Week 2 – Choreographic Devices
In this lesson we looked at choreographic techniques to develop our movements. Louisa and I really focussed on unison, embellishment, contrast and inversion. Inversion is demonstrated during the port de bras back as we a mirroring one another. Then we used embellishment during the rolls in the floor by adding a leg. By doing this, it makes it more exciting for the audience. Whilst extending the leg during the roll we tried to suspend it going down to create a contrast and more of a dynamic.
The solo was based upon my star sign which is Capricorn. Each movement symbolises a word that is a trait of a Capricorn. To begin with I took my arms to fifth from kneeling to create a contrast in levels. This port de bras represents happiness as it creates a circular shape to mimic the sun which has connotations of joy. Then I rolled on the ground representing intelligence, this is because it starts up small and screwed up into a more open position. This symbolises problems that appear very complicated at first and then it changes to a more apparent and open problem like the roll. After this, I did a jump into a backward lunge to represent the word reliable as I am leaning and 'relying' on my leg to hold me up. Next, I did a rond a jambe to an arabesque to show persistence as this move has a feeling of longevity. Generous was the next word which I represented by throwing my arms out as if I was giving someone something. Then to represent optimism my arm curved up as if there was hope above. After this I tried to incorporate retrograde by rolling one way and then reversing it. This represented persistence also as even though I got knocked down I still get up. Finally, to represent stubbornness I performed a shunt and a step. To further improve I still need to incorporate more choreographic techniques.
This is not a bad start to your week 2 post!
ReplyDeletePlease title as Week 2- Choreographic Devices
Please think about the following points:
- More detail on the various choreographic devices we looked at during class is needed . (you could insert photos of the hand-out to illustrate this).
- What is the purpose of integrating choreographic devices and the exercise set in class?
- How did the integration of four choreographic devices affect your final phrase of movement?
- Did you notice any strengths or weaknesses? If so, how will you develop your weaknesses/ how did your strengths assist you within the task?
- Were you successful with the task set?
- Which choreographic devices did you use and why?
- What was the purpose of performing these tasks in front of the rest of the class?
What you have written about your zodiac task is very descriptive.
Think about:
- Do you think the purpose of the movement successfully came across to the audience?
- How did you find this creative task? Interesting? Easy? Difficult? Why?
- How did the allowance of more time affect the final product of your phrase?
- Did you notice any strengths or weaknesses? If so, how will you develop your weaknesses/ how did your strengths assist you within the task?
- What chorographic devices did you integrate and how/ why?
- Were you successful with the task set? Was it readable to the audience?
Please remember to link your videos in your writing, so as a reader there is a clear connection.
You have included interesting points, well done!
Miss Norman
Thank you for your feedback Miss Norman.
DeleteDuring the lesson we looked at various choreographic devices: canon, unison, complementary, contrast, retrograde, reverse, inversion, improvisation, repetition, embellishment, argumentation, fragmentation, rondo form, accumulation, climax and highlight. The purpose of incorporating choreographic devices is to make the piece more exciting for the audience and also to help tell a story through the dance as it helps convey the message.
The four choreographic devices that myself and Louisa used were embellishment, unison, inversion and contrast. Originally, we only really had unison as a choreographic device and so in order to incorporate the other three we needed to alter the choreography. Inversion was integrated within the piece by me changing the direction I perform my port des bras, whereas before we were both facing the same way. Moving on to contrast, we added the leaning back movement to create a distinction in dynamics as we originally felt there were little moves that we could use. We focussed a lot on unison and tried to get it in time as much as we could as we wanted to create the illusion we were in a mirror. Finally, we developed the rolls on the floor, before adding the second roll with the leg we only has the one roll, however we decided that embellishment would give the sense that something is building within the piece.
Some strengths that I noticed whilst performing the task were that myself and Louisa managed to use many different levels within the motif as we reach high and then also have a lot of contact with the floor also. However, I would say that we did not travel much during our piece and that if we were to reattempt the task we would try and make more use of the space we had.
We then performed this in front of the class to see if they could guess which devices we used. This helped us try and make the choreographic devices as much as we could so that it would obvious to the audience. Overall, I felt like we were successful in the task as the class managed to realise which four devices we used.
The second task was the zodiac task, in which we had to portray our star signs characteristics within a motif. I felt that some characteristics were more obvious than others, for example I felt that stubborn could have been more obvious within my movement. I found this task compared to the previous two more difficult as I felt that forming a movement from an emotion or characteristic was challenging, nevertheless it helped me realise what direction my own creative process was going in.
The more time I had to spend on my motif, the more I was able to critique and alter my own work. It allowed me to include more choreographic devices and think about where they were appropriate to go. The devices I included were contrast, retrograde and highlight.
Watching back my piece, I feel as though I could've made the choreographic devices more obvious to the audience. In conclusion, I feel that I could've fulfilled the task brief more but the audience seemed to be able to pick up some of the characteristics I was trying to portraying.
You have given a lot of thought into the movements you included in your zodiac piece and your explanation why they represent the characteristics is explained well. At the end of your piece you mentioned you would included more choreographic devices- I wondered which ones you think would compliment your piece?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Eliza, I feel as if accumulation would compliment my piece as this would add to the complexity and also the characteristic intelligence as things become more in depth as time goes on.
DeleteI really like the way you have gone into detail about the movements you included into your zodiac routine. Additionally, I like the way you discussed the choreographic devices you used in your duet piece. How did you find this creative task?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Rachel, I found this task more challenging than the previous tasks. This is because it was difficult for me to create a movement form an emotion of characteristic.
DeleteI really like your zodiac phrase and the description words within that sign is clearly shown throughout the phrase.Will you perhaps use a similar process when creating your own solo? And with the duet and the choreographic devices maybe provide an example where one of the devices is shown?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Hannah, I don't think I'll use a similar process when creating my solo as I found the task overall very challenging. Also an example of one of the choreographic devices we incorporated into the duet was inversion and this can be shown during the port des bras.
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