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Melancholy Waves

Choreography Trio
Context
The main idea behind our piece is the motion of water, both in quality, speed and timing.
Taking this idea helped us during the choreographic process, being able to reflect those
qualities with our physicality. An element sadness and depression also came into the
meaning, as the water represents tears. This set the sombre atmosphere surrounding the
choreography which we hoped to portray through the music and use of facial expression and
movement as well.
Whirlpool structure
Definition- a quickly rotating mass of water in a river or sea into which objects may be drawn,
typically caused by the meeting of conflicting currents
We didn’t want this idea of a whirlpool to be the main feature of our dance, but just to guide
our pathway and structure at one point in the dance to add another element to water.
Therefore, we decided to just look at some images of its structure.

These
pictures
gave us the idea of
moving in a
cyclical unit,
swirling around
rose as the core of the whirlpool.
like the middle picture, the pool
comes to a central point (being rose) which inspired certain points and the end to be central.
Here are some other images which show the qualities that inspired each section of
choreography…

Rippling

Splashi
ng

Pouri

Skimmi

Applying meaning to our choreography Tid


Breaking down our piece, the beginning intended to reflect the individual and unpredictable
nature of water, having the three of us doing separate motifs which were initially created as
solo material. Being in a different duet previously I was concerned my solo wouldn’t fit their
idea or style. However, I was very wrong as it matched perfectly into the nature and style of
water, as my fluid, soft movements flowed into one another like a stream. In fact, my solo
fitted better in the trio then with my previous duet having hip hop/urban qualities contrasting
my solo completely. After each of us performed our solos, we accumulated into a unison
phrase, excluding rose who we contextually placed as the core of the whirlpool performing
small gestures, positions, and general static movements to reflect the rockiness and rougher
dynamics of water. We decided to make it more unified, so therefore she should reflect of
some of our hand actions/gestures. This helped bring our idea together in this particular
section. Me and Ragan followed the structure of a whirlpool, circling around Rose, almost
orbiting her as she is the core. The movement meaning however followed almost the sense of
skimming across water, flowing one movement into another. To begin with it was hard to
travel the movement in a circular pathway, as well as keep in as fluid as possible with no gaps
or pauses, but with practice became easier. The skimming qualities brought movements of
elevation as though something has bounced off the surface of the water and varied levels to
almost reflect the skimming and dipping of water. Remaining calm and gentle, the next small
section reflected the rippling of water, with smooth, more static movements rotating slower
around the whirlpool. Primarily this was just to add in another element of water which in fact
helped emphasis the softer qualities of water in contrast to the rougher qualities. The next
section came to a linear formation as we travelled a phrase back and forth sideways to reflect
the tide. With the dropping of the shoulders/torso at varied levels and speeds, it built an
image of the tide swaying back and forth with different size peaks emerging at the surface.
the calming yet dangerous tide created a moment of change in the dance as things begin to
reach a climax. Joining in the centre we performed gestures facing and directed in different
directions. This mimicked the splashing effect of water, being flicked and bringing a dynamic
change to the piece. Upper-body circles and a wrapping motion transitioned into an inwards
circle which further used wrapping movements as well as opening and closing elements. This
almost showed the pouring or overflowing of water, wrapping the particles close until spilling
out from the container. This was again a softer dynamic to reflect this pouring which strait
after flowed into a more dynamic phrase traveling outwards from the circle in different
directions. This part focused more on the idea of sadness, with an increasing pace reflecting
your heart during a panic attack. Using the same phrase travelling outwards and repeating it
4 times also showed this idea of a worry growing bigger and causing panic, our use of breath
helped this not only being out of breath any way, but to enhance the loose quality turning
more tense with panic. To end we travelled back into the centre, reaching and almost gasping
for breath. With two contractions of the chest and arms we slowly sunk to the ground, with our
heads being the last thing to drop. Bringing the piece to an end. Throughout the whole piece
we worked closely with the music to hit certain beats to cause effect. This also helped to
determine the dynamic qualities of certain sections as the music builds. The counts and
timing relied on the music which was challenging sometimes to start in the correct place, but
feeling the music is what helped make it even more emotional and effective.

