Workshop Ten

Workshop Ten:

Task: This workshop explores Four different tasks each set for individual dancers.

Values: The principles within this workshop vary from each task.

George: Imagining lines, extruding. From one body point collapse the line, finding and creating moments to collapse and extrude. Going through lines from two body parts or even the floor. The floor can also create a frame

Value: I chose to apply William Forsythe's 'Improvisation Technologies' in the first stage of this task, challenging George, this method emerged from Forsythe's experience of ballet, and within that, there is the concept he has that embraces the geometric essences of ballet technique and applied in his own method. 

After the first task was completed, I asked George to improvise adding in 'avoidance' with this phrase, the importance of improvisation comes from Crystal Pite, and how she discovered it to be one of the most helpful and useful tools to create movement material after working with Forsythe for so long.

Outcome: The outcome for this task was clear that I feel personally the use of these methods put into my chosen tasks set out for George created some interesting and linear movement, this was a quality I find can be developed and given chance I would like to of continued to further this by adding more tools, skills, and techniques from my own choreographic choices or from my influences Forsythe, Kylian, and Pite. Overall I embrace the chosen values used in this task and think George, as the dancer, interpreted this in his own style of movement, whilst keeping in mind the style we have been working with throughout the process. I am pleased with the outcome of this task.

Sabrina: The task set for Sabrina was to investigate how 'clarity of intentions', a value that I have of my own as contemporary dance and choreographer, and have picked up on with all three Forthye, Kylian and Pite, as being important. Each video demonstrates how Sabrina has interpreted the direction I gave her, these would be to instruct in which way she would perform the phrase, what expression and style of movement she would go for.

Value: Clarity of Intentions, direction, interpretation of the dancers, making it their own.

Outcome: This task was very insightful, it was a learning experience for me in terms of finding out in which way my language was helpful, engaging, and directive. The choreographers and practitioners I am researching all talk about how the relationship between themselves and the dancers is imperative in order to comprehend any kind of desired outcome, and although some of them enjoy. The dancers taking artistic control and influencing the movement material to their own body and interpretation, like Forsythe, whilst others such as Kylian maybe don't have that same process, I found it necessary to see how within my own work this could be valuable or not. To me after watching the tasks and reflecting on them, I found it was helpful to see how if I am clear on what I would like to be done in terms of expression and intention then it can produce some really interesting movement and change the way it is performed, adding quality and dynamic to it, whereas when maybe there is less clarity then the dancer does have to take ownership a little bit more or on the other hand ask for further explanation from me, the researcher and choreographer, which is also something that shows me that I can learn to make sure my instructions and intentions for the dancers are clear and bring clarity for them for when it is important to have that clarity as sometimes, such as in a task, exploration, or improvisation for instance when instructions are helpful but can be a bit less precise and have a room for interpretation of their own.

Emily: Emily had the same layout of the task as George, she chose to take a phrase of material that we had created and used this as the foundation. From there she had to introduce the 'Improvisation Technology' of 'Folding' and applied the same values and principles as George did in his task.

Value: The value system within this task was the same as George's task and also included testing out a concept from Crystal Pite that is how she uses and introduces tools, methods, and skills that she had learned from Frankfurt Ballet, her experience in contemporary dance which I thought would be good for Emily as she has a very balletic quality and so by introducing a method she has known of but had never had to use before, it gave an opportunity to see how this challenge would affect the movement.

Outcome: When reflecting on this task I would say that it was very successful. I found the clarity of the movement shown by Emily and how she explored the concept given to her shows how she embraced this new method and applied it to her best knowledge. There could be ways in which the movement could be developed to create less static lower body however there is something so clean and almost balletic in the way she expresses through her upper body. This reminds me of Jiri Kylian and how he likes to explore ways in which body parts can be used to express and convey emotion, themes, stories, and intentions to the audience, so unknowingly Emily has explored not only one choreographer's values but also some of Jiri Kylian's.

Kirbie: The task given to Kirbie was to use a ballet phrase, we chose t use a Pettit allegro phrase, and then take this phrase and using a choreographic method or tool change the orientation. The chosen ay we did this was by using the letter 'K' and having that as the pathway for the movement and direction, therefore, changing Kirbie's orientation.

Value: I chose to use a classical ballet, petit Allegro for Kirbie as it is something she is strong at and precise when doing it. By doing this I was able to give perspective on the style I had been using, contemporary ballet, and how the line between them can be distorted. This is something all three choreographers explore and is what inspires them, therefore, it was important to e to continue using some classical ballet in the process to keep clarity on when steps are taken out of their context and when they are kept pure.

Outcome: The first video is the phrase before applying the task of using the letter 'K' as the pathway and orientation, and the second video is with this task used on the phrase. It was a good exploration seeing how keeping the classical steps true to how they would be done in ballet technique and having the pattern the thing that is altered, this almost goes against Forsythe's belief or technique of having recognizable ballet steps but doing them in unique ways in which you would have never seen them done before, therefore, making it difficult to know that it is a classical ballet movement at first.