Monday 18th October 2010
On Monday Miss Dolan wasn't in so we re-watched Enter Achilles (by DV8) and made notes on how DV8 perform action, space, dynamics and relationship. We stopped and re-winded the DVD to make these notes.
Under action i wrote:
1) A lot of travelling + contact that's natural.
Stretching and reaching.
2) Interlocking, flowing, reaching, lifts, hunched.
3) Rolling, spinning.
Interlock, childish(boy at heart)
4) Killing manhood
Under space i wrote:
1) Work their way around objects, involve them.
Travelling not just standing still.
2) A big group, moving in unison.
Under dynamics i wrote:
1) Dynamics vary, high-low, floor work, not contained- very free.
2) Quite contained but yet very flowing, choreographed.
3) Flowing and continual.
Under relationship i wrote:
1) Contact with each other, rolling over each other, interact with each other, friendly, competition, outside looking in.
2) Big group(stereo typical man), one outside(showing emotion)
Gang sticking together push out the unique one.
3) Using a prop to interpret story and meaning.
4) Competition with each other.
Tuesday 19th October 2010
Tuesday was our double lesson. In the first lesson we were in the Tc's so we had little room. Instead of just dancing we looked at the certain elements of the 'Get The Box' dance. My partner and I made up the moves for:
-sink to the floor
-grab and pull leg
-racing start
-lift onto back
-crawl to object in slow motion
-raise object in slow motion
-raise object without using hands
We wrote our rehearsal log and thought about how we could make these elements flow using dance. It was challenging because you start to use the same moves twice. Lloyd Newson was incredibly smart to make everything flow without repeating himself.
In the second lesson we were in the hall so we put all the components together. It was all about trial and error because some of the moves we'd thought up in the previous lesson didn't work so well with the choreography we'd planned. In the end we'd made up most of our routine and polished it. I really saw what its like to be a member of DV8.
Wednesday 20th October 2010
On Wednesday we just kept going over and over our routine. We didn't actually make up anymore of the routine but we really concentrated hard on making it flow with unique and daring choreography. I really enjoyed this lesson because i learnt to trust my partner and use daring moves. My mind frame was in what i would imagine Newson's mind frame to be in when he created DV8's performances.
Thursday 21st October 2010
Thursday's lesson was a costume construction lesson. We looked at the research we'd done on denim. Then we were shown how to design a costume. First we traced the model off of the template very lightly with our pencils. After this we drew an idea of a 'We Will Rock You' style costume. Once we'd drawn this we used water colours to paint our design. We were meant to do 3 but i was steady with my hand and i only made one design. I really enjoyed this lesson because it gave me a good in site to the costume construction industry and how West End productions create their costumes.
Friday 22nd October 2010
Friday's lesson was dance. We discussed assignment 3 again so we definitely knew what to do. By the time everyone had said their piece half the lesson had gone. We had half an hour to re-go over our partner dance.
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Week six in btec performing arts....
Wowie, week six already. We've been doing btec for a month and a half, its gone so quickly! This week we only had 2 practical lessons which were both DV8 work shops and working on our own choreographic pieces. I now see how challenging it must have been for Newson to include experimental choreography and make it flow! We also had 2 costume construction lessons, we boarded up our research on materials in one lesson and then in the second we started researching jean because we're going to start making our 'We Will Rock You' inspired costumes. I'm really looking forward to making these as it will be a chnace to let go and have fun with our own idea's. We've had to find our own pair of jeans that still fit us around that we can tear to pieces and coustomise! Well i've talked a lot so i'm going to show you my final draft of my DV8 essay. I hope you learn something!
My DV8 Essay!
