Phrasing, time signatures and rhythms

This week (beginning April 23) we are putting three of the larger moving sequences from recent weeks together into a longer combination

—3 Brush Canberra ('Nierika' by Dead Can Dance)
—Falling leg brush/rond (originally composed to 'Towards the Within' also by Dead Can Dance)
—Isobel Centre Mover ('Isobel' by Bjork)

We will be using the 'Towards the Within' audio track which is a 6/8 time signature.
Both of the sequences using Dead Can Dance audio tracks were 6/8 time signatures, however the Isobel sequence was a 4/4 time signature. This means we will have to re-time the final section from phrases of 8 counts to phrases of 6. This will give it a more swinging, falling quality...it may feel as though the movement rides across the rhythm, extending beyond the count phrases...this can encourage more personal phrasing that may accelerate or expand as you explore other qualities of dancing over these longer combinations.

The travel sequence that I call "Tricky Travel" (or a sequence inspired by watching the choreography of tennis play) uses 'Moorea' by The Gipsy Kings. This music has a flamenco/latin style with accents that result in cross-rhythms...again I am using these accents and cross rhythms to ride over the underlying pulse and to create counterpoints between sound and movement.

Here is how I count the sequence:

8 & 1                  (catching the upbeat to begin into the shunts forward to parallel plie)
2  3 & a 4 &       (using the upbeats to elevate then into the broader side grapevine travel)
5  6  7  8             (even full measures to rise, bend, half turn in the air, land)

1 & a 2 &          (hops and runs up the diagonal to the cabriole)
3 & a 4 &        
5 & 6
7  & a 8

1  2  3 & 4               (rond into lunge/ball change, beat front & switch to land)
5  –  6  &  –  &  7  &  (rhumba moves have a cross rhythm 3,3,2 with accents on 1st, 4th & 7th)
1 & a 2                    (falling into leap and hop)
3  &  4                     (3 runs to draw feet back under centre)
5 & – & 7 –             (last shunting circle again has this cross rhythm with the 'gaps' on 6 and &

                                  ...before leading back into the beginning 8  &  1

I like to use the light and shade, the qualities and accents of different aural landscapes to interplay with the sensation of my dancing body and the spatial design which I carry as an overlaid visual image (as though seeing myself from above on a map). The aural/sound, the tactile/movement, and the image/visual are three intersecting and supporting "planes" for our three-dimensional dancing.

The dance in the negative spaces

Today in class (Monday 26 March or Week 4) I asked you to work with a partner for the first moving in and out of the floor sequence ("Rolling with George" to music track "This Masquerade").

You were looking for points of contact with your rolling/dancing partner that might give them some tactile information about their body sequencing or effort—cradling the skull to encourage ease of alignment on the spine, brushing the back of the head to direct them down into the spinal roll, leading out through the top of the head into the all fours/crawl position, folding at the hip crease to fold back into child pose, offering resistance at the left hip to smooth their opening of the right thigh and moving into laying on the left side, drawing the left foot down and across the right leg into the full body roll, encouraging them to fold at the centre bringing the knees to the chest to roll again over the back, grounding the elbow and/or extending the left foot/leg and sequentially unfolding up through the left side to the sitting position, reaching with the hands to press the palms to the floor to fold back again into child pose, to offer resistance at the left side of the body or the left side of the head into the lay out onto the left side of the body (*NB we changed the side fall to the L on the first side—R, facing the folding wall—to keep our pathway more directly down the room), grounding the standing L foot as they roll onto their back, tossing the R leg to sit legs extended facing the folding wall again, and giving the reverse input as they roll to all fours, back to the squat to roll back up to standing.

Can you design a "danced" sequence of tactile input (focus on just a few specific points of contact) working in a particular pathway around and in the negative spaces of your partner?

Advanced Technique 2018

Welcome back (or for the first time) to Advanced Technique as part of the Deakin Dance major.
I'm excited to be back and especially to be working with so many familiar dynamic dancers.

If you are new to this blog you may want to refer back to some of the earlier posts as a way to drop back into our regular dance practice but I will continue to write new posts as ideas and issues arise during this trimester.

Here's the first playlist of the year:

Intro — "Tana Mana" by Ravi Shankar

1. Sleazy warm-up —"You'd be surprised" by Marilyn Monroe

2. Funky foot/moving transfer —"Musicology" by Prince

3. Floor sequence with yoga asanas*(see below) — "I want to hold your hand" by T.V. Carpio
(from the soundtrack of "Across the Universe")

4. Leg brush/centre mover — "Nierika" by Dead Can Dance

5. Small jump — "Jig of Life" by Kate Bush

6. Travel/jump —"Good Morning" by Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor & Gene Kelly
(from the soundtrack of "Singing in the Rain")

Cool down — "Frost" by Amphibian

Week 3 & 4 additions/changes:

1. "This Masquerade" by George Benson

2. "Laughing in tongues" by Laraaji

3. "Spooky" by Dusty Springfield

5. "Butterfly" by Kylie Minogue

Cool down — "Out of the mist" by Jami Sieber

Music

Even though I studied music growing up (piano & music theory) I was introduced to a broad range of music through dancing. I was fortunate to have a teacher who had eclectic taste, drawing from classical, jazz, different cultural styles to the most contemporary music—a mix of time signatures and instrumentation which helped me to colour the way I moved. Now as I teach I try to do the same, to source a spread of musical accompaniment to shift out of our habits and to try on other flavours, detail, nuance.

