Dance can be described as an art that can express meaning through movement. The dance video “Barrier” by NobleMotion Dance was performed at the City Wide Dance Festival in 2009. “Barrier” is a well known theatrical dance used to please others. The choreographer of “Barrier”, Andy Noble uses two dancers to describe a romance that is trying to overcome a dark place in their relationship, together they reveal that love conquers all using the choreographic elements space, time and energy.
The choreographic element space refers to the amount of space or distance that the dancer’s body moves. Noble uses the element Space through levels. Levels are the height in space at which the dancer moves such as high, medium or low. As the level changes the dancers are allowed to create different effects. An example of levels, from the video, would be at the beginning of the dance when both dancers are facing the wall and they are standing at a medium level, but shift to a low level as their arms are pulling down towards the floor. The usage of levels is unique to me because it is displaying the highs and lows in a relationship. Another example of space that Noble uses is focus. The Focus is used to grab the
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The choreographer uses rhythmic patterns of the music as an element of time. A rhythm pattern is a repetitive pattern of beats. The rhythmic patterns of the music in the video are fast, but remains the same throughout. The choreographer uses the fun upbeat to convert the dance into a story. Another example of time that is used is stillness. In which the definition is used in reference to the absence of motion. The dancers use this element whenever they roll over into an embrace grasping each other while they are in the low position on the ground. This is unique to me because the embrace shows that the two dancers in the story have a physical
I had the pleasure of being in Western Kentucky University Dance Department’s concert, An Evening of Dance. The performance took place on April 29th through May 2nd in Russel Miller Theatre. It consisted of many works from faculty and guest artists. I felt like the concert was a success and that the choreography was all unique in its own way. I enjoyed the pieces that I performed, and the ones that my fellow company members were in. Through the analysis of “Petrichor”, I found that each production and chorographic element plays a large part in the successful outcome of a dance and emotional responses can be evoked by the simplest ideas.
After watching the videos most made me feel same as in our book Bill T. Jones says, “Make something beautiful…Make something that comes honestly from you. Dare to fail.” That is exactly ho I felt after watching most of the videos. They were full of emotions and contact. The movements were very touchy feely and emotional with a story to tell; especially, the one called “What is contact improvisation?” I did reminded me of some of the previous choreographies we watched. I most of the videos there was a lots of ballet movements except the “Rennie Harris Puremovement │ Jacob 's Pillow Dance Festival 2009," which I actually enjoyed the most. I also did see some jazz, and musical, but not tap. If I look at previous video from Bob Fosse and his “Sweet Charity”, I don’t really see any connection between the videos we have see in this chapter.
Another choreographic device is transition, which is used frequently to transition dancers between scenes, and sections in the dance. In this scene, Lady Jane transitions when she comes into her new home, provides Mathinna with shoes, teaching Mathinna how to read and finally sending Mathinna to bed. Conversely, spatial elements – or the space, as well as patterns, that is physically made on the stage, in the air or ground – has been expertly utilized to give the dancer a reason to move. For instance, in this production most positive space used is centre stage and all unattended space is negative space. Page, however has choreographed this dance in a way where most of the space is pranced upon at least once in the scene. Mathinna is representative of a narrative styled choreographic dance. This enhances engagement with the audience by providing a captivating story line to correspond with effective dance style. The unmistakable contrast between the two dances underpins this powerful historical story. Furthermore, the expressions used by Mathinna suggest that she is impatiently longing to be reunited wither tribe; disheartened and troubled by the fact that she misses her
Every dance that is created by a choreographer has a meaning and or purpose behind it. The dance choreographed could be used to send a political, emotional, or a social message. Regardless of the message being sent, each dance created possesses a unique cultural and human significance. This essay will examine and analyze two dance works from history and give an insight into what each dance work provided to the society of its time.
The sadness and seriousness of the dance is expressed by the color tones in the costumes and lighting. The whole scheme is dark and neutral; there is no color throughout the whole piece. The lighting the entire time is very dim. The background is completely black and a very dim light is shined on the dancers when they are dancing. This makes the tone very somber, and when paired with the music and costumes, really makes the entire mood of the dance come together. The costumes are very plain and simple. They are sleeveless tank tops and gaucho pants for the men, and a plain long brown dress for the girls. It should also be noted that they are barefoot, and have no accessories on. The choice of these costumes sets a realistic backdrop. Additionally, these costumes demonstrate their lack of individuality and freedom since they are all wearing identical
Learning about Dance: Dance as an Art Form and Entertainment provides visions into the many features of dance and inspires scholars to keep an open mind and think critically about the stimulating, bold, ever-changing and active world of dance. Learning about Dance is particularly useful for those who do not have a wide and diverse dance contextual, such as students in a preliminary level or survey dance course. This book consists of twelve chapters. Chapter one dance as an art form focuses on the basic structures of dance. Dance is displayed through the human body, it has the control to communicate and induce reactions. Dance can be found in many different places, it enables the participants and seekers to touch and knowledge the joy of movement. Dance is discovered as being one of the oldest art forms worldwide. Dance existed in early cultures was recognized in a sequence of rock paintings portrayed dance. Since this discovery of rock paintings, several other forms of art have been found that depict dance. People used rituals in order to worship the gods and believed that the rituals held magical and spiritual powers. During the ancient period civilizations sentient decisions began to be made with regard to dance. Other periods that had an impact on dance were the medieval period, the renaissance period, and the contemporary period. Chapter two the choreographer, the choreographer is a person who comes up with the movements created into a dance routine. The choreographer expresses themselves through choreography because this is their way of communicating with the audience. In order to be a choreographer you must have a passion for dance. Each choreographer has their own approaches and ways of making up a routine. Choreographers ...
