questions regarding our ideas, such as; are you going to represent people from the asylum. This question was beneficial as we hadn't solidified that idea. We have decided not to embody patients of  The Pilgrim Hospital, but to characterize some of the general gestures e.g twitching and swaying.

After the whole class had shared their ideas, we got onto developing our choreography. We split our group into two and were given the task of producing a small motif which illustrates our stimulus idea. Storm and I agreed that it would be beneficial to use the transition task that we did last week to help inspire our movements. We came up with the words 'confined' and 'restricted'. This is portrayed at the very beginning when we reach our hand out and grab it with our other hand. We wanted to express the idea of the patients having limitations, whilst also demonstrating that everything is a challenge and there are many obstacles during their daily routines.  

When both groups had finalized their motif, we got together and learnt each others set choreography. We voiced our developing ideas for future choreography lessons and started connecting our phrases together. All of the small motifs we did were in unison as we wanted to make it look sinister and dramatic. Overall, I am delighted with how my group's choreography is coming along and we have an array of ideas which I am excited to reveal in our assessment. One aspect we need to work on is our facial expressions, however, when we are more confident with our piece I believe it will come naturally. 

Youtube links:

https://youtu.be/n1K4m9_UL1U- Lucy and Storms motif

https://youtu.be/R2aBKl-D5yw- - Sadies, Bellas and Hannahs first motif

https://youtu.be/zNuGcEYPQD8- Sadies, Bellas and Hannahs second motif

Bibliography: information about The Pilgrim psychiatric Centre

https://www.grunge.com/237866/what-really-went-on-behind-closed-doors-at-the-worlds-largest-asylum/

References:

Dreamstime. n.d. Scary Hospital Corridor Stock Photos. [online] Available at: <https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/scary-hospital-corridor.html> [Accessed 27 November 2020].

Week 3- Translation task

Week 3, translation task

We started this week by getting into our house groups and making a single file line with the first person in the line facing the front and the other members of the group facing the back. The first person in the line would receive a word given by our teacher and these words varied from 'alone', 'falling', 'heavy' and 'loud.' Once the first person had got their word, they had to create one count of eight associating their gestures and movement to their specific word. After the first person had consolidated their count of eight, the second person had to turn around and learn the choreographic movements the first person made. They had two chances to try and grasp the short phrase. The second person would then have to repeat the phase and demonstrate it to the third person, but they would only be given one chance. We iterated this process until everyone in the line knew the short phrase. Once the final person had been shown the phrase, the first and final person would dance the phase next to each other. The other members of the group had to watch and observe if anything had been reconstructed and transformed as the phase was passed along each individual. When everyone had a go at being at the front of the line, we had four phrases the 'original' and 'adapted' version that connected with our designated word. 

Once we had finalized the 'original' and 'adapted' movements, we began to structure them together, thinking about captivating transitional pathways and choreographic devices such as cannon, embellishment, fragmentation and retrograde to enhance our group's dynamics and performance. The choreographic device that stood out in my group among the others was cannon, as we wanted to intrigue the audience into not knowing what will come next. I believed it to be exceptionally effective as when we rehearsed it facing the mirror, it was entrancing as it built intensity. 

As a whole, I found this task inspiring as some of the movements got altered within the choreographic process which I found very intriguing. Furthermore, it was fascinating to see how one movement could turn into something so dissimilar and contrast with what the first person did. Looking at it in more depth, you could see how peoples personal dance styles influenced the altered phrases.

Youtube video of our choreography

https://youtu.be/ZR36uAJz6QU

Week 2- Chance Method

 Week 2, the chance method

This week, each house group brought in their chosen stimulus which ranged from items such as; a watch and a plant, whilst other groups brought in an image like the one my group brought in on the left,(Aleliunas, n.d.). Like last week, we went around the studio writing down emotions and movement ideas they evoked. As a class, we then proceeded to voice our most interesting words until we had a vast amount of intriguing words for each stimulus. 

The next task was to pick 3 words from the list that your group found most enthralling. My group chose the words 'sinister', 'protection' and 'blindness'. We then had to generate four movements for each word which would summarize and consolidate the meaning of the words your group chose. 

