Achievement Standard 91210 (2.6): Demonstrate understanding of a range of choreographic processes - 4 Credits

http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/assessment/search.do?query=Dance&view=achievements&level=02

Intro Task

Things you learnt about the video?

Creativity separates the amazing choreographies to the good ones. Creativity can come from anywhere and from anyone. That people can interpret one idea from a body and translate it to another body. The choreographer is offloading memory and the dances are receiving it.

Things you found interesting about the video?
He used to work with economists, neurologists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists, people who come from different domains where they bring their intelligence to bare on a different kind of creative process.

Would you be interested in exploring this yourself?
I wouldn’t personally explore this type of dance as it makes me feel like it’s a little too rushed.

How would you describe the Choreographer’s process?
Imagine the stimulus in your head and dance what you see and what you think you would feel because of this. That he interprets there is the idea in front of him and he can walk around it and see it. He is exploring through the letter T and isn’t remembering the moves that he is doing, he is just working on his task.


Task 7

 

 

 

The reflection: Describe how each photo/moment from the duet relates to or communicates the contrasting ideas. You may comment on the contrasting use of dynamics, changes in focus, and the relationship of the dancers in the space, the facings, contrasts in the use of levels, and contrasts in the use of body shape.

The contrasting ideas that my dance partner and I chose was equality and inequality. This is shown by the levels that we have used in both photos.  The first photo we were using different levels and I had my hands raised, this was to represent the inequality of society as a whole and how no one is equal. In the second picture we had equality as we both used levels as we moved in unison with each other.

Task 4 - Learn And Vary a Phrase For a Group

 

First of all the group started off by varying our formations. As the dance was mostly performed in straight lines, we felt it would add more interest to do the same moves but contrast to each other in a different formation. We added in some new movements to represent a more unique performance. We started our dance off in a windows formation, so that the audience could clearly see all the dancers, then we curled our arms in a wave motion like the original dance but this time, the front partners moved in the opposite way to the back partners to create a mirrored effect.  After that we all swung our arms back and did a jump in unison. From there the dancers turn to the back in a sharp movement to catch the eye of the audience and the front partner move towards each other doing the wave action and link arms while the other dancers stand still, then the back partner do the same. As now one pair is in front and one pair further behind, still repeating the wave action, we move forwards and backwards to meet each other in a straight line. Everyone then turns to face the front simultaneously and drop down and roll back up like a wave unfolding. Next with our bodies we link arms and do a canon wave with our bodies to emphasize the unity and working together as one big curl. Then finally spinning off and falling down at the end. This therefore resembles how waves in the ocean form and crash onto the sand. First they start on their own,  just as little waves. Then as the come into contact with others, they pair up getting bigger as they go but still curling. And then finally coming together as one big wave/curl and crashing down on the shore, then washing over the shore. Variation was added to the dance to make it more enjoyable for the audience to watch. 

Moss Patterson

What is the starting point, stimulus, or inspiration for his choreography? Give examples from Dances choreographed by Patterson?

The starting point or the stimulus for Patterson’s choreography is based on his own explorations in life and uses improvising to come up with movements.  

How does he develop movement? How do you know?

Moss Patterson states in the interview that he improvises on motifs and sequences. Then he asks the dancers to redo what moves he just used and allowing the dancers to change to movements slightly to make it part of their own interpretation and that might mean changing it completely. He does this because it would be the dancers own way of doing the movement if it didn’t feel right to them. 

How does he communicate ideas through movement? Explain with detail from Patterson’s dances?

Patterson uses improvisation to movements and shows his dancers the movements and lets them interpret the movement for themselves. He likes to think of the space as the performance space reminds him of waves coming in and crashing in the space. In Patterson’s dance he likes to think of duets and trios in the dance coming into the space and exiting having a crossover and it allows the dancers to find their own interpretations of the phrases that he teaches. Sometimes the dances would do his phrases and sometimes they will do their representations of the phrases that he has created or something entirely new. Most of the work that they create is always folding in on itself and coming back, it always has an end and a beginning. He doesn’t like to create none endings so pieces of movement that stops there and that’s it, he likes to think that things come back on itself.

What design decisions does he make? (For example, the choice of music accompaniment or costume.) Give as much detail as you can – provide examples from his choreography.

The music, design and the costume are important to Moss Patterson. He likes to establish a strong idea prior to creating the choreography. Moss likes to leave room for movement, for interpretation, for change in his dances. Prior to coming down to work on the dance, Kura, he wanted to work with the colour red, so he already knew that the costumes were going to involve the colour red. This would make the dance feel like something that was fluid with the body, something that helped or assisted the movement and something that created movement with the lighting. With the music Patterson had a good idea of and wanted something with a heavy beat or pulse so that it joined with the idea of the pumping of the blood or the energy created by the heaving of the blood through the body, therefore he wasn’t fixed when he first came but had a strong idea of what he wanted.

Explain why you think the choreographer works in the way you have described.

I think the choreographer comes up with simple movements and puts them into a segment to create technical movements that represents a colour or a memory. This is because the starting point for Patterson’s choreography is based on his own explorations in life and uses improvising to come up with movements. He also states that he improvises on motifs and sequences and makes the dancers interpret the movements. He likes to think of the space as the performance space reminds him of waves coming in and crashing in the space. Moss Patterson likes to establish a strong idea for the music, design and the costume prior to creating the choreography and he likes to leave room for movement, for interpretation, for change in his dances. With the music Patterson likes to have an idea of the way the song is, for example, in the Kura dance he wanted a heavy beat in the song to convey the theme of the dance.

What are the advantages of working in this way? When might this approach be useful?

Some of the advantages to working the way that Moss Patterson works are that he gets to create new moves using the body and nothing is set so any idea is a good idea. Another advantage to work this was is that you get to experiment with your body and find your limits and how you can portray a life experience into movement in a piece of choreography. This approach to movement and creating a dance could come in useful if you have to demonstrate a particular life event into motifs and using different experimental motifs to convey the message that is trying to get across when being performed. 

What are the disadvantages of working in this way? When might this approach not be suitable?

Some of the disadvantages to working this way are that nothing is certain with the movements and they are just made up on the spot. This might not be a suitable approach if you have to learn a piece and you try to incorporate Patterson’s method of experimental motifs. This is as you are given a piece to learn and using Patterson’s movements to change it might not support the message of the dance in the right way and the audience might not know the interpretation of this.   
 

Stephen Bradshaw

What is the starting point, stimulus, or inspiration for their choreography?

As the word “Mauri” means energy, Stephen would then think of how people were created by coming through the earth, to be become who we are. Therefore, Stephen used this as his inspiration as it is the beginning of life for a spirit.

How does the choreographer develop movement?

Stephen likes to create a lot of his movements by immersing himself within the Maori culture. He then looks at carvings, watches weavers and looks at the patterns. Stephen likes to enjoy the shapes as he feels like they are telling him a story. He also takes traditional movements and puts them in the modern theatre with lighting and sound to give the dance a contemporary feel that he likes to give his dance.

How does he communicate ideas through movement?

Stephen liked to communicate his ideas of spirituality by taking in all the different elements on the earth. He has also used the haka movements in slow motion to communicate the language of the haka and meaning behind the dance.

What design decisions do they make? (For example, the choice of music accompaniment.)

Stephen spent a lot of time with the composer talking about the meaning of mauri. The composer created a whole range of ideas for the dance to use and the created a CD with unique pieces for the dancers to dance with as they performed these spiritual dances. The costume that was chosen was suitable for this dance as is was based off Maori culture and involved weaving patterns.