Dance Home Learning Project

Name:

Components of Dance:

All dances feature the following 4 components: Action, Space, Dynamics and Relationships.

We learn about these in our practical lessons and they are all over our displays in colour

code.

Action = What we do.. our actual movements e.g. jump, turn, gesture

Space = Where we do the actions e.g. downstage, levels, size

Dynamics = How we do the actions e.g speed, energy, effort

Relationships = With Whom/What we do the action with e.g. use a prop, contact work

Task 1: Sort the followings words in to the correct components by putting

them in to the table below:

Spin Close Proximity Heavy Spiral Compliment Jump Turn Levels

Floor Pattern Light Sustained Rigid Transfer of Weight Slide Leap

Jerky Counterpoint Formations Travel Gesture Air Pattern Contrast

Lead and Follow Size Upstage Action/Reaction Accumulation Curve

Spring Stillness Free-flow Contact Mirroring Foreground Directions

Action Space Dynamics Relationships

Great. Well done!

Now, when we choreograph, we need to make sure that we use a wide variety of these four

components to make our dances look interesting, complex and ultimately help to show our

choreographic intention.

What is Choreographic Intention?

The theme, idea, concept, narrative (storyline) that we want the audience to be able to

think/feel/understand when they watch our dance.

It is important that we think about this when we are creating. Always ask yourself – does

this support my intention?

Choreographers follow a process when creating their work that involves the following

stages:

-Research: Getting ideas and deciding what your dance will be about

-Improvisation: Exploring and playing about with movement ideas

-Generating: Creating Motifs and Phrases that link to your idea

-Selecting: Choosing the best parts of your dance material to use

-Developing: Using Choreographic Devices to add complexity to your work

-Structuring: Deciding how your pieces will all fit together

-Rehearsing and Refining: Ensuring you know exactly what you are doing

And then eventually comes the important performance!

Task 2: Project work - Using an image to create a piece of choreography.

Using the image below, you are going to create a short piece of choreography using the

choreographic process above. It is going to have two sections (AB – binary form)

Research: Use this space to create a mind map or jot down any words or ideas that you

think of when you look at this picture. You can include any words linked to Action, Space

and Dynamics:

Next..

From the words you have found above think about one idea/word that sticks out to you.

Write it in the box below:

Decide what your Choreographic Intention will be (what will your dance be about)

My dance is about:

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Improvisation: This is the fun part! Exploring movement material linked to your idea. You

should aim to try to find as many ways as possible to show an idea/word/shape/pattern

linked to the image and what you want to show about it.

Spend 10-15 mins trying out some movement. No need to plan, just see where your body

takes you. Put some atmospheric music on such as Ludovico Einaudi, Philip Glass or Movie

soundtracks such as Life of Pi, Avatar etc. If you do something you like repeat it a few times

so that it sticks in your memory before you move on to a new idea.

Generating: Once you have done some improvisation, you will be ready to start creating

some actual chunks of movement called Motifs and Phrases.

Motif: An action or small group of actions that communicate/represent your dance idea

(intention). This can be repeated and developed.

Phrase: Longer chunks of movement content that explore ideas linked to intention

I would like to you have a go at creating a motif for your dance and 2 phrases.

The motif will represent one idea which you will keep coming back to e.g. the tree growing

roots to show it is staying put.

The two phrases should show different aspects of your idea e.g. one phrase is circular

representing the shape of the glass bowl containing everything in it in one place, whilst the

second phrase shows more freedom for the things happening outside of the bowl. This will

help to create contrast (which is a choreographic device). Phrase 1 will form part of your

section A and Phrase 2 will form part of your section B.

Spend 5 minutes creating your Motif – remember we might not always use our first ideas.

Spend 10 minutes on each Phrase. Remember back to task 1.. We want to see a variety of

Action, Space and Dynamics. Use some of those words in your table if you get stuck.

You can use music for this. Think about choosing something that will suit your idea.

You can now create any other phrases, gestures that you think might work for your dance.

Rehearse all this material so that you know it really well, as this will help for the next

process.

Selecting and Developing: You should now have a motif, 2 contrasting phrases and at least a

few chunks of other movement ideas. If you have, then you are ready to start the next step

– choosing the most effective parts to keep and develop further.

Key Questions:

-what bits work best, and why? KEEP

-what bits could be tweaked and made better? DEVELOP

-what bits are not working? DISCARD

It is absolutely fine to get rid of something if you do not like it!!

