Graeme Murphy and rafae bonachela essay

Stewart’s choreographic revolution began when he combined movement with rapid and fast rapid techno music which modern audiences relate to. ‘Birdbrian’ has been described by Katy Evans an author as a “heart stopping, eye popping, tempo changing, absorbing one hour and fifteen minutes of pure genius amazement, a truly theatrical and demanding performance that’s funky, fast and furious”. The use of chorographic techniques used, Stewart persuades the audience to not look away. The slow motion, stillness, turns and jumps, cannons, duet works, contractions, high releases, dynamics and zombie like movement all give into gravity and this was shown throw the something floor work. This piece was the first of Stewart’s as Artistic Director to tour internationally. The intensely physical and powerful work represents his trademark modern style, which involves jerking, glitching, abrupt and fast powerful movement making the performance intriguing to watch, the dancers appear to have a sense of power as they come across to be strong. The dull lighting creates suspense and excitement that combined with images projecting over the dancers. The shell of the choreography reveals balletic and classical duet work. The costuming of ‘Birdbrain’ are black legging and simple white T-shirts. In the section where a lady is walking across the stage with point shoes. Is symbolistic of it being a reconstruction of a classical ballet

Alvin Ailey was a famous choreographer/dancer also founder of his own dance company (AAADT). Inspired by many, (including Katherine Dunham and Horton) he began dancing at the age of 15 where he found his love for dancing. Ballet, jazz and Broadway were the three main dance styles Ailey loved. These styles can also be recognised in nearly all of his choreographies. As choreographic styles identify the constituent features, when it comes to Ailey’s work we can clearly recognise them, through the movement used.

The two live dance works viewed this year were “Emergence”, performed by Sydney Dance Company, choreographed by Rafael Bonachela, performed at the Princess Theatre and a recorded dance performance titled “Image”, choreographed by Jason Northam and Liesel Link. The two dance performances substantiated were exceedingly diverse and dissimilar. The two performances juxtaposed their intentions and interpreted opposing elements through diversity in movement vocabulary, structural devices and form, performance skills and technical elements.

Duato has portrayed this concept through the powerful movement of three female and three male dancers, all dressed in cool brown, red and purple earthy colours’ which represent their connection to the land.

The male dancer only wore pants and bared his upper body. This simple costume design not only made the people who watch the dance to have a clear vision of the dancer, but also better presented a predicament that the character was experiencing at that time. At the first half of the dance, the dancer would leave at least one part of his body on the bench, and tried hard to reach other parts of his body away. This muscular interplay between the dancer and the bench resonated with the audience to experiencing the same struggle feelings as the character. As the performance developed, the dancer started to leave the bench to fully use the space. The dancer had many different movements comparing with sitting on the bench previously. He started to lie down, roll over, stand on the bench and make a turn use only one foot. The level of the dance was no longer limited in the middle but changing from low to high as well. Having such a change, the dancer is converting a more delight and energetic feeling to the audience, in order to demonstrated that the character was recovered through the

In “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, Gottschild begins by introducing unique aspects of the Africanist aesthetic including how it embraces differences and instead of the traditional European idea of resolving conflict, Africanist aesthetic presents a question and demonstrates the beauty in accepting conflict. One way in which the Africanist aesthetic differs from European ballet is how they utilize polycentrism, having multiple centers of movement, and polyrhythm, when different body parts keep multiple rhythms. Other ways include the high-affect juxtaposition, changes in mood, movement, or tempo, to the drastically contrasting sharpness and intensity in the movements. Gottschild’s main point in her article is to describe how the Africanist aesthetic is much less strict

The beat in this section builds up as more percussion is added. Similarly, dancers gradually feed on to the stage as the levels of percussion increase. The dancers walk, isolating their hips down stage Right then break off into trios as they rise and fall with the syncopating drum. E.g. with steps, turns, leg lifts and back bends.

Watching a video of a dance piece called “The Moroccan Project,” choreographed by Alonzo King was quite impressive. Living in San Francisco and taking dance classes brought me to Lines Ballet which is King’s dance studio. I have seen a great deal of different types of dance at the studio waiting for my Ballet classes and there are some great dancers. It comes as no surprise that Alonzo would have such great dancers. It appears that Alonzo King is exploring different cultures in dance in Contemporary Ballet. His near-perfect choreography is articulate, passionate, and graceful- he brings diversity in dance to San Francisco and other parts of the world. This piece articulates the expression of the two dancers coming together yet dancing apart at times- it is a fusion of several different types of dances into one using video editing to create a story about the coming together of two individuals.

Mauro Bigonzetti choreographed the first performance, Deep. This contemporary piece infused African influences that focused on togetherness of the human community. As the dancers brought their arms and legs together in a crossing shape towards their hearts, they expressed love and togetherness. Also, the angular movements with a contrast between sharp and smooth complimented the effortless lifts and breathtaking moments that made the audience wonder how they execute such strength and grace. Also, the choreographer’s use of modern music with a twist of African influences was a great mesh between tradition and modern day.

The melody sounds somber and serious and the energy of the dancers suddenly changes. A spoken word takes place and all of the dancer begin to tell their stories of pain and struggle through movements. The spoken word talks about the journey of men and women who overcame social injustice. In the dancer's movements you could clearly see how they correlated together. Movements were powerful and restraint at the same time giving the audience the idea of the women were pushing through something that was bearing them down. There was a lot of expansion in the chest, back, and arms followed by contractions in the body. As soon as the spoken word was finished the mood of the piece change again and the pianist began to play a upbeat tune that brought the dancers back in to a more positive and high spirit. A lot of polyrhythms take place as the dancers jump high and move their arms back and forth moving throughout the space. This happens in unison at first and then solos, trios, and duets happen in this section of the dance. The expression on their faces add charismatic charm to this piece. Their expressions continue to move them into different emotions and feelings that are relatable to everyday

The first dance that I will describe is called “Folie a’Deux” presented by the choreographer

The influence behind the dance company is what makes them so “widely acclaimed” when they perform internationally, for their distinct and unique music, choreography, movements and costume designs. The choreographers inspire the dance pieces, by the traditional stories and movements of various Australian Indigenous communities. Some of their best works include the performance productions of Ochres, Skin and Our Land People Stories.

The female dancer re-enters the stage sans the blue shirt/shorts and repeats the gestures with a bit more feeling, and the male does the same thing after the female exits. The next time the female enters the stage, she is only in the colorful bra and black briefs. The male enters the stage in a black bra and colorful underwear. The color in the costumes sends a message of the differences between males and females, but the black undergarments lean towards blurring the lines of gender. The lights get brighter as clothing is shed. The two performers fully embody the gestures now, and seem to have more of an intimate connection with one another. The music constantly seems to be an underscore of the dance, but does not add much to it. The dancers share weigh and partner with more sensuality, and eventually are silhouetted with blue light as they return to gesture and awkward ballroom partnering. The lights fade as they continue to move.

Second, she acknowledges the work of others who have contributed to the concept of dance as sacred (Winton-Henry, 2009). She mentions Gabrielle Roth and her 5RythmsTM method that is based on: flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness (p. 64). Winton-Henry also mentions kinesiologists Judith Rathbone and Valerie Hunt who scientifically uncovered four kinesthetic home bases that are called: swing, thrust, shape, and hang (p. 64). By including these other perspectives, she builds support for dance as sacred art from both the artistic and scientific worlds.

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