José Limón left more to the dance community than a collection of marvelous dances and the memory of his own powerful performance. He developed a technique, a specific style of dancing, that could be passed on to future generations of dancers and choreographers. Throughout his career, José touched hundreds of audiences with dances that expressed a profound understanding and respect for the joy and pain of the human experience. In his own words, he sought “demons, saints, martyrs, apostates, foods and other impassioned visions” to shape his choreography. To him, dance was more than a series of well-executed and ingeniously shaped movements; it was the inevitable expression of the human spirit. Limón’s dancers were taught to transcend their rigorous technical training in order to find their own dramatic and emotional motivations for
In the beginning, the dancers start on the ground and in the motions of the music and essentially “slipping” through the past there was this rise and sink motion that was fluid. Both dancers arced, spoked and carved. Renee made lots of lines with her entire body as he held her straight (horizontally) in his arms and she also arced as she put her arms around him to hang on to him and as she let go of him she continued to make circle with her feet. In addition, in the beginning of the video, they created an infinity symbol with their legs and feet to an extent signify the past as always being a part of your life even after you slip through and let go.
Overall time helped demonstrated the masses’ movement unity as they moved with the time and the individual’s struggle as she moved contrary to the group’s time. The dance began with a lively Bach movement, which created a feeling of excitement as the mass of dancers moved with increasing speed. The short duration needed to complete movements, regularity of the music, and repetition of dance patterns of the group established their synchronization with time. In contrast, this allegro tempo created a nervous, rushed feeling for the individual woman, which established her contradiction to the groups perception of time. The sharp, sudden adagio tempo change in Part 2 created an uneasy mood, while establishing distrust and tension between the individual woman and the masses. The stillness of the mass dancers in response to the woman in Part 2 exemplified this segregation. As the tempo slowed in Part 4, an element of sadness and isolation was apparent in the individual woman’s movement. In contrast, this tempo change for the group created an intimacy between the individual heterosexual couples. This intimacy further isolated the individual women and demonstrated her movement against groups perception of time. The changes in tempo of music and dance movement complimented the third element of dance, dynamics or
Through dance and movement, the storyline were expanded with the assistance of choreographer, Garth Fagan. A well-renowned choreographer for his innovative choreography primarily for Garth Fagan dance, Fagan used his unique style of choreography to the Lion King by combining a variety of Ballet, Jazz, Modern Dance, African Dance and Balinese Dance to suggest representations of nature without making a replica itself and use dance to help tell the story (Exploring the Lion King, 2010). Taymor’s idea of expanding the film by adding in choreographic elements not only will set the overall concept, it would additionally guide the visual aesthetic by allowing dance as the main element that balances musical numbers in all categories: effects, music and so on into the choreography (Bluemental et al 210:1999). Both Fagan and Taymor gave major contributions to the different styles of dance and performance techniques from around the world creating the precision and versatility that is being portrayed in the musical. In order to create the ideal staging of the hunting lionesses, flying dancers in the aerial ballet to the takeover of the hyenas at Pridelands, the collaboration between Fagan and Taymor gave suggestions of how these movements being performed with grace and poise using different dance styles and are cultural based be the forefront of the production(Taymor 148:1997). By looking at three notable dances in the musical, this chapter will analyse the presence of dance and movement being portrayed in the musical and how are these dances create the drama, still giving the idea of moving in an African Savannah. Furthermore, this will give an insight to all challenges and pitfalls both Fagan and Taymor endured during the development of the...
Modern dance has an abstract theatrical theme movement of the shoulders and expressing through motion and sharp floor works, however; it pays more attention on the inner self of the influence on classical ballet.
[6] Cohen, Selma Jeanne. International Encyclopedia of Dance: A Project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
Rhythm can be broken down into different elements. Specifically pace, tempo, pulse and meters. This elements organize the time in the music, and time has an enormous affect on tension and repose. Pace is considered the "rate of activity for any musical element, perceived in relation to some norm" (Funes, 1992. pp.
None of the colors are in-your-face bright, which can make a painting feel cold and unwelcoming unlike Degas’ painting which feels welcoming and happy. The last technique Edgar Degas used in his painting, The Dance Class is space. Space is an element of art that helps distinguish the positive and negative areas of a piece of art and gives a painting depth. In the painting Degas gives everyone their own space and does not cluster people together. All the dancers have their own space without looking separated from one
Which nation comes to one’s mind when talking about the perfect embodiment of man-made choreography, the ballet? Most of the people would ascribe it as the peculiarity of Russian culture. Even though Russian ballet is regarded as one of, if not the most outstanding schools concerning the genre, it is thought-provoking to see, when we examine the evolution and history of this particular mean of dancing, that things are more complicated than they might seem. Cultures, in general, can never be “interpreted in any “essentialist” sense” as they “tend not to be monolithic” since they constantly experience internal as well as external impacts (van Damme 378). Consequently, certain traditions and in this regard, cultural artifacts, such as ballet,