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Hi Ms jocelyn!! i just remembered that you might have commented on my lit review so i came to check and you really did! haha

yeah.. i was quite stuck when i was writing the intro (i know it’s not supposed to write in this way but idk how) because i tried to lessen the amount of background info and go straight to the point but i don’t know how to write it concisely and straight to the point :( i ended up writing like a normal essay... with sliiightly less details. in other words, i don’t know how direct i should be for my intro. but ok, i’ll try writing the intro again.

yes.. haha! i realised it when i writing this review (so i think this is why lit review si helpful in a sense :P) but sisnce i already chosen it i tried to tweak it by saying it doesn’t fully support my research question :/ just an observation.

yes, the other sources are verbal interview sources. oh, i didn’t know i have to lit it down specifically. i’ll note this down! ah yes, what you’ve written is what i wanted to express hahaha!

and also... i don’t know how to end it :/

thank you so much! yes, i’m clearer now :)

Performance Theory Mini Literature Review

Initial research topic: Does grace still exist in today’s artistic gymnastics?

As a passionate recreational artistic gymnast for six years, I have been following and noticing the change and development of artistic gymnastics in the floor and balance beam events. What used to be known as graceful artistic gymnastic events during the 1950s to 1970s is now known to be powerful and full of difficult tumbling sequences on both the floor and balance beam. Thus, audience today have raised remarks that artistic gymnastics has lost its grace and artistry, for it being too heavily focused on performing powerful and difficult routines. I therefore would like to question whether there is still artistry in artistic gymnastics from the year 2010 onward. I will be doing so by comparing different sources from various aspects - psychological, physical and practicality of the competitive gymnastics world.

Ever since Nadia Comaneci’s first perfect 10 (the highest score for artistic gymnastics in the 1970s is 10.0) is accepted in 1976 for her uneven bars event, other gymnasts have been attracted to the fame and sense of perfectionism of getting the “perfect 10″ too. The chase for perfect 10 is encouraging gymnasts to constantly strive for perfection by performing more difficult and powerful skills that were less seen in the 1970s before Comaneci.

One of my sources mentions how rising perfectionism in elite gymnasts is being observed in the competitive gymnastics field too. Krasnow and his team defined “perfectionism as the setting of excessively high standards of performance… The scale provides an overall perfectionism score from five primary dimensions: Personal Standards, Concern over Mistakes, Parental Expectations, Parental Criticism, and Doubts about Actions.” (Vol 3,  Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 1999).

One limitation of this source is that it discusses how increase in perfectionism increases rate of injury in elite gymnasts, therefore not completely supporting my research question. However, what I could do is to find other sources that compare the relationship between perfectionism and gracefulness in artistic gymnastics.

In my opinion, the chase of perfectionism in gymnastics is mostly affected by personal standards and concern over mistakes as these will cause deduction in their score. The only possible way is to come up with more original and difficult skills so it increases the overall difficulty score, which is relatively more fixed than the deduction score. More difficult and powerful skills means more complex tumbling sequences but the focus on simple dance details, movement transitions and musicality might be decreased. An opinion given by Bruno Grandi, president of the International Gymnastics Federation, he said “too much of its acrobatic part and not too much artistry… Gymnastics is artistic gymnastics, the definition I don’t want to lose.“

Some gymnastics enthusiasts debated that the level of artistry a gymnast could perform depends on the individual’s body type. Natalia, a retired gymnast and a physical education graduate commented that “how the body type and genetics influence the sport… There are some people that need almost no training to be artistic and others that with the proper training can learn it. However, that are people that even with years of ballet training can’t develop artistry. That means, you can’t force a gymnast to be like that.” She also further adds on that being “robotic” does not mean not being artistic and graceful. Being graceful can also simply means achieving clean lines and execute movements effortlessly - not necessarily adding balletic-like movements into their routines.

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Performance Theory Mini Literature Review

Initial research topic: Does grace still exist in today’s artistic gymnastics?

As a passionate recreational artistic gymnast for six years, I have been following and noticing the change and development of artistic gymnastics in the floor and balance beam events. What used to be known as graceful artistic gymnastic events during the 1950s to 1970s is now known to be powerful and full of difficult tumbling sequences on both the floor and balance beam. Thus, audience today have raised remarks that artistic gymnastics has lost its grace and artistry, for it being too heavily focused on performing powerful and difficult routines. I therefore would like to question whether there is still artistry in artistic gymnastics from the year 2010 onward. I will be doing so by comparing different sources from various aspects - psychological, physical and practicality of the competitive gymnastics world.

Ever since Nadia Comaneci’s first perfect 10 (the highest score for artistic gymnastics in the 1970s is 10.0) is accepted in 1976 for her uneven bars event, other gymnasts have been attracted to the fame and sense of perfectionism of getting the “perfect 10″ too. The chase for perfect 10 is encouraging gymnasts to constantly strive for perfection by performing more difficult and powerful skills that were less seen in the 1970s before Comaneci.

One of my sources mentions how rising perfectionism in elite gymnasts is being observed in the competitive gymnastics field too. Krasnow and his team defined “perfectionism as the setting of excessively high standards of performance... The scale provides an overall perfectionism score from five primary dimensions: Personal Standards, Concern over Mistakes, Parental Expectations, Parental Criticism, and Doubts about Actions.” (Vol 3,  Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 1999).

One limitation of this source is that it discusses how increase in perfectionism increases rate of injury in elite gymnasts, therefore not completely supporting my research question. However, what I could do is to find other sources that compare the relationship between perfectionism and gracefulness in artistic gymnastics.

In my opinion, the chase of perfectionism in gymnastics is mostly affected by personal standards and concern over mistakes as these will cause deduction in their score. The only possible way is to come up with more original and difficult skills so it increases the overall difficulty score, which is relatively more fixed than the deduction score. More difficult and powerful skills means more complex tumbling sequences but the focus on simple dance details, movement transitions and musicality might be decreased. An opinion given by Bruno Grandi, president of the International Gymnastics Federation, he said “too much of its acrobatic part and not too much artistry... Gymnastics is artistic gymnastics, the definition I don't want to lose."

