Blog Archives

Dance is Home - Getting to Know You

10/21/2020

#2: Movement History Dance

We all have a movement history, because we’ve all been moving all our lives: Crawling, walking, running, dancing, hopping, skipping, throwing, swinging, rolling, nodding, waving, turning.

Let’s share our unique movement experiences and use them to make a dance. Let’s celebrate the people and practices that have helped define us as movers.

Consider how your past movement experiences have defined you as a mover.

In your house:
Lesson 1:

Create a Movement History Collage responding to the following questions:
What have you experienced and practiced? Movement experiences include things such as skateboarding, skiing, martial arts, hopscotch, etc.
Who has been an influence to your movement experiences? Did a family member teach you? Did you learn from videos like YouTube? Did you take classes?
Where did it take place?
When?
Details: Choose 3-4 photos that describe your answers. Add text to establish time and other important details. You may have to edit it down to a couple moments in your life. Choose the most influential times. Let your individuality shine in this collage. The collage can be created by a google doc or slide. If it is handmade, take a photo of it to share online.

Lesson 2:

Imagine you could climb into your collage and walk around, where would you start and what is the path you would take?
Climb into photo #1 and duplicate the image with your body.
Make the picture come to life. Allow the shape to move. Do you initiate the movement from your hand, head, or legs? Where are you looking? Where are you going? Who is around you?
As you continue to create your moving picture think about the following: Are you moving quickly or slowly? Are the movements sharp or soft? Do you stay in one place or travel? What is the emotion?
Use the descriptive words surrounding the photo to help with your dance.
The moving picture should be a short but descriptive phrase.
Repeat this process with all of the photos. You will have three short phrases representing your photos/story.
Connect phrase 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 with a walk, run, skip, hop, roll, leap, or jump.
For further development: consider abstracting and stylizing your movements by changing the speed, using repetition, making it BIGGER or smaller, reversing it, turning it upside down, or conveying the emotion in the photo.
Discussion: When does movement become dancing?

HOW TO MAKE YOUR MOVEMENT HISTORY DANCE:

Sequence is determined by how you ordered the photos in your collage.
1. Shape #1 from photo #1,
2. Movement sequence from photo #1.
3. Transition: travel step. This is how you move from photo #1 to #2.
4. Shape #2 from photo #2.
5. Movement sequence from photo #2.
6. Transition: travel to photo #3.
7. Shape #3 from photo #3.
8. Movement sequence from photo #3.

DETAILS FOR THE DANCE VIDEO:

Add music. What your movement history soundtrack?
Two of the photos from the collage must be incorporated into the video. For example, do you show the photo and then cross-fade to your shape?
Choose a location in your home to record the dance. Decorate? Use furniture or props? Does a transition take you to new space?
1- 2 minutes in length.
YOU MUST HOLD ONE OF THE SHAPES FOR AT LEAST 5 seconds.
KEEP IN MIND, not all movement sequences will be the same in length.
Allow your collage to come to LIFE!! (Think Harry Potter moving portraits or a virtual reality game).
Have fun, play and celebrate your movement history!

Suggested educational resources:
Smuin Ballet Company members Weston Krukow and Ben Needham-Wood explore the similarities between the competitive and artistic disciplines in a CSN Bay Area documentary dance short titled Baseballet. This is an excerpt titled, Run Around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgc3biE3LjA

Abby Zbikowski: exploring the layered meanings of play. https://vimeo.com/217437456

Interview with Abby Zbikowski by Jill Randall: Life of a Modern Dancer https://blog.lifeasamoderndancer.com/2015/09/artist-profile-109-abby-zbikowski-champaign-illinois.html

0 Comments

Dance is Home - Getting to Know You

10/8/2020

0 Comments

#1: Birthday Chance Dance

Dance Is Home is back and focusing on lessons for getting to know new and returning students while we continue to embrace our unique dance spaces. Personal stories will drive each lesson and inspire future topics, playlists, and culturally relevant teaching.

Distance learning has inspired me to organize each unit with activities that stand on their own but can be combined into a multi-layered piece.

The first unit will focus on birthdays. We all have one. The dates, astrology signs, stories, and traditions create a fun platform for dance making and conversation. I’m looking forward to sharing this new series.

Let’s celebrate our special day with some dance making during #distancelearning

Project #1: Birthday Chance Dance
Still at home, birthday celebrations continue.

In your house:
Lesson 1:

Create a short phrase with your birthday, month and day, using the movement numbers below, (In sequential order).

Month_ _/ Day_ _
0- Jump
1- Run
2- Spin
3- Punch
4- Melt
5- Rise
6- Skip
7- Explode
8- Balance
9- Kick

Example: 11/08= Run, run, jump, balance.
*if your number repeats, create two variations of the movement.

Lesson 2:

Look up your astrology sign and choose two personality traits that represent you best.
Create two shapes that describe each word.
Determine how you form the shapes (this can be added to the more advanced classes).

Lesson 3:

Write about a memorable birthday.
Write about your families birthday traditions or how you celebrate with them.
Choose a sentence from one of the above writing prompts and make it into a movement sentence.

Lesson 4:

Movement practice: choose a short section of the warm-up from the dance class.

Lesson 5: Put it all together!

Construct a dance using a chance procedure of your choice.
Demonstrate how you determined your order in photos or video.

DETAILS:
HOW TO MAKE YOUR BIRTHDAY CHANCE DANCE:

Use a chance procedure to determine the sequence. Make sure you include Shape #1, Shape #2, Movement Sentence, Birthday Chance Dance and Warm-up phrase.
Record a demonstration of your chance procedure using Time lapse, photos, or other create ways. Example: time lapse the mathematical equation you used to create the sequence, video record the procedure of choosing the sequence out of a hat.
Add music. Consider music that reminds you of birthday celebrations at home, festive songs, etc.
Choose a location in your home to record the dance. Decorate? Use furniture or props?
45-90 seconds maximum. Make sure you get all four movement tasks and the chance procedure demo in this time frame.
Have fun and make it festive!

Suggested educational resources:
Bringing words to life: (Lesson 2 & 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=gb67f2HLVGM&feature=emb_logo

Bill T Jones discusses Story/Time.
The creative process and putting stories together in a random order. (Lesson 1 & 5)
https://vimeo.com/34480831

Merce Cunningham and Chance Procedure (Lesson 1 & 5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=zhK3Ep4HiI0&feature=emb_logo

*Academic schedules vary, determine the lesson order to fit your particular needs, environment, and level of the dancer.

0 Comments