Music
We wanted our music to create a sad and sombre atmosphere, as well as reflecting
the sound/qualities of water. Timing was built around our music, so key beats match
with highlights in our choreography. We found a suitable piece called ‘Rostro’ by
composer Murcof. This piece highlighted key points as well as creating this sad
sombre mood which layered the performance with emotion. Beginning so calm and
gentle at the beginning with small beats of piano which build as the music goes on
builds, in turn creating a climax. The ending was really effective, reflecting the
distorted and panicked atmosphere into almost nothingness as the panic comes to an
end. Breathing heavily and contracting at the end also went with the music. This is a
link to our music…
Weekly progress
Week 1
Today we started the process of choreographing solos purely using movement which came
spontaneously /naturally to our bodies. To begin class, we walked around the space moving
any way we wanted to prepare our bodies for physical exercise and prevent injuries. Next, we
stood in our own personal space bubble and were told to move, using a named body part to
lead each movement into the next. For example, using our elbows or knees to determine the
direction and size of each movement. This helped to build of our improvisation skills, being
given something to work with and move your body in an unplanned manner which will help
prepare us for future auditions. After that the teacher played a sombre toned piece of music,
asking us again to improvise by letting our bodies control our movements instead of our set
positioning in our minds. I found this beneficial in letting loose and adopting a different quality
and style, compared to the upright controlled posture i am used to in ballet. Therefore, this
has helped me learn to use my body in a different way which adds a richer quality to my
choreography. Finally, we were given the task of thinking back over moments of movement
we could remember felt good and started to piece together the first few counts of my solo.
Attached bellow is a video of my progress so far.

https://youtu.be/avy47CXzcBE

I feel I learned a lot from this process, breaking free from the general habits carried from other
dance styles, especially the upright and constricted posture of ballet and to allow your mind
to run free. Adopting the spontaneous, improvisation approach makes the movement so much
richer, improving my overall outcome and quality of the piece. I plan to continue to explore
this improvisation method but also add in motif development without taking away from the
purity of the piece, just to add variation and structure

Week 2
After outlining the beginning of our choreography, we were just beginning to get comfortable
until the challenging of bringing our material into a duo. Being a Ballet and lyrical style
dancer, it became very challenging when paired with Megan, an extremely talented
urban/commercial dancer. Therefore, I had to walk into to it with an open mind to try and pick
up and execute sections of her movement material. Obviously, it was very challenging for her
as well, never having done balletic dance before coming to college. Therefore, we have been
working really hard to incorporate each other’s styles, almost bouncing of each other using
our initial stimulus of invading in and out of space. This is our piece together so far which is
clearly a work in progress.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37YKrLEZe3M&feature=youtu.be

Week 3
Moving forward with my choreography, I need to think about how I can enhance what I
already have with the style of Russel Maliphant approach to release technique. After watching
some of his pieces, I have picked up many elements and ways of moving in which I can apply
his style to develop my existing piece. My main improvements are to ground myself, which
will allow me to transfer my weight, execute lifts and shift across the space. Clearly my ballet
background doesn’t help but doing this will also help improve other styles such as urban and
contemporary. Therefore, to continue to develop my solo/duet I can bring in elements of
Russel Maliphant’s work. Contact work, using counterbalance lifts and manipulating each
other’s movements will really help embed this style, particularly like Russel’s piece called
‘PUSH’. Really thinking about his use of lighting as space really correlates with our
choreographic approach, thinking about being in an isolated boundary we begin in and break
out of. This shifts our use of focus, action and dynamic, making it a more complex and in-
depth piece.
Week 4
With my partner absent, it was challenging to create material to correlate with her style and
spacing. However, I thought about what we learned about Russell Maliphant and started to
create a short phrase. I hope to with this phrase use Megan’s movement to do our own little
sections but interact randomly and almost bounce of each other. Furthermore, we can be
moving forward develop sections of contact work, using counterbalances and lifts to add
different levels and dynamics to the piece. Following is a clip of my progress so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHSOL7CCHZc&feature=youtu.be

Week 5
Today I was placed in a completely different group making a duo a trio. I found this really
difficult to try and adapt my movement material to their existing choreography. We decided in
this session to work on things as a group, getting used to their unison material and creating
new as well. This wasn’t too bad but was challenging in the sense I had to get used to moving
in a spiralling circle, which will also be hard to apply to my solo being mainly floor based. This
main idea of spiralling inwards is really interesting and their current looser style suits me as a
dancer better. So overall this session was difficult, but I can see great choreography emerging
from our progress so far. At home, we will individually work on our solos to piece together into
the group, maximising time polishing our unison sections.

