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.