making dances – Page 5

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…]

Choreography: When is My Dance Done?

February 12, 2013 by 4dancers

double edge theatre — “The Grand Parade” by the Double Edge Theatre, Photo by Maria Baranova

by Lauren Warnecke, MS

So you’ve managed to make a dance. How do you know when it’s really finished? When your music runs out? After about 20 minutes? When you run out of “moves”?

Rule number one in finishing a dance is a narrative arch. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to tell a linear story, but each dance must have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Where you choose to place arches within these sections is largely up to you, but they are important for guiding your audience along the journey.

Once your journey is up, so is your dance, but choreographers often find themselves dissatisfied and wondering if the dance is, in fact, finished. The Grand Parade, created and performed by Double Edge Theatre at The Dance Center of Columbia College last Saturday is a piece with a strong narrative and massive production elements that include a fury of projections, mannequins, rigging for aerial circus arts, and perhaps a few hundred props. Yet, even with all these things going on, Double Edge’s history of the 20^th Century in 55 minutes is a work they insist is not yet done. Seeing The Grand Parade reinforced my view that no work is ever, really, done.

A colleague of mine once said of her work, “It’s not done, but I’m done with it.” She viewed a performance as a slightly more formal Works-in-Progress showing… with fancier lights.

I think her point speaks to the idea that dance is a living, evolving art form. Dances have a transient nature that is unlike, say, visual art. The Sistine Chapel will always be the Sistine Chapel, but Peptipa’s choreography will be ever changing to a certain degree based on the venue, the dancers, tempo choices, costume, etc.

On a more contemporary note, sometimes it is only through live performance that you truly learn about a piece and see what it needs. You might figure out that your ending is really awkward and the audience doesn’t know when to clap. Or you might discover that you want the whole thing to be presented in reverse order to what it is. The stage is a beautiful place to discover these things, but that’s not to say that everything is stage-worthy…

Ultimately, you’re asking patrons to pay money to watch your product. Most people wouldn’t fork over $12 to see an unfinished movie, and besides, that’s what free or inexpensive WIPs are for. But given the inevitable stages of development a dance undergoes, it may need to be presented multiple times, in multiple iterations. Each iteration that takes to the stage, however, should a finished quality that is worth paying for. These are a few things I look for in a “finished” dance: [Read more…]

Beginner’s Guide to Choreography

December 28, 2012 by 4dancers

by Lauren Warnecke

480982_10151128336330985_2083180044_n — Leslie Werle of The Dance Team, photo by Kelly Rose

Perhaps you’ve wanted to try your hand at making dances and never had the chutzpah to get started. You’re not alone, but choreography is an art, a skill, and a trade that is sometimes harder than you might think. You’ll laugh; you’ll cry. You’ll have triumphs and failures, but like anything else, making dances requires practice. Assuming that you’ve already set aside the time and resources, and have space and dancers to work with, here’s a handy list of do’s and don’ts to keep in mind as you embark on the magnificent process of dancemaking (not an all-inclusive list):

DO say “yes”. Censoring your ideas and movement phrases in search of “the perfect dance” stifles the endless possibilities that lie beneath your subconscious. Sometimes it’s beneficial to go into the studio and noodle around in front of a video camera, and from those ramblings begin to form the structure of your dance.

DON’T use extremely popular music. While they can (arguably) get away with this on So You Think You Can Dance, popular music is susceptible to preconceived thoughts and memories among your audience. The Plain White T’s make fun little ditties to dance to, but that doesn’t matter if half your audience is thinking hearing it at the dentist’s office while getting a root canal instead of watching your dance about greasers from the 1950s…

If you get in a rut, DO rely on time-tested mechanisms such as canon, theme and variations, ABA, and a host of manipulations to expand your material. Often, it’s not more steps that you need but distortions of your core movement phrases to “blow up” the dance you already have. Do your dance backwards, upside down, on the floor, in a circle…. You get the idea. Good resources to check out are Doris Humphrey’s The Art of Making Dances and Lynn Anne Blom’s The Intimate Act of Choreography.

DO be wary of props. And nudity. Props, when used to excess, can be tacky, but even worse than this is an underutilized prop. If you’re going to use a prop, make sure it’s necessary and fully utilized. That goes for chairs and loose costume items. The same thing goes for nakedness. It may be en vogue to bare your butt while simultaneously bearing your soul in a dance, but ask yourself if it’s really necessary in order to get your point across. Some of the riskiest dances are not the naked ones with beach balls, but the ones that are just a dancer, simply dressed, moving through space. Always come back to your original idea, and be sure that each element you add to a dance contributes to it.