Week 6
Missing a member of the group, we did well carrying on to developer group movement as well
as working out the timing and movement for our solos and small counts of eight. The overall
theme for this trio is the idea of a being sucked into a whirlpool starting from the top and
working down. So far it is outlined that we begin with our solo material and then snap into the
unison phrase, to a individual count of eight which is repeated three times almost like a cycle
but of varied and developed movement. We also thought what would make it easiest for our
missing group member being less technically advanced. We thought of maybe accumulating
in one by one, from Eagan to me to rose, meaning she has less material to panic about but
also gives an effect of stuff being sucked into the whirlpool like leaves or Debary. We will
experience the with this idea further next week when rose is back but will continue to work on
our solo material and counts of 8 to be able to build transitions between each phrase. We
want it to be continuous movement with no sense of stopping so it is key the transitions from
elevated more rapid movement and from phrase to phrase is as fluid as possible to reach
maximum effect.

Week 7
One member of our group absent again we just had to carry on creating material to end the
piece. Having created movement and finally reached the centre we were onto creating small
upper body movements and gestures as we come to the core of the whirlwind. We created
small upper body circles, reaches down to the floor which is where we end the piece as we
reach the bottom of the storm. All we need to do now is create transitions between the counts
of eight and teach rose the choreography as well as playing with the idea of accumulating her
in slightly later in the piece. Ideally, we plan to make it about 3 minutes but if we are short of
material, we shall perhaps lengthen our solos or create another rotation of movement around
the circle. Thoughts have also turned to music and costume. For the aural setting we didn’t
want it to directly correlate with the movement as our solos have their own dynamic qualities.
So, using an ambient soundtrack will be perfect to create a soundscape to complement our
choreography. Costume needs to reflect the flowing qualities of movement, so we are
considering perhaps lyrical dresses which will enhance the flow and fluidity of our movements.

Contemporary was changed into a choreography lesson in which we went over our existing
movement and began to alter the ending to vary the dynamics of the piece. To improve
overall, we need to sort and vary the dynamics throughout to make it appropriate for our
stimulus but also play with momentum continuing on movements from wear you reach and
where they take instead of just doing a move and moving on to the next. Creating this will
help enhance the flow of movement like a whirlpool, therefore directly liking to our stimulus.
Contact work was another element suggested in which we played with this lesson, keeping in
contact and move through the movements to lead to the next. Here was what we achieved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtF0UphPSF4&feature=youtu.be
below is also a video of our travelling phrase around the space which needs developing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdxKvZdWpLM&feature=youtu.be

Week 8
Today we looked at our dance so far and was given some feedback on how to improve and
vary the dynamic qualities and events that make up the piece. We have settled on the idea of
making the idea of a whirlpool only influencing the spatial patterning and pathways instead of
the overriding theme. Our main theme is set to be water, using the qualities and way it
behaves to enhance our physical movements. Taking this idea further I though this water
could be tears, as our dynamic qualities are soft and also reflected in the sad and sombre
music. Next, we just need to set the dynamics of each section and create our counts of 8 to
our chosen element of water, e.g. mine being the pouring of water. We also have decided to
add variation in speed to make those sections faster to explore the idea of the pressure
around and in water, like a tap. All of these elements will make a strong stimulus which links
directly to the movement qualities and style.

Week 9
With our whole group finally together, we went over it so far and neatened up sections as well
as making sure they linked nicely into one another. With two gaps currently in the piece we
decided to fill these with one count being set and fluid like the flowing of water, and the next
set being improvised to add the idea of the randomness of waters physical movement. Linking
this together we can finally get the whole piece as fluid as possible, to enhance the entire
theme of water to reflect its quality and enhance our gentle dynamics. All that is left to do is
make sure our solos fit perfectly in terms of counts and quality at the beginning as well as
finishing the piece of somehow, but with purpose and impact. Therefore, next session will
focus on these two things.

Week 10
Today we started creating an ending to the piece after finding our music and developing more
ideas attached with the dance. The whole piece is about qualities of water as well as that
water being tears to reflect sadness built with the beginning structure of a whirlpool with
various other formations. The ending will reflect the idea of the tide, building tension from
smaller movements and jumps to intense, expansive and explosive actions coming in and out
from the centre. Reaching the centre again, we are playing with the idea of breath to enhance
the movement with the stimulus of a panic attack to go with the idea of sadness. This will
slowly melt to the floor as the dance comes to an end. This needs work and development but
could work really well if done properly.
On Friday we performed it in front of an audience in the general spacing of the theatre which
went fairly well but show we need to improve the following:
 Stop hesitations
 Practice
 Spacing
 Focus, connection
 Wider circle
 Travel and make everything expansive
 Key music queues
 Don’t rush through solos
 Get into the moves
 Don’t panic about getting it so precise as. Flows into one another

