TASK ONE
This is a poem based on domestic violence in relationships. The idea of women with no voice because of the relationships they're in has caught our eye as a major issue here in New Zealand and around the world. So this is a common issue. The poems depth gives enough emotional evidence for a dramatic dance performance and the message from this poem is strong and inspires us to create a powerful dance giving the awareness of domestic violence. Our intention is to perform a dance that represents a physical voice that women don't have verbally. Since women do not have a voice because of their unhealthy relationships, and in dance you don't speak we want to dance the emotions and let our bodies and movement speak for this issue.
Domestic Violence is just one of the issues that many women still face today. Through a group dance, we want to portray the contrast of the violence and despair in an abusive relationship that one in three women in New Zealand experience from their partners in their lifetime. Whether it is physical or psychological, it is never okay to abuse a woman. The idea that women have no voice because of the relationships they’re in caught our eye as it is a major issue here in New Zealand and around the world. We want to encourage women to fight against this issue, break the cycle and free themselves from the relationship. We also want to create a dance that represents a voice for women in abusive relationships that are silenced. By doing this we will raise awareness of this issue and give women hope.
TASK TWO
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What does it take to achieve an excellence for this standard?
It takes imaginative thinking and imaginative movements that are both original and speak of the stimulus you are using. You need to make sure you develop your ideas well and explore movements that connect well with your idea. Properly structure your dance and make it organised and clear to as what you are portraying. Keep ideas relevant to stimulus. Create relationships between dancers and make sure it relates to the intention or story to the stimulus.
How will your stimulus/idea allow you the potential to do this?
Our stimulus of the poem is based around the idea of domestic violence and so because thats a deep subject it allows us to create a strong performance that can portray awareness. Our movements can be both weak and strong to represent the female and male. Our idea of domestic violence can be developed well as we can create unusual movements that symbolise pain, love, abuse etc. Since this idea is very big this allows us to build different ideas off of it in order to further develop the dance.
TASK THREE
Statistics:
- One Kiwi woman is killed every 3.5 weeks by a member of her family
- One in three women experience psychological or physical abuse from their partners in their lifetime
- Police estimate that only 18% of domestic violence incidents are reported
Signs of an Abusive Relationship:
- http://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/domestic-violence-and-abuse.htm
Domestic Violence Stories:
- http://www.hiddenhurt.co.uk/domestic_violence_stories.html
One of the emotions/moods we will be trying to communicate is contrast between vigorous/angry and hurt/afraid/restricted. However the most important emotion/mood that we will be aiming to communicate is hope. We want to show that there is always hope and people to help women break through any abusive relationship they may be in. This ties together with our intention of the dance.
TASK FOUR
Reflection:
How effectively am I conveying my stance on this issue?
I think our strong research has given us a greater depth of understanding what we really want out of our intention and the message we're trying to get across which is to help those women in need and empower them to gain a voice for themselves and freedom. Along with our research from the 2.6 standard last 1: Our group has gained more understanding in dance with choreographic processes and devices along with the dance elements which is what's going to give us a stronger advantage with choreographing our ideas in to imaginative and creative movements. Our motivation through the dance components and our research will keep us focussed on how we can clearly portray our intention to our audience so that they understand. Our group has been working co-operatively as a team and we are all contributing strong new ideas around domestic violence which we can develop in to sequences and movements to use.
What more do I need to do to ensure this is clearer?
To ensure our issue is being communicated clearly we must make sure our ideas and movements do not become irrelevant to our issue and intention. We must make sure we build a strong and clear structure for our dance that contains relevant motifs in order to clearly portray our message to our audience.
Motif
In this motif, we are trying to show the confusion of an abusive relationship. Often women are left confused as their husband, who is aggressive, violent and abusive can also be loving and caring at other times. Our main message of the dance is to show that even though he may be loving sometimes, it is not acceptable for him to hurt the woman, whether that is physically or psychologically. This motif portrays this idea using contrasting energies. Across the motif, there is an evident contrast between light and hard movements that symbolise the constantly changing behaviours of a man in an abusive relationship.
We are also trying to portray the indications of an abusive relationship ie. Controlling, vigorous. The pushing and leading of the hands symbolise the aggressive and dominant nature of the man. To contrast to this the rest of the body is limp and with a floppy energy, symbolising the position of the woman. Once again using the hand metaphor, the hand slicing across the neck/body leading into a roll, implies the submissive nature a woman is suffocated into by the force of a man when in an abusive relationship.
TASK FIVE
We have chosen to vary and fragment the motif explained in Task 4. We decided that this motif could use some variation to make it more of a group dance. The movements are quite simple but leave a lot of room for interpretation from the audience. We thought this phrase could benefit from some variation to make it more interesting to the audience whilst still communicating the same ideas.
