Introduction

My name is Phoebe Thompson and I have created this blog to show the process of research and development within my Independent Project as a Third Year student at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

My Independent Project explores:

How does William Forsythe use set values within his work and what are the similarities and differences between these and the values within Classical Ballet?

With sub-questions of:

• Working from ballet and contemporary form how can I use, embrace or reject these values. Looking at William Forsythe and inspirations from Crystal Pite and Jiri Kylian.

• How can William Forsythe's techniques and values be seen within Classical Ballet and how has he recognised these and amplified them? 
  

• What within this, tends to my values as a contemporary dancer? In comparison, what are Crystal Pite's values, starting from a Classical Ballet background ad coming into the Contemporary, choreography industry?

• How in classical ballet can Forsythe's techniques and values be seen and how has he recognised and amplified them?

The process of which the research will be carried out is through task-based workshops, in which the dancers will be challenged to think about a variety of concepts as well as the initial movement. They will have to solve problems, work through tasks in creative and individual ways, work with others, use their knowledge of ballet and contemporary technique, apply new and different methods to their movement, think and consider their own values as a contemporary dancer and more within this process. 

The dancers I have used within my research all show and express an understanding and enjoyment of ballet technique and also contemporary therefore they are the dancers of which I chose to perform the final piece produced from the research. Some of the dancers used in the research were students from outside of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, this was to test my abilities to on deliverance of information and clarity of intentions as well as methods and techniques that I worked on with them through tasks.