Portia's Choreography Blog

(Merce Cunningham Dance Company, 2013) "Exchange"- Merce Cunningham I think in this piece Merce Cunningham is trying to portray, different people and in their own ways to show no one is the same and that we all do things differently like the dancers do in this clip. I think the movements are supposed to be strange and weird along with what they are wearing to further depict no one is "normal" and everyone is themselves, not someone else. I think in this section the choreographer has used the dancers very well, as there is a mixture of men and women, all moving around the stage in creative and innovative ways, this creates a busy and confusing effect a bit like the effect of life and this represents how there is always a lot of people around you doing things you aren't doing, and would never do. However even though they aren't doing the exact same thing at the same time, they are moving with a similar style and some repeated movements which I think also portr...

( Martha Graham Dance Company, 2013) "Diversions of Angels"- Martha Graham In this piece I think that Graham is trying to portray a message about the contrast of people and how they perceive certain things. There is a female dancer in red and the female dancer in white, so they look the same on the outside, however, I believe they wear the different colours to represent the different personalities and characters inside. All the men and women dancing wear beige tights and look really simple. There is a romantic connection between the red dancer and one of the men so i think perhaps the piece could be a fight between different girls and their personalities trying to win over someone's love and affection.   I think the choreographer has used the dancers very interestingly, the entire way through the main focus is the women, the men surround them, giving them attention. Occasionally a group of four women are seen on the stage which I think are used as almost competition to ...

Near the beginning of the piece in the second section, everyone moves around in their own pathways, and we all gravitated too far to the right, the consequence of this was no one was on the left hand side of the stage and it looked bare, so from an audience perspective it would have looked chaotic and unpleasant, it also made the space for us as dancers to move in, smaller and more compact meaning we had less space to move and more chance of collisions. To solve this, I changed my pathway from going straight to the right side to weaving back round and staying mostly towards the left. Jess also decided to stay on the left side for longer so that we have more space to move around.  In the 3rd section, nostalgic memory, there was a split focus on the stage that included everyone, there is a small group on 4 in the middle and then 6 of us dancing around them in the semicircle, however in this section there was too much going on and it made the movement look too busy and messy. So to co...

The section of choreography I have helped towards is a big fight scene that takes place at a big change in the music where there is a loud explosion. our movements link to the music as they are powerful and sharp and really compliment the impulse coming through in the dynamics. This therefore emphasises that it is fight as there is force and a sense of anger behind our movement. This part of the routine includes everyone coming together in unison and doing the same thing just maybe perhaps in opposite or facing different ways, however all in all we move as one. We begin in two separate groups, then continue to run into two opposite horizontal lines, we also include a V formation a circle, and straight line at the back of the stage. This is the show the transformation of growing from two parted emotions/personalities clashing to one structured brain trying to work out how it fits together. This also links back to the stimulus as we come together in unison and move to, represent the brai...

As a group we have now began to choreograph the piece and included a diverse range of different choreographic devices. We begin by using formation and standing in a group clumped together. We move as a whole to represent the brain in the stimulus working as a one object. We then continue moving on using pathways; individually parting from the group, constituting a different emotion as seen on the stimulus as the emojis shoot out portraying a business and overcrowding in the brain. This therefore causing a stressful atmosphere. This creates a split focus as everyone is moving in different ways and dancing with varying intention. We continue to use spilt focus when there is a group in the centre dancing on a higher level and then people surrounding them moving on a lower level, to link back to our idea of Dissociative Identity disorder (DID) and representing the two personalities. We have also decided to use cannon a lot as it fits extremely well with the music and it also links back to ...

(Myers, 2017) The structure of our piece begins in a group, representing the brain in the original stimulus. We then move out one by one each dancing to portray a different emotion and to constitute for the emojis shooting out. This shows the brain's confusion as there is too many things going on, correlating with the music as the texture gets thicker and creates an interesting tension. We then change into a nostalgic memory and a small group of people will represent a meaningful, joyous memory, using freedom to really emphasise their feelings, and positivity’s of the past. Meanwhile the rest of the group are in split focus doing floor work to intensify the difference in the split stage, so you can really see who's who , whilst portraying their emotions. Contrasting to this we twist into a bad memory when the music gets slightly more distressing and upbeat. A group will highlight negativities and use body language to represent the distressing thoughts. The section after this in...