In 1926 the Martha Graham centre of contemporary dance was established. Following this in1936 Martha named her work as “Chronicle”, this signified a new era to contemporary dance. The performances brought serious issues to the stage in a dramatic manor in order for the public to see the importance of the subjects. Her largest and greatest work, Clytemnestra, was created in 1958. Graham’s style of dance was based on the contraction and release of the body. Graham preferred the term modern dance instead of contemporary dance. She thought that the concept of modern dance is that it was constantly changing so, therefore had no definition. Unlike DV8, Graham never had any of her dances recorded or photographed because she stated that performances should exist live on stage and in no other form. At one point in her life, Graham burnt all of her diaries and choreographic notes to prevent her work from getting out before it was premiered on stage to a live audience. She worked with still photographers only (photographers that take pictures of certain moves whilst the dancer is standstill). She started her career as a dancer late on in her life and was still dancing in the 1960’s, soon Graham turned to alcohol to repair her declining body. In Graham’s biography (Blood Memory) in 1991 she claimed her last appearance onstage was in 1970 in her production “Cortege of Eagles” when she was 76 years of age. She is said to be one of the most important choreographers in dance history, she wished to be remembered as a dancer. Graham inspired DV8 and Newson because she invented a new language of dance. She moved in a unique way and didn’t follow a crowd, like DV8. She also inspired DV8 to express important topics through dance using these inventive movements. When Graham’s dance style was based on the release and contraction of the body, she inspired Newson to choreograph around the idea of it. Making the dance detailed yet simple.
My DV8 Essay!
An Introduction to DV8
Dv8 are a contemporary/ physical theatre dance group. They were created in1986 by Lloyd Newson. Lloyd Newson is also the choreographer. All the work that DV8 perform reflects Newson’s views on social, psychological and political issues. Newson uses abstract, contemporary dance to portray these issues. Newson chooses dancers according to the subject of the performance, and whether they will be suitable for it. Due to this DV8 have no permanent members, although many of these dancers have contributed to the great success of DV8. The company name refers to Dance and Video 8 (super 8 mm), and plays on the word deviate, Meaning deviant or perverse. The dancers that are part of DV8 claim to have become frustrated disillusioned with the preoccupation and direction of modern dance. [
Since 1986 Lloyd Newson has been the director of DV8 physical theatre, and he has had a huge impact on the world of contemporary dance. His works, on stage and on film, are constantly winning major awards. Newson was born in Australia and his interest in dance arose from studying psychology and social work at Melbourne University. He was soon awarded a full scholarship to The London Contemporary Dance School. Newson had worked with/ danced with/ choreographed for many dance company’s which include Ensemble, Impulse Dance Theatre/New Zealand Ballet Company, One Extra Dance Theatre and Extemporary Dance Theatre. At the Extemporary Dance Theatre he tried to mix ballet with modern dance, making contemporary dance. After working with these company’s he wanted to let his choreography loose, so he created his own dance company- DV8. Little did he know that DV8 would be a world extravaganza? From the beginning Lloyd knew that his work and choreography would not only look amazing on stage but it would be portrayed fantastically in film as well. Therefore he gained the help of two filmmakers, David Hinton and Clara von Gool, they made 3 of DV8’s performances into films. Including DV8’s latest film ‘The cost of living’ which was made in 2004/2005. Newson himself directed the filming of it and the film has won 16 international awards. A few people that inspired Newson to use such dramatic subjects in his dances are Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan and Merce Cunningham.
The people that inspired Lloyd Newson
Martha Graham.
In 1926 the Martha Graham centre of contemporary dance was established. Following this in1936 Martha named her work as “Chronicle”, this signified a new era to contemporary dance. The performances brought serious issues to the stage in a dramatic manor in order for the public to see the importance of the subjects. Her largest and greatest work, Clytemnestra, was created in 1958. Graham’s style of dance was based on the contraction and release of the body. Graham preferred the term modern dance instead of contemporary dance. She thought that the concept of modern dance is that it was constantly changing so, therefore had no definition. Unlike DV8, Graham never had any of her dances recorded or photographed because she stated that performances should exist live on stage and in no other form. At one point in her life, Graham burnt all of her diaries and choreographic notes to prevent her work from getting out before it was premiered on stage to a live audience. She worked with still photographers only (photographers that take pictures of certain moves whilst the dancer is standstill). She started her career as a dancer late on in her life and was still dancing in the 1960’s, soon Graham turned to alcohol to repair her declining body. In Graham’s biography (Blood Memory) in 1991 she claimed her last appearance onstage was in 1970 in her production “Cortege of Eagles” when she was 76 years of age. She is said to be one of the most important choreographers in dance history, she wished to be remembered as a dancer. Graham inspired DV8 and Newson because she invented a new language of dance. She moved in a unique way and didn’t follow a crowd, like DV8. She also inspired DV8 to express important topics through dance using these inventive movements. When Graham’s dance style was based on the release and contraction of the body, she inspired Newson to choreograph around the idea of it. Making the dance detailed yet simple.
