Musings – Page 2

From the Mouths of Babes: Creative Choice Making and Children

December 21, 2011 by Kimberly Peterson

Hello and happy holidays to you all. I apologize for the lack of posts, but have been busy with an internship at the MN Children’s Museum and getting some much needed perspective.

This time, spent partially observing children in active play and engaged in learning while creating, has opened my eyes to the skills of active choice making involved in creative play.

Playing is learning for children and is directly derived from their ability to make assumptions, try them out, learn from them and engage in the decision making process with others. It is their opportunity to learn from, socialize with, engage in and develop their sense of self and to context that self within their understanding of the world.

This doesn’t really change all that much when you become an adult either, though adults get far less constructive and creative play time than children tend to. Creative play is one of the amazing elements exemplified in contact improvisation.

The video below captures perfectly the duality of play, creative choice making and learning:

Immediately, we see active choice making from the little one. At :18 we see a decision to find a connection, seek hand holds and shift weight in an appropriate way to execute that choice. At :21, :25 and :32 we see her decide to leave that position – even using “safe arms” on her way out, to maintain a physical connection with her partner, make independence choices away from her partner, but re-engaging contact. At :38 there is a serious test of trust between the two partners – trust that is rewarded with a brilliant series of movement in :50, 1:43, 1:55 and 2:43 and carries over to her new partner at the end of the clip. [Read more…]

Classical Roots: Embracing Qualitative Movement Within Classical Form

October 21, 2011 by Kimberly Peterson

Ballet has always been my first dance love. Ever since I first saw a class while waiting for my tap class to begin, I was hooked. I loved the shapes, the grace, and the expressive elegance of its structure.

In early ballet of the twentieth century, the form was drastically different than the precision and technicality of what “classical” ballet is today. Never have I seen such stark differences between these two approaches as with the performance of Fokine’s “The Dying Swan”.

Anna Pavlova, the mistress of the bourree, one of the premier dancers of her time, was legendary for her expressive and emotive performances. Her epic role in “The Dying Swan” was said to have captured the very essence of the struggle for life.

In it’s modern interpretation, it is often used as a malleable piece designed to showcase each dancer at their best. The bourree’s in Fokine’s version were specifically for Pavlova – and to answer some critics who claimed he was only doing dances flat-footed. However, I can’t help but wonder if the difference between these versions has to do with these two divergent schools of thought with regards to the quality of movement and how this shapes performance.

Watch first Pavlova’s interpretation….

Fokine describes the work’s ambition: [Read more…]

Musings: Metamorphosis – Changing the Form

September 23, 2011 by Kimberly Peterson

by Kimberly Peterson

The act of change can be frightening at times. What will this change bring? Will it be accepted? Where will it lead? Is it the right decision?

But with art, change is a natural progression. Very few things remain unchanged and still retain cultural relevance. There is a struggle between holding to tradition and fighting for relevance that can be seen in such classical forms as Ballet – where the art strives to move beyond the classical structure, forms and story; but where companies still do a full production of Nutcracker every season…

However, this idea of metamorphosis – change, growth – is not solely a struggle between classical forms and modernity. Contemporary dance also struggles with the concept of what “dance” really is. Is it simply movement? All movement or just certain kinds? Pedestrian movement or stylized gestures?

For some, this line of question has begun to include the body and whether or not a body needs to be physically present to be considered dance. This concept is beautifully illustrated in the short film Thought of You utilizing The Weepies’ song “The World Spins Madly On”. Watch for yourself.

This award winning short film is the product of hours of animation, hand drawn by artist Ryan Woodward who spent countless hours during the creation process and rehearsals studying the movement, and the dancers themselves. Over 25,000 hand drawn images went into this stunning work which translates the qualities of movement as well as their physicality, into his creative vision which was influenced by the music.

For those, like me, who desperately needed to know how this came about, there is a making of video where Woodward delves into the process he took in creating this work as well as his artistic intentions.

The question of whether this is, in fact, dance is one I leave you with to discuss. I encourage you to leave comments with your answers, as well as your reasoning. It is/is not dance because _______ .

So what so you think – Dance or No?

Contributor Kimberly Peterson, a transplant to Minneapolis from the Dallas area, received her BA and MA from Texas Woman’s University’s prestigious dance program.

Drawing on her experience with producing dance works, Kimberly has served as lighting designer, stage manager, event coordinator, volunteer and an advisor in various roles. She has taught in various capacities and her choreography featured at ACDFA, TCC South Campus and Zenon Dance Studios. Her recent internships with Theater Space Project and the Minnesota Children’s Museum have served to expand her skills in arts administration and development.

Her graduate research explored the parallels between the independent music industry and current methods of dancer representation. Fascinated with how art is represented and presented in society, she continues to develop this research while delving further into this complicated subject through her dance writing.

Musings: Point of View – Dance and the Camera

September 17, 2011 by Kimberly Peterson

by Kimberly Peterson

There are few examples of what dance and the camera can be that reach the caliber of Amelia from La La La Human Steps.

The 2002 production, choreographed by Edouard Locke, melds incredible feats of dance into a feature length production that is simultaneously engaging, challenging and entertaining. The excerpt below is from this longer work and is one of the most intricate and breathtaking uses of classical ballet I’ve seen performed.

While the technical proficiency can not be denied in this work, the use of the camera to break the formal presentation of this classic art-form is really groundbreaking and highlights things that would be missed in traditional presentation as well as in traditional documentary footage. This exemplifies the camera as a tool, a co-creator and an audience in and of itself.

Camera as Tool:
Framing the initial shot of the dance, the camera zooms in to focus our attention on the performer. Bringing us closely in line with her stillness, searching for movement and in doing so, bonding our connection to her.

The subtleties of the dance are highlighted through the use of the camera’s tools of rotation and distance, keeping the viewer focused on the elements the choreographer wants you to see, while ignoring the open space until the intricate spell is broken by the pedestrian movement. Further, such play in focus and space directs your attention to elements that perhaps would have been lost if conceiving this work in a traditional performance environment, such as the shadow play in the middle of the work (2:37-2:55). [Read more…]

Musings – Skin & Bones

September 2, 2011 by Kimberly Peterson

by Kimberly Peterson

Now that SYTYCD has run it’s course, I’m starting a new column devoted to isolating specific issues and qualities of dance that speak to me in an effort to start dialogue. I am going to be utilizing embedded videos to help illustrate exactly what I’m seeing and to help further discussion. What I’d like to encourage all readers to do is to leave a comment, add to the dialogue of others and continue the discussion beyond what I lay out.

I’m calling this new column “Musings” because it’s not only a play on the word – meaning to contemplate, think about – but also because it references, tangentially, the Muses – the mythological beings said to be the source of all knowledge and to inspire all of the art created by artists. It fits with my intentions to contemplate the field of dance through examples of work and to discuss not only larger issues in play, but also the origins of work, the process of creating work and aesthetic values.

As a transition from our SYTYCD journey into this new column, entitled Musings, I begin our journey with a powerful performance by America’s Newest Favorite Dancer, Melanie Moore.

This work by Dee Caspary was phenomenal for a host of reasons and I want to unpack some of that for you. But first I feel like you should watch the piece for yourselves and then I’ll delve into some food for thought…

Initially what really spoke to me and attracted me to the work was the seamless partnering of bodies. There was no “set up”, just rolling movement into and out of the floor, towards and away from each other, that perfectly echoed the struggle between their relationship as well as their struggle between light and dark (emphasized by the stage lighting and the use of the light bulb). [Read more…]

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