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Blog 5: “I Want To Be Ready”

1 idea that I took from this reading is how dance should “escape” documentation because it is a difficult concept to grasp. To believe that the best way to preserve a form of dance movement is to disconnect it from eternal documentation sounds sort of like if someone said the best way to clean your shirt is to throw it away. I do understand from a distance how keeping its ephemerality keeps its beauty, but its hard to think that I should only see art from a personal perspective than ones in videos.

Another idea is how improvisation depends on the shift of many types of landscapes. This is interesting and caught my attention because I do not think I completely agree. I understand the argument that many of the thoughtful flow of movement in relation to an “unsteady environment,” but this sounds to much like an argument stating improvisation cannot be done in a calm steady environment, and that it in facts depends on chaos. I believe improvisation depends on a fluctuation of emotion, whether that be chaotic, heart filled emotion or calm, simple emotion. In fact, chaos would not exist without its simple opposite.

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Emotional Landscape Scores

Score 1: Disgust

- All dancers start on opposite sides of the stage. They begin to dance toward the center facing out the entire beginning with movements free but focused upwards.

- When dancer feels or sees other dancer, they begin dancing toward the ground, including crawling. They begin spiraling each other until they feel another dancer or get to the end of the floor.

- Facials interpret disgust facing toward dancer until the end of the score.

Score 2: Empathy

- Dancer 1 focuses on facial movements in the direction of Dancer 2 and/or others. No foot movement and minimal arm interactions.

- Dancer 2 explores the area around using all parts of bod, but does not show any type of emotion through the face. Dancer 2 goes back and forth between falling, quick successive punches and kicks, jumps and trendy dance movements,

- Dancer 1 interprets Dancer 2′s movement with emotion. Idea is that Dancer 1 empathizes with Dancer 2, even if Dancer 2 does not know how he or she is feeling them self.

- Debating whether to include or switch mid score. If so, it would be Dancer 1 interpreting confusion at Dancer 2 and Dancer 2 running towards Dancer 1, pushing them causing the change in roles right away. I imagine right after the push, Dancer 2 looking scared and shocked because they interpret Dancer 1′s emotion.

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Score Reflection from February 1st

I really enjoyed adding in the fun beginning and I believe so did everyone else because people were laughing. I think my addition of the facial expressions going from the beginning section to the end section worked well because it helped to establish that transition. Ephemerality is the concept of things not lasting forever, so I want my audience to watch the end and realize that those laughs in the beginning were only temporary, and the frustration at the end also dies when the performance ends too.

I think that I should add more focus on angry and frustrated facials at the end because it does seem that they are still having fun towards the end. I should probably change the middle section so that the dancers have more time to lag out the transition from comical to serious. I do not think I like the sudden shift to the floor at the end but I am not sure how to fix that

Score: Ephemerality

Beginning: Dancers start at one end of the stage with the intention to get to the other end with joyful, playful moments. Dancers cannot move more than about 10 feet from each other and dancers are not allowed to touch the ground with any other parts of their bodies other than their feet. Dancers are not allowed to touch each other, but eye contact and focus should stay on each other the whole way over.

Transition: Dancers communicate with careful placed steps forward and backward until both dancers understand to start a wash moving in an S formation back to the beginning. Dancers do not use any arms or body parts to communication, and dancers intensely look at each others eyes until Middle starts. Dancers should not look like they are having fun.

Middle: Dancers lose the restrictions that state they can only touch the floor with their feet and they have to stay within about 10 feet from each other, and that they cannot touch other. Dancers increase intensity and no longer look happy. Dancers take turns tagging each other, and once one dancer is tagged, he or she must stay frozen for 10 seconds while other dancers begins to have fun again, but only when other dancer is frozen. Once both partners have been tagged and frozen, end begins.

End: Dancers begin apart from each other and cannot be within 10 feet from each other. Dancers are filled with hate, frustration, and sadness. Dancers very slowly descending close to the ground, but can only move their feet if they are running or speed crawling on a grid.  Dance ends once both are on the ground.

