week six, choreographic inspiration and giving feedback

 This week I was unable to attend the lesson, however my group have kept me up to date with what they did and any developments they made. In this session, they watched an extract from Crystal Pite's 'Solo Echo' (timestamp 0.15-0.18), which is described by Göteborgs-Posten as being an "expansive, masterful dance" about love, loss and acceptance. (Solo Echo | The Göteborg Opera, n.d.) Pite develops her movement from the wintry, reflective language in Mark Strand's poem 'Lines for Winter' and uses both conflict and connection between the dancers, to show how their desperation, yearning and hardship in life ends with contentment, rather than resentment. (Wessels, 2019)


(Bäcker, n.d.)

(Slobodian, 2018)

Our group was particularly drawn to the section where the dancers are reaching out to touch each other in somewhat frantic repetition, almost willing for unison and connection with each other, but never quite achieving it. The images shown above from this piece could alternatively be perceived as being restrained, which could be an interesting element for us to explore when trying to show the idea of being held back from embracing our individuality. Inspired by this, they created a short phrase with the idea of there being conflict and pressure between the dancers, each resisting the powerful influence of the other, but ultimately being drawn into unison and conformity within the group.

Here is the video of their choreography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52XpyWENsZE

After they made the short phrase, they watched and reviewed other groups choreography and gave both positives and areas for improvement. These noted will be really useful for our group to understand the impact that our choreography is having on the audience and being aware of what steps we need to improve. Here are the notes our group took, as well as the constructive feedback we received:



Once my group had sent over the video of the choreography that they created, I learnt it and then decided to explore how to add a solo element to this phrase. Due to the fact that we can only touch people from our household, we feel that it would be best to use this restriction to our advantage, by using it as an opportunity to demonstrate how people can become isolated from the crowd that is deemed to be 'popular' within society, or alternatively how people dare to break free from the social norms and embrace their individuality. The video below shows the adaptions that I created from the original group phrase. For example rather than interacting with someone else (such as pushing their shoulder or falling into their arms) I tried to show an inner conflict that a person may go through when feeling restricted by conformity within society; adding our motifs and gestures to emphasise this. This was difficult to do on my own with only the video as reference, however I think that it was good to use our time productively and hopefully adding this solo element will be an interesting addition to the quartet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLE1DuvxV0o

We have also started looking for our music, which will be an on-going task for us throughout half term, as we would all like to find some options and send them to each other, in order to deliberate and find the best match for the atmosphere we want to create within our piece. As a start, we feel it would be best to look at film soundtracks and neo-classical pieces of music, as we think that the variation of dynamics within an emotive but powerful classical piece will be the most effective for showing the different feelings and abstract settings in our choreography. 

  • En.opera.se. n.d. Solo Echo | The Göteborg Opera. [online] Available at: <https://en.opera.se/repertoire-for-dance-tour/solo-echo/> [Accessed 25 October 2020].
  • Strand, M. (2007) Knopf, A (ed.) New Selected Poems New York: Knopf Publishing Group. Available at <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50977/lines-for-winter> [Accessed 25 October 2020].
  • Wessels, L., 2019. Timeless And Uplifting: NDT1 Dances Crystal Pite. [online] Bachtrack.com. Available at: <https://bachtrack.com/review-nederlands-dans-theater-1-pite-opstal-eyal-behar-amsterdam-april-2019> [Accessed 25 October 2020].
  • GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, 2018. Solo Echo, By Crystal Pite. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JfokSokH0M&t=23s> [Accessed 25 October 2020].
  • Bäcker, M., n.d. Photos From Solo Echo. [image] Available at: <https://en.opera.se/repertoire-for-dance-tour/solo-echo/> [Accessed 25 October 2020].
  • Slobodian, M., 2018. Ballet BC Artists In Crystal Pite's Solo Echo. [image] Available at: <https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/16-a-room-s-sadlers-well-15631> [Accessed 25 October 2020].

Comments

  1. Lucy Athorns choreographyNovember 1, 2020 at 4:56 PM

    I like they way you presented your blog as its very appealing to the reader. Furthermore, I like how you have used the photos and then expanded upon the ideas your group have discussed. I have a clear image into your developing choreography and understand what your group is trying to portray. You mentioned that you are not going to come into contact with anyone from your group and how you are going to use that restriction to demonstrate isolation, which I believe to be a great idea. What do you think the audience is going to take away from this and will it affect their overall interpretation of the piece?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daisy StonierNovember 2, 2020 at 9:38 AM

    Thankyou Lucy. We hope that the audience will be able to relate to these feelings of 'not fitting in' or being the 'odd one out' and I think that this separation from other dancers will demonstrate how you can be cut off from connecting with others when you don't give in to the pressure of social norms within society. Alternatively, this separation can also demonstrate the power of individuality and the strength that a person can still have with there independence, which is something that we hope to portray in the conclusion of our piece.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LouisaBratbyNovember 15, 2020 at 3:50 PM

    I love how you have turned the disadvantage of not using contact work into a positive! I think it is a great idea to show division, because of embracing individuality, by casting out an individual by simply detaching them from the group without needing to be shown through contact work.
    What are the overall feelings you want the music to produce and help reflect into your movements?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Daisy StonierNovember 16, 2020 at 8:09 AM

      Thankyou! The first piece of music has quite an intense, haunting and repetitive tone, which we intend to reflect the continuous cycle of the pressures in society in day to day life, produces copies of people too afraid to express their individuality. Fear is also a prominent aspect of this piece of music as it has quite an eerie tone, which we we like to express in our movements to show the anxiety that follows a desperation to fit in with the crowd. Alternatively, we want the second piece of music to help create a sense of freedom and exploration, as we delve into our individuality and are finally free to express ourselves. Our movements in this section will be much more expressive and expansive, as a sharp contrast to the defined accents in the first piece.

      Delete
  4. NansonNovember 29, 2020 at 12:04 PM

    Relating to your comment above I can definitely hear the monotony in the music you have chosen, I think its very effective in complimenting your ideas. Do you think now after a few weeks you have been able to successfully apply the constructive criticism given to you?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Daisy StonierNovember 29, 2020 at 12:28 PM

    Thankyou, yes I feel as though as we have rehearsed our choreography more we have been able to work on the timing and definition of the accents of the movement to improve the impact of our piece, which will hopefully come across in our final performance.

    ReplyDelete

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