Lesson six: choreographing the opening of the piece

 In lesson six we were asked to work on our 10 minute group piece, working on whatever section we felt needed work. My group decided to start from the beginning and enhance and develop our beginning marching motif. We wanted the choreography to be powerful and show order and routine as we move as a unit to give a impact to the beginning of our piece. 


To start we decided to add on some choreography to the marching motif. We brainstormed and experimented with different ideas such as marching all in one direction, in straight lines and diagonal to see which was more effective in brining our vision of unity and precision to life. Through experimenting with different possibilities we were able to come up with a phrase of movement that we felt reflected the theme and linked with the previously choreographed motif. We wanted this section to be emotionless with our faces but almost scary in atmosphere so we made sure everyone knew the counts and choreography, to ensure we stayed in time. We worked on spacing and arranging ourselves in formations that we’re pleasing to the eye. (Please see attached link for video evidence of choreography)  To gather inspiration for this section we looked at Shaolin Monks training. The aggression, power and unity they create through their martial art movements is something we wanted to come across in our choreography.  


https://youtu.be/njiuok9mEK8


At the end of the lesson we performed our section to the rest of the class and they gave us some feedback. Having our peers give us feedback helps us to notice things that we can’t while dancing. It would also help us gage how and audience would view our piece as an outsider looking in and review the effectiveness of our choreography and dynamics. 

Some of the feedback we received was: 

  1. Make sure our lines are straight 

In our next rehearsal we will review and rehearse this as it is an important factor of showing order and precision. To do this we could keep and eye on the person at the front of each line, and line up with them. 


2. We were very neat and precise 


This is a positive and shows that our work in rehearsals is paying of and is clear to the audience. 


3.Our gestures and movement linked to the theme 


This is also a positive and will help to convey the sections theme. 


At the end of the lesson my group had a discussion about music and what sort we wanted to have as the soundtrack to our piece. We decided as a group that we wanted songs with no lyrics so we can convey our our own story and emotion without the interference of lyrics. As for each section of our piece there is a different emotion we wanted to incorporate a range of songs with contrasting dynamics and rhythms as well as volumes to keep our piece alive and engaging to watch. 

Comments

  1. Abigail DowseOctober 26, 2020 at 5:49 AM

    I really enjoyed reading your blog and thought you have gone into a lot of detail and exploration of the marching motif. You have put the fact you wanted this motif to come across 'emotionless' do you think you have portrayed this?
    Also, try including video evidence of your marching motif so that the reader can link the written blog to the movement.

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    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 7, 2020 at 12:23 AM

      Thank you for your comment abi! I think I have portrayed the emotionless quality of this phrase and as a group we discussed how successful we thought we were and we were all very positive. I have added a link to the marching motif.

      Delete
  2. Lucy Athorns choreographyNovember 5, 2020 at 9:28 AM

    The presentation of your blog is very appealing to me and I can clearly see what the task was within the lesson. I like how you have added feedback from your classmates as it shows that you care about your end choreographic result. Did you enjoy getting feedback from your classmates and what was the most important feedback you received?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 7, 2020 at 12:24 AM

      Thank you for your comment Lucy! I really enjoyed getting feedback from my classmates as it gave me an outsiders perspective and allowed me to see what they thought and felt as an audience. I would like to continue to show and receive feedback from classmates thought the choreography process!

      Delete
  3. Storm IdeNovember 8, 2020 at 11:55 AM

    This is a very well structured blog post, giving me an insight to the area of creation you are in this week. Including some of the feedback that you received and mentioning how this made you feel/ how you will improve this was a really nice addition to your blog. How did you decide on finding music that would work with your stimulus? Did you all find specific songs and compare them or did you research into them as a group? Did you find one way more effective than the other?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 9, 2020 at 1:19 AM

      Thank you so much for your comment storm! When looking for music we searched individually and then came together as a group to compare them. Using this method helped us find a range of music genres as different people were able to find styles of music through there search. So when picking music for each section we had lots of different choices.

      Delete
  4. Devanshi GanatraNovember 14, 2020 at 5:30 AM

    I love that you explored a range of options to reach the one that was most successful. It must have made your choreography more complex than if you had settled for an initial idea, and the effect comes across in the video! Did you consider that it might be difficult to use so many pieces of music?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 14, 2020 at 11:59 PM

      Thank you for your comment devanshi! We did consider that it might be difficult to used lots of different music but as a group we decided that as each section has a different emotion we wanted to find a piece of music that complimented it.

      Delete

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