I am very impressed with what I saw in class today. The dancers are taking the elements of the three cultural dances they learned last week and they are creating three new fusion dances using Western Dance Styles such as Hip-Hop, musical theatre, ballet, jazz, modern, etc.
After today's experiences please answer the following questions.
*What intrigued you about the cultural dance you chose? Why did you choose it? What intrigued you about the Western Dance Style you chose and why did you choose to work within this style?
*What elements did you extract from your cultural dance and how did you incorporate them into your new fusion dance?
*Does your fusion dance have a story or meaning to it? If so, what is it?
*Did you find it easier to create a dance using this choreographic tool of extracting elements from another style or is it easier to find your own personal inspiration for choreography?
*What did you learn through this process about cultural dance? What did you learn about your own personal dance style?
*What have you learned about dance authenticity?
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Remember, we are using the elements of the cultural dances we learned last week to create a new fusion dance. We are not using their actual movements or choreography. Be sure to discuss the elements in this section and not the choreography.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! I'll see you tomorrow at lunch (in costume).
Shelby and Jade we forgot to talk about what we are wearing!
ReplyDeleteI chose the folklorico style Mexican dance because it was upbeat and happy, and that is the kind of music I like to dance to the most. I'm not a very experienced choreographer. In fact, this is the first piece I've ever choreographed in my life! Haha. So hopefully I did an alright job. But I chose to do a musical-theater style version of the folklorico dance because that is the style I have the most experience with. Plus, musical theater is known to be very happy, upbeat, and BIG! So I figured I would be most successful at this.
ReplyDeleteFrom the cultural dance, I pulled the bounciness and the fluid movements to use in my fusion dance. Also, we chose to incorporate the use of skirts to create and illustrate the image of the wave-like ocean-like movements. So to show these elements, I chose an upbeat Broadway song, which is also Latino-based so it still focuses on the culture, but still is a fusion dance.
The fusion dance itself does not have a meaning behind it. I was getting nervous just having to choreograph a piece so I was mainly focusing on finding moves that fit the music, rather than connecting all the moves to tell a story. I probably should have created a story behind the dance though, because I remember that a big part of the folklorico dance was that it was a story being told from generations passed down from one another. So next time, I would be sure to incorporate some sort of story.
I found that it is much easier to create a dance when you have elements to go off of. If I had to choreograph a Mexican-style dance on my own with no background knowledge, it would have been much less put together than the one I have now.
I learned that for all styles of dancing, you can mix any dance styles from any cultures and create a dance that is all your own. It is possible to utilize all cultural dance to create a modern dance that everyone from any culture can enjoy. I also learned that I can in fact be a choreographer! I realized that I like to have everything be on beat, and I like shuffles and "3-point turns" :)
A dance is authentic if it is straight from the origin. My fusion dance is obviously not completely authentic because there is some elements of my own personal style in it. But I think that every dance has some degree of authenticity in it because obviously the movements had to have come from somewhere! Haha :)
I enjoyed this project so much!
I chose Hmong dance because I loved the soft movements that they make with their body, and how much control they have too. We (Jade, Shelby, and I) chose Modern/Contemporary with this style because the movements had similar motions, and thought it would be best mixed with this style of dance.
ReplyDeleteThe elements we extracted were wrist movements, the use of extended arms, and repetition. With almost every movement that we have extended arms, some of the movements had wrist movements. With repetition we will do some movements over and we are doing the same thing in the beginning and in the end.
Our dance does not have a meaning behind it, the song I chose, had a great beat behind it and it just sounded cool.
It’s both easy and hard, easy if you are beginning choreographer or you don’t have any inspiration, so you mix and made things look cool. It’s hard because what if the elements that you are extracting are not your style, or you have things in mind that you want to do but they won’t fit in. I thought that this is harder then what I had planed. I was thinking that since they have same movements we can mix and mingle but nope we just had to mess around and then go with an idea.
I learned that each dance is unique in it’s own way, and I have grown more respect for the dances and dancers. I learned that things are either harder or easier the what they seem, and if you make it look easy then congrats to you, because then people will want to try it. My own personal style is cool and amazing, people can do it, but it kind of makes me want to branch of and do other dances:]
I learned that dance authenticity is good and bad, it’s good because it keeps the culture and tradition alive, but bad because with each generation things change and get upgraded. I think that’s why I also chose this dance because it was a mix of traditional and modern style.
