choreography – Page 9

Cinderella Story – Rags To Riches: Asking Tough Questions To Get Into Character

April 25, 2013 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

In narrative ballets, choreography exists to say something. There comes a point in the rehearsal process where it feels ineffective to think in terms of steps or counts. Knowing the what and when of the choreography is just the beginning! When the mechanical information—let’s call it the “rags”—begins to feel stale or imposed, it becomes necessary to work from the inside out. Each role, no matter how small, contains vast riches for the performer and audience. To realize them, the artists has to address the how and why of the movement.

Choreography is informed by a character’s self-perception, personality traits, general life attitudes, and relationship to the environment. These things govern a character’s interactions and reactions. When deciding what intent to use for movements, I ask myself some questions:

For internal motivation, is this a positive or negative emotion?

For external motivation, is this a positive or negative reaction/relationship?

What does my body naturally do when I feel hope? Disappointment? Frustration? Relief? Subtle changes in posture, stance, or carriage can drastically change the meaning of choreography. I have to be in tune with myself and the character to make sure my own body language in a given moment is not accidentally polluting my character’s actions. [Read more…]

The Arts – A Positive Impact On Bullying?

April 16, 2013 by 4dancers

by Janet Neidhardt

I have the opportunity each year to choreograph class dances for a spring dance concert at my school. I often seek out social issues that my students might find meaningful to base our work on. In the past I have choreographed dances based on body image and depression. Recently in one of my classes, through much discussion with my students, we came to the conclusion that bullying was a very important topic for them. So we have now begun the process of creating a piece based on bullying.

I started off by having my students write journal entries about how it feels to be bullied, what it’s like to be the bully, and what do we want our audience to walk away thinking or feeling. I picked out phrases and words from their entries and I’m now working with a composer to blend spoken word with music so their words will be heard throughout the piece. We have started the creation process with movement as well and the students have come up with some strong images of being left out, put down, as well as finding confidence. It is important to me and my students that we end the piece on a positive note to show the strength of being an individual.

It has been a month now that we have been working on this piece and something interesting has occurred within my class. I have seen positive changes in individual students as well as the dynamics of the whole class. Some students who have been very quiet during this school year are finally speaking up and volunteering to give ideas and even take on solo parts within the dance. Students who tend to be outspoken are listening better to the ideas of their peers.

Overall this group of students has become more supportive of one another and is really embracing their differences. I see new friendships developing now, at the end of the school year, which never occurred over the last 6 months. Although this has always been a nice group of students, I believe that creating this work about bullying has raised their own self awareness and that these students are thinking twice before they act.

After observing these changes within my class I started to think about how the arts inherently praise individuality and that perhaps the arts could be a great place to stop bullying before it even starts. Students are under so much pressure to fit in and standing out is seen as a bad thing. In the arts however we celebrate differences and unique thoughts, calling it creativity. So it makes me wonder if students were able to create art work from a young age and celebrate each others creativity and ideas, perhaps they would find self confidence earlier and not be so scared to stand out.

There is no question that bullying exists within every school at every age and so to have students confront it together might be a wonderful way to help them learn how to relate to each other in positive way. Creating an artistic work through any medium about bullying could be a very effective way to combat it at any age. I look forward to seeing what the audience reaction to this piece is when we perform it in May. Hopefully it will be so strong that I will write a second blog update about it.

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.

dancer posing upside down — *Janet Neidhardt*

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.

Teaching Choreography

April 2, 2013 by 4dancers

by Lauren Warnecke, MS

A choreographer does not a teacher make, and vice-versa. There seems to be a divide between the teachers and the dancemakers (perhaps as there should be), but at the end of the day, the dance teacher needs to be able to choreograph and the dance maker needs to be able to teach. At the student level, this logic makes total sense, because learning choreography is part of the student dancer’s training, and, most often, her teacher rather than a professional choreographer is teaching the dance.

At the pre-professional/professional level, the expectation to pick up quickly, and without much guidance, is astronomically higher. Studio space is expensive, and it’s the dancers’ jobs to learn movement regardless of the choreographer’s ability to teach. Picking up quickly is, in some sense, also a way to weed out dancers from the hundreds that are gunning for the one spot you have open in your company.

Look, I get it.

But I would also argue that utilizing solid teaching methods in the studio could make for a more efficient, less frustrating rehearsal process. Plus, you’re more apt to get what you really want out of the dancers.