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Blog 4: “I Want To Be Ready”

Danielle Goldman speaks about the work of Bill T. Jones as an artist as well as appreciates the work and thought put into his work. The work he did was both inspirational and courageous in many ways. In the introductory chapter, Goldman talks a lot about improvisational dance as an art form and how the ephemeral rudiments left in history make it difficult for dancers to enjoy purely without the satisfaction that it can live on while also discouraging others from practicing improvisational dance because of the ephemeralness. Going into Chapter 4, readers learn about the passionate Bill Jones that challenged himself and dance culture through his work. Jones focused much of his practice solidifying his ballet structures, shedding light on the strenuous work he put himself through. His ability can be seen in his work Floating the Tongue that is mentioned in the reading. This particular dance creation was influenced by and incorporated much of the Buddhist practices, showing how Jones focused on knowledge and cultural diversity in his dance practices. Later in the reading, another of Jones’ creations is mentioned. Jones performed a improvisational dance at the American Dance Festival where he yelled statements seen as racist and sexist. Here you can see that Jones not only danced for entertainment, but to also to make political statements, because this was not to judge others, but to make people challenge these statements in life. Andre Lepecki’s statement about a dancers creation being reduced to a certain type of movement based on the dancers characteristics a prison speaks the most to me because many dancers are told not to grow in certain areas based on their own characteristics by society and this creates division and a false illusion that one can become less of a dancer with more movement knowledge.

I did not have all my dancers on Friday, so I had spent the time reflecting on my own dance. Seeing how my dance had already been a couple of minutes, adding in the certain ideas that Taisha wants me to add would make the score easy to reach 5minutes. With my notes from class, I would like to make the distinction between the dance being a fall from happiness more prevalent with the dancers beginning with smiles and laughs and ultimately end with a certain type of frustration and seriousness at the end. The wash would be incorporated as the transition between the beginning and middle, but this particular walk would have a set movement shape and highlight the change in emotion and mood. The grid had already been incorporated, but was at first free, so the knew dance would have the grid at the end with more intention and priority. The  T. Vivante are shown in the middle “freeze tag” portion, with also more priority.

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Blog 3: Post-Score Reflection

  This being my first score, I learned much in the process of creating. I found that was easier to create this score if I had set beginning, middle, and end instructions, each different from the others. When focusing on a score for multiple dancers, it is important to keep instructions open for interpretation and to have instructions keep the dancers focusing on each other. I found it extremely helpful to include the idea that I have for the score as well as the emotion and/or intention that I want the dancers to have while executing the score. It creates a better interpretation so that the dancers and the creator of the score are on the same page.

  I did have clear set rules for the dancers in my initial score, but I ended up changing what I had to so that the dancers had a better understanding of what I wanted to do. I had to add many instructions that clearly told the dancers when to move on to the next phase of the score. I also added other instructions on where the dancers had to move to so that the dancers could make less decisions and prevent confusion and possible indecisiveness.

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Blog 2: Mind, Body, and Spirit

To best prepare my mind for this class, I need to take care of all of my priorities for those particular days before class so that I am not distracted. To best prepare my body for this class, I need to take pre-class warm-ups seriously, but more importantly, focus on the parts of my body that needs more attention. I would also need to eat at least 2 hours before class so that I am not hungry during class or full. To best prepare my spirit, I would need to come into class with a positive vibe and leave all outside stresses.

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Blog 1: Beginning, Middle, End to Score

Struggle Tag

Beginning - Dancers cannot be more than 10 feet away from each other. Dancers cannot touch or interact with each other for more than a second. Dancers cannot touch the ground with any part of their bodies except their feet.

Middle - Dancers can be any distance away or close to each other. If one part of the dancer is touched by the partners hands, that part of the partner is isolated in 3D space until End of score. Dancers are allowed to touch the ground.

End - Dancers cannot be within 10 feet from each other. Body parts are no longer suspended in space. Dancers can only move the feet unless they are running, and can only run on a grid.

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Eddie Gage Dance Making Winter 2018