Isadora Duncan was born in America on May 26th 1877 and died on September 14th 1927. She was a dancer who was considered by some the creator of modern dance. She lived in Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until when she died at the age of 50. She was popular in New York in the later stages of her life. Isadora Duncan liked flowing scarves, but tragically this was the cause of her death! Whilst Duncan was wearing one of her scarves she rode her automobile, the scarf became entangled around her neck and broke her neck. Duncan was born in San Francisco and was the youngest of four children. Her siblings were Elizabeth, Augustin and Raymond. Duncan’s ancestors were of Irish and French origin. At the beginning of Duncan’s childhood she attended school but her individuality made it difficult for her to fit in so she dropped out. Her family were very poor, to earn money Isadora and her sister taught dance lessons to the local children. In 1895 Isadora joined Augustin Daly’s theatre company in New York and soon became mesmerised by the theatrical form. In 1899 she moved to Europe, her first move was to London and a year later to Paris. Within two years Duncan had achieved great success. In 1909 Duncan moved to two large apartments and she used the ground floor as a dance school. She rejected the traditional ballet steps as she liked her dancers to use improvisation and emotion in their performances. Duncan believed that classical ballet had strict rules of posture and movements and that it was ugly and against nature. She gained a wide following that allowed her to set up her dance school. Duncan became so famous that she inspired other artists to create sculpture, jewelry, poetry, novels, photographs, watercolors, prints and paintings of her. In 1916 she traveled to Brazil and performed at Rio de Janeiro’s Theatro Municipal in August of that year and at Sao Paulo’s Theatro Municipal in September with a pianist called Maurice Dumesil. In 1922 she acted on her sympathy for the social and political revolution in the Soviet Union and moved to Moscow. The Russian government failed to support the extravagant promises of Duncan’s work. They sent her back to the West in 1924. Throughout her life Duncan did not like the commercial aspect of performance as it distracted her from her main aim. To teach the young, the beauty of dance. Duncan was dedicated to was the founder of three dance schools of which she taught young girls dance. At the first dance school the girls were dubbed as ‘isadorables’ They took on her surname because they performed with Duncan but also independently. The second school was short lived as it was created prior to world war one. The third dance school was in Moscow during the Russian revolution. In a way, Isadora Duncan created modern dance because of her hatred of classical ballet. Isadora Duncan inspired DV8 and Newson because she rejected the rules of classical ballet. Duncan’s dances were usually improvisation and emotion, DV8 use this idea because all or many of their movements are natural leads. When you improvise you do what feels natural to you as a dancer so DV8 include the term improvisation in many of their dances. When Duncan created emotion in dance, she put feeling into it so as the audience you could relate to the performance. When DV8 used Graham’s idea of a meaning behind the dance, they linked it with Duncan’s emotion. DV8 dance about issue’s that concerns them, to relate to the audience they put emotion and acting into the dance.
Merce Cunningham’s real name was Mercier Phillip Cunningham and he was born on April 16th 1919 and he died on July 26th 2009. He was an American dancer and choreographer for about 50 years. Throughout his life Cunningham was considered one of America’s greatest dancers. He was a choreographer and teacher of The Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Cunningham had a profound influence on modern dance. Many of the dancers that trained with Cunningham made their own dance company’s after training with him. In 2009, the Cunningham Dance Foundation announced the Legacy Plan, a precedent-setting plan for the continuation of Cunningham’s work and the celebration and preservation of his artistic legacy. Merce Cunningham earned some of the highest award possible for the arts, these awards were:
- National Medal of Arts.
