Emptied Gestures Essay

The belief that dancers can utilize their bodies and movements to express their feelings is passed on from this dance. I think Graham took some movements from European ballet while she created this dance because the sharp clean movements of dancers’ feet are similar feet movements in European ballet. Except this similarity, this dance does not share much commons and that is why I think this dance is so unique: The movement was less ‘dancy’: It was more like the way we acted during our daily life. Dancers tend to hold a posture for a short period of time instead of moving all the

The Repertory Dance Company Fall Dance Concert was held at the Mannoni Performing Arts Center. The dancers involved in this dance concert are part of the University of Southern Mississippi Dance Department meaning they are either pursuing a degree in dance or teach dance at a university level. Both students and faculty had the opportunity to present work during adjudication to be chosen to be presented at this concert. I particularly enjoyed this concert because, while all of the dances presented were a part of the broad genre of modern dance, each dance had such a unique aesthetic so the concert still provided a great amount of variety to keep the audience captivated. The two pieces I have chosen to review represent this variety very

In 1915 Denis and her husband founded the Denishawn School and Company in Los Angeles, during which Denis’ choreographic style incorporated European and Asian influences. One of her dance innovations included a technique called “music visualization”, where movements copied

The space, time and usage of dynamics were powerful yet elegant-elements that added to the overall quality and tone of the work. The solo dancer used her body to perform various movements with specific ranges of motion, showing her ability to control, express and properly connect to the audience through her performance. In this performance, there seems to be a spiritual side when the dancer, Marilyn Banks, sits on the bench and starts to swing her arms in wide semi-circles to show looks of anguish and despair. Ms. Banks also varied movement by quivering her hands-movements such as a shaking or slight trembling with her hands when reaching outwards. She also used a lot of ornamentation or embellishment through her movements. Her body and her path of movement embellished her gestures since she was performing spins across the stage.

A lone performer begins a phrase facing left in a standing position with legs apart, head toward the ceiling, and the left arm extended to the sky. She swings the lone arm with her torso in a circle (clockwise to the observer, counter-clockwise to her); touching the ground and coming back up and around, like the swing of a heavy elephant trunk. The momentum of the swing causes her body to spin clockwise in place with her right leg extended to the rear, but quickly pulled in to a pirouette position as she finishes the turn (an eighth of turn short of facing the audience). The ballet posture quickly disappears as she crouches down, facing the floor with both arms hanging down between her legs. Her head pops up like she’s alerted to danger, followed by a sudden turn of the torso to her left (our right) in a dipping motion. Her right leg is lifted (bent) forward as her arms windmills backwards (like a swimmer’s backstroke) with elbows bent; it looks like a port de bras pinwheel. Her arms pause as her lifted foot lands. She repeats the short torso dip and arm pinwheel motion, but this time her right foot kicks forward to spin her 180 degrees (now facing our left). With her right arm hanging down emulating an elephant trunk again, she turns on the ball of her right foot 3/4 of a turn clockwise (now facing the audience) to swing her “trunk” above her head. This performer was clearly channeling a baby elephant.

The movement started out very literal to the story that was being told. It was characterized by a lot of hand gestures, stillness and walking. In the same way, the dancers’ narration of the conversation between Bill T Jones and Dora was separate from the dancing on the rest of the stage. However, as the story evolved, the movement became for poetic, interpretive and full-bodied. The dancers often uncontrollably shook different parts of their bodies, and stomped around the stage. Yet, there was a sense of awareness among the dancers as they were constantly watching each other. The movement was very gender-neutral especially in lifts and there was a lot of experimenting with the weight of other humans. It is also important to note that language was the majority of the sound score for the performance, and that the dancers began to speak while they moved. The tone of the narration was mostly calm, serene and factual; however, certain phrases would act as a gateway to Dora’s emotion that would explode into music and dance. The contrasting and interwoven simple but complex movement and music served to convey a lot of ideas. The idea of evolution returned through the way the movement evolved from literal to poetic and the narration changed from separate to inside the movement. Essentially, this idea of evolution in costume, props, movement and music allowed to performance to not just tell the story but to become Dora’s story. It seemed to mirror the idea that when someone recalls a memory it is easy to become submerged in the thought and nostalgia for that moment. At the same time, this conveyed how history is still alive, that the past is always part of the present. The narration was not laden with historical stories that often can alienate an audience. It was very personal, which allowed the audience to connect on a human level with Dora’s story. The audience was able to

She is telling to give you two points of views. Also the movements they used was a mixture of all dances i felt like she wasn't strictly modern even though that's what she danced majority of her life . This particular