Some gymnastics enthusiasts debated that the level of artistry a gymnast could perform depends on the individual’s body type. Natalia, a retired gymnast and a physical education graduate commented that “how the body type and genetics influence the sport... There are some people that need almost no training to be artistic and others that with the proper training can learn it. However, that are people that even with years of ballet training can’t develop artistry. That means, you can’t force a gymnast to be like that.” She also further adds on that being “robotic” does not mean not being artistic and graceful. Being graceful can also simply means achieving clean lines and execute movements effortlessly - not necessarily adding balletic-like movements into their routines.

[coladancexplorations-blog]

DCIA - Journal #1

Week 2: Forging a Cultural Identity - Taiwan, Lin Hwai-Min and Cloud Gate Theatre

This week, we focused on how Lin Hwai-Min and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan forged Taiwan’s national identity through dance.

Lin merged his spiritual travel experience and his influence from the novel Siddhartha as his inspiration to create Songs of the Wanderers. Lin smartly used religions that are significant to most Asians - Buddhism and Hinduism. And he concluded that the common denominator of these religions is tranquility and peace.

Lin also strategically staged a praying/meditating monk who remains still throughout the whole dance at a corner of the stage. This already symbolises certain rituals that most Asians or rather, the Taiwanese, have been experiencing as most Taiwanese is Buddhism.

The main prop of this production serves as the most significant symbol when speaking about Taiwan’s national identity. Personally, it doesn’t just stop at “Taiwan’s national identity” but rather, Asian’s identity in general. Rice is the main sustenance in Asian countries and through this production, it seems as if rice is so important to the Asians that we treat it as a blessing that could be ritualistic, as expressed by the dancers in this production. People struggle to find themselves in the sea of golden rice grains and there are also people who celebrate the harvest of rice (somewhere in the last scene).

The struggle is observed by the audience when a man (solo) appear to be struggling in the small heap of rice grains and people try to change “landscapes” (created by rice grains) by pushing the rice grains away. As this production debut was in the 1990s when Taiwan was under a few political changes (martial law, being removed from the UN, the merger between China and Hong Kong, etc), people struggled to find their own identity and the struggle and desire in finding one really showed through this production.

The first time I watched this production at home without any background research, I fell asleep. I probably was distracted so I lacked focus so I stopped at around the 45-minute mark :/ But the second time I watched it after mine and Cheryl’s sharing, I understand what Lin is trying to say in this dance so I was able to follow through and finished watching the whole production without falling asleep! Though I doubt I’d be able to stay awake if I watch it live because the music and movements are so quiet and peaceful, it’s so calming that I might doze off hahaha! I really like the use of rice grains in this production because it enhances the entire stage effect and it speaks the dance. What if this production perform again without the use of 3.5 tonnes of rice grains? I doubt the result will be as spectacular as its original because the rice grains used in this production serves as a complement as the dance music too. Plus, the last scene about the enlightenment when the remaining rice grains suddenly fall and fill up the stage wouldn’t be as impactful as its original without the rice grains.

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Music Collaboration - Final video showing version 2!

Thank you Luke for tagging us on Facebook to this video! Thank you for the work!! Really appreciate the nice quality and finally... you can hear the music clearly lol

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Music Collaboration - Reflection

So... after a semester of Music Collaboration, it’s now time for a self-reflection/evaluation.

Overall, it has been a great experience. I’m glad that I have this opportunity to produce a work of my own choreography. It’s already not easy to choreograph for myself (for dance film last year), what more for my other dancers? But the good thing is I get to view my work from a 3rd party point of view. I definitely have difficulties choreographing because it was indeed difficult for me to translate my thoughts into movements. But I supposed this can be improved gradually as I read more, watch more videos, have more experience dancing, performing and working with different choreographers and explore more movements with my own body.

Sometimes I even found myself not understanding dance anymore because I would question, does every movement in my dance need to convey a message to my audience? Does my turn or jump need to have a meaning? What does a turn mean? And then more questions keep piling up my mind and I found it really difficult to progress my work. So I let it all go as I thought about my concept. What do I want my audience to see about my concept? I narrowed it down. As mine is about time controlling us or vice versa, I used the idea of contrast to tell my concept. Therefore, other than the finger movements that represent every second of the passing of time, I also used high vs low and fast vs slow to show difference of time and how a person looks when she’s constantly chasing after time. Since it was a 5-minute work, I didn’t have to explain so much about my concept kinetically as I need time to allow my main movement motifs to develop as well. The development of existing movements is important too and it shouldn’t be comprimised just to put in new movements.

For my first work, I had a lot of help from my dancers and am very thankful of that. Without their input, I don’t even know if I can progress this far T^T. Because initially, I was really clueless at how to choreograph and come up with the kind of movement motifs that I wanted, my dancers’ improvisations and movement ideas were the ones that help me to push on and give me new ideas to develop as well. So thank you Hwee Ling and Sarah! Sorry if I made you guys confused quite often because I expected people to understand my brief explanation of the kind of movements I wanted lol. I’ll try my best to work on that.

Things were much clearer when Cheryl steps in because it’s already halfway through the creative process and by that time, I have also come up a clear structure of my dance and also started to understand my own dance even. So by then, I was clearer in the choreographic directions that I wanted to head towards to. Though majority of my dance is still largely structure improv haha!

(I don’t know if it’s because this is my first work or I’m trying to complete my agenda within my rehearsal time, I do find myself, I think, as a very “sui bian” choreographer lol. I’m easily satisfied with what my dancers came up with. I’m not a firm choreographer who insists on certain movements or whatsoever. So at times, I do find myself asking if I’m actually choreographing or not... Not sure if this is good or bad though. Haha! And I think only through experience, then I can answer myself this question.)

I’m glad that my dancers are being very patient and collaborative. However, it’s indeed a pity that I didn’t get to work together with my musicians much. But I must admit they’re pretty good at improvising their materials :P. Though it’s generally fine for me since I have not much specific musical structure, but I did wish that they could be there to understand my rehearsal process and come up with the musical structure from there as they then get to witness how my dancers move/create movements and how I deliver my concept to them. Maybe the musicians could help me develop my concept too lol.

On the other hand, I could also be more active in persuading the musicians to come up with this piece of dance together by doing my best to ask them out and discuss about this even after I’m done with the week’s rehearsal .__. I really suck at making new friends and getting myself involve to build a new friendship with them do we’d have more fun discussing and coming up with this work too. Ahhh, I just need to thick skin abit!

