Lesson four : The beginning and the end

 In our fourth session we talked about how important the beginning and the end of choreography and our pieces are. We read pg158 of Choreography by Kate Flatt and this takes about the influences the start and finishing motifs and positions have on the audience. 

In the beginning of our choreography we should ‘present a sense of what is to come’ and ask ourselves the questions:

1. How bold or gentle do we want the first movement to be?

 2. Which dancers or characters do you want to be introduced first? 

By asking ourselves these questions we can get a sense of how we want the audience to feel and what we want them to think at the being of the piece. As a group we decided we wanted to start our choreography with the marching motif we created in the previous lesson. Here is a link to the video (https://youtu.be/W31MLA5chwE ). We wanted to start with this as we believe it is an easily recognisable motif that relates to our stimulus 'War' and gives the audience a sense of order, routine and power. There is lots of strength and rhythm in the movement and the audience is drawn into the possibilities of what could happen next. 

We then talked about the ending and how it is just as important as the beginning. From the book Choreography by Kate Flatt we came up with some questions:

1. What do you want the audience to take away?                   

  2. Is there a lasting image you want at the end?    

From these questions we decided that we wanted to end our piece with a minute silence. We thought this was another obvious motif that relates to our stimulus. It symbolises reflection, remembrance and solidarity. We then thought that we could dance to ‘The last post’ a song that is played on Remembrance Day. This would leave the audience with a powerful message and allow them to make personal connections with the music.

References:

  • Flatt, K., 2019. Choreography : Creating And Developing Dance For Performance. Ramsbury: The Crowood Press Ltd, p.158.

Comments

  1. Devanshi GanatraNovember 12, 2020 at 2:45 PM

    I very much enjoyed reading your post! Your reasons for the choices that have been made are so strong, and I look forward to the complete piece.

    We also discussed the significance of a comparison between the opening and the closing. Do you have any thoughts about the development of your piece?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 15, 2020 at 12:06 AM

      Thank you for your comment devanshi! We want the piece to develop into a storyline. We want the audience to travel through the piece with us, experiencing different emotions along the way. To do this we split the dance into sections, to help us portray clear emotional changes.

      Delete
  2. Lucy Athorns choreographyNovember 15, 2020 at 6:32 AM

    This blog post was very well detailed and I felt as though I got a clear understanding in your groups thoughts and discussions. Did these questions hinder any possible movement ideas or did they influence and initiate your piece?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 15, 2020 at 11:26 AM

      Thank you for your comment Lucy! These questions helped influence our piece as it made us think and question our thought process to make sure every movement had a reason and emotion. These questions also made us question how we want the audience to think and feel during the different sections

      Delete

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