- MacArthur Fellowship.
- Japan’s Praemium Imperiale award.
- British Laurence Olivier Award.
- And was named Légion d’honneur in France.
He was born in Washington in 1919. In 1937-9 Martha Graham saw Cunningham’s work and invited him to join her dance company. In 1939 Cunningham moved to New York and worked with Graham for 6 years. In the summer of 1953, as a teacher in residence at Black Mountain College, Cunningham formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a forum to explore his new ideas on dance and the performing arts. He choreographed over 200 dances in his lifetime. He created Merce Cunningham Dance company in 1953, guided by their leader’s radical approach to space, time and technology, the company created its own distinctive style which reflected Cunningham’s technique and illuminating the near limitless possibility of human movement. Merce Cunningham was considered the most relevant person in modern dance. Cunningham inspired Newson to make DV8 daring by his idea of ‘limitless possibilities of human movement’. This reflects the way DV8 use Martha’s sense of story, Isadora’s sense of emotion and then Merce’s sense of flexibility.
DV8 and their dances.
Enter Achilles.
Conclusion.
Overall Dv8 are an outstanding dance crew. They are not predictable and use meaningful subjects. That will mean something to their audience. Although sometimes the story behind the dance isnt always clear, its embedded somewhere within the drama. The dance they perform is always flowing and they hardly ever leave contact with one another unless there is an acting section put in that is relevant. Dv8 are daring and inspiring, they have an incredibly talented choreographer who will go far in life and make rare subjects more known in the public eye.
By Chloe Green
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Week five in btec performing arts....
Monday 4th October 2010
On Monday, we were in TC3. We had little room, but we did our best. We continued with the work we did last tuesday. The DV8 workshops. 2 of the members of my group werent in so i went in a group with Chloe, Shauna and Alice. We improved our work dramatically. We considered many natural moves and DV8's style. About interlocking and entwined movements. I really enjoyed this lesson because it almost put me in Lloyd Newson's mind. How to think about it properly. It was really difficult and for Lloyd Newson's choreography to look so easy, is amazing. Lloyd Newson was an amzingly clever man for the choreography he created. Although i enjoyed this lesson, i found it difficult. It was really fun to do challenging moves and have trust in each other.
Tuesday 5th October 2010
Tuesday was our double lesson. The first lesson we mainly spent discussing assignments and sorting through our portfolio's. We were then shown a slide show which had a selected amount of moves that we had to include on a dance. You had to go in pairs and create a dance. We only got time in this lesson to choreograph a few moves. In the second lesson we continued this dance. It was difficult because we had to interpret what we'd done in mondays lesson into this new choreography! We had to include things like sink to floor back to back without using hands. We havent finished it yet, infact it was so difficult trying to organise the alocated items in the correct order so it flowed took up alot of time. Trying to make it flow was difficult but i enjoyed the challenging task. The mind frame you had to be in was deep consentration. If you werent focused you would not be able to do this task. i enjoyed this lesson overall.
Thursday 7th October 2010
Thursday's lesson was with Miss Hearne in costume construction. To begin with we were given homework to get samples of the materials we'd researched for previous homeworks. Once we'd been given this homework Miss did a demonstration on how to weave with material and then we did it for ourselves with our own colour scheme. I really enjoyed this lesson because it gave us an insite to the actual costume construstion industry. I learnt in this lesson how to weave and i loved it!
Friday 8th October 2010
Friday's lesson was our presentations on DV8, it was the deadline for assignment 1 task 1. I did an essay so i gave it in and then talked through my collage. I think i will improve my collage because it was too small. Once my essay has been marked officially, i will post it on here so you can see it. I found out alot doing the essay and Lloyd Newson inspires me!