Once we had firmly established our movements, we had to number them 1-12. Using a 12 sided die generator we were randomly assigned a sequence of 15 numbers. These numbers were in the order of 1,11,6,9,8,9,6,2,10,5,12,7,10,3,4. Following on from this, we then had to choreograph our movements in the new number sequence. Because our small motif ended up getting disconnected into many different fragments, we had to consider some transitions between the numbers to make the motif flow again. 

 To make this task even more problematic we were asked us to pick a number from 1-4 which correlated to pieces of music. My group picked the number 3 and our music was called Legions (war) by Zoe Keating. It was fascinating to dance to as our dynamics and emotions fitted exceedingly well to the music. The unnerving rhythm created an ominous atmosphere which impacted our piece fantastically. Because we didn't know the rhythm or the tempo of the music, you had to be aware of your peers who were at the front so you could duplicate their timing to make it as intriguing as possible for the audience. 

Overall, I found this task to be challenging as the chance method leaves your choreography feeling disjointed. In my opinion, music is the driving force in a piece of choreography and it takes a prolonged time to feel connected with the music in order to enhance your choreographic movements. 

Youtube Links:

https://youtu.be/WKf3xYyKVnA- Sinister phrase 

https://youtu.be/ZhRaPiZRB0c- Protection Phrase 

https://youtu.be/049DXGafEQI- Blindness Phrase

References:

Keating, Z., 2005. Legions (War). [Youtube] Burlington: Zoe Keating. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlhkwHSZMyg> [Accessed 11 October 2020].

Aleliunas, R., 2019. Spy. [Illustration]. Available at: https://dribbble.com/shots/8898898-Spy

Week 1- Art as a political tool

Week 1, exploring stimuli

In our first week of the choreography for group performance module, we started by investigating five different stimuli pictures that all linked to the theme of using art as a political tool. 

In house groups, we sat around the first picture and had 2-3 minutes to write down thoughts or feelings that were stimulated by the images. We also thought about possible movement ideas that were evoked from these stimuli. In addition to this, we wrote down questions that sparked confusion for the next group to answer. I found this an interesting process because everyone's questions led to a myriad of unique responses and interpretations. 

We got together as a group and vocalized our contributions to the whole class We spoke about what ways we observed the image, as everyone had different concepts and perceived the images in a unique way. 

In our house groups, we got to choose our favourite image and create 4 counts of 8, using the ideas we had written down. My group chose the image to the left which was a woman worldwide protest against sexual assault in Chile in 2019. This was where thousands of women came together to protest against state brutality and sexual violence. I investigated into this further and according to the Guardian, the song 'A Rapist In Your Path' has become an 'anti-rape anthem', (McGowan, 2019).

Towards the end of the lesson, we created a short motif based on our chosen stimuli. Our group was attracted to the green scarf on the women's wrist with their hands crossed over their heads. With further research, I discovered that the green scarfs were a symbol of the fight for reproductive rights,(Wallace, 2019). We started by rapidly lifting our hands above our heads inspired by the image. We thought about choreographic devices such as cannon because we wanted to illustrate that despite their shared experience with victimisation, they became united.

Overall, I found this method of using imagery to evoke choreographic movement stimulating and I would repeat the process for other choreography lessons. I now understand how you can use an image to consolidate a developing idea.

 

Youtube link to our small motif:

https://youtu.be/Xk3yTsCx4tE

Bibliography:

https://www.leftvoice.org/women-worldwide-protest-against-sexual-assault

References:

McGowan, C., 2019. Chilean Anti-Rape Anthem Becomes International Feminist Phenomenon. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/06/chilean-anti-rape-anthem-becomes-international-feminist-phenomenon> [Accessed 5 October 2020]

Artists: Rael San Fratello Architects Title: See Saws - See Saws put up along the US and Mexican border wall so that people on either side can interact and play together

https://www.dezeen.com/2019/07/30/rael-san-fratello-us-mexico-border-wall-seesaw

Artist: Amy Scaife Title: Human Cost – Protesting cultural institutions for taking money from companies that have connections to unethical/immoral behaviours. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/boards-museums-money-2019-1600507

Artist: Banksy Title: Scar of Bethlehem – Depicting a wall that represents that of the one between Israel and Palestine with a bullet hole as the star of Bethlehem due to the ongoing conflict between the two countries. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/22/banksy-nativity-with-bullet-hole-in-place-of-star-unveiled-in-bethlehem