There are three ways in which people learn: visual, auditory, and tactile cues. Some people learn through watching a demonstration, others by listening, and still others by doing. This is, in part, why traditional schoolrooms (trying to learn math by listening to a teacher talk and then writing out standardized tests) don’t work that well… but I digress. [Read more…]

Book Review: Frederick Ashton’s Ballets: Style, Performance, Choreography

March 6, 2013 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

My most recent paper-bound treasure is Geraldine Morris’s Frederick Ashton’s Ballets: Style, Performance, Choreography, an analysis and discussion of six of Ashton’s works. Having limited exposure to Ashton’s ballets, I approached it as a primer on his work—characteristics, influences, and their place in the repertories of companies today. I came away with much more information and many more questions than I had bargained for. Morris professes one of her goals to be “to promote greater understanding of both dance movement style and choreographic style, so that the book is not only interesting and useful for performers but also for dance academics and committed dance audiences.” I consider myself belonging to all three categories, and though I haven’t reached understanding yet, Ashton’s Ballets has provoked my interest intensely.

The ballets themselves Morris considers in pairs: A Wedding Bouquet (1937) and Illuminations (1950), two ballets featuring spoken words; Birthday Offering (1956) and Jazz Calendar (1968), non-narrative works; and Daphnis and Chloe (1951) and A Month in the Country (1976), two narrative ballets. By comparing works made on dancers of different backgrounds and at points throughout Ashton’s career, Morris determines that some of the defining characteristics of Ashton’s style are the use of what are typically transition or minor steps as major motifs, complex epaulement including the invisible pathways drawn by the limbs in space, unexpected changes of direction and dynamic, and different rhythms occurring simultaneously in the upper and lower body.

In addition to providing detailed descriptions and comparisons of the six ballets, Morris offers background concerning Ashton’s influences: Petipa, Duncan, Nijinska, Pavlova, the stage dancing of the 1920s and ‘30s, and the dancers of his ballets. In other words, he made use of what came before him, what was in front of him, and what was within him. (Morris states that Ashton was “concerned to understand temperament and sensibility.”)

Tracing chains of influence through time and changes in the treatment of a static entity (in this case, codified ballet technique) over time are central to Morris’s arguments. Repeatedly, she emphasizes the extent to which much of today’s dancing favors line and shape over motion. She maintains that such emphasis is stylistically detrimental to Ashton’s works, which depend on movement and dynamic over shape or position.

Morris’s discussion of influences on Ashton extends both inward to the analysis of each ballet she addresses and outward, beyond Ashton’s work. For example, in her breakdown of Daphnis and Chloe, Ashton’s, Ravel’s, and Fokine’s treatment of the Greek myth are acknowledged. Where Jazz Calendar is analyzed, Morris highlights the contrast between Balanchine’s and Ashton’s treatment of similar influences: stage dancing and African-American movement. Similarly, each of these two choreographers were strongly influenced by Petipa, yet each paid tribute in decidedly different ways. I find this quality of her book tantalizing—it invites endless exploration of the interconnected web of dance history and the present day. As an audience member, to be conscious of references and allusions in choreography enriches my viewing experience. As a performer, knowledge of influences and stylistic traits enhances my ability to interpret style with more integrity, in turn allowing the audience to view work as the choreographer intended it.

At its heart, this book poses questions of relevance, reverence and preservation. To what extent must ballets evolve to stay relevant? To what extent must dancers adapt their own movement style to suit choreography? Ballet is a live art whose present is better understood and enjoyed by examining its past, and whose future is being shaped by past and present. Morris sums herself up best:

“To survive, past works need to respond to the changing world and this is particularly difficult in dance: both aesthetic values and dancers’ bodies alter and sources for reviving past works are limited…So how can movement, which was made during an earlier era and was embodied by dancers with very different training, be revived or even reconstructed, whilst keeping faith with the spirit of the work? …My suggestions will inevitably be challenged and contested but I hope they will add to that debate which centres on choreographic style and its survival.”

Useful links:

The Ballets of Frederick Ashton

“Celebrating Ashton”

A Month in the Country full version

A Month in the Country pas de deux

Step-by-step guide to dance: Frederick Ashton

Another discussion of Ashton’s Ballets on DanceTabs

Worlds Unite

March 1, 2013 by 4dancers

hubbard street 2 dancers — Hubbard Street 2 Dancers Brandon Lee Alley, left, and Lissa Smith perform at 1871 Chicago during the launch event for Dance as a Learning Platform. Photo by Todd Rosenberg

by Lissa Smith

The similarities between startup tech companies and dance companies, while not always immediately apparent, are both striking and parallel in their structure and ultimate success. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s collaboration at 1871 Chicago is a shining example of what can happen when creative business meets the dance world.

The dancers of Hubbard Street 2 bring their passion and excitement to the Merchandise Mart on Monday evenings, to perform for entrepreneurs and participate in workshop forums. When not performing HS2 repertory, the dancers unleash individual creative movement, phrases and improvisations. The business leaders and dancers have both learned to appreciate the shared model for building a successful company, whether it makes dance or technology. Passion is the underlying fuel that is the commonality of both new business ventures and dance works. Both dancers and entrepreneurs see their work as filling gaps in their respected fields. Dancers and tech participants work together, often outside their comfort zones, to unravel what is necessary to building a successful framework, while consultants from ClearSpace and Strategos keep all of us moving.