DON’T try to take on the world in one dance. One of the biggest signs of a novice choreographer is a dance that tries to solve the war in Sudan in 12 minutes. While I’m not saying this isn’t possible (anything is possible), when getting your feet wet I’d encourage you against the “go big or go home” philosophy. Keep to ideas that are close to your heart…

But… DON’T make a dance about your ex-girl/boyfriend. It’s a dance, not a therapy session. No one really wants to see your dirty laundry on stage, especially if it’s pertaining to a mutual acquaintance.

DON’T get frustrated. Be patient with yourself and, if needed, take a step back. Take a week off and let everything sink in.

DO seek feedback along the way, and participate in works-in-progress showings.

DON’T be afraid to throw all of these rules out the window. Textbooks abound on rules and mechanisms by which to create dances (two of which are referenced above), but as you get to know yourself as a choreographer you’ll find out that some of those rules are meant to be broken.

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.

Making Dances: To Theme or Not to Theme?

June 21, 2012 by Ashley David

by Lauren Warnecke

I was working tech on a show recently and the choreographer presented two pieces of modern dance. Before the show she gave a brief introduction to each piece, and explained that the first piece was a narrative and the second was a “pure movement” dance. She encouraged them to find the story within the first dance, while not toiling over the second; just to sit back and relax. It might be crucial to mention at this point that the audience consisted of 800+ physicists who inherently look for the greater meaning in everything. This got me thinking about how they might respond to the two pieces, both individually and as a whole experience.

There are conflicting opinions in modern dance with some choreographers gravitating toward stories and themes, and others making “dance for dance’s sake”. Many do some combination of the two, or abstract their work to the point that any allegorical relevance is beyond comprehension to the naked eye (this is where program notes come in handy). Some dances may rely on a simple adjective, feeling, or concept to generate the dance, where others may go to the extreme of being full-on story ballets that aren’t ballet. You might see this in choreographers like Mark Morris, while Trisha Brown runs a tight ship of process-driven, anti-thematic dances consisting of pure movement. [Read more…]

Choreography: Knowing Where You Belong

April 26, 2012 by Ashley David

Another installment in our series on choreography…we are talking with choreographers from The Dance COLEctive about their process and today we have Shannon McGuire. Her piece focuses on the subjective and intuitive sense of knowing where one belongs. “Is there a sensation or a recognition in a circumstance that one finds the need to exist in a certain place? Is this place geographical, ideological or social?”

1. How did the idea for this piece come about?

The concept of the piece really came from a personal questioning. I spent my childhood in the country of a small town, At the age of twelve I moved with my mom to Chicago. I finished growing up in and out of the city, spending every other weekend with my dad in the country, and school in the city. The lack of being fully grounded in either of the extreme environments caused a confusion that plagued me for years. Each year that passes by I ask myself the challenging question of where I belong or where I need to be.

2. What did you do with the dancers to explore this concept?

I was initially interested in what “belonging” meant to the dancers. There were various responses and we explored the possibilities through conversations and writings. We discussed how we know we are at a place where we belong. The movement came from personal experiences and emotions relating to the topic.

Later I became very interested in the other end of things. When don’t we belong? There was a much more intense response from this. So I began to play with both ideas. I sort of took both sides and figured out how to make that journey from not belonging to finding a place belonging.

3. How did that translate into the choreography?

The dancers generated most of their material from personal experiences and points of views. I asked them to be as intuitive as possible at times when choosing a direction or place in space. There is an obvious change of quality in the dance at different times. I play a lot with the feeling of belonging and not belonging. The structure of the piece directly relates to my personal experience, while the content is very personal to the dancers.

4. What was the biggest challenge for you in doing this piece?

The biggest challenge was finding a medium. I played with both ideas of belonging and not belonging. However, I really wanted to find what happened when both concepts are introduced. How does one find their way to a content place of belonging when feeling out of place for so long? How do they know that they found that place? The answer really came the more we played with the material. I really needed to find the answers through the dance making process.

5. What did you enjoy most about this process?

I most enjoyed the freedom to discover. I really went into the process not knowing the answer to my question. It was a chance for me to really dig in deep to find some resolution. This is my first time exploring a concept that directly relates to me and my experiences. I had help from four beautiful dancers and friends to help me find answers as well as ask more questions. Entering the process without the answers and later seeing the result unfold gave me perspective on my inner conflict.

BIO: Shannon McGuire graduated with a BA in Dance from Columbia College Chicago. While at Columbia, she performed choreography by Twyla Tharp, Paige Cunningham, and Matthew Hollis. Shannon enjoys sharing her knowledge and passion for dance with children at local studios. She was recently a member of MaryAnn McGovern and Dancers and has performed in numerous independent projects and dance showcases throughout Chicago. Shannon is thrilled to be dancing her third season with The Dance COLEctive.

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