Creating
Explore (DA:Cr1.1)
a. Explore a variety of stimuli for sourcing movement to develop an improvisational or choreographed dance study. Analyze the process and the relationship between the stimuli and the movement.
b. Experiment with the elements of dance to explore personal movement preferences and strengths, and select movements that challenge skills and build on strengths in an original dance study or dance.
Plan (DA:Cr2.1)
a. Collaborate to design a dance using choreographic devices and dance structures to support an artistic intent. Explain how the dance structures clarify the artistic intent.
b. Develop an artistic statement for an original dance study or dance. Discuss how the use of movement elements, choreographic devices and dance structures serve to communicate the artistic statement.
Revise (DA:Cr3.1)
a. Clarify the artistic intent of a dance by manipulating choreographic devices and dance structures based on established artistic criteria and feedback from others. Analyze and evaluate impact of choices made in the revision process.
b. Compare recognized systems to document a section of a dance using writing, symbols, or media technologies.
Explore:
This year’s overarching theme for my school’s Arts Department is Myth, Legend, and Folklore. This provides the perfect opportunity for implementing the NCAS for Dance into my classes. One of the first hurtles my students encountered is sifting through the massive amounts of mythology, fairy tales, and traditional folklore from all corners of the world to decide what their inspiration will be. Finding the right inspiration for a piece of choreography can be difficult, especially when there is so much material to choose from. As we looked through our options, we were able to narrow down our choices based on general excitement or disinterest in a subject. Why try to force something when there’s no interest, right? Open discussions during this stage of the process were key to finding inspiration that provoked ideas, deeper conversations, and meaningful movement. I found that journaling and asking students to create inspiration journals (Sprague) is effective in getting into my students heads and seeing how they think about characters, stories, music, poetry, visual artwork, etc. to help us frame the concepts for this year’s pieces (DA:Cr1.1a). As we explored our options, I gave prompts such as “What emotions are evoked by this piece for you?” “How does your body respond to this piece of work?” “Find 2-3 simple movements that convey your first impressions of this piece.” “If appropriate, are there things you can do with your bodies that create sound?” (DA:Cr1.1b) By establishing a few simple, pedestrian-like movements, dancers were then ready to deepen their explorations of time, space, and energy as they took what began as literal “acting out” motions, and turned them into more abstract, but effective and meaningful choreography.
Plan:
One of my groups chose the story Why Frog and Snake Never Play Together. I began by dividing students into a “Frog Family” and a “Snake Family”. Each group was then instructed to research their animal family and solve this movement problem: Explore Laban’s 8 basic movement efforts, and decide which ones best exhibit your animal’s movements. With a partner, create 3 movements that demonstrate snake-like or frog-like qualities. The partner groups then rejoined the other duos in their larger animal families and together created a cohesive section of choreography using the movements they developed with their partners (DA:Cr2.1a).
After this, the dancers divided the entire story into three parts, with the first part split into three sections: (1) frog and snake meet, (2) frog teaches snake, (3) snake teaches frog. The dancers were divided into three groups, each containing members from the frog and snake families, who worked together to create movement that depicted their section of the story. Movements developed by the family groups were incorporated into these sections to demonstrate physical and cultural differences between the two creatures. Part 2 harkened back to the family dances that were initially created. The families dance together in their own groups to demonstrate the part of the story where Frog and Snake are told not to play with each other because they are different and it is against traditions and customs to behave like the other. Part 3 is the choice. This was the most challenging section for students to complete. Discussion and planning revolved around how to convey the dissonance between the Frog and Snake families while showing the possibility of peace between them even if it means going against what is customary or expected. The dancers decided to create chaos around one frog and one snake character who were dancing in unity in the center. The chaos was created using lifts, leaps, rolls, and other powerful movements to depict rage and war between the two groups, and the piece ended with the warring groups falling and the two in the middle grieving their families. This group hoped that this piece would challenge audience members to look at areas in their own lives where prejudice or judgement of others exists, and offer a different, though less popular way to view people who are different from us (DA:Cr2.1b).
Revise:
Throughout the process of creating this dance, we discussed many avenues for ensuring the greatest impact on the audience. Right up until the dance before the performance we were revising and adding movement that led to a more powerful and climatic ending. For instance, our music for Part 3 wasn’t chosen until a week before the show as we struggled to find the right feel and the right lyrics. We finally settled on My Power from “The Lion King (2019). Once that was settled we realized there was a need for movement that unified the groups for a few moments while indicating that war was about to break out. One of the dancers had experience in Afrobeat dance, and she created choreography that brought the intensity and power to match the music. The students also agreed that adding a recording of the story to be played beforehand would help clarify the meaning of the piece. This recording asked the question ‘What would you do’ at the end of the story, and then was repeated at the end of the piece to remind the audience of their own choices. The dancers were constantly reevaluating and revising their work to make it the best it could be (DA:Cr3.1a).
The dancers also used multiple methods for recording their work and revisions (DA:Cr3.1b). Video was the most popular, because it could easily be shared and offered a visual and audio file that could be used to help with clarifying work and cleaning up movement. At one point during this process, I was away for a few days and a substitute came in, and the videos from previous rehearsals proved extremely helpful to her and to the dancers. Many also used the good old fashioned pen and paper to write down their ideas, and I frequently asked them to journal about their experiences throughout the season. This helped me to see their progress in understanding choreographic elements and devices, and gave them a chance to write honestly about their work and the work of the others in the class.
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