Week 9 - Choreography Performance

 We have now completed our 10-minute group choreography piece based on our stimulus of conformity. We made a lot of decisions for the group this week, using feedback we had received in previous weeks and from issues we noticed while watching our videos back. We have made a few changes, for example, developing sequences which have been repeated to make them more expansive and dynamic to add a contrast to the original undeveloped motif, we also adapted some formations to increase interest and variety. Additionally, we rearranged some sections and removed movements which didn’t work, to ensure the piece flows well and clearly shows our intention of conformity vs. individuality.

We used an improvisation-based task to generate some movements for the solos which are featured at the end of the dance to show the idea of individuality. However, we use movements from our initial entrance motif just to link the piece back to the stimulus. We have adapted a section so it now references a social experiment which a woman walks into a waiting room full of 'patients' who are actors. They all stand at the sound of the beep. After three beeps she joined in even though she didn't know why they were doing it. As more people entered the waiting room, they joined in too until there were no actors left. This shows the idea of conformity as the people stood up on the beep even though they had no idea why they were doing it, but everyone else was, so they did too! We demonstrate this idea by kneeling on the floor then standing again, with people gradually joining in until we are all doing it.

 

This week we also performed the final group peice in front of our classmates and teacher to receive feedback. We were told that the formations were pleasing to the eye and that using accumulation, unison and embellishment was effective in developing the idea of conformity and individuality. They liked that we didn’t always have every group member dancing all the time, for example our use of duets, quartets and solos. One improvement we need to work on is extending mine and Caitlyn’s duet at the end of the dance, to satisfy the audience as we walk away from each other. Furthermore, we still need to ensure clarity in our timing and spacing. Overall, we've used a lot of different choreographic processes such as the translation task and the chance method which is clearly shown throughout the dance. Motif development is also clearly demonstrated within our piece and the use of inspiration from choreographers such as Crystal Pite and Wayne McGregor. At times it has been quite difficult to arrange our choreography however by using these techniques it really helped us generate relevant material for our stimulus and I feel that we've worked really well as a group.