Event themes such as Lead and Innovate direct participants to break down the building blocks that provide the steps used to assure successful performances or outcomes. Creative thought and movement, group cooperation, and acceptance of leadership and guidance sum up the shared recipe for successful dance and tech companies alike. Both parties have learned that there is inherent risk involved in the development of their careers, but that risk-taking is also vital. This unique program has brought together the arts world and business world, taking two unlikely compatriots, and teaching them that what they do everyday in their separate worlds is what is necessary to reach what is surely a common goal: great results.

At our first 1871 event, we looked at an idea at its starting point, through its development, and where its evolution eventually led. I chose a clear starting point and, gradually throughout the performance, expanded it. This performance was satisfying for me, because it included a lot of our own creative expression and movement, rather than being a presentation of choreography we perform in theaters.

Also in this back-and-forth collaboration, 1871 residents were invited to see Hubbard Street’s main company with HS2 in One Thousand Pieces by our resident choreographer, Alejandro Cerrudo. Our company continues to visit 1871, and its members continue to come into our spaces, opening eyes and minds on both sides to new outlooks and ideas.

hubbard street dancers at art institute of chicago — Hubbard Street 2 Dancers Emilie Leriche, left, and Lissa Smith with Pablo Picasso’s Man with a Pipe, 1915. The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Mrs. Leigh B. Block in memory of Albert D. Lasker. © 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Todd Rosenberg

Another Hubbard Street Dance Chicago alliance worthy of mentioning is its partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago. Similar to the 1871 collaboration, this program also brings together two things seemingly unlike: art objects and moving bodies. Dancers use movement to interpret the themes and ideas in famous artworks, often performing in front of the actual pieces themselves. These performances are always site-specific, which allows both the dancers and the audience members to bridge their attention and engage in appreciation of similarities between visual and performing arts.

The most recent Art Institute of Chicago performance Hubbard Street 2 participated in, “What is Blue?”, began a spring miniseries relating to the exhibition “Picasso and Chicago.” This first performance was described as a discovery of the artist’s social consciousness. Griffin Court was the site of this incredible performance — the vast, open space, a live guitarist, and Picasso’s art projected behind us provided endless inspiration for us dancers and the audience alike. My favorite work by Picasso is his Guernica, an oil-on-canvas created in 1937. The color-scheme of this piece is black, blue, grey, and white; it describes the bombing of the village of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. I love everything about this piece: its horizontal length and dimensions, the angular shapes and, especially, the extreme emotion it conveys.

Something new and surprising is a regular occurrence at the Art Institute when Hubbard Street dancers are in residence — catch us back at the museum on March 21 at 6pm, for our next Picasso-themed event, “Why Cubism?”

BIO: Contributor Lissa Smith, age 21, was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She is currently dancing with Hubbard Street 2 of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She attended The Boston Conservatory where she was both a Dance Conservatory Scholarship recipient and Jan Veen Dance Scholarship recipient.

Lissa has trained at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The Juilliard School, Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet, The Martha Graham School, The Joffrey Ballet School and The Joffrey Midwest Workshop. Lissa has worked with world renowned choreographers such as: Thang Dao, Peter London, Alberto Del Saz, Maurya Kerr, Clébio Oliveira, Penny Saunders, Hofesh Shecter, Didy Veldman, Uri Sands, Gregory Dawson, Stephen Pier, John Magnus, Josée Garant, Viktor Plotnikov, Robyn Mineko Williams, Tony Fabre, and Judith Jamison. She has danced principal roles such as: “Yellow Girl” in “Diversion of Angels”, “Conversation of Lovers” within “Acts of Light” and “Frontier”, the solo choreographed by Martha Graham and staged by Yuriko and Susan Kikuchi along with Yasuko Tokunaga.

Lissa was the soloist lead dancer in both Thang Dao’s contemporary ballet, “Foil” and Greg Dawson’s contemporary ballet, “Eclipsing Venus”. She has also performed Jose Limon’s “Choreographic Offerings” staged by Jennifer Scanlon and Libby Nye. Lissa has performed the “Doll with Broken Head” solo from within “Mechanical Organ” choreographed by Alwin Nikolais, staged by Alberto Del Saz. Lissa received the “Modern Dance Award” and the “Dean’s Dance Award” upon her graduation from New World School of the Arts High School in June 2009 and won the “Arts For Life!” dance scholarship in 2009 presented by Former First Lady Columba Bush.

In 2012, Lissa was awarded the Martha Hill Young Professional Award.

Lissa’s posts on 4dancers are her own opinion and in no way reflect the thoughts or opinions of her employer, Hubbard Street 2.

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