Introduction Started

This week, the main bulk of the session was putting together the intro of the piece.  We began with taking sections of the house dance routine we learnt and practiced certain movements that the group were not fully comfortable with from the corner. 

Movements often included the extension of the legs, and the manipulation and isolation of the back.  I found the movements challenging, and finding the correct rhythm and co-ordination to perform each task proved to be difficult.  Carla broke the movements down, through this method it became slightly simpler to grasp.

Carla’s choreographic intentions are starting to seep through the movements that she has given us during other rehearsals.  The piece starts with a party type atmosphere flooding the room, with salsa, and African dance.  The music had also changed from our previous sessions with the house dance routine.  It was now far more up beat, and had a Spanish/Mexican theme to it.  The music suited the party theme. 

As a dancer, I believe it is important to have music that the whole cast can have a feeling towards.  Without this I think that the movements and choreography can become weak and not supported by the dancers.  If I was to do the house routine at the same pace, but with a slower, classical piece of music, I wouldn’t really know what vibe I was meant to be having with the movements of a dance style and culture which is completely different from each other, unless, I suppose the choreographers intention was to explore this theme, if this was the case, my mental attitude towards the music would be different.

Metaphorical Technique Progression

We started off today by quickly warming up, and heading straight into some contemporary technique combined with the hip movement exercise I was discussing in my last post.  Carla spent time going over some fundamental ballet/contemporary technique using pliés.  Many issues were raised considering that, many of my peers are not classically trained, I, and I believe many of the others find it hard to map onto their bodies, the strictness of ballet technique and how the body is meant to respond to the completely different muscles used throughout.  For example some peoples knees, including my own cave inwards in retaliation to the new technique.  Carla explains that it is a conscious effort to continuously train and engage the core muscles, and the specific muscles that haven’t been used, slowly at first, to acquire strength in a new technique.

 This made me begin to wonder about dancers’ minds and how it is related to the body as an entity.  I believe that there is no “mind-body split” and that they act as the same entity.  In relation to dance Anna Pakes writes: “Within dance circles, there is a tendency to think that even to refer to the mind-boy relation as a ‘problem’ is to get off on the wrong foot by assuming that mind and body are separate entities.” (Pakes, 2006, p. 88) I agree with Pakes as, as a dancer when we are training we are constantly using metaphors to guide and fuel our movements, also creating emotions and feelings on stage: “a decision on the part of the choreographer that this action be performed.  These purposes shape the quality and significance of the movement” (Pakes, 2006, p. 87)

As the session progressed, we showed our solos.  Carla then paired everyone up and gave us a task.  We were to perform the solos separately from our partner, but also have moments of interaction – thus creating a duet.  For next week we were told to create a hand gesture movement.  

Hips Don't Lie

We continued with the House routine today, an emphasis was on hip rotation.  Carla put a lot of time into explaining the different variations and ways to move the hips.  The key word was “internal”.   I enjoyed the different feeling of simply rotating and isolating the hips in the usual way.  I was able to open myself up to a new way to choreograph and use hips in dance.  The internal feeling of rotating the hips personally remind me of chakra manipulation, and how the body channels energy throughout the body, as the hips are close to the naval, where a ball  of energy sits. 

Towards the end of the session Carla started playing around with choreographic ideas.  We began with a travelling contemporary routine, spreading across the whole space of the floor.  Carla was focussed on choreographing on the mainly the boys, incorporating lifts with the girls.  I am looking forward to the progression of how everything will work.

An example of a Chakra Circle - displaying the 7 Chakras of the body.