Erin Taylor - Advanced Independent Solo Choreography (MU60362O)

  Wayne McGregor choreographed Chroma for The Royal Ballet, premiering at The Royal Opera House in 2006. Talking about how the piece evolved in an interview with the Royal Opera House, McGregor describes how he had discussed ideas for the set and music before beginning the choreography, which was unusual for him as he would normally create in the studio without such definite stimuli. He began by taking his idea, based on the dictionary definition of Chroma,   to architect John Pawson, asking him to create a space ‘where the bodies became the architecture’(W. McGregor, 2017). He was inspired by the architects use of minimalism and wanted him to create a space where the dancers were a ‘relief from the white’(W. McGregor 2013). Pawson himself says the space he created has ‘architectural motifs of inside and outside, entrance and exit, light and shadow’ (J. Pawson, n.d) and is ‘radically transformed’ (J.Pawson, n.d) through the use of light. As the set is so basic in appearance, y...

  For my next section of Choreography, I already had a piece of music I knew I wanted to incorporate. It had a similar intensity and fluidity to that found in ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ that I mentioned in my blog titled ‘initial idea / stimulus’ which suited the pace I wanted to work at. ‘Restrictus’ by Mario Batkovic has an energy and constant pulsating rhythm that crates a busy yet not frantic atmosphere. It is more fluid than the New Order music and would allow me to experiment with and introduce curved, flowing, continuous and undulating motifs/phrases. Making my body move like liquid. It suggested a more constant form of movement, continuous and relentless. I wanted to use different levels and move with freedom. With no obvious breaks between steps shown in my first phrase of movement (clips 4 and 5) I was keen to use the physical thinking explored by Wayne McGregor in his TED talk and introduced in my blog titled ‘My Chosen Practitioner.’ To me physical thinking is the process of exp...

To begin my choreography, I wanted to experiment with the idea of something building from nothing and silence, with small seemingly insignificant movements that gradually repeat, build and develop. In relation to the butterfly effect and events leading to chaos my first creative inspiration came from the literal idea of following a butterfly and its journey. I thought about how to follow the butterfly, watching it, following it and it’s changes in direction, possibly capturing it and exploring the movement of my body as I did these things. I improvised repetitively with this in mind, getting my ideas out of my head and into movement. I made sure not to be critical and or ruthless with discarding any ideas at this stage. Instead kept moving and slowly refining until I came upon my first motif. As I began, I was also aware of how much of my storyline I wanted to give to the audience at this time. I started to question how I wanted them to feel or perceive this first phrase. ·  ...

 In December 2020 I took a workshop led by a member of Studio Wayne McGregor. From the start I found his energy and enthusiasm contagious, he spoke with his body demonstrating not just the movement itself but the feeling and emotion behind it. The style of movement makes use of the whole body which I found complimented my own movement style. We were encouraged to work with energy and physicality making use of core strength and stability. He pushed me to take risks and to not be shy and hold back. When he was dancing you could see he was completely committed, there was no doubt or regret. These qualities then led me to explore further works choreographed by Wayne McGregor. Chroma, Infra, Far and Atomos are works I have watched and enjoyed. Each piece displays sharp and precise movements with a similar fluidity. They don’t stop; however, each move is definite and clear. The dancers show control in their articulation of the body and changes in tempo and direction. I have been question...

To begin my research, I wanted to look further in-depth at the chaos theory and butterfly effect. A talk by Veritasium on youtube provided me with deeper understanding, allowing me to gain specific information and material for developing motifs within my choreography as well as new starting points for movement. The video describes how chaos was explored by Edward Lorenz who made a basic computer simulation of the earth's atmosphere. Using temperature, pressure and humidity to make his calculations he found that plotting the results created a chaotic system which never visited the same point, ending up on totally different trajectories. The pattern created by his equation looks like a butterfly as shown in the picture below.  The term chaos can be used to describe disorder or confusion, a situation that is difficult to predict. In a chaotic system you can never know exactly what is going to happen next and I would like my choreography to be portrayed to an audience in this way. Howe...

My ideas began to formulate and grow when I read about how Merce Cunningham believed ‘dance didn’t need to be used to tell a story or to symbolize an emotion; it was movement for its own sake.’ (Gross. T, 1985) He was interested in the qualities of movement and how movement reacts to music and space. In my choreography I thought I did not want to be confined by a specific idea or stimulus or have an audience react to their pre-conceived ideas, instead I wanted to let my body and movement lead the way. Although having a specific theme can prove more straightforward for building a story and creating motifs, I believe it can also be restricting and too literal. In contrast improvisation can feel too vast and free. Therefore, I realised combining the two approaches might be the way forward for me.    Words that I gravitate towards to inspire improvisation are smooth, grounded, continuous and escalating and as I explored these words further, I came across the chaos theory and the b...