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.