Making Dances – Page 9

Using Video Dance To Develop Choreographic Skills

December 12, 2012 by 4dancers

by Janet Neidhardt

As a dance educator I am constantly working to find new ways of engaging my students to learn about dance and making dances. Video dance has become more popular with the growth of YouTube and the ever present flash mobs popping up all around the world. It seems everyone has the ability to capture a video on some device and even the technology to edit it has become more mainstream. I have recently heard choreographers say they might start making video dances simply because they think they will get more exposure on YouTube than they will with a performance on a stage.

Last school year I decided to try and teach my high school students how to make a video dance. Together we researched many video dances on YouTube and discussed the site specific use of the environment and the various camera positions and types of framing. With this simple basic information I sent my students off to create their video dances and when they came back I was very impressed with the clear form their videos had taken. I could see how their skills in choreography from class had transferred into the video camera choreography. Their choreographic eye used in the studio was transferred to the camera lens. I was amazed that with such little instruction my students created great works and thought if I was really able to teach them more solid video dance content how much better their projects could be.

I still felt that I needed to learn more about this growing art form of mediated dance in order to better educate my students in the future. As luck would have it I was able to attend the Bates Dance Festival in July 2012, and there I took Media and Performance with Rachel Boggia, Shawn Hove, and Peter Richards. I gained practical experience in making my own video dance as well as a wealth of knowledge from these educators on how to teach students about making compelling video dances.

This Fall I returned to school with a new group of students and assigned a more specific video dance project. I created a clear worksheet with specific “Framing”, “Camera Positions”, and “Camera Movements” vocabulary which we discussed a length while watching and critiquing various video dances online. Through discussion and analyzing the students were able to identify their aesthetic for video dance choreography with the camera lens. I then asked them to pick a location and create movement based on their location for their film shoot. I told them that the environment is another dancer in the work, movement must be in response to the space the dancing is in, use the space like a prop, go over, under, through, around, and above it. I also asked them to shoot for “continuity”, something I learned from the Bates Festival teachers. Shooting for continuity means that a movement is continued from shot to shot. It is important to shoot the same movement sequence several times from several angles to have a variety of choices. Students were more prepared this time around before they went out the film their dances. Because of this preparedness they went out to shoot their dances with more precision and ideas than the group from last year. They added music and edited their footage on their own then presented well thought out, impressive, video dance studies. They all had a clear beginning, middle, and end, and clear motifs.

Since then I have noticed that these students create more successful choreographic works in the studio. They have a sharper eye for details within movement they are performing and movement they are watching. I think that their experience with viewing movement through the camera lens changed how they see movement in a stage space. I plan to keep evolving this video dance project each year.

Some video dances we looked at in class are listed below-

Aroma 2006 by Doug Rosenberg:

Drive 2008 by Jane Osborne:

Horse:

dancer posing upside down — Janet Neidhardt

Contributor Janet Neidhardt has been a dance educator for 10 years. She has taught modern, ballet, and jazz at various studios and schools on Chicago’s North Shore. She received her MA in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and her BA in Communications with a Dance Minor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout her time in graduate school, Janet performed with Sidelong Dance Company based in Winston-Salem, NC.

Currently, Janet teaches dance at Loyola Academy High School in Wilmette, IL. She is the Director of Loyola Academy Dance Company B and the Brother Small Arts Guild, and choreographs for the Spring Dance Concert and school musical each year. Janet is very active within the Loyola Academy community leading student retreats and summer service trips. She regularly seeks out professional development opportunities to continue her own artistic growth. Recently, Janet performed with Keigwin and Company in the Chicago Dancing Festival 2012 and attended the Bates Dance Festival.

When she isn’t dancing, Janet enjoys teaching Pilates, practicing yoga, and running races around the city of Chicago

Helen Pickett: Atlanta Ballet’s New Resident Choreographer

November 19, 2012 by 4dancers

Helen Pickett started dancing at the age of eight after her mother called in and won tickets to see Nutcracker in a contest on the radio. Now, she will be taking on the title of resident choreographer at Atlanta Ballet–a three-year commitment that includes new works and an annual workshop. In-between, her life has been quite a journey.

