Solo 2018 Choreographic Concept (Analytical Statement)

My choreography is based on the concept of sensory imageries used in Literature. Creating sensory images is a strategy readers use to think more deeply about a text where they use the information in the text to create an image in their mind. This image can represent all of the five senses of visual, smell, taste, sound and touch. I am interested in this concept as everyone subconsciously uses this method to analyse the things around them and to make a judgement on it. Hence, I will use the following image as my primary source and I will use the sensory imageries as a method to inspire and motivate my choreography. I will be focusing on one main sensory imagery in my choreography and this is the Visual Imagery. Using my skills on analysing from Dance Investigation, I will analyse the image and translate them to movements.

The music I am using is “Mont Blanc” by Martin Gauffin and I chose this music because of the calm rhythm it produces and the dynamics of the music progresses the same as how I want my dance to be where it progressively picks up stronger musical phrases and instruments.

From the image, I first analysed the visual colours to interpret the possible message it is trying to portray. The warm blue colour portrays calmness and tranquility. Hence, throughout the dance, the dynamics of the movements I create are continuous and fluid without sudden jerks or breaks to portray this calm effect. For example, I use controlled and smooth movements consistently throughout the dance such as raising an arm or leg with control. Additionally, the speed of the movements are fluid and I am constantly moving in to show continuity. Next, as the colour blue takes up almost the whole space in the image, I show this interpretation by continuously moving around the space in all directions with the same fluid movement quality.

Next, the image of the bird also creates several visual imageries where I interpret it’s position, colour and the possible message portrayed. Seeing the small colourful hummingbird in the midst of the blue background, it seems like the bird has been exploring its new surroundings until it progressively becomes more comfortable with it. Hence, with this interpretation, the movement dynamics, space and time also changes accordingly throughout the dance. In the beginning, as if I were the bird exploring, I take long wide strides downstage and move slowly and groundedly to show cautiousness while being curious. The grounded lunges and resistance in the movements points out that this surrounding is unfamiliar to the bird as the bird would move swiftly when in a familiar place.

During the second part of the dance when the music becomes stronger, the dynamic of the movements also picks up speed and I included more spins and sudden movements to show sharper movements which contrast the movements in the beginning. This transition in movement dynamics reflects the idea of progression of the bird’s journey of becoming more comfortable with the environment. Unlike the slow movements, the steps are sharper with accents on certain counts. For example, I contract into a ball and suddenly extend out with a sharper force as compared to the beginning of the dance. Additionally, in this section, the movements are low leveled and this includes rolling and turning on the floor to also represent the process of getting use to a new environment by having close interaction with the place. Next, I move diagonally across the floor from a low level roll to increasing bigger rolls and slides to show the transition from this section to the next where it reaches the dance’s climax. From my classes in Composition and Analysis, I learnt the use of formations and what it could portray, hence by moving diagonally upstage, it would also help to show the transition in the dance to the next part.

At the dance’s climax, to show my interpretation of the bird’s final journey of adapting to its environment, the movement dynamics are the sharpest and fastest where the movements are very big and powerful to show the bird’s agility even in its calm and tranquil surrounding. For example, I include runs and large kicks to show the huge contrast from the previous sections. The music at this point has escalated to its climax as well, hence I also incorporated a few explosive jumps and leg swivels during the accents of the music to point out the contrasting dynamics in the movement as compared to the previous sections. In this section, most of the movements are high leveled to show the contrast with the low leveled movements in the section before. From Composition and Analysis classes, I learnt that levels in dance can help to show different dynamics where high level movements tend to be more bouncy and light and low level movements can show groundedness and this reflects the idea I want to show in my dance.

When I was choreographing, I faced difficulties trying to portray the message I wanted to show through movements after analysing the image as translating words such “warm colour” and “colourful bird” was difficult. However, using what I learnt in Composition and Analysis, I broke down what they could mean in terms of space, time and dynamics in the dance to better express these ideas.

In conclusion, I feel that the music and my concept matched very well since it also shows progression in time and dynamics, hence, I was able to make use of the accents in the music and the beats to aid my choreographing to make my idea clearer. From Dance Performance classes, I learned to include emotions and movement quality to make the impact of my dance stronger. Lastly, with Dance Investigation classes, I was able to make use of comparative tools to aid me in comparing my dance movements and my idea to ensure that I do not fall off the concept.