I’m just... very asocial >.> How to collaborate with other artists like that in the future? X.X I need to learn to put my asocial behaviour behind me when there’s future collaborations. >.<

Anyway, despite all the stress and whatsoever, it was fun choreographing and dancing with my classmates haha! We still had our crazy and funny moments! times like this make the process more enjoyable when looking back :’)

Exploring with the blindfold in Sarah’s piece! The blindfold was actually the cut off parts of Simona’s (costume) pants!

All credits to Jialing who has made a really nice mini programme booklet for this mini public showing!!! I... don’t even know how to use Photoshop lol.

Printed on the showing day itself, got it during lunch and within one hour or so, we are done cutting and folding! 6 people’s effort!

During Hwee Ling’s rehearsal... we couldn’t help but felt really curious about one of the musician’s (Andy) instruments that are part of his guitar set. I don’t know what these are called...

Then for Jialing’s piece, Pris and Jialing were busy wiping the glass panels that they’ll be using for the dance on a Sunday afternoon. (Had video but ah, lazy to upload to Youtube haha!) Hmm... magic clean wipes don’t seem to work really well.

Old methods are still the best: newspapers.

We also managed to forge new friendship (yup, I eventually did make new friends) with HLa nd JL’s musicians as well as some of Sarah’s musicians ho are not in these photos! Haha! 

Out of 92 photos taken... it’s really difficult to find “normal” photos to share. I did my best in selecting the less crazy ones LOL.

Nope, I haven’t forgotten my musicians hehe. One left before our photo-taking session.

And last but not least, thank you Susan and my awesome classmates for your weekly feedbacks and accommodating each and everyone’s rehearsals and being fun and serious during rehearsals.

Now, we all shall wait and see how’s next semester of Music Collab gonna be like...

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Music Collaboration - Journal #14

LAST REHEARSAL BEFORE SHOWING DAY!!!

After absorbing and thinking about Susan’s comments for last week’s showing, I penned down my thoughts for my choreography again and thought deeper about the intentions of some of my movements for myself and my dancers:

As a result:

AND I FINALLY HAVE MUSICIANS TO ATTEND REHEARSAL WITH ME. Thank you Mervyn and Arfad! Really appreciate it :)

I then explain again the kind of musical structure and quality I’m looking for at specific areas in my dance - the beginning and the end. I told them I’m quite open with what they come up with during the middle/climax section of the dance.

Then, just to make sure my musicians understand the cues and stuff, I tried my best to be as detailed as possible while explaining to them via Whatssapp.

(video was broken into two sections when sending through Whatsapp)

FINALLY IT’S SHOWING DAY!!!!

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Music Collaboration - Journal #13

WEEK 14 NEEDLESS TO SAY I WAS SUPER KAN CHEONG OKAY. My dance has to be ready. The structure of the choreography was actually done about a couple of weeks ago but there were a lot of cleaning and refining dynamics to do. So I just focused on cleaning the movements and vary any dynamics, facing and directions if necessary.

Before we proceed to our next rehearsal, Susan met us to discuss the case studies that we have found for our choreography research process. 

Firstly, she gave us some readings to do:

Then, we moved on to discuss the case studies that we have found to help with our choreographic process and idea/movement generations. One of the videos (apart from the others that I’ve posted earlier) that I showed to Susan was Shutters Shut by NDT2. I absolutely love the movement qualities in this dance because they are so sharp, clear and clean. There are no fancy and crazy dance tricks but to have such dynamic qualities between these two dancers is really not easy at all. Plus, they are soooooo synchronised!! This shows that a dance doesn’t necessarily need crazy movements to “look nice” - yeah *peace sign*. The duet also shows me ways to show contrast between my two dancers. Since I want to highlight the speed of time (slow vs fast) in my dancers as well, I made use of contrasting movement quality to highlight my intention. Repetition in this dance also works really well because as the repetitive movements progress, the dynamics gradually changes (at different timing/gesture of the movement phrase). This is the intriguing part that manages to hold audience’s attention as well. And despite the movements are generally sharp and direct, the smart use of repetition, gestures, partner work and the various tone and speed of the spoken text really made the choreography interesting. I really, really visualise my dance to look as sharp and clean like this!

After talking to Susan more about the intention of what I want and visualise it to be, I’m now clearer of the kind of movement quality I want. Also, when discussing with her about my ideas while showing this video to her, I realise I haven’t been analysing the videos that I found helpful deep enough and effectively. I am now clearer in understanding how to watch at other movement-inspired videos and apply it to my own concept and choreography. It’s to understand how the movements transit to another without looking awkward (like mine previously/currently >.>) and analyse how they made use of other bodies in space and the space of the stage itself. I need to learn how to watch and analyse these videos as a choreographer, instead of as a dancer when I’d just admire the dance and dancers *.*

Susan said: “build momentum within a phrase”

As we were discussing, Susan also gave me some comments to further develop my dance:

important movements face front, others can face other sides

music: talk about time factor with the musicians?

show comparison: highlight fast

starting: calmness, stillness; extend longer. Play with silences

write down sections: A/B/C --> can permutate this order around

Therefore, after much thoughts and breaking down of my movement intentions, I showed my dancers the above video and explained to them the movement quality that I desire. Since I’m now clearer of the movement qualities I’m looking for, I can explain the intentions of some movement phrases better as well. :)

Some changes that my dancers and I have made:

finger gestures to be in the air so that it’s clearer to audience and also to highlight the minute movement of fingers twitching

hold Sarah’s starting movements so that Cheryl has more time to develop her finger gestures and gives time to audience to absorb

(pencil marking: choreography notes. Sorry again, very faint pencil >.<)

As my musicians haven’t been able to attend my rehearsals, I met up with them separately. But still, I only manage to get Jaron to discuss the musical structure with me and clarify with him about certain music cues. 

During our discussion, I also learn some new musical terms. One of which is the “sine wave”, which means smooth repetitive oscillation.

I explain to Jaron that I wanted the beginning to be musically smooth, calm and “quiet”. Hence, I do not want much musical instruments playing simultaneously too. The reference I gave him was “like long tone played on a violin”. But Jaron suggested that we shouldn’t just have the soft violin-like sound as it’ll sound... depressing (lol), which isn’t what I wanted as well. 

As for the fast part, I explained that I wanted this kind of beats:

So after further discussion, this was what we came up with briefly:

Hydir also added some text to the ending of the dance to add as a resolution of constantly chasing time but never able to catch up with it.

