Post Roof Breaking Ceremony (Celebrate with a Tango)

It's the end of week three!!!

This week has been extremely eventful. From performing at the Roof Breaking Ceremony, to seeing Misty Copeland in person for the first time, this week has definitely been a week to remember.

In terms of music, my Composition class stood out in particular. Last week, our teacher gave us an assignment of creating a phrase of movement. This week, she gave us various challenges in time manipulation of the phrase (i.e. slowing it down to fit a certain time-frame, and speeding up the phrase to fit a different time-frame).

The most musically interesting challenge of all was to apply a tango rhythm to our phrase. We were asked to use our phrase and accent the "1" and "4" count in 4 measures of 4 counts. In the last measure (the 4th measure) we had to accent all 4 counts in the measure and continue the whole pattern on the "1" of the next measure. All together, it can be read like "1..41..41..41234"(repeat)

Note: It's strange to describe rhythm and music via writing and journaling, etc. Various musical textures and qualities make sense in my head, but it's hard to put in writing for others to understand. I'm not sure if I'm describing rhythms adequately enough for my audience.  But I also believe that it's a good challenge for me. I know that adequate description of music demonstrates my understanding of different kinds of music textures and rhythms. For that, I will power through!

Ten Triplets

On Wednesday, September 14, 2016, I had Graham class with Ms. Christine Dakin. Toward the end of class, she created a phrase for us to take across the floor. It was a triplet (in three quarter time/ meter). The complete phrase filled ten measures, which wasn't typical for the students in the class. I was excited about the irregularity of the timing, so I quickly applied the musicality of the movement to the timing and meter of the phrasing. It was very appealing to me. I felt how the phrasing of the music with the dance was continuous and inevitable. This helped me create smooth transitions when repeating the phrase. It was very satisfying to dance!

Rocka My Soul: First Week Back at The Ailey School

Enfin!!!

I've finally figured out how I'm going to journal my thoughts and experiences of music through dance for my Music class at The Ailey School!!!

I knew that I didn't want to keep a journal, because it would be too arduous for me to take out the pages neatly with the journals I already have, and I'm not of a mind to purchase a new one. In addition to this, loose- leaf pages can be difficult to keep track of in general.

All that was left for me was some form of "digital journaling," (is that a thing???) and voilà! The idea of this blog came fully formed.

I'm not sure exactly how long journal entries are required to be for my music class, and I intend to write these blog posts as I would write an informal journal, documenting my observations as I would actually speak them in person, so I hope my blog fulfills the requirements for the course. Anyway, for this first post I am going to discuss my rehearsal experiences for the Roof Breaking Event!

For those who are just stumbling upon this blog, The Ailey Studios, home of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and The Ailey School, is undergoing expansive construction. To celebrate this new chapter of the Ailey Legacy, some of the students from the school, including myself,  have been selected to perform excerpts from Mr. Ailey's legendary piece, "Revelations," at a roof breaking event coming up!

Learning parts of "Rocka My Soul In the Bosom of Abraham" has been a big highlight of this experience. The dance itself has a very distinct rhythm that, when married to the music, evokes the lively spirit of the typical, black, baptist church. It's very syncopated, with many different qualities (smooth, sharp, steady, fluid...) that are used to create a regal, soulful, and spiritual experience.

So far, my return to school has been eventful, but taking part of this rehearsal process has made my return particularly special.