In this weeks session, we continued our choreography but we decided to focus on areas such as cleaning and clarifying our middle section as it covers the salient points of our stimulus. This section starts with myself standing in the middle, lost in thought, doing very minimalistic movements such as swaying, twitching and shaking which was inspired by a choreographer called James Wilton in the piece 'The Shortest Day,' https://youtu.be/y5_8XULLto0. This choreography is 'based around the physiological effects on people and how many of then hurt themself in an attempt to find hope.' At 0:33, the dancer named Kynam Moore is inattentive and absorbed in his own thoughts. I have taken this concept and adapted it into the beginning of our choreography to show the distress that these patients were under, https://youtu.be/mEb_6tWshR0.
By constantly referring back to our stimulus of the corridor along with doing further research, we decided to dedicate a portion of our choreography to a treatment that many patients experienced which is called electroconvulsive therapy. This is a prominent piece as it links to Beulah Jones who was given 15 rounds of electroshock treatment. We wanted to create a climax within our choreography with the sharp, meticulous movements along with the minacious pace of the music. Before figuring out a formation, I did some further research into shapes and what they symbolize. I found out that a triangle 'contains a profound meaning which symbolizes strength ... its the strongest shape which is the culmination of mind and body', (Advani, 2020). Because of this information, we decided that it would be intriguing for our formation to be a triangle as we want to illustrate that we are more dominant when we empower each other. We were then further influenced to use this formation as a choreographer called Akram Khan uses it in a piece called Vertical Road, https://youtu.be/vfflMh2BBqo. From this video, we saw how it portrayed a sense of urgency and imperativeness and we wanted the audience to feel the same way about our piece so we decided to use it. We started with mine and Storms gesture of our hand grabbing our arm that we did in week 5, but decided to add cannon to show the build in tension as we are being restrained persistently. Soon after, we change formations with myself and Storm on the floor and the rest of my group behind. There is a high pitch moment in the music in which Bella, Hannah and Sadie lift their arms up at the same time myself and Storm lift our bodies off the floor, which demonstrates that there is always going to be an omnipotent force hindering us to break free, https://youtu.be/GpChfgUODhg.
References:
Advani, R., 2020. Triangle Symbol Meanings In Different Forms & Religions Are Surprisingly Intriguing. [online] Starbiz.com. Available at: <https://starbiz.com/love-life/triangle-symbol-meanings-13067> [Accessed 28 November 2020].
Well done Lucy. This is a very detailed blog. I like the use of pictures. I see that you have said you kept referring back to your stimulus. Do you find it easy to lose track of the idea behind your piece?
ReplyDeleteThis is a really detailed blog and I can clearly see the development of your choreography through each week. Well done.
ReplyDeleteDid you find picking the music for your choreography challenging or easy? And what was it that drew you to your chosen pieces?
Thank you for your comments Sadie. For me personally, I get so enthralled by the music that I forget to re-examine our stimulus idea. I find it effortless to develop and evolve movements by listening to the music, as I always create my own narrative before going into creating any movement. I wouldn't say I lost track of the idea behind my piece, as I have always known the direction I want to take regarding the story line, however, sometimes I felt as though I needed to reflect on our image in order to help initiate certain gestures.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments Abigail. I found choosing the music rather challenging because as a group, we wanted the music to capture the essence of our stimulus idea, so having malicious music and then more graceful music will create a powerful contrast within our piece. We were drew to the music, 'Prodigy', by Nathan Lanier because it has meticulous beats and then it increases its pace, which we have a climatic response too in our choreography. I feel my artistry emulating when this music comes on and I can embrace my character with confidence.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very detailed and thorough blog. You mention about the choreography Akram Kahn and his work and how this could inspire you in the sense of the atmosphere when performing the choreography. Is there anything else from his work that inspired you and will be incorporated into the choreography?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments Hannah. Akram Khan is a very inspirational choreographer that influenced many movement ideas for our piece. We were inspired by his intricate hand gestures and impulsive movements which we have used in many sections of our choreography, to portray us being constantly restricted and controlled by an overpowering force.
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