Lesson two: Using the Chance Method

In today’s lesson we tried using the Chance method to create new phrases of movement in groups. We were split into five groups and were each told to bring in an object from home that we could use as a stimulus. My group chose a watch as we thought we could generate intricate, sharp and angular choreography as well as soft and circular movements. We then went around everyone’s object and wrote different thoughts and feelings that we felt when looking at the stimulus. 

The first object we looked at was a picture of a Banksy painting called ‘No Future.’ Some of the words we wrote down were, lost, pain, innocence and hopelessness as the girl in the painting looked hurt and upset. The second object we looked at was a plant. We wrote down, growth, intertwined, earth and cascades as it reminded us of a waterfall with the leaves dangling over the side of the plant pot. The third stimulus we looked at was a drawing of a hand.  The words we used to describe it were never ending, identity, DNA and continuous. We then looked at another picture of a had but this time the image was darker and more simplistic. Some words we thought of were blindness, spying, sinister and trust. The final stimulus we looked at was the watch. Some words we wrote down were constant, geometric, anticipation and loop. 

Our next task was to choose three words from any of the ones we wrote down after looking at all the stimuli. My group chose constant, DNA and anticipation as they were all very different and would generate contrasting movements. We had to come up with four different moves taking inspiration from each word, therefore ending up with 12 moves. We then numbered them 1-12. Our teacher used an app to roll a 12 sided dice, she came up with a random set of numbers. 1,11,6,9,8,9,6,2,10,5,12,7,10,3,4. This became our sequence of movement.

 Using our numbered movements we followed the sequence of numbers and fit the movements to it. We had to add transitions between them to make them link and flow, so they would work together in the sequence. Creating transition movements that didn't look out of place was difficult as some of our movements started on the floor and others would begin standing. We were then asked to choose a number between 1 and 4. My group chose 2. This decided our music that we had to dance our piece too. Our music was called Fade Away- instrumental by Zack Hady. 

Overall I think this task was very successful in creating a unique and intricate phrase as the Chance method helped us create phrases of movement that we wouldn’t normally piece together. It allowed more guidance in the Movements we created and meant each movement had a purpose, direction and feeling. 

Comments

  1. Lucy Athorns choreographyOctober 18, 2020 at 10:07 AM

    You have structured this post exceedingly well and from your blog I understand the tasks you had been assigned. I like how you have shown us the words you chose for the different stimulus' as it gives the reader an incite into how you might interpret the choreography. Was there anything you found difficult about this task e.g. the chance method. If so could you explain why?

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  2. Erin TaylorOctober 23, 2020 at 5:44 AM

    Thank you for your comment Lucy! Some things that I found difficult when using the Chance method was that it didn’t give me much freedom in my creative thinking. It was very much structured for me and didn’t allow me to think out side the box in ways that I would have liked, however the guidance it created allowed me to think in ways that I wouldn’t normally which helped me to expand on my knowledge of creating choreography!

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  3. Storm IdeOctober 27, 2020 at 6:39 AM

    This is an excellent blog post with copious amounts of detail, describing each task of the lesson. I found it very interesting to see some of the words that you wrote down in relation to the other stimuli people brought in as it shows your thought behind each word, making sure they directly relate even if in an abstract way. Why do you think you decided to pick your three chosen words to create movement around? Did you find that they sparked the most ideas?

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    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 7, 2020 at 12:32 AM

      Thank you for your comment storm! I decided to pick these three words as they definitely gave me the most ideas. My group thought they were all very different words and that we could create a range of movement from them!

      Delete
  4. Devanshi GanatraNovember 12, 2020 at 2:30 PM

    I also found the words that you chose to be very interesting! They could produce some rich choreography. However, was it challenging to create movements from the more abstract words?

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    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 15, 2020 at 12:14 AM

      thank you for your comment devanshi! It was definitely more challenging to creat movement from the more abstract words as I wasn’t as used to using them in every day life. But I found that the more abstract words created more unique movement. This was helpful in our final piece as it was unlike any of the other groups as our movements were unusual.

      Delete

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