Graham Minus Four Counts

On Wednesday December 15th, 2016, I had Graham class, where my teacher gave my class a combination across the floor that was almost the same as the exercise that was given two days previously. The main difference between the two combinations was that she took out the first 4 of 8 prances that were in the original combination. Somehow this minor change threw the whole class off the timing of the exercise. Not only did everyone revert back to dancing the full 8 prances, but we also had strange pauses in the exercise and were never quite consistent with the phrasing of the exercise.

This experience taught me that it's important to not rely on anyone else to have the counts or the steps of an exercise, but to be confident in what I pick up directly from the teacher or choreographer who gives the step. Even if it looks wrong to my classmates, I think it's more important to be accurate with the choreography and musical phrasing.

Music Project Part 2

 On Friday, December 9th, 2016, my Music class finished presenting our final projects for the semester. All in all, we were very successful in attributing a movement for each note in pitch of the soloist of the song that we chose. In addition to this, everyone in the class did a good job incorporating the song quality and culture into the movement quality and vocabulary. For example, some Hawaiian songs were chosen for some people's projects, and the movement looked related to Polynesian dancing, or at least like it could be seen on a beach in Hawaii.

One thing I thought the dancers of many projects could have worked on was the clarity of the stillness in the silence as it related to the music. For me, there was a lot of slight movement during the silence of many of my peers projects. Maybe this is do to the fact that the dancers didn't take the time to get to know their partner's music as well as they could have, but I would have liked to see more precision in this area overall.

More than anything else, I had fun watching and participating in this final project!

Music Project

On Thursday, December 1, 2016, students of my Music class were finishing preparations for their projects for the semester. The assignment of the project was to choreograph a 30 second to 2 minute piece to a song from a culture that we (the choreographer) are unfamiliar with. The song was to have a a solo voice, and the movement of the piece should directly reflected the rhythm and quality of that voice.  

When choreographing my piece, I found that the assignment was more challenging than I anticipated. I am not very comfortable with my composition skills, and because I set high expectations for myself and am very self critical about my work, I over edit my work, which is stifling to my creative flow. 

A part from this, the music I chose was very complicated. The song by the Egyptian pop artist Ehab Tawfik and the title is called Tettraga Feya (Arabic: ايهاب توفيق - تترجى فيا) which means "Begging Me" in English.  At first I decided to work on the first verse of the song combined with the chorus, but although the song is in 4/4, the beginning doesn't have a fixed meter, but rather the accompaniment just plays along in response to the vocals. However, I changed the part of the song I wanted to choreograph to a verse later in the song where the rhythm was more distinct and where I felt there was more contrast in dynamics in the music. But even then, the is a point in the selection where there is a measure of 6 before it continues in four...

I've concluded that my song is complicated. But I enjoy this complication because it keeps the listener refreshed with spontaneity.  

Graham in 14 Counts

On Wednesday November 23, 2016, I had Graham class. Our combination for the end of the class was a length 14 measure waltz. Musically, there was a point in the combination where my class wanted to take a full 2 measures to complete a fall to the side. This tendency however threw the whole combination off of the set 14 measures that were allotted. I noticed this after a few times going across the floor, and afterwards allowed myself 1 measure for every step of the combination, which put me on perfect timing.  This experience taught me that sometimes, to make up time, you have to keep moving through the steps and onto the next!

Dynamics

In Music class, Friday, November 18th, 2016, my class and I learned about dynamics. Dynamics help create the quality and texture in one's dancing. A dancer who gives equal, even, and steady rhythm to their movement can appear flat and boring. Dynamics help make dancing exciting! For example, in a ballet frappé combination, instead of taking the same amount of time striking the foot out as bring the   Cecchetti flexed foot into coupé,  a seasoned dancers would strike sooner and keep let in dégagé until the very last moment (until the next frappé). This kind of dynamic gives the illusion of speed and power. Another dynamic is one of continuous or legato movement, where one move seamlessly flows into the next. This creates this constantly evolving effect that can be quite captivating.

I believe that dynamics are a great tool to communicate different feelings in any given movement phrase that any good dance artist would pay great attention to.

Preparation for Five Four Swings

On Thursday, November 10th, 2016, my Horton class learned a combination with counts in eleven twos (twenty-two counts) called Preparation for Five Four Swings. This combination was very different musically from the standard 8, 16, or any other count phrase that is evenly divisible by four. What helped me keep my timing with this combination was making place markers on specific parts of the choreography. Knowing to release-swing on 1, to strike on 4, and to battement on 9 made me stay on the music so that I wasn't rushing to catch the "1" of the next phrase. This also made it easier for me to continue the movement without any awkward stops and pauses in the phrase.

Fast, Medium, and Slow

In Music class, Friday November 4th, 2016, my classmates did an exercise where our teacher played three different speeds of music on the piano, fast, medium, and slow, and instructed us to improv movement to match the same speed quality. After completing this exercise, my classmates and I noticed that there was generally one speed that we preferred more than the others.

Our teacher told us that our internal clock or tempo will determine what speed we prefer. The closer the music is to our internal clock, the more we will like the speed of the music. He then told us that we can change our internal clock before we dance. This change should occur, for example, during the the introduction of a ballet combination at the barre, or when an instructor gives the class before the musician accompanies the dancers.

Since this class, consciously changing my internal clock before I dance has benefitted me a lot.
I no longer feel rushed or early while dancing and I feel like my dancing has quality, dynamics, and fullness.