Achievement Standard 91205 (2.1): Choreograph a group dance to communicate an intention - 4 Credits

 

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

Task One

The stimulus we have chosen for our dance is a poem by Amber Koneval called Survivor. The poem:

We have chosen this poem because when you read through it you can feel the emotions Amanda is trying to convey. You can also feel the fear in almost every word she writes in this poem. This then comes to a conclusion that this poem is written about abuse against woman as suggested by the language that she uses, therefore being about domestic violence.

Task Two

To get an achievement with excellence in this standard, as a group we must create an imaginative group dance that communicates an intention. In order to do this, we must create relevant motifs and phrases that develop and vary throughout the dance with a clear intention using the dance elements. We must also make sure that our message is clearly communicated and portrayed throughout the dance. We also have to communicate a variety of movements purposefully to convey the idea, mood, or image. The stimulus gives us the potential to this as it gives us a lot of choreographic material. It allows us to develop phrases from the poem into motifs in a way that will communicate our intention of the dance. Our group is also passionate about this issue and will motivate us to strive to convey this message throughout the dance.


Task Three

The definition of domestic violence is; violent or aggressive behaviour within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner.

Some of the statistics online says that one New Zealand woman is killed every 3 and a half weeks by a member of their family. Police estimate that only 18% of domestic violence incidents are reported.  One in three women experience psychological or physical abuse from their partners in their lifetime. This website shows some of the very few Domestic Violence Stories: http://www.hiddenhurt.co.uk/domestic_violence_stories.html

One of the emotions/moods we will be trying to communicate is contrast between vigorous/angry and hurt/afraid/restricted. However the most important emotion/mood that we will be aiming to communicate is hope. We want to show that there is always hope and people to help women break through any abusive relationship they may be in. This ties together with our intention of the dance. Therefore, the message that we want to convey to the audience is that domestic violence is not okay.

 Task Four

How effectively am I conveying my stance on this issue?

I think we have enough research to effectively convey our intention. We have also used our knowledge in dance choreographic processes and devices to help portray our ideas in a way the audience will understand.

What more do I need to do to ensure this is clearer? To ensure that this issue can be made clearer is to create a structure with relevant motifs to ensure that the audience is receiving the message we are trying to portray.

 

 In this motif, we are trying to show the confusion of an abusive relationship. Often women are left confused as their husband, who is aggressive, violent and abusive can also be loving and caring at other times. Our main message of the dance is to show that even though he may be loving sometimes, it is not acceptable for him to hurt the woman, whether that is physically or psychologically. This motif portrays this idea using contrasting energies. Across the motif, there is an evident contrast between light and hard movements that symbolise the constantly changing behaviours of a man in an abusive relationship.
We are also trying to portray the indications of an abusive relationship. The pushing and leading of the hands symbolise the aggressive and dominant nature of the man. To contrast to this the rest of the body is limp and with a floppy energy, symbolising the position of the woman. Once again using the hand metaphor, the hand slicing across the neck/body leading into a roll, implies the submissive nature a woman is suffocated into by the force of a man when in an abusive relationship.

Task Five

We have chosen to vary and fragment the motif explained in Task 4. We decided that this motif could use some variation to make it more of a group dance. The movements are quite simple but leave a lot of room for interpretation from the audience. We thought this phrase could benefit from some variation to make it more interesting to the audience whilst still communicating the same ideas.

We have made the direction of the kick so that all four dancers would face the front. Then we varied the motif by having each of the four dancers perform the same slicing motion across the body but in different directions. This created all kinds of different air pathways and gave the idea of simultaneous movements but with the same running theme. this then makes the motif look more developed as a group dance then a solo.

Task Six

Some ideas for the stimulus using improvisations could be using phrases from the poem to convey the intention. Researching could also be an idea as we could find cases of what a woman has gone through and try to communicate that into the dance. Portraying a particular mood or emotion from this issue could also be portrayed in the dance as this topic is very strong.