Petipa’s production of Swan Lake is a beautiful example of the structure movements that dancers must perform; in the clip titled Odile entrance & Black Swan pas de deux, you see “The Black Swan” perfect posture and balance, dancing on en Pointe all the while managing to gracefully seduce the prince through her seductive movements and entrancing expressions. In contrast Modern dance focus is on the dancer expressing their inner most emotions and feelings through free flowing movements. The modern dancer uses their whole body more naturally and fluidly to convey what their current emotional state is, unlike classical ballet where the ballerina at all times keeps an upright posture, and performs with structured, angular lines. Martha Graham’s “Frontier” is a great example of the free movements of Modern dance; In this performance Martha Graham uses her whole body to move to the rhythmic sounds of the drums and music, you can clearly see that there is no confined structure in this performance, she is completely moving organically to how she is feeling and what she is trying to convey through her movements.

I became a ballet student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2014. Being a high school student here gave me the opportunity to expand my horizons and take in as much art as I possibly could. During my first fall at UNCSA, I attended the Emerging Choreographers performance and was privileged to see works created by fourth year contemporary majors. These stunning works showed me the possibilities that dance holds to truly convey powerful and meaning messages. One work in particular stood out to me. It was a piece that showcased five dancers all dressed in pedestrian clothing. At first it appeared to be a casual street scene but a the music progressed one girl began making incredible sharp movements as if she was possessed. She made tiny movements of her hands and feet all the while moving a great distance across the stage. The others started going off what she was doing and all moved together as one giant body supporting the girl in the middle. She continued dancing in the most amazing way have many small movements combined with huge movements that made her seem a thousand feet tall. Intrigued I spoke to one of the dancers about the intention of the dance. She told me that the

I became a leader that communicated through the body. I was never in the position of dancing as the leader I would follow along or copy, but to take charge was a bit odd because I was not so sure if I was right. I have lack of confidence and if I demonstrated that more I would be able to present these leadership qualities more even outside of the dance setting. I think it is because I have a smaller chest I make myself believe I do not have the representation of being a leader, but I deliver my partners move well. It all is smoothly done and I easily get the movements down when you explain in detail. I learn from observing and moving into it slowly it is what allows me to present a similar

Gabrielle Knappenberger, 18, recently five of her art works from Drawing-1 with Dr. Terrence Mckelvey published and hung up on the second floor walls of Hamilton Hall. The five pieces of art that is published consists of a figure drawing that took 1-3 minutes to complete, a one 1-point perspective that took part of class, two 2-point perspectives, and an 3 contour drawing on one picture of her feet. Gabrielle’s favorite drawing out of the five is the contour drawing of her feet because it has more detail and it took more time unlike the simple gestures.

I chose to write about choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaker and her dance “Violin Phase.” Keersmaker “has focused on the relationship between music and dance and also repeatedly ventured into the realms of text and visual art.” “Violin Phase” which is an excerpt from Fase: Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich (1982) shows Anne dancing on sand using particular movements to create “a large circular drawing on the Atrium floor.” She describes it as “measuring the earth, and the relationships of the amount of space you occupy in a certain amount of time.” Dancing on sand she has to be precise, which brings a huge challenge to this work of art. However, in the video you can see Keersmaker “jumping and turning” in the sand by drawing a circle

Dance was not a new element in the theatre realm. It had been used for years as a way of interpretation of feelings of a character that the writer or director wanted the audience to feel visually. Through movement, expression of those feelings was portrayed and helped the audience to somewhat

The movements were very specific and showed the story of the dance. The partners used many movements that contained many body

Throughout the first half of her performance, Maboungou movements remain perpendicular to one another and her body moves in an asymmetrical rotation. At first glance, De/Liberate Gestures looks like an abstract form of dance. However, a closer look at the movements reveals deconstructed forms of ballet. Maboungou uses ballet moves as her starting position but rather than committing to an attitude turn, where the limbs are very symmetrical and perfectly perpendicular to one another, Maboungou angles one of her arms and her legs to turn. In another part of the performance, Maboungou begins in ballet first position, then repeatedly raises her chests towards the sky and then immediately drops her chest towards the ground. Traditional African dance, especially West African forms, incorporate their relationship with the Earth into their movements, the dancer works with gravity rather than working against it, contradictory to ballet. The new floor and the discombobulated ballet dance forms all seem to disobey the “dictates of the colonial matrix” to produce aesthetically pleasing visual patterns using bodies. By disrupting the equilibrium, Maboungou reveals the re-emergence, re-surgence, and re-existence of African dance whose story was “degraded in order to be dominated.” (Mignolo) As a result, Maboungou