“Time

passes by

never coming back

never stops

time it keeps going

never coming back

round and round x3″

*Vocals came in late. Should come at 3:12 when Sarah is on the floor and ends before Cheryl stops (Chery’s cue to stop is after 2-3 8 counts of complete silence) so that Cheryl’s breathing - a sign of exhaustion from chasing time - can be heard.*

But after reviewing it a few times... having vocals to end last sounds nice too. Ahhh can’t decide. Have to keep playing the video on my laptop in silence and on my phone simultaneously to test music cues and where the vocals should enter. Here, Cheryl stops because she’s already out of breath haha! Sorry Cheryl!

Susan’s feedback:

GOTTA WORK MUCH HARDER!!!

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Music Collaboration - Journal #12

It’s Week 13, 2 more weeks to public showing!!! I cannot be so unproductive like the past two weeks anymore. So i gave myself time to really think about the development of my piece. And I felt like it’s the first time I really understand (the structure of) my dance...

Also, after writing so many journals, I notice one thing: I didn’t get to mention much about my musicians in my posts. It’s quite sad actually... I didn’t feel like it was a collaboration. Ahhh, I know I should and could be more insistent in asking them to attend my rehearsals and work with me during this process (more), but it was really difficult for all of us. All of them already had their work schedule set, so... there wasn’t anything much I / we could do. ;__;

Rely on technology aka sending videos on Whatsapp then.

So, after observing how Simona structures her dance, I learnt something new and decided to use her method to organise my dance as well! It works for me! Well, at least for this piece. Writing my choreography down on a piece of paper really works yeah! :D

This was actually done last week (had 2 rehearsals last week) because we’ve made a decision that Hwee Ling shouldn’t be dancing with her fractured toe due to Da:ns Fest. So I missed one rehearsal last week as no dancers can confirm their schedule yet. I eventually had to add a Saturday rehearsal on that week when Cheryl has confirmed to be in my dance. Thank you Cheryl!

(first draft: apologies for the very faint pencil marking :( Those are notes about intentions and movement motifs that I’m looking for in my dancers when they improvise)

(Second draft: I added in more references where I get my movement inspirations from and intentions of movements)

Apart from that, I also managed to chance upon a talk by Wane Mcgregor about his choreographic process (my previous dance instructor shared it on Wechat yeah! Thank you laoshi! Haha!) and he really gave me a lot of ideas.

I adopt his method to further develop the duet contact work as well as the fast part of the choreography. I made use of his explanation on using space to create movements.

For instance, I told my dancers to pick a letter from the word “TIME” and imagine the letter (that they chose) infront, beside or above you - basically where you imagine your letter is. So I asked them to trace/describe the letter firstly by using hands, then add body movements and lastly progressed to using the whole body including leg movements.

As for the development of the fast part after the partner work, I tried to apply what I learnt in Dance History last year about chance system (i-Ching) in creating choreography (Thank you Leia!). I decided to use this because it uses the random combination of numbers to create a dance and I thought it matches the initial concept of my piece. Unfortunately, this process didn’t seem to be effectively used, or I didn’t facilitate it properly, as it didn’t quite connect to my current concept of time.

As Cheryl joined in the middle of my choreographic process, some movements are modified from Hwee Ling to suit Cheryl better. The part at 1:25 when Cheryl started running around crazily is the buildup to the climax of the dance - losing control to time. Then after that, they broke out and do their movements at their own slow speed to show that they have given up chasing time and found a resolution to move / live at their own time, own speed.

I have no idea why suddenly there were vocals HAHAHA. I’ll talk more about it in the next post!

Susan’s feedback:

cue with words / numbers / sounds

can link some daily pedestrian gestures

chance system may work or may not work. Be careful how I use it

nuances of different kind of language material e.g. finger can interact with legs

too frontal (pathway, facing, direction)

change of musical projection

Current musical structure is like:

this

and this.

HAHAHA it needs to chill yo. Musicians and I really need to work out the music together so it doesn’t get too out of hands because it’s all improvisations now.

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Music Collaboration - Journal #11

It’s Week 12, 3 more weeks to public showing!!!

*anxious*

Bad news. Hwee Ling fractured her tor during Da:ns Fest :( So I couldn’t put in more choreography for her and it was really quite difficult at that moment. I didn’t want to give her movements that she couldn’t handle physically yet I need my choreography to progress. Hence, I tried my best to give her less movements as possible and modify her existing steps.

I continued developing the partner work a little bit more during the rehearsal. Unlike the previous version that was inspired by the video, I made the partner work into a “call and response” kind of movements instead. Like a reaction of each other. The structure is something like:

1 Sarah moves | 2 HL moves | 3 Sarah moves | 4 HL moves | 5 Sarah moves | 6 HL moves | 7 Sarah moves | 8 HL moves

At about 1:30 in the video below, it’s that part where I added in a new spatial pattern, an infinity sign, to signify the endlessness of the passing of time. Hwee Ling was supposed to run in this spatial pattern, but due to her injury, I told her to walk instead. But looking back at it, whether HL did run or not, this part still wasn’t successful as it doesn’t really help in building my concept choreographically. It’s just... kind of awkward .__.

I also think that maybe this week’s choreographic outcome/showing didn’t show my idea clearly, many were confused with my piece because the movements didn’t seem to have connections.

Susan’s feedback:

music worked well with movements

define ‘4′ choreographically. Why 1 2 3 4?

focus on time. What are the ways to portray time?

create contrast in duet

musically, build up is great

do I need a metronome? What else can they do?

music can have contrasts too

audience doesn’t have to know everything literally - this is an abstract art

choreographic tools used but this is not composition class, not task-based. Must also have concept development. Generate movements but still should stay within the theme

project brief: theme/concept, how do I approach it with my work development (process methodology)?

why is HL the observer? (maybe switch to S run, HL slow)

relationship of Sarah and Hwee Ling. No relationship? How to portray this? No eye contact, unison?

Time: how to portray this concept stronger? Otherwise, might be misunderstood as a dance about relationship

explore different ways to highlight numbers / counting

contact work is good. But be clear how they come together. FOCUS ON ONE IDEA

together: when fast and slow come together, what would happen?

became too formatted. Focus on how we go crazy with time --> decide an idea of duet response

be careful with my approach

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Music Collaboration - Journal #10

It’s Week 11 already!!! OMG the nerves *donkey bite again* *heavy breathing*

While we are getting ready for Week 11 showing, all of us are trying to fix our rehearsal schedules the best we could to accommodate everyone’s most of our timings. As they are just the six of us, it is really, really difficult to set rehearsals plus the following week will be Da:ns Fest production schedule week @_@  天啊！！！

It was already a difficult task to set who our dancers are haha! Just look at the photo below, it looks like tetris >__>

The stress

Tired. Plus confused. Trying very hard to think.