We changed the direction of the kick so that all four dancers would face the front. Then we varied the motif by having each of the four dancers perform the same slicing motion across the body but in different directions. This created all kinds of different air pathways and gave the idea of simultaneous movements but with the same running theme. Now the motif looks more developed into a group dance rather than a solo movement which makes it more interesting and different. We then kept the roll in unison at the end (not in video above) to conclude the motif effectively.
TASK SIX
Ideas for stimulus for improvisations
- Use phrases from poem
- Use statistics/facts/research
- Portray a particular mood/emotion from issue
- Explore movements from intention
Exercises for improvisation
- Choreographers improvise based on one of the stimulus from above. Dancers interpret movements quickly adding their own personal style to the movements.
- Taking a stimulus from one of the above and create a 32 count phrase, then develop the phrase by varying with choreographic devices, different facings and directions etc.
- Create different individual movements based on one of the stimulus above, add a different choreographic device (canon, embellish, retrograde etc.) on each movement, then add transitions between each varied movement to create a flowing phrase.
EXERCISE TASK FOR YEAR 11’s
We asked our small group of Year 11 dancers to improvise and explore some movements based on the intention we gave them. The Year 11's were to create a 32 count phrase based on their knowledge on the issue we have chosen. We encouraged them to be as imaginative as possible to create an interesting and abstract portrayal of our intention.
After they completed the 32 count phrase, we asked them to develop the phrase and vary it by changing the directions, formations, facings, levels and using different choreographic devices and elements to make the phrase more of a group choreography. Developing the phrase also makes it more interesting for the audience.
Reflection on improvisation:
I not only enjoyed my own exploration with improvisation with the group but I also enjoyed watching the Year 11's develop their phrase and how effective it was to make slight adjustments to their sequence.
I found that our improvisations worked well when members in the group were contributing different movements and everyone could bounce of each others ideas. It was slightly difficult to create movements at the start of the session but once we went through our chosen stimulus, the ideas came quickly and it was an enjoyable collaborative process. Next time, I would like to use a different process of improvisation such as feeding off of each others energies and movements or have one person create a movement and from there another person create a movement and so on.
TASK SEVEN
Variation one - Energy
Variation two - Facings/Mirroring
Rather than having the two pairs perform in unison and travel too much to stage right, we decided to have the two pairs mirroring each other with one pair towards the front of the stage and one towards the back. This made the phrase much more interesting, simply by changing the direction of one pair. Towards the end of the phrase, both pairs travel in opposite directions so that the two pairs swap sides. This gives a creative illusion which makes the phrase as a whole more exciting.
Variation three - Emphasis on moment
This is an important moment in this phrase as we wanted to emphasise how the different levels symbolise the dominance over a women in an abusive relationship. To give more of a dramatic effect, we suspended the toe rise at its peak and contrasted it with quick travelling movements that followed after. This makes the different levels the focus and hopefully the audience will receive the idea we are trying to communicate.
REFLECTION
1) The standard is titled Choreograph a group dance to communicate an intention. How well do you think your final dance communicated your intention based on a social issue? Why or Why not?
Our intention we wanted to communicate was to build a strong awareness for women facing domestic violence in New Zealand. Based on this social issue I feel that our group did an exquisite job in first developing movements that both contrasted ideas of weakness (of a woman) to power and strength (of a man or abuser) Our movements were developed very smartly and artistically as we wanted to portray a violent yet sensual performance that both in which told a story about what a woman faces as well as building the awareness for the issue as such. It all came down to the way our 4 year 11 girls performed the dance and the characteristics, energy, facials and expressions they brought to life. Our 4 year 11 girls performed the dance with integrity and passion. Developing a dance for such a heart hitting issue of domestic violence really empowered us and pushed our limits to exceed greatly in sending across our message and doing our part in helping. The facial expressions, sharp movements and flow of the dance were all reached of a high standard. The energy the girls brought to the dance gave it a tense feeling that kept the audience on their toes and with the ending of the dance with one of our 4 year 11 students Teagan Wilson walking away slowly from the other three girls still in poses achieved great depth and emotion to our dance. Overall with the significant amount of expressions and energy given from our 4 year 11 performers the message of giving awareness for those women facing domestic violence was beautifully communicated through the movements of our dance.
2) What were the key motifs/movements that were developed in your choreography to communicate the intention? Give specific examples of the move (post photos to back up your explanation if that helps). How obvious do you think these are in the final performance?