Helen performed with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt for more than a decade and she has choreographed for companies such as Boston Ballet, Ballet X, Ballet West, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Smuin Ballet. These are just a few of the accomplishments she has garnered over the course of her career thus far.

4dancers.org asked Helen some questions via e-mail to learn more about her background and what her thoughts are in terms of signing on with Atlanta Ballet…

What is your background in dance?

At 14 started training with San Francisco Ballet School. At 19, I met William Forsythe while he was creating New Sleep for SFB. I flew to Frankfurt to see the company and take class. I started Ballett Frankfurt the next season. I moved to NYC in 1999 to start acting with the theater company, Wooster Group, director, Elizabeth LeCompte. Also in 1999, I started teaching at The Ailey School, under the direction of Denise Jefferson.

How did your dance career wind up evolving into choreography?

In 2005 I received a call from Mikko Nissinen, director at Boston Ballet, asking me if I would like to choreograph for the company. I said yes. The wind up was urgent. Meaning I knew I must say yes now. Prior to this call, I had choreographed solos for students at The Ailey School, Purchase College and Julliard. I need to be in a dance studio.

Did your time with William Forsythe have an impact on your choreographic style? Why or why not?

Bill sees/saw/will always see possibility in life. Tapping into one’s curiosity creates possibility. Forsythe and many others, inside and outside of dance, have influenced my lifestyle. The sum of our lives impacts all decisions we come to.

How would you describe your style and process? [Read more…]

On Dance And Momentum…

October 9, 2012 by 4dancers

by Lauren Warnecke, MS

Momentum (n.) force or speed of movement; impetus, as of a physical object or course of events

I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve asked a dancer to “use momentum” to carry her through a phrase. Heck, release-based modern dance is practically founded on the idea of capitalizing on momentum. But what does that really mean? When I was a junior in high school, crying nightly over Mrs. Youel’s AP Physics class, I learned that momentum is equal to the product of the mass and velocity of an object. In other words:

p = mv

where p = momentum (kg*m/s), m = mass (kg) and v = velocity (m/s)

So that’s cool. But how does that apply to dance? Does momentum just exist, or is it something that I can choose to “use” or not use of my own volition.

Here’s an idea: a body in motion (body meaning anything from a particle to an apple to an arm) keeps moving unless something acts on it to inhibit that movement. For example, if Isaac Newton drops an apple towards the ground, it keeps moving until it’s stopped by the ground. If he dropped it into a bottomless pit, the apple would continue to fall indefinitely. This concept is wrapped up in a nice little fundamental law of nature called The Law of Conservation of Linear Momentum. The law states that “the total momentum of a closed system of objects (which has no interactions with external agents) is constant.” Don’t believe me? I double-checked on Wikipedia.

In our case, that “external agent” is usually a muscular contraction, the ground, or the limitations of our bodies’ natural range of motion. Since ROM and anatomy aren’t exactly things we can control, perhaps “using” momentum is simply a release of the muscles to let momentum happen naturally. Who’s crying now, Mrs. Youel?

In dance and in life, momentum is the key. It is the gift that keeps on giving. If you just relax and let it happen, amazing things can occur. I’m joyriding on momentum right now, and trying to remind myself that momentum keeps going unless I do something to stop it.

Contributor Lauren Warnecke, M.S., is a Chicago-based dance artist, educator, and writer. She trained at the Barat Conservatory of Dance before earning a BA in Dance at Columbia College Chicago. In 2009, Lauren completed her MS in Kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with a concentration in Motor Control and Learning. Lauren is a Visiting Instructor for the department of Kinesiology and Nutrition at UIC, and teaches master classes and seminars in ballet, modern dance, creative movement, and dance pedegogy. She is certified in ballet by the Cecchetti Council of America and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine.