Still discussing rehearsal schedules. So intense.

Finally, after much discussion of our schedules for 2 weeks, we finally come to  a conclusion and can start on our rehearsals more intensively.

So at the beginning stage, I didn’t set my rehearsal duration for too long because I still didn’t have a lot of ideas to work on my dancers and I didn��t want them to wait for me, wasting studio time, thinking choreographic development that I haven’t thought about it yet. Also, we are all already very tired after school. Thus, most of my rehearsals were capped at 1 hour.

Setting up dancers’ schedule is one thing, but arranging it with the musicians is another thing -__- None of my musicians could make it this week but I was okay with it. Since I’m quite easy-going with the musical structure of my piece, I can work with my dancers first, record the process down, then send them the videos via Whatssapp. The only danger is that... not all might watch it. Hmm but it’s okay, there’s always a solution. We can still always work towards something. Have faith.

*stay strong*

So for this week’s rehearsal, my agenda is work on partner work and spatial patterns until the fast part of the dance.

I wrote down on my notebook briefly how I’m going to work on from the beginning to the partner work (handwriting too ugly; I shall type them down haha):

1st slow part beginning still the same

when both stand up, prepare duet partner work

start with holding hands (counter pull) --> rebound

walk in (after completing the number spatial pattern that they choose) to meet again

some synchornisation, but can have some solo parts

e.g. after a lift, back to synchronisation

These are just my brief idea for the partner work. At the time when I was planning it, I had a brief visualisation of how the dance is going to look like but i made a mistake - I didn’t visualise it on my dancers’ body. I cannot assume what I want to work on after watching videos that my dancers can do it. Sigh. I learn my lesson. Will be more mindful next time!

The video below is one of my inspirations of the duet. This duet is choreographed by Jiri Kylian and I just love the connection and chemistry between these two dancers. Needless to say,they show amazing techniques, strengths and lines. The whole dance is really smooth and there is no hesitation between them. Hence, very fluid movements and stunts performed by these two. Whether it relates to my concept or not, this duet just inspires me to create work haha!

This photo also inspired me hahaha.

(This is what I visualise my Music Collab piece would be like for next semester...just to realise that next semester will be a whole new concept @.@)

Oh, but before working on the duet, I wanted to try fixing the fast part of the choreography. Sometimes plan change when we’re in the studio...

This part was really difficult because I realised I haven’t thought about this part yet. Oops. So, I was really stuck on that day :( I knew I wanted to develop this part by fixing the steps but I didn’t know how? As I’m afraid that structured improv might make this dance look messy and unrehearsed :/ I felt the pressure to fix steps because err what if Susan asks me why my choreography is still so inconsistent? @.@ (Sorry Susan, I have no answer haha)

This week’s rehearsal wasn’t used as effectively as I wished  a lot of times were spent on thinking how to create steps. I felt really bad because my dancers came early but I had no idea how to work on the movements? I felt really bad for wasting their time ;__; I could have facilitated my rehearsals better by clearly knowing what and how I am going to work on my dancers at least the day before rehearsal.

Because time is tight, I couldn’t afford myself (and the dancers) to spend 50% of my rehearsal time just thinking about steps for my dancers. I could also help myself if I could be more specific explaining to my dancers what I wanted to explore in. My difficulty is to translate my thoughts into movement vocabulary. I think this comes with experience? Or my personality as a choreographer has to be firmer and clearer in delivering my thoughts so that I don’t sound doubtful?

I’m so thankful for my dancers for helping me to come up with steps that they can do, relate to the concept and I accept. Otherwise... I don’t know what to show for WK11 showing lol. 

One thing I realised about creating partner work is that what I visualise outside studio is very different when I finally step into the studio. What happened in the studio during the creative process don’t usually tally with what I thought (outside the studio) it could be done. And I think this is a nice realisation to know more about myself as a student choreographer.

I also found a new challenge that I faced during this rehearsal. I realised I can’t change my thoughts immediately and produce a Plan B on the spot because visually I need (time) to visualise and understand how new transitions work well together with the rest of the dance, if not, at least, the next movement (time was really tight so I was really anxious >.<).

Phew, after so much struggle... 

Some of my own thoughts:

partner work doesn’t work!!!

too awkward, too choppy, too weird

definitely need more work on duet

fast part is to highlight how time is controlling our movements already. But either there isn’t enough intention / development in the beginning, the fast part doesn’t seem to link well with the rest of the dance as a whole or fast part develops too quickly to the climax that somehow makes the dance going nowhere after that

Susan’s comments/notes:

noticed obsession of numbers

contented in their own numerical world

individually or collectively representing obsession?

significance of number 5?

talk to musicians what ‘5′ means to them?

how does intention affect my tool?

my directions are important

good effort but think deeper

different configuration (where to place the musicians? Think about it)

what is Sarah’s part about?

frame it. How does number play in society?

How idea of obsession has impact on individual or the collective

what are they?

time (robotic, repetition, crazy) vs human (emotions, response, towards time or go against time?)? Humanism didn’t show through the duet

highlight number 5? Need to highlight 5 straightaway

frame it more. Highlight time

how many repetitions will then audience get it?

If my idea is simple enough, keep it simple for now. Don’t be too ambitious

Some of my peers’ comments from Susan as well:

NEXT WEEK AIM: 2.5-3 MINS!!

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Music Collaboration - Journal #9

Week 10 was to recap our research materials and ideas to the musicians so that we can form a group this week.

My recap to the musicians:

concept: figures (at this point of time, I have not decided to narrow down my concept yet)

structured improv

metronome count to set tempo/speed of movements

preferred instruments: percussions

how figures affect, control and structure us and how we rely on figures to structure our lives

After recapping our pitch to the musicians, they then decide to join which group/concept they are interested in. So after a short discussion, I have 6 musicians in total (1 was absent this week).

