Blog one - A Reflection of Choreographic Tasks/Processes

In our first choreography lesson we looked at the different stimuli and what themes we could draw from the images, as building blocks to creating our own choreography. We also discovered the ‘Chance Method’ created by Merce Cunningham who challenged the ideas of traditional dance and pushed boundaries to create new pieces of work. (The Six Sides of Merce Cunningham, 2022) He created his choreography using chance and randomness, unlike more traditional pieces where a choreographer would focus more on the storyline and connecting the movements to the music. (The Six Sides of Merce Cunningham, 2022) Cunningham’s use of randomness gave his choreography a more abstract feel, enabling the piece to be more open to the audience interpretation. (The Six Sides of Merce Cunningham, 2022) We then tried to incorporate this method into our own choreography so we could use it as an inspiration in our own work. In small groups we wrote a list of movements and randomly assigned numbers to each, so that when we rolled a dice it would determine what order they would be performed in. I found this method useful when thinking about generating choreography, because it can help create a baseline for your piece, which can then be developed further throughout the process.  

For my solo, I chose the stimulus (pictured below) which is a piece of artwork called: ‘Metropolis’ by Alan Schaller (Exhibitions, 2022). From this I gained a sense of individuality regarding the feelings and different perspectives each person has; through the use of spacing in the image. The colour scheme is purely black and white, which gives the image a sophisticated, simplistic feel. In my choreography I aim to reflect this theme by using simple movements to create a sense of individuality and clarity. One thing that caught my attention in the image is the shadows from each person. This stood out to me and began to make me view the image with a more analytical approach in what it could represent as a bigger picture. Drawing together the idea of individuality and different perspectives, alongside the shadows each person creates, gave an idea of the importance of being yourself, because if you try to become somebody else you will be trapped living in their shadow. In my choreography I aim to develop this as a journey of breaking away and discovering your own identity, whilst using other features of the image such as the use of directions, different characteristics and the simplicity of the colour scheme.  

(Schaller, 2022)

Bibliography

Alan Schaller. 2022. Exhibitions. [online] Available at: <http://alanschaller.com/exhibitions> [Accessed 2 October 2022]. 

Schaller, A., 2022. Metropolis. [image] Available at: <http://alanschaller.com/exhibitions> [Accessed 2 October 2022]. 

Youtube.com. 2022. The Six Sides of Merce Cunningham. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJeum_kxSV8> [Accessed 2 October 2022].