Week 4
This week we looked at starting our group choreography piece. Prior to this lesson, my group had to come up with ideas and a theme in which we wanted to base our dance around. After discussing as a group we came up with the idea of War. We chose this topic as it was a topic we could educate ourselves on further in order to help create a storyline within in choreography.
We then decided to each go away and research one person who had an experience with war, whether that be a child who left their parents, a soldier, a housewife etc. I looked at Travis Williams who was a soldier in the Iraq War in 2005. His story was about being the only soldier left to survive leaving him feeling distressed and guilty throughout the rest of his life. Travis Williams quotes he wants to "live the memory in which they didn't get to live" (NPR, 2013, online). This quote really expresses how he feels pressured to carry on living his life despite his past traumas, which I am hoping I will be able to express in our choreography.
Coming back to the lesson, we discussed our research together and separated our choreography into small sections:
1- marching
2- teamwork/coming together
3- countdown
4- chaos
5- fear
6- ptsd
7- minute silence
From here, in pairs, we chose one section to create a motif on. Nathan and Louisa chose 'marching', Myself and Erin chose 'coming together' and finally Ella and Caitlin chose 'fear'. Due to current circumstances myself and Erin found it hard to show teamwork without being able to use contact work, however we used unison and repetition to overcome this issue. Then - once each group had made their motifs- we came together and taught one another our motifs while testing out pattern and spacing.
Overall, I really enjoyed this lesson as our choreography is starting to come other. Looking back, I feel although we are all working well together as a team so I am excited for the upcoming weeks where we get to develop our choreography even further.
References:
NPR Choice Page, (2013), [ONLINE}, Available at https://choice.npr.org/index.html?origin=https://www.npr.org/2013/05/25/186560432/sole-survivor-iraq-rescue-mission-ended-in-tragedy , (accessed on 13th October 2020)
I really like the effort you have gone into for the presentation. Adding your opinion in the blog really shows your thoughts about the lesson. I noticed you all went away to research separately, was this method effective?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Abigail, yes this method was very effective as it allowed us to have a closer insight on the topic we chose. However after discussing as a group, we decided not to portray these characters individually however use their background and experience as a way to help us show emotion as a group throughout the piece.
DeleteI like how you have all done your own research and used this to create your final idea, showing great teamwork with each other. I also like how you have split your piece into smaller sections to create a good structure of the piece. You spoke about how you all chose words in smaller groups to create a small motif to, how did you find this task?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Megan, we chose which word we did by putting our hands up to whichever one interested us the most. However the actual task was very difficult for me and Erin due to the current current situation and us not being able to use contact however like I said in my blog we overcome this by using choreographic devices.
DeleteThis blog post is extremely informative and it has allowed me to understand your thoughts and ideas behind your chosen stimulus. I really enjoy how you have thought about what you can do in the future to enhance you performance, etc. by researching the topic further, allowing you to achieve a deeper understanding of the matter. Do you believe that researching into this further and looking at individual stories such as Travis Williams will allow you to connect to the emotions that need to be portrayed throughout the dance? If so, how do you believe this will effect your overall performance of the dance?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Storm, Yes I feel although this research will help us portray and develop a deeper emotive side to our piece and will allow us to bring emotions like guilt and loss into our choreography. This will then emotionally impact the audience as they will also feel these emotions and it will be as though the audience are in and apart of our choreography. I feel as though this aspect is really important as the audience then gets educated on the topic of our piece allowing them to truly understand the distress and guilt of these soldiers no matter which war they were apart off.
DeleteThis blog is detailed and clear containing relevant and informative information based upon your group choreography. I feel your chosen idea is really interesting and I look forward to seeing your final product. I like how you all independently researched different people who were effected by the war and their backgrounds. I also like how you have created sections as it allows you to follow along a clear structure. Did you face any challenges during this task?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Bella, Yes me and Erin found it difficult to convey the idea of teamwork without touching each other (due to current situations). However we overcome this by leaving spaces between our arms and using choreographic devices as a way to develop this motif.
DeleteI feel our group is working really well with coming up with ideas and making sure each one of us is heard. As we did not decided to follow our original ideas to use the people we researched, do you think this could become useful in a later stage of the piece?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Eloisa. Yes, I defiantly still feel like this research will be reverent to our choreography as it allows me to understand and empathise with what the soldiers had to go through and hopefully this is something I will be able to express to the audience with the use of facial expressions and body language.
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