1 x drum - Enrico

1 x keyboard - Mervyn

2 x strings (guitar) - Arafad and Matthew

1 x vocal - Hydir

1 x technology (create sounds using computer software system) - Jaron

When we got together (randomly I think haha), the musicians understood the concept so they asked me what kind of musical structure or style I prefer. (Difficult question, because I’m really a music idiot) I told them I actually do not have very specific requirement for the musical structure but the only must-have is the constant beat that can replace the metronome. We all agreed that the use of metronome beat is just a guideline to the musical structure but it definitely won’t be used literally in our further explorations because it’ll be too monotonous and flat. Hence, I gave them a rough idea of the kind of beat that I’d like to have in the music by referencing Katy Perry’s Dark Horse to them:

The beat starts at 0:20.

As a result, we have this:

After looking at the video and giving it some thoughts on the music, I feel that I could afford to give more specific and detailed instructions ideas explanations to my musicians. Maybe I gave them too briefly what I would like the musical structure to be like, the music and beats don’t seem to be what I’m really looking for.

The beginning was OK, but it was still too fast. Though no metronome was used here, but I’d still prefer the beat to stay somewhere at 50bpm. However, the change in the layering of music sounds quite nice though and it feels like a nice buildup.

Movements wise... It was still largely improvised within the set structure that we have been working on at this stage. Got to set some choreography next week!

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Music Collaboration - Journal #8

First concept showing and pitching ideas to musicians, Tim and Susan

I’M SO EMBARRASSED WATCHING THIS VIDEO OMG I WAS SO NERVOUS I CANNOT TO PUBLIC SPEAKING THE DONKEY BELOW DESCRIBES HOW I FELT INSIDE ACCURATELY. 

Pardon me if I wasn’t clear in explaining my concept T^T 

The movements shown in the video attached above are based on the metronome beat. This is to allow musicians to have a rough idea at what speed and tempo they should be playing.

Thank you dancers for helping me to explain my idea, their thoughts and our first rehearsal process! And thank you Jialing for helping me to record this down! :*

Somehow somewhere something happen and suddenly my piece becomes time vs human.... hmmm

After explaining my idea, it was time for musicians to play!

Hmmm.. Looks like their structured improv wasn’t quite bad! :P

Some comments from Susan on the choreography:

minute movements

interesting use of finger movements, but what could I do better for better/clearer contrast in terms of movements

interesting percussive music, but do I decide to follow or go against it?

could have gone deeper

predictable (slow --> fast; emotional --> robotic) --> in danger of losing audience’s attention quickly

random finger movements to be clearer

don’t run into cliche i.e. emotional

articulate ideas better to musicians (takes a lot of courage because speaking isn’t my forte)

need to have some level of facilitating (I’m really bad at this T^T

Susan’s general comments to all of us that might be helpful in collaborating with one another and the musicians:

overall not bad

evaluate one another, understand how certain processes help or don’t help us

more ideas based on feedback from myself, friends and Susan

process (i.e tool of choreographic process) has to be clear to dancers and musicians

pitch ideas clearly, look from audience’s perspectives

if process is only clear to ourselves, we become self-indulgent

unclear pitch/process is hard for musicians as well

more over-arching theme

with limitations, comes creativity

too specific in certain ideas or movement motifs might be giving ourselves certain constraints?

find different choreographic approach; improv --> set movements doesn’t mean it’s the only way

So what we’ll work on next week is to group with our musicians and work with movements that have been developed based on this week’s comments!

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Music Collaboration - Journal #7

Inspiration to my concept and choreographic exploration

I decided to make my exploration a duet as it was really difficult to accommodate everyone’e schedule and as we’re all dancing for each other, making rehearsals work is much more difficult than we think. Hence, I chose Hwee Ling and Sarah who are able to attend my rehearsal days. (Thank you!)

Out of the concepts that I’ve written quite a lot during the last holiday, I decided to explore further with the idea of numbers/figures. Below is an excerpt from The Little Prince by  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that inspired me to explore this idea:

“Grown-ups love figures. When you describe a new friend to them, they never ask you about the important things. They never say, ‘What’s his voice like? What are his favourite games? Does he collect buterflies?’ Instead, they demand, ‘How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much does his father earn?’ Only then do they feel they know him. If you say to the grown-ups: ‘I’ve seen a lovely house made of pink brick, with geranium in the windows and dares in the roof’, they are unable to picture such a house. You must say: ‘I saw a house that cost a hundred thousand franc.’ Then they cry out: ‘Oh, how pretty!’”

From the excerpt, it seems that the author is trying to express that figures are only the surface of a whole thing/object/situation; it is not a representation of all. Yet, we are constantly bothered by how numbers/figures structure our lives.

I expanded on the potential meanings of numbers:

academic

time

social media likes

age

money

structural/pattern

height & weight

ranking

As I was expanding it, I remember one of friend who is a teenager told me she’ll choose a “prime time” to post her photo in Instagram so that she can get more likes than usual. Her observation and desire to get more than a hundred likes on social media really shock me because I didn’t know people really do that O_O

First rehearsal with dancers

My first rehearsal was to have my dancers discuss with me together what numbers mean to them and what they think about numbers. This doesn’t only help me to expand my idea but could help me realise what I might have missed out.

On a whole, we agree that we cannot live without numbers. It structures and organises our lives but too organised that things become a routine (choreographic interpretation: unison) following social norms like a robot --> lack individualism. Without numbers, humans will lose control. We sometimes are too controlled by numbers e.g. time.

Using the idea how numbers control our lives, I use numbers to structure my dance too (was a bit inspired by Simona’s way of structuring her dance hehe). I wrote it down on my notebook:

- Start with fingers moving (movement motif of the dance)

each dancer improv ~2minutes

set: 5 x 8 counts

Beginning: 1st person go

3rd 8′: 2nd person go

5th 8′: start to find unison by either having only unison finger movements or all synchronised --> last count, all up

*common motifs: touching body parts (how numbers are so instilled in our bodies), structured steps (robotic kind of look)

So we started off by improving to the above given structure. It went beyond 2 minutes though haha! The timing wasn’t what I wanted initially, so to make things clearer and more constant in the beginning to set the structure, we decided to have a metronome at 50bpm to guide us.