Introducing..

Choreographic Devices for solos: Tools to help you develop and improve your choreography

Repetition

Highlights

Contrast

Climax

Motif and Development

Ways to develop phrases and motifs involve changing either the Action, Space, Dynamics or

Relationships

Action Space Dynamics Relationships

Re-order Levels Free-flow Mirroring

Different body part (instrumentation)

Floor Patterns Rigid (bound) Compliment/Contrast

Fragment (chop up in to little bits)

Pathways Heavy Action/Reaction

Addition (new actions) Directions (of actions)

Light Lead and Follow

Subtraction (take things away)

Facings (of body) Slow Contact Work

Repetition Size of actions Sustained Accumulation

Embellishment (add more detail)

Stage directions (upstage, downstage etc)

Fast Formations

For your choreography, you only need to explore MOTIF AND DEVELOPMENT.

1. Create 4 versions of your motif by developing the original. You will have 5 in total

(including original)

2. Develop Phrase 1 in two different ways to have 3 versions including the original.

3. Develop Phrase 2 in two different ways to have 3 versions including the original.

Note: try and keep your developments for both phrases so that they explore different things

e.g. phrase 1 – actions and space, phrase 2 actions and dynamics so that we still have

contrast.

Practice each version, but DO NOT join them up just yet!

Structuring: By now you have a lot of material. It is now time to look at how we can put it

together. You can use any of your other pieces of material to create transitions that can

then link your movement together.

Section A: Your 3 versions of Phrase 1, plus your original motif and 2 of the other developed

versions. Joined together with transitions.

Section B: Your 3 versions of Phrase 2, plus the remaining 2 developed versions of your

motif. You could also use your original again. These need joining together with transitions.

Both sections need linking together and you should create a starting and ending position.

Rehearsing and Refining: Now it is time to go over and over your choreography so that you

will not forget it, but also so that you can make it fit with your chosen music, check that your

movements flow from one thing to the next and that it has a sense of unity.

Once you have polished it, you can record it and watch it back. If you are not happy with

something, now is the time to change it!

PERFORMANCE:

It would be wonderful if you could film your work and send it to me on firefly (I will set a

task up for these to be submitted in to).

Evaluate your performance below. Say what worked well, and why. Think about what would

make your work even better and give examples:

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Task 3: Dance Appreciation

As well as creating dances, it is important to watch dance and learn about/show

appreciation for other work. This could be professional works or those of your peers.

I would like you choose at least two of the following performances to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0o2PEewTu8 – Ghost Dancers By Christopher Bruce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jIeSq2FFhs – Nutcracker By Matthew Bourne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQsECoq9XGM – Swan Lake By Matthew Bourne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=038BdfaaVVs – Swan Song by Christopher Bruce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2ClSABkDp8 – West Side Story opening scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0asbGJbLKc – Singing in the Rain, Gene Kelly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsALq261qa0 – Emancipation of Expression by Boy

Blue Entertainment

https://www.jamescousinscompany.com/withinhereyes - Within her Eyes By James Cousins

Aim to watch the whole piece and then answer the following questions (you may need to do

some research to help you find out):

1. Who choreographed the piece?

2. How many dancers perform in the work?

3. What do you think the dance is about and why?

4. What is the choreographic intention? (what does the choreographer

want the audience to think?)

5. Describe the type of movement used, include style, components of

Dance.

6. Describe a costume from the piece. Include things like style, colour,

textures, patterns etc.

7. Describe two examples of the lighting that is used. Include colours,

effects, patterns etc.

8. Describe what the accompaniment (music/sound) is like. Is it orchestral,

natural, electronic, spoken word etc.

9. What setting is the piece performed in? A studio, theatre, outdoors etc.

10. Why was the performance in your opinion successful?

Task 4: Costume Design

Choose either your own choreography that you created for your project, one of the

professional works within the internet links on the previous page, or a dance of your choice

and design a costume.

You can create detailed drawings of each component, or, if you have some old clothes that

you are allowed to re-purpose, then you could actually create a real costume!

Costume designers work closely with choreographers to help show the mood, character and

theme of the dance through what the dancers wear. They must also think carefully about

how the costume allows the audience to see the movement and lines of the dancers bodies

effectively, and that the costumes are comfy for the dancers to perform in.

Once you have designed your costume, take a picture and save it. Also send me email with

your creative designs.