Week 10- Studio Performance
Now that my choreography is complete, I reviewed the original learning outcomes. One of these was to demonstrate the application of theories, processes, devices and technical dance skills to choreograph, create and design original dance to pre-selected stimuli. I believe I have, to the best of my ability, incorporated Wayne McGregor's creative process whilst choreographing. There are many moments within the dance where I spell out a word using my body, these include the words fish and also pressure. I also viewed the letters of the these words as 3D objects that I had to try and move around.
In addition to this, I have included variety of choreographic devices within my piece. These include, augmentation, repetition, embellishment and retrograde. Each of these devices have been chosen as they all link to my stimuli - climate change and pollution. Augmentation is used towards the end of my choreography. I chose to incorporate this device within this specific stage of the piece due to the fact that each movement then influences the next just how our actions the influence bigger consequences. Repetition is used to represent how we repeat our actions even though we are aware of the dangers, moreover it's included to remind the audience the origin of a fossil fuel. Furthermore, embellishment is moved as a way of portraying how we may try and alter our actions but not completely and retrograde is to show how we wish we could turn back time and undo the mistakes we have made.
After watching back my studio performance and also receiving feedback from Miss Norman I realise what needs editing before the assessment. I need to work on my performance to help engage the audience as it's a very powerful piece of music but my performance did not match the intensity. I also need to be more committed to my movements, to work on this I need to practice as much as possible. By working on my performance it will help keep the audience engaged throughout the piece as my energy levels increase towards the middle and the decrease towards the end and so this needs to be represented in my face as well as my body movements.
The feedback which I received from creative sessions 1, 2 and 3 have been very useful in helping me build this choreography. I have been told that I need to use more levels in my work and so made sure in my choreography that many different levels were included, this also helped me add to my stimulus as the picture showed an abundance of levels.
Well done Niamh, this is a very detailed blog post. I like how you have included your corrections and how you will apply them. Now that these have been applied to your solo are you happy with the final outcome of your solo?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, I feel like I still need to refine things but in my opinion I have tried my best to fulfil all of my objectives that I set myself earlier on during the creative sessions.
ReplyDeleteFrom watching, and critically reviewing multiple Wayne McGregor works, have you drawn inspiration from any of his movements? You have said you used lots of his techniques for choreographing but have his movements had a direct impact on your choreography?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Nathan, I feel that McGregor uses a lot of physicality in his choreography and also a lot of my interpretations of his pieces include vulnerability. Reflecting on this, I realised I has to represent the feeling of vulnerability in my piece especially the idea that the Earth is so vulnerable at the moment and how everything we do has an impact on it. Therefore, in my choreography there's a movement with my hands that gives the impression of opening up which is reported throughout the piece.
DeleteHow did the Studio Performance create an impact on your creative process? What specific feedback have you received and how have you applied the feedback you received throughout the creative process? By using your video to reflect on your solo, are there any last-minute additions and/or changes edits you feel may be required to your work and has the application of feedback made the work more or less successful in your view? Also how will you ensure to create the best possible outcome, ensuring to sustain yourself, keeping engaged and the purpose behind your piece, throughout the duration of the choreography?
ReplyDeleteThis is a well-considered post and I feel you have shown a clear understanding of the topic, I feel the work you have produced so far is possibly around the 2:1 criteria. If you are looking to progress to a 1:1, it will be worth considering the quality of your reflective skills, research, ability to answer the questions and critical thinking. By demonstrating the ability to develop plans of action and integrating received knowledge of practitioner-based processes with evidence of varied personal research as well as critically reflecting your process (showing awareness of own strengths, weaknesses, and developing ability to compare alternative theories and analytical approaches) and considering possibilities, and their consequences to develop appropriate actions, it will offer new questions for your consideration and may help you identify areas you might not have considered with within your project. Can you ensure you have evidence of these areas within your work.
Miss Norman
Thank you for your comment Miss Norman. I feel like the studio performance altered my creative process in a way; I videoed myself and then critiqued what I saw. This is a big contrast to the previous creative process that I practised whilst coming up with the basis for my piece, which was to write down and then dance rather than watch improvisation. However, at this stage of my choreography I'm glad that I could see what it looked like from an audience's perspective. Throughout my creative process, I have received feedback such as thinking of questions to influence my movements during the question and answer choreographic device. After receiving this feedback I then did some research to emulate McGregor's creative process of "collaboration" and searched up an interview with Greta Thunberg (PBS NewsHour, 2019) to create these questions. One was "How long do we have until our world is at a critical state?" and the answer being "It doesn't matter how long we have it's thinking of ways in which we can make change now". After applying these questions and answers, it really helped me to come up with the emotions I wanted to portray as well as the movement, thus helping my piece to be more successful.
DeleteAfter watching my video I realised some things needed to be tweaked. During the video I noticed that sometimes I was too overdressed and so the audience couldn't fully see what I was doing and subsequently the overall narrative of my piece was not coming across as clearly as I would've liked. In addition to this it became apparent that I was not portraying very much emotion in my face and so I was not keeping the audience engaged throughout my piece and so I have now dedicated specific emotions in each of my stages. However, there were some strengths in my piece that I hadn't noticed until watching back the video. One of these was how some movements really complimented the music, I feel like this reflects how humanity and nature need to compliment each other in order for progress and change to be made.
Reference:
DeletePBS NewsHour (2019). WATCH: Greta Thunberg's full speech to world leaders at UN Climate Action Summit. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU [Accessed 3 Dec. 2019].
Overdressed is meant to be over crossed. Sorry
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