We decided to set some rules because we realised that full-improv isn’t always helpful in creating a phrase of steps as they’re a lot of similarities appearing thus making the choreography looks really flat ;__;

Rules:

No consecutive numbers when doing finger gestures

Have whole 8 of silence

Vary dynamics

Then, I decided to have some fun by increasing the beat to 120bpm hahaha! Also because we were all bored by the 50bpm beat already >_>

Then I had the sudden inspiration to combine both slow and fast improv because I feel that the connection from slow to fast works. So just a little bit of fun!

After my first rehearsal with them, I realised I’m quite an easy-going choreographer because if coincidentally the movements make sense to me or seem to have connection to the next, I’m fine with how it is. It doesn’t necessarily has to go my way. Maybe also because this is the beginning stage, I’m still at the very-exploration-based mood. So.. anything goes!

End of Day 1 rehearsal yeah!

(Looking back at the old videos, I can’t believe the initial stage of my choreography looks like this O.O It’s quite an amazing feeling to see my own choreography developing each week :))

First rehearsal with Priscilla

Pris is interested in exploring the idea of body image and how we are obsessed or worried at how our bodies look. She translated her concept to her choreography by exploring extreme movements. She gave us some structures to improvise:

left ear leading

mini explosion in our bodies

imagine stepping on hot surface / fire

kneading a dough

She then used the movements that we generated from the improv and combine them together to develop her choreography.

First rehearsal with Sarah

Sarah is interested in exploring the idea of blindness. For instance, can blindness be more than just a physical condition of losing sight? Or lack of knowledge / worldview also means you’re “blind” to your surroundings?

She gave us the Story of Six Blind Men to help us generate our movements. So we had to create movements based on our interpretations of the story. I translated my interpretation of the story into movements narratively (walking), emotionally (curiosity) and physically (covering of the eyes).

Then we had games:

- mini game #1: Blindfold ourselves and sense where the pair of socks is being thrown at --> Follow instructions from two persons (one saying the truth, the other lying) --> Blindfolder decides who to follow --> During my turn my first question was “why i didn’t hear where the socks land?” --> Already prepared opening our other senses up.

- mini game #2: Blindfold ourselves and walk from one end to another. I insisted that i was walking straight but weirdly, in reality i wasn’t?? :O The journey felt dammmmmn long somehow. 

Then, she proceeds back to developing our movements. Thoughts:

did it with close eyes and added extra hand movement whenever sarah says stop

improv with close eyes felt better in general but in a set choreo, it felt slightly uncomfortable because we are not used to using other senses even though it has been part of our daily lives

we rely on our sense of sight a lot

worried about falling or hitting someone else or something, shrink our movements instead

Is this how normal-turn-blind people felt in the beginning? Sense of uncertainty and insecurity? Very curious how born-blind people view nature since they have never seen anything in reality. What gives them the imagination to view the nature of the world? What kind of blue sky do they think the sky is? How do trees and clouds look like to them? I always thought if I had to choose between being blind and deaf, I would rather be deaf. I prefer seeing the world to hearing it.

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Performance Theory - Journal #6

Take a recent work movie/book/work of art/song.etc) and apply a postmodern analysis to it.

E.g. Does it blur the distinction between high and low culture? Is it playful? How? Does it reject boundaries between genres, time periods etc? Does it reject traditional narrative structures?

HAHAHA I was having trouble finding what I want to write about, but suddenly this photo appeared on Facebook a couple of days ago so I thought it might be quite interesting to write about it since it’s nonsensically hilarious to me though I’m not very sure what it means exactly hahahaha! It makes sense in a way that makes me go “hmm oh yeah” but to explain it in words can be quite challenging hah! Anyway, since I would like to explore more on visual arts too, so why not take this opportunity to? :P

Again, it is obvious that this meme has a reference to Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night by simply looking at the background (oh God, I need to know art beyond Starry Starry Night lol). What is “different” about this version is the random addition of Batman reference XD It is punny, lame and nonsensical at the same time because what is the relationship between Van Gogh and Batman? Batman was not even exist created when Van Gogh finished this painting. So, simply judging from the “painting” itself, this work makes no sense. Why is the Batman even there?

Ok, so as I was researching for more information, I managed to find something. This painting is titled The Dark Starry Knight. LOOOOL

*just because I miss Scooby Doo*

Back to Batman-Van Gogh, postmodernism art suggests that its ideology “reflects widespread disillusionment with life” (visual-art-cork). While this painting does not accurately depicts artist’s disillusionment with life, it does suggests, to a certain extent, that he/she isn’t impressed by the original one-and-only Starry Starry Night. Thus, the artist decided to be playful and add humour to the painting by inserting Batman reference in it.

It is also arguable to say that the artist is trying to engage more audience to know more about one of Van Gogh’s famous works by putting Batman in it since both works are created one century apart.

Therefore, the high vs low culture:

The term "high culture" is often used by art critics when trying to distinguish the "high culture" of painting and sculpture (and other fine arts), from the "low" popular culture of magazines, television, pulp fiction and other mass-made commodities.

With reference to this painting, we can argue that the artist is trying to blend/blur the distinctions of both cultures together by putting both famous art/hero figures in a work together (to attract more ordinary consumers) -- it does not reject boundaries of time period.

The additional of pun, “I must gogh. Gotham needs me.”, also makes the photo itself more hilarious. Translated to normal English words, it means “I must [go]. Gotham needs me.” Gogh, referring to Van Gogh’s painting; Gotham to Batman. I suppose this is to target young readers today on the Internet as a form of entertainment.

ALL IN ALL, THIS IS A PUNNY MEME THAT MAKES US GO “WHAT’ when you mix both high art and popular culture of superhero together.

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Performance Theory - Journal #5

Watch Lady Gaga’s MTV of “Born This Way” and give a response to its portrayal of gender identity.

Describe in your own words what you think Lady Gaga’s view towards gender identity is.

Lady Gaga is known for her support in LGBT rights worldwide even before her singing career. This has also reflected in some of her songs. Born This Way is actually inspired by Carl Bean's 1977 gay disco anthem, "I Was Born This Way." and Lady Gaga uses it as a reflection of her support in LGBT rights.

I think Lady Gaga’s view about gender identity is to love who you are and what do you think you are, gender wise. It should not be a sin to anyone if he thinks and wants to be a female and vice versa. This is reflected in,

No matter gay, straight or bi Lesbian, transgendered life I'm on the right track, baby I was born to survive

...