Our key motifs was this one exampled above and this was the first motif we created which became a part of the base of our dance. We took this exact motif and placed it in a part of our final dance performance. We also further developed on our motif repeating similar movements yet creating different directions and other connected movements that in which made the motif a completely different motif. The connection of our original motif and developed motif was kept together through the little aspects that combined similar movements to relate the two motifs together. From our original motif there were specific movements such as the first one of pushing the head to the side then rolling downwards and back up as this was repeated for the again, first movement of the developed piece and this was an obvious point of repetition that we used in our final performance. The developed piece is displayed below.
3) How have you used you knowledge of the Components of Dance (Elements, Devices, and Structures) and you new found understanding of Choreographic Processes from 2.6 to choreograph for this standard? Give specific examples where possible.
We highly relied on our knowledge of the Components of Dance as they were our strong guidelines through creating and developing movements with meaning behind them that connect with our intention. We used a wide range of different aspects within all of the 5 dance elements. The sequence below was based around the relationships elements of dance. The relationships element was highly important as domestic violence bases around the mistreatment of women in unhealthy relationships. We wanted to use a short duet sequence that in which had following:
Behind was used first to represent the dominance of the abuser behind the woman and with behind we used a puppet like manipulating duet where the dominate dancer would control its partner in front then using a choking like movement to add violence and despair of which a woman faces through domestic violence.
Reaction was an important relationship we wanted to use for our short duet sequence as this would bring movements to represent the emotions a woman feels through the domestic violence she faces. At the end of the sequence the dominant dancer walks towards the "woman representer" dancer who's on the floor at a low level. The dominant dancer holds a strong and powerful stance as it approaches the dancer and then the dancer lifts her body up on a toe rise. This toe rise reaction movement represents the fear of a woman and how she's scared. Then once the dancer falls from the toe rise she vastly moves backwards in a way that represents her fear again of trying to avoid the dominant partner. This reaction relationship was extremely captivating as it portrayed the real fear and apprehension a woman feels throughout domestic violence, so this sequence came alive through movement to show what really happens to our women of New Zealand.
We contrasted the first section of our dance to the second by using different time and energies. The first section of our dance represented a long duration as well as a slow tempo thats weight was light, soft and weak with a smooth and delicate quality. These specific elements all were to interpret the idea of a woman and her weakness and lack of a voice and power in the relationship she's in. We used slow movements that were both delicate, light and soft using a slow tempo. The second half of our dance was contrasted from the first to be more shorter duration movements that in which had a fast tempo and firm and strong weight with sudden, sharp and explosive qualities. This section of the dance represented both the dominant partner and the physical abuse and violence towards the woman.
Space was created in many different areas of the dance. For example in the beginning of our dance we wanted to start with a compressed and personal space using the near and small range.
we then contrasted our space to a more open and wider sense of space as the dancers moved outwards to separate themselves. Our range then became bigger and more farer.
We also found inspiration with creating our dance from Stephan Bradshaw and Moss Paterson's choreographic processes. Stephan's choreographic process was where he started with an aspect of his story such as the "haka" and he would develop it and create a haka with a different tempo or weight making it look completely different but meaning the exact same message. We wanted to take our story of a woman inside an abusive relationship facing domestic violence, and use an aspect of this story such as fear or emotions. From there we created specific movements that symbolised the fear or emotions and like Bradshaw, we adjusted different elements of dance that would change the tempo or weight and develop imaginative movements. For Moss Paterson his choreographic process based on the main idea of his dance which was the pumping of the blood in our bodies, also relating the blood to the blood that passes through generations and what intertwines family/whanau together. He based all his movements around the pumping or generation phases blood goes through and so we wanted to take the idea of abuse and how many woman face it and fear it because of domestic violence. We then created movements that were strong and dominant to symbolise the abuse and violence. We wore black costumes to represent the dark power of a man over the woman he abuses. We, like Moss Paterson took an idea and developed movement from it.
4) Comment on your contribution to the collaborative choreographic process? On a scale of 1-10 (1 being very little and 10 being a lot) how much did you contribute to the final choreography. Give some specific examples of ideas you contributed that you are particularly proud of.
I really felt passionate about our issue of women facing domestic violence in New Zealand so I thoroughly researched different poems, stories, photographs to develop my knowledge and grow more understanding for what it was I wanted our group dance to look like and how to communicate our awareness for domestic violence across through movement. One contribution to our final choreography that I'm proud of was the partner sequence from 1.39-1.52 minutes. In In this sequence I wanted to explicitly show the real abuse a woman goes through, as there was a choking movement at the start of the sequence. Then another movement where the "woman representer" dancers would do a split handstand then get kicked down by the dominant dancer swinging their leg to represent a pushing downwards action. Then at the end of the sequence the dominant partner walked with power towards the "woman representative" dancer who vastly did a quick toe rise to symbolise the fear or dominance a male has over a woman and then once the dancer landed the toe rise they quickly shuffled backwards in fear of the dominant partner.
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