Here is a clip of our performance...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e-1QpuHfTc&feature=youtu.be

Tech rehearsal
Rose being ill we ran the tech rehearsal as a duo, which went fairly well. Apart from again
some spacing issues and movements it went well and proved that our floaty blue skirts and
hair half up half down enhanced the flow of movement and the circular patterning at the
beginning. After working in this and making sure to not worry too much where Ragan is and
just keep the flow of movement it should be fine as well as making sure rose is confident too.
Lighting is also effective having a swirling gobo effect, in the shade of deep blue. It remains
the same up until the end where it turns green as the music comes to an end. We weren’t
sure about the colour but wanted to mark a change of atmosphere as the ending is almost the
panic coming to an end.

Dress rehearsal
Having rose present in our tech and costume rehearsal went fairly well in terms of
performance and movement, but not so well in terms of spacing. I tend to worry too much
about being in the right place at the right time and doing the movement phrases while
rotating in a circle. I just need to make sure to relax and just go around the circle at my own
pace to remain with the fluid qualities the piece requires. Timing for rose was another issue
but we will help her in an extra moment of rehearsal before the show to make sure it’s
perfect.
Final performance
This was my best performance of this trio I had ever done, in terms of movement memory,
timing and spacing. Ever since being moved into the trio late, i found it difficult to adapt to
the idea, but knew and understood the context behind the piece. With practice it became
easier, but I didn’t feel very confident performing in front the audience. My main struggle was
rotating around rose in the centre whilst performing our movement material. The circling often
disorientated where I needed to be in the space but worked out I our final performance. The
other sections I was concerned about was the timing of our last repetitive phrase. Again, it
needed our peripheral vision to keep in time with one another. Again, I didn’t need to worry as
everything fell into place in the performance as well as deciding as long as the first round of
the phrase was together, we could then dissipate into our own timing like the unpredictability
of waves. The audience appeared to love it from their enthusiastic round of applause which I
was really pleased about. Throughout the performance I made sure to use my focus and facial
expression to almost tell a story, being an emotional piece. This hopefully helped enhance my
performance and added something special to the movement material we had created, making
it a performance not just a display. My solo being half set material and half improvisation went
surprisingly well. I was worried through improve that I would break the fluid qualities if stuck
for movement but managed to keep this quality throughout my solo as well as Starting on
time for the next section. The end section that was also a worry for timing worked out well, all
coming together at just the right moment for the last static, gestural phrase as it came to an
end. Overall our performance went really well, and I was pleased with the result despite
previous anxieties. To improve I could have .....

 spacing in solo, having to engage too much into roses space. For this I just need to
work on special awareness and constricting my movements into a more confined area
 Rose need to be more central- it puts everything of centre as she was the core of the
whirl pool. Again, working on special awareness and spacing would have improved this
 Timing issues in areas keeping in time- areas needed to be more together, sometimes
missing a beat and appearing like cannon when it was in
unison. This spoiled the purposeful cannon sections, so again
rehearsal of timing and being strict with yourself to hit all the
beats.
 Swaying circle hold was two tight in to sway properly- being two
tight meant it was hard to lunge and fluidly sway in the centre, making
it more jagged. We wanted a smoother quality so could have worked this
out better in terms of timing to achieve what we intended.

Costume
Being about water and sadness, we want our costume to reflect the qualities of
water such as rippling, flowing etc, as well as the colour and material it was
made of. In the end we wore black leotard and ballet tights to enhance the lines of our body,
plus slowing us to move freely. We tried black tights but decided nude or ballet ones looked
better with your skirt to keep the focus on that. The skirt was reflective of the water, being a
blue smooth style wrap skirt, with a silk ribbon wrapped around the waist. This enhanced the
fluid qualities of our dance, and flowed in different directions when performing our jumps,
turns and general movement. Our hair was half up half down to also reflect the swaying of
waves and the flicking/splashing of water. Also, we put ribbon in our hair to serve the same
purpose. Lastly with turning shoes on the bottom of our feet to help us turn and move fluidly,
the costume worked really well to enhance the qualities with the perform and therefore was a
successful choice. Here is my outfit ....

Audience response
The audience responded well to our trio, giving a long, extended clap, as some even
gave some whoops which clearly showed it was enjoyed.

Final performance video & photos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELVTMeLV1E0&feature=youtu.be

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