So, as requested ...thanks Leyla :) ...here's my playlists this trimester:

Week 1/2
Fire —Des'ree
Big in Japan —Tom Waits
The Point Beyond Which Something Will Happen —Single Gun Theory
Thirteen —Julian Barnett
Sunny —Dusty Springfield
Darwin Star —Des'ree
Quiet —Panoptique Electrical

Week 3–5
I Want It All —k. d. lang
Justo Agora (Brasil) —Adriana Calcanhotto
Worlds Keep Spinning —The Brand New Heavies
Army Dreamers —Kate Bush
Nierika —Dead Can Dance
Light Out At 11 —Baby Animals
Glycerine Queen —Suzi Quatro

Week 6–8
Falling Water —Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra
Aethenaeum—The Necks (extended warm-up track week 8)
This Masquerade —George Benson
Ride On —Little Axe
Erotica (Confessions Tour Live) —Madonna
Tell Me —Laleh
Unisex —B(If)Tek
We Float —PJ Harvey
Djobi Djoba —Gipsy Kings
Sweet Design —Sia

Week 9–11
Kothbiro —Ayub Ogada
African Journey —Baraka soundtrack
Out There—Dave Graney
Lost in the K-Hole—The Chemical Brothers
Musicology —Prince
Walkie Talkie —DJ Shadow
Burning Down The House —Tom Jones & the Cardigans
Sweet Design —Sia
Man's Dance —Counterfeit Gypsies
More Than A Woman —Bee Gees
Scatter Frost Like Ashes —B(If)Tek

Riding the phrase

Imagine that the movement phrases exist in the space, like invisible radiowaves, traces... and we merge in and out of them. We have physically moved the air and left traces of our bodies as we dance so in a sense we have carved them into the three-dimensional space. This imaginative idea helps us to visualize the pattern of each phrase—it's pathway, levels, intensity (a stronger movement might imprint more heavily like pressing more deeply with a pencil to make a darker mark)—it becomes a way to remember a phrase and move more confidently within it, supported by a framework outside yourself.

And it also brings attention to how we move together as a group in the studio...and how we support each other with our witnessing when we are not directly involved in dancing the phrase. Being able to enter the phrase at any point is a good survival strategy, a way to continue rather than stop if we forget a section. This keeps the flow and energy moving for the group and cultivates positivity (to feel confident in your dancing by moving on and not worrying about missing a detail here or there).
Moving around the phrase as you watch others provides energy for those dancing, through eye contact and proximity, and being able to exchange smoothly from observer to dancer (passing the baton) cultivates your timing and spatial skills.

It can also be an engaging choreographic idea. Have a look at this section of
"Physical Business" (1994)
choreographed by Helen Herbertson for the Danceworks company and see this idea of moving in and out of a movement sequence (also see myself and Shaun dancing).

Feedback and reflection

There are a number of ways to get feedback on how we are 'performing'

• video (watching images of ourselves moving)
• peers/witnesses (verbal feedback on what others see)
• tactile (specific information via touch can direct our awareness to particular areas of the body, to assist alignment, activate a specific muscle group, release an area of tension)

Feedback from sources outside ourselves can help us to become aware of habits or tendencies in our bodies that may be less efficient or potentially harmful, and others' expertise may offer ideas or strategies for maximising our potential as expressive artists

BUT

you are unique and you are the best person to tune in and reflect upon your own body

This is an ongoing research project.

Our bodies are in a constant state of change—as we age, as our environments and tools shift, as experiences impact upon us physically and emotionally...

If you spend time focussing on your body, listening to it, exploring its range and shape, 

acknowledging what feels good or what feels uncomfortable,

you will be able to tune into specifics and experiment with shifts in how you hold or move particular areas of the body

So how do we 'spend time' when we have back to back classes or parking problems or injuries or one of the many issues arising in our broader lives?

Here are some of my strategies for surviving as a dance artist, for getting the feedback and reflection I want and the practice time I need:

• get into the studio earlier ...they open at 8am at Deakin so if I get up and travel a bit earlier I not only have time to warm-up physically and tune in my attention, away from the exterior "stuff" and into my breathing and moving, but I miss the worst traffic and can easily find a car park 
• have a buddy or buddies to practice with ...arrange time together in a studio where you dance together, witness and/or video each other, chat
• take up offers ...make a time to chat with your colleagues or teachers outside of class/work 
• try different ways of working ...this is like physical and philosophical cross-training...e.g. a yoga class might help you deepen your attention to your breathing which also calms the mind and opens the body; a climbing gym can quickly identify how the arms and legs should work in partnership as well as giving you the adrenaline buzz of working at height; a vocal practice can open your breathing, activate endorphins for feelings of well being and stimulate nuance in your physical rhythms 
• set some goals—long and short term which are achievable and schedule them—this also means examining how you use your time...is there a balance between your work, social and rest time? (see my jpegs below on goal setting & time management)
• Congratulate yourself on "turning up"—use affirmations to positively reinforce your goals and change your behaviour to achieve them—and listen to positive feedback. Negative feedback is not only not useful (it is usually about the other person's issues not yours) but weighs ten times heavier on our minds (again see the affirmations below).

Before beginning

Before beginning the dance

consider

the simmering of attention

the gathering of interest

and how this prepares you physically

—the quickening of your circulation, blood pressure, muscular tone—


and how this prepares you mentally, emotionally, socially

—respectively acknowledging your presence in your present.


It is the "upbeat"or anacrusis, that which precedes

the intake of breath before the action

the opening of your attention to your body today, here, with these others

the relaxing into the myriad of past events that have brought you to this moment



It is the house lights going down and the curtain going up

It is your walking into the studio and beginning to warm-up your body

It is you already "dancing" as the musical introduction plays and you move into the space

"A river of internal movement flows constantly in me and is the underlying generator of the form that is then perceived by the viewer." 

(Eva Karczag)*

*Reference: Tufnell & Crickmay (2004) The Widening Field. Dance Books: Great Britain.
about "arriving"