As we come to the close of our first semester, I realized I have started to really define my process. It's not completed yet, and I have accepted that it will constantly be a work in progress. I started to realized what I value in dance and creating dance and I started to define some ways to achieve that.
1. I've started to really value the idea of choreographing to music. However, I'm not sure I choreograph to music in the same way the rest of the world does. Having a strong background in tap dance has really played a role in this. When I improvise in tap, I often like to dance in stop time. I like finding sound inside the silence, creating rhythm inside emptiness. That carries over into my contemporary modern choreography. It impacts the way I hear the music and the rhythm of the body.
2. I value the idea of movement coming from within. When dance is created from shape to shape, in my eyes, it lacks that extra texture; it becomes two dimensional, it isn't as full as it could be. I think when you can harness your internal energy, you are able to create movement that stands more true. This movement that stems from personal energy, is more organic and has a more consistent and aesthetically appealing flow.
3. From that awareness of internal movement, I have found a strong passion for creating movement from imagery. I have realized that I have a strong pull towards imagery related to sand. This image of sand is something almost everyone in the world can relate to, it is something almost everyone has had some relationship to. My favorite image is that of the wet sand you use to build a sand castle. Imagine this with me, close your eyes: Imagine you have a handful of wet sand and you let it start to slip through you fingers. It plops down onto the ground in a pyramid type fashion thicker at the bottom and thinning out the higher it goes until it reaches a perfect peak at the top. Now, lay down on the floor on your side, imagine the bottom of your spine, close to your sits bones, as the base of this sand pyramid. As you sit up, imagine your spine is the sand slowly, elegantly dropping down towards the ground and now with little effort, you have sat up straight, balanced and ready to move in any way you wish. You can chose to then swirl your sandy spine as if in a windstorm, or maybe it collapses back down as if a wave came in a crashed over that sand pyramid. Or perhaps someone came and knocked it over from the middle, and you are forced to initiated movement from your rib cage. This idea can then be applied in a technique class. When you have to move from shape to shape, sand imagery allows for easier flow in the movement process. When you have to come in and out of the floor, it is nice to have this picture of dropping sand to allow for a smooth transition.
4. The last thing I have learned to value, which also stems from the internal energy idea, is the concept of repeating a movement or phrase to the point of exhaustion and seeing what the natural change/progression is. When you continuously repeat something, you start to falter, you lose momentum and energy, but that doesn't mean the movement loses quality or value, it just loses "steam." There is something raw and beautiful about the organic change from that "full steam ahead" moment dwindling down to that very final, and exhausting "chug-a-chug-a" moment.
Any process is ever changing and growing, that's part of the word "process." It grows, changes, and evolves. This is just the start of my process. Each thing will grow, change, and evolve but this is where it will begin.
1. I've started to really value the idea of choreographing to music. However, I'm not sure I choreograph to music in the same way the rest of the world does. Having a strong background in tap dance has really played a role in this. When I improvise in tap, I often like to dance in stop time. I like finding sound inside the silence, creating rhythm inside emptiness. That carries over into my contemporary modern choreography. It impacts the way I hear the music and the rhythm of the body.
2. I value the idea of movement coming from within. When dance is created from shape to shape, in my eyes, it lacks that extra texture; it becomes two dimensional, it isn't as full as it could be. I think when you can harness your internal energy, you are able to create movement that stands more true. This movement that stems from personal energy, is more organic and has a more consistent and aesthetically appealing flow.
3. From that awareness of internal movement, I have found a strong passion for creating movement from imagery. I have realized that I have a strong pull towards imagery related to sand. This image of sand is something almost everyone in the world can relate to, it is something almost everyone has had some relationship to. My favorite image is that of the wet sand you use to build a sand castle. Imagine this with me, close your eyes: Imagine you have a handful of wet sand and you let it start to slip through you fingers. It plops down onto the ground in a pyramid type fashion thicker at the bottom and thinning out the higher it goes until it reaches a perfect peak at the top. Now, lay down on the floor on your side, imagine the bottom of your spine, close to your sits bones, as the base of this sand pyramid. As you sit up, imagine your spine is the sand slowly, elegantly dropping down towards the ground and now with little effort, you have sat up straight, balanced and ready to move in any way you wish. You can chose to then swirl your sandy spine as if in a windstorm, or maybe it collapses back down as if a wave came in a crashed over that sand pyramid. Or perhaps someone came and knocked it over from the middle, and you are forced to initiated movement from your rib cage. This idea can then be applied in a technique class. When you have to move from shape to shape, sand imagery allows for easier flow in the movement process. When you have to come in and out of the floor, it is nice to have this picture of dropping sand to allow for a smooth transition.
4. The last thing I have learned to value, which also stems from the internal energy idea, is the concept of repeating a movement or phrase to the point of exhaustion and seeing what the natural change/progression is. When you continuously repeat something, you start to falter, you lose momentum and energy, but that doesn't mean the movement loses quality or value, it just loses "steam." There is something raw and beautiful about the organic change from that "full steam ahead" moment dwindling down to that very final, and exhausting "chug-a-chug-a" moment.
Any process is ever changing and growing, that's part of the word "process." It grows, changes, and evolves. This is just the start of my process. Each thing will grow, change, and evolve but this is where it will begin.