Some exercises for improvisation could include taking the stimulus from another task in 2.6 and creating a 32 count phrase, then develop the phrase by varying with choreographic devices, different facings and directions etc. another exercise could be to create different individual movements based on one of the stimulus above, add a different choreographic device (canon, embellish, retrograde etc.) on each movement, then add transitions between each varied movement to create a flowing phrase.

We got the year 11’s to improvise and come up with a 32 count phrase for this task so they could put a bit into the dance. We made them use their knowledge of domestic violence, encouraging them to be as imaginative as possible using different elements to show this. This is what they came up with:

 After the year 11’s were finished completing their 32 count phrase, we asked them to vary the phrase by exploring the space, timing, dynamics and making them emphasise the important motifs through the use of stillness or strong focus etc.

The improvisation skills did not just work well for the year 12’s but also for the year 11’s. This worked very effectively when all the members in the group were participating and throwing in ideas. This was shown through how effective it was to make slight adjustments to the year 11’s dance and the impact it had on the emotions this conveys.


Task Seven

The group decided to exaggerate the movements, to emphasise contrasting energies we are trying to portray. The dancer in front bending the knees further into a lower position while the dancer behind is at a higher level puts more emphasis on the weak and limp energy. Immediately after, the energy changes to sharp. Due to the lower position in the movement prior to this movement, the contrast is more evident and the idea of suffocating is more visible.

The group decided to have the two pairs mirroring each other with one pair towards the front of the stage and one towards the back instead of performing the movement in unison. This then makes the more interesting, simply by changing the direction of one pair.

To give more of a dramatic effect, we suspended the toe rise (at the end of the dance) at its peak and contrasted it with quick travelling movements that followed after. This makes the different levels the focus and hopefully the audience will receive the idea we are trying to communicate. This is an important point in the phrase as we wanted to emphasise how the different levels symbolise the dominance over a women in an abusive relationship.

 



 

Reflection

1)      The standard is titled Choreograph a group dance to communicate an intention.  How well do you think your final dance communicated your intention based on a social issue? Why or Why not?

I believe that this Choreography communicated the intention, domestic violence in many different ways. The use of special elements like levels communicated the dominance of the relationships as one is the abuser and the other abused. Overall, I believe this dance was successful in conveying the intention of domestic violence.

2)      What were the key motifs/movements that were developed in your choreography to communicate the intention? Give specific examples of the move (post photos to back up your explanation if that helps). How obvious do you think these are in the final performance?

We have communicated this through the use of hand movements, for example, during the dance there is a part where it is a puppet motion and then a chocking motion, this conveys to the audience that the dominant partner likes to treat the other as a puppet to get them to do what they want and they can threaten them to do it. Therefore, I believe that this message is definitely shown through the use of key motifs.

3)      How have you used you knowledge of the Components of Dance (Elements, Devices, and Structures) and you knew found understanding of Choreographic Processes from 2.6 to choreograph for this standard? Give specific examples where possible.

I have used the components of dance and the finding and understanding of choreographic processes from 2.6 to understand that you can take a particular movement and work that into a phrase and manipulate it so it flows, putting it together to give an in-depth, moving piece. I have also learnt that you don’t have to specifically use a particular move but you can use the emotions you are feeling or the life experiences to have and put them into a dance.

4)      Comment on your contribution to the collaborative choreographic process? On a scale of 1-10 (1 being very little and 10 being a lot) how much did you contribute to the final choreography.  Give some specific examples of ideas you contributed that you are particularly proud of.

I believe I have contributed to this dance on a scale of about 5. I gave some ideas towards what some of the movements could look like and the message they can convey about the intention. An example of one of the moves I came up with is the solo part that one of the dancers had. I would have liked to contribute more to the dance movements as I had a few idea about what the movements should look like. I liked to think I helped out with coming up with some of the ideas that we could tweak the dance movements, for example, from flexed feet to pointed feet to make the dance a bit more cleaner and making the audience look at the movement of the whole dance instead of a particular person.  

 

This video is the performance done by the year 11's conveying the intention: