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This is a vital tool which should never be overlooked.  In the dance industry, all working dancers have to have strong teaching skills in order to communicate their movement's intentions.

Many dance students I teach demonstrate strong teaching skills as a result of practise, though I fear that they don't always know what they should focus on whilst teaching others.  No matter how many times I review this.

I notice that they often overlook the importance of dynamic detail especially, and tend to focus on the action content.  When teaching they often forget to teach the intention or the meaning intended to be communicated.  For example, I noticed in today's class that when they taught each other their movement phrases they rarely mentioned the artwork and the movement's connection to it.

So, why is intention often lost in the teaching of material?  Is it lost and re-found later on in the process?  How does understanding meaning beneift the dancers and their dancing?

When I see the painting it is clear that the paint on the canvas is connected.  Sometimes these connections are close and sometimes they are in complex opposition, but they are always connected.

Interesting...how does effective peer teaching effectively improve the quality of the dance and the final product?

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By allocating each dancer with a colour from the artwork by Pollock, we were able to explore the spatial, dynamic and action design ideas in the studio.

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Though we have had a number of 'get to know each other' 'pre-rehearsal' rehearsals so far this academic term, this week will represent 'rehearsal 1' in my mind.

Monday 6th November: I plan to use McGreggor's approach  as this too lends itself to the multi-layered approach to process based movement.

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Working with 8 dancers and 2 quartets.  Each quartet can be slightly different, but the dancers will probably benefit from a 'creative -share' approach this term.

Tom Jones
Chloe Harrison
Cerys Lewis
Rosie Johnson
Meg Mason
Hannah Meg Williamson
Paige Mainwaring
Emma Mellin

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On November 5th, I would be blind if I didn't acknowledge that this painting, would it be a 'thing', could be a firework, right?

Does that influence the movement intention?

Hmmmm....

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The reason behind choosing this particular Jackson Pollock artwork had everything to do with the fact that I have always related to his work, and this particular work demonstrates a visual image that relates and connects to my way of thinking as a dancer and as a choreographer. You see, I have often visualised physical dance movement using colour, lines and circles, using my body like a painter uses his brush, drawing onto a blank canvas. When I look at the artwork I can actually picture myself within it, at its centre, moving three dimensionally throughout the textures, colours and shapes of the work. Maybe this is why we find that dance studios are often white, and that dancers are asked to wear black clothes during the creative process (as to not effect the imagined colours in the chorographers mind). I know this is my reasoning for working my dancers in all black.

So how does this connect to the music of composer Ezio Bosso? Well, for me Ezio Bosso also uses the same layering patterns in his music, as Pollock displays in his painting, which in turn, relates to my way of imagining my movement in space. This of course connects to choreographic patterns and for me, spatial design and often choreomatic or choreolinguistic formulae, which begins and ends with a rigid structure, but ultimately results in an apparent chaos, only fully realised by the audience, when the stimulus is revealed and when the time signature of the music matches the spatial time signature of the dancing absolutely.

It is here that I can accept that, as a choreographer, it is the concept of capturing process that interests me, just like Bosso and Pollock, the final artwork is a product of a creative process, and its aesthetic, though full of technique, form and structure, has also captured the chaos of its process-based design.  There is no initial goal other than to explore the possibilities of creation, using a stimulus.  The final product is influenced by every second, emotion, mistake and decision made in the studio space.

Interesting.

A far more 'academic' and less 'traditional' approach to 'making dances' and ultimately a little more captivating than the 'copy me' approach, right?

An example of Ezio Bosso's work and a possibility for this dance's accompaniment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bj1yCgLO8w

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This serves as a guide to our work and is something I will check through the choreographic process.

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Choosing music for a quartet is often a tricky task. It involves lots of searching, trial and error and patience. The music I am hoping to use for this dance should be easy for the dancers to listen to and complimentary in relation to the chosen style and steps used.

By using a selection of soundscapes in the rehearsals this week, I am hoping to get a sense of the dancer's movement qualities, which will inform the process of selection.

Music relationship are always in my mind when choreographing. I am pretty sure that I will not use a narrative approach to this and I am likely to work with mutual coexistence, direct correlation and music visualisation based approaches to this.

Of course, Richard Alston, Henri Oguike, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Akram Khan are just a few examples of choreographers that use contemporary dance movement and work closely with music relationships.  It is these pioneers of dance that have influenced my own approach to using music effectively.

Here is a clip from Henri Oguike's work entitled 'White Space'. It clearly shows that dancer's movement has a unique and distinct relationship with the music, using Oguike's signature 'foot stamping' actions. Oguike was one of my teachers and I worked with him on a number of choreographic works, so he has somewhat majorly informed my own practice to this day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok1rQlCvtAI

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Gwyn Emberton

I watched this recently.  I thought it was...interesting.

Okay, so what do I mean by that. Did I think it was engaging? Sometimes, in parts it was. So, what engaged me? Well, the concept engaged me most. I thought the potential use of set was extreme and the fact that there were only a handful of dancers was appealing. But, I left the theatre feeling... a little disappointed.

Why? Well, the dance was nothing new. I have seen hundreds like this dance before. There are thousands of contemporary dances out there like this one, some better and some worse.

So, why reflect on it here. Well, I did think that there were some sections worth noting. I enjoyed the 'workshop' group sections. I enjoyed them moving the pieces of set underfoot. I enjoyed act two, where choreographic devices were evident and clear. I enjoyed the audience participation (though a complete copy of Wayne McGreggor's work INFRA). I enjoyed my ex-student Daniella's 'solo' part. She was far more engaging to watch than the professional cast. I enjoyed my current student's performance and felt proud of his involvement in such a respected piece of Wales based work.

But all in all, the work was a bland, uninspiring, repetitive workshop based, explorative dance piece. The choreographer might have served the work better if it had been performed in warehouse or maybe in the 'round', but on a stage in Newport - it didn't work... the dancers were not performing, they were exploring.  But maybe that was the point.  For me, this work was nothing to write home about and I am fearful it will inspire young dancers to create more of the same - nothingness.

Though I want this A Level Dance quartet to be industry reflective, I also want it to get my students excellent performance grades by presenting excellent performance skills. RAFT lacked the fundamentals of live dance - the performance factor.

#inmyopinion
#doineedtobeentertained
#shouldiseeitagain?
#whendiddancebecomemartialartsbased?
#iamoverit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6cHMZfDAg4

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Wayne McGreggor - this TEDTalk is basically insight into my choreographic soul. Wayne says it all - he communicates all that I believe.  He is one of my guides.

I reflect, that I really need to record more of my own processes, in order to capture my thoughts, watch back my process, and learn more about how I can evolve as a choreographer.

Hmmmm....physical thinking

https://www.ted.com/talks/wayne_mcgregor_a_choreographer_s_creative_process_in_real_time

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Performed by the Sydney Dance Company and choreographed by one of my all time favourite dance artists Rafael Bonachela, I have used this clip as a source of inspiration for many of my dance works.  This includes LIFT, One Vision and A Level Dance, so it seems only fitting that it seeps into my mind again, when making this new quartet.

The middle section of the attached clip shows a cleverly working of a duet, into a quartet, which is a method I have used for years; a method I have decided to call 'coupling'.

Duet 'coupling' creates such beautiful patterns and when used on a diagonal line, or in canon, or unison, or in reverse mirroring, it creates such choreomatical sense to the eye.  Hence the creation of beauty.

Having my own choreographic signature is useful when I am able to choose the dancers, for example, when I audition for LIFT, but this quartet doesn't give me that choreographic luxury. I have been given my dancers, and I have to therefore work with the bodies I've got, not necessarily the bodies I would 'choose'. Interesting...

Therefore, I have to question, am I the choreographer here or am I the teacher?  Well, I want to be both and I choose to be the teacher first, because, to me, a choreographer is a teacher.  Though I may have pre-conceived ideas about the nature of the movement, it is my professional experience that tells me not to work with an idea, but work with the dancers on the idea...

By merging my experience, with their bodies and by having their best interest at the heart of all decisions, then an effective quartet should manifest itself. In fact, as I embark upon this new quartet, I hope to learn more about my own choreographic style. I would like to share in the journey of development with my students.  I would like to show them new methods, whilst learning more about new approaches myself.  Of course the criteria dictates a lot of the decision making anyway, but this is simply a checklist and not a choreographic guide.

I just hope that the work can focus on the development of the quartet, linked to stimulus.  At the moment I am finding it difficult not to focus on the fact that I have yet to have a full class rehearsal.  #shame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl2Qs_M4cXc

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Dancers and choreographers. Now there is a relationship! Thoughout time, dancers have fuelled the creative ideas set out by the choreographers. If the game was the dance, then the dancers are the players, so what is the choreographer? The choreographer is the coach of course.  But also so much more; the rehearsal director, creative director, artistic director, lighting designer, costume designer, music designer, movement maker, movement coordinator, ultimate decision maker...but, the choreographer can do none of this without the dancers being present at rehearsals...why, because the dancers are part of the stimulus.

Just like in this quartet, Jackson Pollock's artwork is providing a visual stimulus, it is the dancers physical response to this that will fuel the creative process. As the choreographer for this work, collaborating with my dance students, I can achieve nothing without their attendance. For some reason this 9am, Monday morning rehearsal class, is proving difficult for the students to attend. This is the worst form of unacceptable behaviour carried out by a dancer. Not attending a rehearsal is the biggest insult to any choreographer, closely followed by the second most insulting thing - THAT question, 'can I leave rehearsals early today please?'.

The rapport between dancer and choreographer is refined.  Dancers who fail to attend rehearsals...are failing to show the choreographer and their fellow dancers the most basic level of respect.

I am still waiting for a full company rehearsal and in the meantime my choreographic vision is getting blurred.

I am tired of waiting. Making quartets is one favourite things to choreograph...

Only the dancers can change the outcome of this rehearsal...by always being at rehearsals.  #itisnotalottoask #theychosetodoaleveldance
#getonit
#newtermnewstart
#donotlooseme

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https://www.jackson-pollock.org/convergence.jsp#

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Abstract art is often used as a starting point for dance and can provide many options for creating new and inventive movement. Jackson Pollock's artwork features many colours and shapes, created out of lines, circles, curves and zig-zags, which immediately appeal to me because of my choreological choreographic intentions for this particular quartet.

Additionally, this dance work will be guided by the AQA exam question and criteria, which is linked to the spatial, actions, dynamic and relationship components, as demonstrated by the individual dancer when working within a group.