In addition to teaching at UIC, Lauren owns and operates Art Intercepts, under which she creates, informs, and writes about dance. The primary mission of Art Intercepts is to bridge the gap between the scientific and artistic communities to present programming that is informed, inventive, and evidence-based. Lauren is a freelance writer/blogger and maintains monthly columns at Danceadvantage.net and 4dancers.org. and is featured on a panel of nationally reputed dance writers at the 2012 Dance/USA conference. She also works periodically as a grant writer and production/stage manager for artists in the Chicago dance and performance community, and volunteers for initiatives encouraging Chicagoans to engage in local, sustainable, and active lifestyles. Lauren likes to hike, bake scones, and dig in the dirt.

Naked Dancing: A Cautionary Tale

August 28, 2012 by 4dancers

by Lauren Warnecke, MS

In 2010, Alastair Macaulay seriously pissed me off.

His gross review of NYCB’s Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, and specifically his comment on their waist sizes, sent shockwaves through the interwebs. I wouldn’t say that he’s necessarily done it again, but there’s a little buzz beginning on the social media about his new editorial on naked dancing.

437px-Bakst_Nizhinsky — Naked or nearly naked dancing is not new: the bare-chested Nijinski shocked his 1912 audiences with the overtly sexual L’Apres Midi D’Une Faune

I’m hardly shocked that Macaulay’s first paragraph, and most of the essay, are comparing modern experimental dance to porn and strippers. To be honest, I fully expected to be writing another rant about sensationalism in dance writing….. but I have to say, I’m aligned with Mr. Macaulay on a couple of points.

Dancing in the buff has serious implications that you can’t avoid (no matter how much we want them to). It’s an artistic choice that instantly personalizes dancers and makes them into real people, with legs and hips and – other parts. Depending on the degree of naked, your costume (or lack thereof) also creates the distinct persona of sexual beings, and if that’s what you want, then go for it.

But…

Naked is not a decision you should make lightly as a dancemaker, or, in my opinion, frequently. That’s not because I don’t want to see naked people; it’s because the one thing that you think is so extreme and unique and impactful is actually quite overdone. It’s sort of like making a dance to Barber’s Adagio. Like it or not, most audience members are going to have preconceived notions about nudity. Maybe you can prep them in program notes and pre-show talks to depersonalize the dance and see the beauty of the human form in motion, or maybe you’re okay with the influence of the giggling twelve-year-old boy in all of us seeping into the overall impact you want your piece to have. If not, find another way.

I’m not frustrated by nudity in dance because I find it offensive. Rather, I’m put off by the fact that the choreographer couldn’t find another way to represent vulnerability, or truth, or love, or whatever. Getting naked isn’t as extreme as you might think… I’ve used it (more than once), along with almost every dancemaker in my acquaintance.

My point is: Go ahead! Get naked if you have to, but recognize that there will always be that guy giggling in the back comparing your art to a strip club. Just, whatever you do, please don’t make a naked dance to Barber’s Adagio…

In addition to teaching at UIC, Lauren owns and operates Art Intercepts, under which she creates, informs, and writes about dance. The primary mission of Art Intercepts is to bridge the gap between the scientific and artistic communities to present programming that is informed, inventive, and evidence-based. Lauren is a freelance writer/blogger and maintains monthly columns at Danceadvantage.net and 4dancers.org. and was featured on a panel of nationally reputed dance writers at the 2012 Dance/USA conference. She also works periodically as a grant writer and production/stage manager for artists in the Chicago dance and performance community, and volunteers for initiatives encouraging Chicagoans to engage in local, sustainable, and active lifestyles. Lauren likes to hike, bake scones, and dig in the dirt.

Joffrey: Choreographers of Color Awards

August 19, 2012 by 4dancers

The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet is excited to announce a call for diverse artists to submit applications for the Joffrey’s annual Choreographers of Color Awards. They are seeking original work developed by applicants with the hope that a diverse perspective will ignite creativity in new works.

Three winners will receive a $2,500 stipend and will have the opportunity to work directly with Academy Artistic Directors, Alexei Kremnev and Anna Reznik. The choreographers’ world premiere works will be showcased on The Joffrey Academy Trainees at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park and other venues throughout the year. To enter and for more details visit: www.joffrey.org/cofc

This is an exciting opportunity–all the best to those who enter! Please do pass the word…

Disclosure – Affiliate & Ad Info

Copyright Notice