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