Overall this week has been amazing!
On Monday, we were in TC3. We had little room, but we did our best. We continued with the work we did last tuesday. The DV8 workshops. 2 of the members of my group werent in so i went in a group with Chloe, Shauna and Alice. We improved our work dramatically. We considered many natural moves and DV8's style. About interlocking and entwined movements. I really enjoyed this lesson because it almost put me in Lloyd Newson's mind. How to think about it properly. It was really difficult and for Lloyd Newson's choreography to look so easy, is amazing. Lloyd Newson was an amzingly clever man for the choreography he created. Although i enjoyed this lesson, i found it difficult. It was really fun to do challenging moves and have trust in each other.
Tuesday 5th October 2010
Tuesday was our double lesson. The first lesson we mainly spent discussing assignments and sorting through our portfolio's. We were then shown a slide show which had a selected amount of moves that we had to include on a dance. You had to go in pairs and create a dance. We only got time in this lesson to choreograph a few moves. In the second lesson we continued this dance. It was difficult because we had to interpret what we'd done in mondays lesson into this new choreography! We had to include things like sink to floor back to back without using hands. We havent finished it yet, infact it was so difficult trying to organise the alocated items in the correct order so it flowed took up alot of time. Trying to make it flow was difficult but i enjoyed the challenging task. The mind frame you had to be in was deep consentration. If you werent focused you would not be able to do this task. i enjoyed this lesson overall.
Thursday 7th October 2010
Thursday's lesson was with Miss Hearne in costume construction. To begin with we were given homework to get samples of the materials we'd researched for previous homeworks. Once we'd been given this homework Miss did a demonstration on how to weave with material and then we did it for ourselves with our own colour scheme. I really enjoyed this lesson because it gave us an insite to the actual costume construstion industry. I learnt in this lesson how to weave and i loved it!
Friday 8th October 2010
Friday's lesson was our presentations on DV8, it was the deadline for assignment 1 task 1. I did an essay so i gave it in and then talked through my collage. I think i will improve my collage because it was too small. Once my essay has been marked officially, i will post it on here so you can see it. I found out alot doing the essay and Lloyd Newson inspires me!
Overall this week has been amazing!
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Week four in btec performing arts...
Well wow. Week four already, i cant believe it! They say time fly's when your having fun- so far i've enjoyed performing arts so much! I've learnt loads in such a short space of time. Well here's my review of the week. Hope you enjoy!
Monday 27th September 2010
On Monday we were up in the drama studio so we didnt have much space, but we tried our best and still had a great time.
Our first/ warm up task was to get into pairs, stand back to back and move around the room but it had to be flowing. This was interesting because you had to think, if i go one way my partners going to have to do the other way and that might be hard for them because we have to stay back to back. Our second/ main task was to say in the same pairs we and had to work out a way of travelling from one side of the studio to the other. But we couldnt travel in any ordinary way, no, we had to travel in the style of DV8. So everything was flowing and natural. So if you started on the floor you couldnt suddenly get up and do a lift because 1) it didnt flow and 2) it was forced and interpreted. This was incredibly fun, not only did it get us out of our normal choreographic minds but it gave us a bit of problem solving to do. It also made us work as a mini team, you had to put trust in the person you were working with. Although we were choreographing, it was a natural choreographing. It gave us a good insite to how DV8 work and how we can interpret this in our final DV8 assesment.
Tuesday 28th September 2010
Tuesday's lesson was in the hall so it was easier to move about with personal space. We continued on from the work we did on Monday as a starter/ warm up. Then as the main part of the lesson Miss Dolan made it more complicated. We had to work in groups of 6 and do the same. This was more challenging because only 3 people could move at one time and they could not be standing next to each other. This made us think more about how we could move forward in a semi-creative way. I was quite hard but alot of fun, it made us think alot more. As on Monday, it gave us an insite to how DV8 work. I think these two workshops will help us understand how and why Newson choreographed DV8 like he did.
