The connection
A
dancer can get clear advantages from the work on choreography according
to the Joy in Motion blogger. (JinM) Your ability to create a strong,
living connection between the steps, the movements, the choreography and
your body, your personality can grow dramatically when you are working
with choreographies. You can experience this connection as the
difference between the mechanically taken steps and the same steps
deeply touching your heart.
Joy in Motion puts it in this way:
“The
physical aspect of the dance is not about putting something in the
body; it is about encouraging something to arise from the body.”
This
happens on several levels. It is a very physical, very technical thing,
but it is also mental, emotional, relational, and musical.
After
I had this realization, I began to search for the feeling, the
intention, the essence of each choreographed phrase in a very personal
way.
According to JinM the results were visible
immediately and her dancing was also complimented by the teachers. This
convinced her that this awareness is important and one of the main
messages in the posting is that a choreography work is a good training
method to grow your skill in good connection. She did it and you can do
it too!
With other words there can be a huge difference
between the steps taken and the very same steps which have come alive.
That's the reason why a good choreographer is so passionate about the
connection - it is all, the most important goal to work for. Only after
the steps have come alive he starts to pay attention to how to polish
the movements and to create the ultimate precision.
I
have always thought that there is a fundamental difference in the
mental state of a choreography dancer compared to an improvisation
dancer. I have some vague memories about a difference between musicians
who were used to play from sheet music and who were able to carry on a
jam session. The first one needed a stable structure but was unable to
let an intuitive improvisation process to take over. The participating
brain areas for these two mental states varied; some areas were
activated for one state but were shut down for the other and the ability
to switch between these two requires some learning and training.
This
may still be true but from the Joy in Movement viewpoint the two types
of dancing are similar by sharing the search for form/dancer connection.
If the improvised steps lack this connection they are as
mechanical and dead as the choreographed dance with the same failure. In
my mind this idea boiled down to this: the degree of connection is the
degree of life in the dance!
Quite often an unsatisfied
audience is calling an improvised dance for too choreographed when
something is missing, when the dance feels too mechanical. After reading
JinM's posting I agree that it is more accurate to call this for a
connection error, too vague connection or something similar.
Dancers vs. Actors
I
haven't ever worked with a choreographer so I am only vaguely able to
understand the aspects JinM blogger is writing about. To get deeper I
relied on my usual strategy and tried to find a more familiar situation
with same structure making it more easy to broaden my views. After a
while I landed on the process actors are going through when they are
preparing for their next role.
Most of us have seen interviews
were an actor is telling about the research work: all the reading,
visiting locations, working in certain milieus, learning gestures, way
of talk and so on. It is not only information collection but it is also
about building up different skills needed so they can create a true
character. As audience we just see the tip of the preparation ice berg
but the huge hidden part of it makes the character and role true - we do
not see it but we do feel it.
With other words
the actors get the script, their lines and all their skill is needed to
blow life to those lines in the way the director points out. In dance
we have the choreography, the steps and the dancer's skill will get
those steps to come alive while the choreographer is showing the
direction!
Quite the same isn't it?
I can
understand the reasons why the huge amount of work is motivated when the
actors want to embody a role and now it is also easier to understand
that the corresponding areas need to be addressed even in dance: among
them the physical, technical, mental, emotional, relational and
rhythm/timing areas.
Here some short interviews with several well known actors how they work for the connection between the script and their role:
If a good actor is able to create it so why a good dancer couldn't create a similar experience?
You can read the blogger's entire posting at Joy in Motion page! Click here!
Links used here:
No comments:
Post a Comment