Don't hide yourself in regret, Just love yourself and you're set I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way, yeah

She encourages individuals to believe and love themselves as who they are and one should not be insecure and worried even if society treats them otherwise. The constant use of “born this way” also emphasises that individuals should not feel and be sorry of their own gender identity that is shaped not by their physical aspects, but environmentally or biologically (sometimes hormones is the contributing factor to homosexuality and bisexuality). Lady Gaga believes that we all have the right to choose what we become and this is the way we are born. Hence, she also tries to deliver the message of having love and equality to everyone regardless of their gender identity to her audience.

Does the music video reinforce or contradict the idea that gender is performed?

Personally, I feel that the process and product of creating the music video can be considered as a performance itself about gender identity.

The costumes that appeared in the music video are used to highlight feminine and masculine physicality of the gender’s body. Hence, a bikini-looking costume for female performers and vest and pants for males.

The video editing and heavy exaggerated performative make-up are also reinforcements of how gender identity is being performed. Similarly, the dance steps are rehearsed and then performed in the music video, which again stresses the performativity of gender in this video.

Would Judith Butler agree or disagree with Lady Gaga?

I suppose Butler would agree with Lady Gaga because both agree that gender (identity) is nurtured and it changes as we grow up due to various environmental factors. One’s gender doesn’t solely based on their biological and physical aspects.

If you could re-make the MTV, how would you do it differently and why?

Haha, I would want to have a male singer as Lady Gaga and dance and perform the same way as Lady Gaga does in this MTV. It would be interesting to see if it sparks any controversy having a male body performing feminine movements, wearing bling-bling bottomwear and heavy makeup. 8)

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Hi Ms Jocelyn! Yup, that explains why I didn’t want to continue responding in Western culture because she has mentioned a lot already and it’ll be boring for me haha! But I agree to what you said too, ah, the Western dominance haha!

I love Chinese ethnic dances (especially Mongolian, at the moment) because they are always happy and proud of their dance culture and you can definitely see it from their faces! And what all ethnic minorities have in common is to pass on their dance cultures from generations to generations thus the children there learn dancing and singing as soon as they can walk. And what I enjoyed while doing this journal is to find out about Uyghur dance. It’s a really beautiful dance for the community and as a community too. I love Mongolian folk songs too haha! But the research for it is already a challenge in itself. I have no idea why I’m so Asian Chinese. I’m even doing Cantonese Opera for DICA haha!

Performance Theory - Journal #4

Which of Banes’ two opposing views of the dancing body and its role in society do you agree with and why?

Dancing and dancers are products of culture; they reflect dominant cultural trends

Dancing and dancers have the potential to effect change in society

As I was reading Bane’s article on Power and the Dancing Body, I share a lot of similar views with her on how dancing and dancers reflect society(’s cultural trends) and her explanations made it even clearer for me understanding how dance has been evolving and the reasons for it.

Since Bane has already shared her views in terms of Western cultural society, I shall share mine in terms of Eastern society. Let’s take a look at the video below:

Just from the short video above, we learn that there are different kinds of Chinese ethnic dances in China and Mongolia. But the video only shows about 4 to 5 Chinese ethnic dances when in fact, there are about 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China (Wang) and each of them has their own folk dance that reflects their culture and way of lives through the emotions and movements of their dance (Li). Villages in China and Mongolia dance to almost every event - when they are happy, during harvest time, marriage and even mourning. Dance is their lifestyle.

Keep reading

[coladancexplorations-blog]

Music Collaboration - Journal #6

IT’S TRIOOOO WEEK!

LALALALALALALALA LALALALALALA~~~

Susan grouped us this week, and for this week’s journal, I’ll write in terms of different groupings.

Sarah, Priscilla and I: MEMORIES

Memories is a large and vague topic/word in itself. Hence we gathered to share what memories mean to us so we can narrow the concept down to how much we can handle. However, we try not to make it too personal because we wished to talk about what childhood can mean to anyone. Hence, we took reference from Viewpoints, when Adam wanted us to explore childhood experiences in general instead of deeply focusing on our own individual childhood experience.

For me, memories remind me of childhood home, where all our first memories - happy, sad, angry, etc - began. So childhood emotions are the impetus to my movements.

For Sarah, memories mean having dinner with family over a dining table. Everyone has their own individual memories with their families or themselves over the dining table at home. Some families talk about their days at the dining table while some families don’t talk because talking while eating/during dinner can be considered rude to them. Hence, it means different things and brings different memories to individual audience.

After our discussion, we structured our explorations on “memories” to stay within the concept of “home”, which then reminds us of emotions we have experienced at home. Our change or development of emotions will be led by musicians.

In the video, dancers began with the imagery of seating around the dining table and then we each developed our movements and emotions that will be led by the musicians. We wanted them to lead us instead because we didn’t want the musicians to always be the follower / response to our movements.

FEEDBACK/OBSERVATION:

Can feel each other together with the musicians

Driving force: Music(ians)

Message might be clearer if there is a set movement motifs

Musicians’: We didn’t fix a form - dare to break away from music

SUSAN’S COMMENTS:

Create a relationship with one another

Gestures, canon, task-based motifs

If don’t want to be too structural, create a task for ourselves

Develop gestures: E.g one person initiates a movement, the other two follow / develop the movements --> shows relationship between the three of us

Must be hypersensitive to one another

2nd try after peer feedback from dancers, musicians and Susan

In our second attempt, we still keep the beginning imagery of gathering at a dining table but we gave ourselves a role to work on. I was the grandmother, Sarah as mother and Priscilla as daughter. As I was improvising, I try to think about a grandmother’s role in a family not only as a grandmother to her grandchildren. but also a mother to her daughter. Thus, there were moments of physical support to literally show the audience that sometimes, a grandparent is the one trying to support the family and holding on tightly to a breaking family bond/structure; she is also the protector of her daughter. Moments when I walk away symbolises death, in which I will observe them from afar instead and still trying to find ways to protect them spiritually even though I am physically not around anymore. 

SUSAN’S FEEDBACK:

Movements too similar, not as contrasting as before

Maybe because our roles itself already have a strong bond for one another hence very similar impetus that is easily identified through movements

Which means, sometimes characterisation doesn’t work effectively in a group

PEER OBSERVATION

Hwee Ling, Jialing and Cheryl: WORDS

Vocals from musicians and dancers

Structure: “Yes” / “No” / “Maybe”

Embodied characters into their own words

i.e. What each of these words mean to the dancers

Nice response between dancers and musicians