Wednesday 29th September 2010
On Wednesday we had a costume construction lesson with Miss Hearne. A couple of lessons we did our pain colour palets. This lesson we did the same, but with magazines. We looked through many magazines and cut/ripped pages out that had our colours on them. Then once we had enough pages we cut the bit of the page that had our colour on and arranged them on a strip of card in order. From darkest to lightest. This took up the whole lesson as most of it we were browsing through magazines. I think this lesson helped us understand that there are many shades of one colour and that those colours can be presented in different ways.
Thursday 30th September 2010
In Thursday's lesson we had another costume construction lesson. In this lesson we developed from Wednesday's lesson. We made our mood boards for our chosen colours. I decided as gold and cream were, in a way, on the same colour palet i'd do them on the same mood board. In previous lesson's we had collected images of 19th and 18th century costumes that had our colours on them. So, we arranged these in a decorative manor on our A2 piece of paper, once we'd arranged them we were allowed to choose a few samples of material from Miss Hearne's box. When we'd placed them on our board and had checked with Miss that it looked alright we glued the pictures and material down. I enjoyed this lesson because it made me look in detail at what historical cotumes are like, it also made me think of what designs i could use for my costume. Here is a picture of my cream and gold mood board:
Monday 27th September 2010
On Monday we were up in the drama studio so we didnt have much space, but we tried our best and still had a great time.
Our first/ warm up task was to get into pairs, stand back to back and move around the room but it had to be flowing. This was interesting because you had to think, if i go one way my partners going to have to do the other way and that might be hard for them because we have to stay back to back. Our second/ main task was to say in the same pairs we and had to work out a way of travelling from one side of the studio to the other. But we couldnt travel in any ordinary way, no, we had to travel in the style of DV8. So everything was flowing and natural. So if you started on the floor you couldnt suddenly get up and do a lift because 1) it didnt flow and 2) it was forced and interpreted. This was incredibly fun, not only did it get us out of our normal choreographic minds but it gave us a bit of problem solving to do. It also made us work as a mini team, you had to put trust in the person you were working with. Although we were choreographing, it was a natural choreographing. It gave us a good insite to how DV8 work and how we can interpret this in our final DV8 assesment.
Tuesday 28th September 2010
Tuesday's lesson was in the hall so it was easier to move about with personal space. We continued on from the work we did on Monday as a starter/ warm up. Then as the main part of the lesson Miss Dolan made it more complicated. We had to work in groups of 6 and do the same. This was more challenging because only 3 people could move at one time and they could not be standing next to each other. This made us think more about how we could move forward in a semi-creative way. I was quite hard but alot of fun, it made us think alot more. As on Monday, it gave us an insite to how DV8 work. I think these two workshops will help us understand how and why Newson choreographed DV8 like he did.
Wednesday 29th September 2010
On Wednesday we had a costume construction lesson with Miss Hearne. A couple of lessons we did our pain colour palets. This lesson we did the same, but with magazines. We looked through many magazines and cut/ripped pages out that had our colours on them. Then once we had enough pages we cut the bit of the page that had our colour on and arranged them on a strip of card in order. From darkest to lightest. This took up the whole lesson as most of it we were browsing through magazines. I think this lesson helped us understand that there are many shades of one colour and that those colours can be presented in different ways.
Thursday 30th September 2010
In Thursday's lesson we had another costume construction lesson. In this lesson we developed from Wednesday's lesson. We made our mood boards for our chosen colours. I decided as gold and cream were, in a way, on the same colour palet i'd do them on the same mood board. In previous lesson's we had collected images of 19th and 18th century costumes that had our colours on them. So, we arranged these in a decorative manor on our A2 piece of paper, once we'd arranged them we were allowed to choose a few samples of material from Miss Hearne's box. When we'd placed them on our board and had checked with Miss that it looked alright we glued the pictures and material down. I enjoyed this lesson because it made me look in detail at what historical cotumes are like, it also made me think of what designs i could use for my costume. Here is a picture of my cream and gold mood board:
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