I had a blast doing this project and I would like to thank Miss K. for giving us this chance to grow as a dancer and expand our dance skills.
:D
Wow! Wonderful thoughts everyone! I love that you are thinking about this project on a deeper level than you were a week ago.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, I saw your fusion dance today and though you didn't consider yourself a choreographer yet you should consider yourself one now! Everyone starts somewhere. Well done!!
Joey, your comments about authentic dance were interesting to me. I agree with you that the authenticity of a dance can keep a culture pure and traditional. However, we all grow and evolve. Dance has done the same. We now have lyrical Hip-Hop and contemporary ballet in our dance world. These are great examples of fusing two dance styles and evolving into something new and different.
Do you think a dance that has evolved over time is less authentic or simply different? For example, classical ballet is performed in tights and tutus as well as pointe shoes. If you take away the pointe shoes, tutus, and tights can the dancer still perform an authentic ballet piece? No wrong answers. I want to know your opinion. =)
I was intrigued by Hmong dance since the moment I first saw it performed. Since this project began, my interest and appreciation has only grown. I chose this specific type of dance because I had a deep appreciation for the grace and beauty that Hmong dance portrays. I connected contemporary/modern style dancing to Hmong based on the beat of the music and the flow of the movements within the styles. We (Joey, Shelby, and I) chose to work with this style because it best suited the elements of Hmong dance.
ReplyDeleteThe elements that we incorporated were the graceful movements of the arms, emphasis of the wrists, and repetition. We also used transitions in our piece, like the Hmong dancers tend to do.
There is no particular meaning to our dance other than the fact it is a fusion of two graceful and flowing styles of movement.
I rather enjoyed using the elements of other styles as my source of inspiration. I would have liked to incorporate more than just one style to enhance and improve our piece. I also took into account the use of recently discussed techniques from Dance Rep. about using speed, formations, space, and various other elements within this choreography.
Because of this project, I began to notice the many styles that people tend to incorporate without noticing. During showings for our gala, I started to find many styles that were incorporated into dances by choreographers who were not part of this project. By becoming aware of the many styles and types of movements as well as the emotions and feelings they provoke, I have began to pick and pull pieces of these many types of dance for my own works and will continue to for the rest of my dancing career.
I have also learned that the authenticity of particular dances is very limited but can be changed over time. For instance, years from now our created fusion styles may be considered authentic depending on the observer. It is a difficult thing to judge authenticity, but rather a simple task to accept and appreciate styles of dance for what they truly are :)
I chose the Hmong dance because I wanted to challenge myself. Out of the three dances, the Hmong dance came the least naturally to me. I found that it required a lot of coordination and multi-tasking with movements that I was not quite used to yet. I felt that a fusion of this dance with a style that I cam comfortable with would help me to connect with this new sytle through similar elements. I chose to meld contemporary style dance with Hmong because the quality of movement can be similar in many cases.
ReplyDeleteThe Hmong dance incorporated graceful, controlled movements that were flowy and soothing to the eye. Contemporary, though it may look very different at times, also employs these elements of sustained movement. We also used sharper movements in our fusion piece to account for the quick flick of the wrists in the Hmong dance. The Hmong dance repeated movements, creating rhythm. We used repetition and ripples in our choreography to mirror this. One thing that stood out about the Hmong piece was the formations the dancers created throughout the dance. We found that these added interest to the choreography.
The fusion dance we created did not have a specific story behind it. It was created purely to recognize the movements and appreciate the fusion of two styles of dance. Also it was fun to just be inspired by the music and go where it led us!
Sometimes it is easier to create choreography when you have specific elements in mind. It helped to prevent writer's block, in a sense. I usually don't choreograph in this way. I usually just express what I'm feeling in response to a song; however, I was able to use this inspiration as well as guidance from the elements when creating this piece.
To me, cultural dance is special because it has that pride of one's roots attached to it. Cultural dances are usually especially meaningful because they have persisted and become tradition. I have learned that any cultural dance can be appreciated by someone, regardless of their own culture. I have seen how two types of seemingly unrelated dances can share the same elements, and I love the fact that different styles can be mixed together to create new dances. I have learned that my style of dance is no more important than any other style.
We really can't tell if a given dance is "authentic" because authenticity is relative. Rather than placing value on a style because of its authenticity, we should value all forms of dance regardless of how popular it is or how "correct" it is.