week two, the chance method

 This week each group brought in their own stimulus and we completed the same task as we had previously of spending a few minutes focusing on words or short phrases that the images and objects evoked. Afterwards, we went around the class, selecting our most intriguing words for each stimuli, until we had a long list of inspiring imagery for each.

The image that my group brought in:

photo by Rokas Aleliunas

The notes that we made on each stimuli:


From this list, we chose three words that we thought would be interesting to connect and contrast and in my group these were: 'sinister', 'protective' and 'blindness'.  We then created four movements for each of these which would encapsulate the quality and meaning of each word and numbered these from 1 to 12. Using a 12-sided die, we were given a randomly generated sequence of 15 numbers to form the order of our movements, meaning that we had some repetitions. With this, we had to develop transitions to seamlessly blend each movement, creating a new phrase from the previously disjointed choreography. 

Notes showing the movements we created for each word and the numbered sequence:


Some of the movements that we developed: https://youtu.be/gZPG08dcA70

To challenge us further, we were asked to pick a number between 1 and 4, which each corresponded to the piece of music we would have to use. The eerie and haunting nature of 'Legions (War)' by Zoe Keating complemented our sequence well, however it encouraged us to consider how we could use dynamics and our execution of each movement to make it more engaging and diverse. For example, we thought about initiating movement with intensity and force and then slowly melting out of it, to create intrigue and focus in our audience.

Personally, I found the method of using words to inspire movement to be the most effective in this session, as we had an immediate focus and intention behind our choreography, with rich imagery as the driving force for the atmosphere that we created. The idea of chance providing both the structure for our movement and the key element of music (which can highly influence the impact of your piece) was very interesting for me, as it encouraged us to transform our creation into something that we hadn't initially planned or intended, which ultimately made unique and compelling choreography amongst the groups.

References:

  • Aleliunas, R., 2019. Spy. [Illustration]. Available at: https://dribbble.com/shots/8898898-Spy
  • Keating, Z., 2005. Legions (War). [Youtube] Burlington: Zoe Keating. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlhkwHSZMyg> [Accessed 11 October 2020].

Comments

  1. Megan FosterOctober 21, 2020 at 1:20 PM

    This is a very clear and detailed blog, with the use of images and videos. When you were connecting the movements did you find it challenging to come up with transitions? And if so how did you overcome this?

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    Replies
    1. Daisy StonierOctober 21, 2020 at 9:00 PM

      Thankyou Megan. As a group I think we initially were overwhelmed by the thought of having to come up with so many transitions, however we tried not to be so regimented with our perception of what a traditional 'transition' movement would be, such as walking or simply standing up to change levels. Instead we tried to make the transitions more fluid and continuous, by working out the way we felt most natural to move from one part to the next; using different parts of our body to lead our movement and our breath to help blend each together.

      Delete
  2. Lucy ImamzadeNovember 8, 2020 at 10:43 AM

    This is a well detailed and structured blog Daisy well done! I also loved watching the movements you developed. Can you see yourself using this method in your group choreography?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Daisy StonierNovember 9, 2020 at 9:27 PM

      Thankyou Lucy! I would definitely use the words as inspiration method as I found it to be an extremely effective and quick source of inspiration that kept a focused intention behind our movement. I would be less inclined to use the chance method as it can be slightly repetitive and time consuming and may not be appropriate with decisions like our music as this needs to have a close connection to our stimulus. However, I think that it will be extremely useful for developing long sequences of movement from initially short phrases and will also help take the pressure away from making a group decision by having the choice taken away from us and instead throwing ourselves into whatever ‘chance’ leads us to develop.

      Delete
  3. LouisaBratbyNovember 11, 2020 at 9:46 PM

    I enjoyed reading how you found this choreographic method useful as it gave you structure and guidance. If the music given at the end had a very different fast paced quality, how would you have adapted your movements to fit the new tempo?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Daisy StonierNovember 14, 2020 at 2:30 PM

    Thankyou! If this were the case we would have worked less on making our movements expansive and flowing and instead focused on using sharper more defined dynamics to make sure we stayed on the music with precision effectively, rather than making it look as though we were rushing through our phrase.

    ReplyDelete

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