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Evaluation and final performance

Now that my choreography is complete, I can look back on my process and review whether I had achieved my original personal objectives. I hope that this will demonstrate the effectiveness of my choreographic journey and inform my future creative processes. One of the objectives I explored was to let my body and movement lead the way and I think I have achieved this by making the time to experiment with movement in response to both story and music influences before implementing them into my choreography. Another objective was to not make the audience react to their preconceived ideas and as a result of the showings to my peers and tutor I have been able to adapt choreography and music choices so that the piece is my personal response rather than being driven by others’ opinions. I found the process of Liz Lerman’s Critical response process a valuable tool that I will use in future choreography as it helps to clarify intensions in an encouraging way that I found motivating. Understanding ...
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Review and reflection

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To clarify my intentions and the direction of my choreography I decided to formulate a table that set out my journey. Having researched Jonathan Burrows choreographic scores, I wanted to use the process of writing down my choreography to ensure I knew my timeline clearly and could then refine and reflect on its impact on an audience and how I have integrated my inspiration and research. One way Burrows used scores was to be a 'conscious way to distance you from the thing you are making or doing' (J. Burrows, 2010, p142) Having completed the table I immediately felt the clarity I was hoping for. I could see my piece as a whole, as the choreographer rather than the dancer. It has removed me from the physical action of movement and I find it easier to review and refine its impact, its cohesiveness, fluidity and emotive content. Also with the choreography now complete I have looked again at the Learning objectives. I believe I have met LO1 by continuing to research and incorporate ...
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Personal Development

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When choreographing my final section, I faced the challenge of how to formulate an ending. To overcome this challenge, I started by asking myself the question:  Do I build up to a climax? My stimuli ‘The butterfly affect / Chaos theory’ explains how a small change can lead to larger consequences, something forming out of nothing. For example, a butterfly flapping its wings and generating enough wind to cause a tornado. In my choreography showing, the audience stated that they expected an explosion of movement to happen next, a ticking time bomb ready to blow up.  I wondered whether I wanted to have an expected ending like this or could I show chaos in another way? Not uncontrolled, loose, almost throwing away each of my movements but showing internal chaos by creating insular, restricted, contained choreography, like the nucleus of the tornado. A whirlwind or storm with a fury of steps.  I wanted to create original movement that allowed me to show struggle without losing ...
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Practitioner study 2 - Wayne McGregor, Infra

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Wayne McGregor created Infra for The Royal Ballet in 2008 and was inspired by the words ‘vide infra’ meaning to see below. The piece is about the emotions that are not always visible when people communicate with each other and go about their day to day lives. Influenced by the London bombings of 2005, it explores how the city behaved as a result. People being too busy, too scared and wrapped up in their own world to interact and how things around you go unnoticed. McGregor wanted the piece to be very much about inference, a conclusion reached from evidence and reasoning. I understand this to mean an exploration of movement and emotion that uses the body to outwardly demonstrate what has been learnt from your thoughts, something you cannot explain or are too afraid to talk about. He worked with Max Richter to create a ‘piece that reveals an emotive journey across oscillating individual and societal landscapes.’ (Max Richter, 2010) exploring how the world around us and certain events can...
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Choreography showing and peer feedback 2

This week I was able to perform my choreography for a second time to my peers. The performance allowed me to gain valuable feedback as to how my choreographic process is developing. Before performing my piece, I was asked to introduce my stimulus and intention of my choreography. I stated that I wanted to portray the butterfly effect, something building from nothing and that my movements developed around the idea of the undulating flight and journey of a butterfly. Also prior to performing I asked the audience some questions to think about and answer afterwards. I hoped these specific questions would then inform my next steps. My questions and responses: Q1. How did you find the change in tempo throughout my piece? A. The tempo built slowly and seamlessly. You weren’t afraid of stillness and taking your time Q2. What do you think will happen next? A. Something big and dramatic is coming, an explosion like a ticking time bomb Q3. What did you feel during or after watching my...
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Reflection of my choreographic process so far

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As I am now over halfway through choreographing movement for my final piece, I wanted to reflect on my process so far to ensure that I am meeting the learning outcomes but also plan the remainder of my choreography. I have a clear storyline and intent behind my movement and know where I would like the piece to lead next. I intend to keep the piece building in intensity within sound and movement quality leading to an uncontrolled climax. However, I do not want the ending to be obvious and expected for example letting all my movements to become loose, expansive, and wild. I want to include these feelings in a more grounded and contained way like a tornado, a violently rotating column of energy. At this stage I have begun editing my music together creating a slow build in energy and tempo, the addition of the Natural Selection section between the silence and New Order has helped to bridge the gap between these two contrasting music styles. The clarity in music has helped me to envisage a ...
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Natural Selection Phrase

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I wanted to create a new section of movement to slot in between my beginning motif of silence and the New Order ‘Blue Monday’ section. I wanted this new section to link the silence and the contrast of music together better to ensure the piece worked cohesively. I like the juxtaposition and the unexpected change in dynamics from silence to the beat of the New Order music however I felt my choreography would benefit from a gradual build up of movement and intensity. I like the uncertainty the silence brings, and I enjoy the focus being solely on movement. After my first choreography showing and peer feedback session it was evident that I found it difficult to keep in time with the music being introduced as my silence phrase had no prompts. Therefore, finding a piece of music that had subtle sounds allowed me to keep track of where I was in the piece. After finding the piece of music ‘Natural Selection’ by Earth is Flat, its slow increase in intensity and tempo allowed for a gradual inc...
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