Friday, 9 March 2012
The Light Bulb Moment!
As I mentioned considering what contemporary dance means and how it is defined has been a small but valuable question and has led me to view my inquiry in a new light. I have been consulting literature about my inquiry and felt that I needed not only the descriptions of my interviewees and myself but of others that have made considerable impact within contemporary dance. Most of my interviewees have mentioned Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, who have both published books on contemporary which include personal thoughts and feelings. Although in hindsight this is a rather obvious discovery it has pushed me forward within my inquiry. I have also had an idea to include a video of myself participating or performing a contemporary dance and use this within my artefact to provide my audience with a visual representation of what I have started to discover.
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Sounds like things are coming along.
ReplyDeleteAdesola
Looking forward to seeing the video!
ReplyDeleteI have been looking into music, and its contribution to how someone feels when they are dancing.
As far as I am aware, Cunningham stretched the usual boundaries of choreographing to music, but rather creating steps according to how the body feels.
Do you know much about this? Thought you may have come across it within your discoveries.....
Sophie
I am not sure how famous it is internationally, but in Japan, there is a style of contemporary dance called 'Butoh'. (Bu (舞）means dance,Toh（踏）means steps). An excerpt from the website: http://www.butoh.net/Butoh_Net/Home.html describes as following:
ReplyDelete'Butoh is a contemporary avant-garde dance form which originated in Japan and which was first performed there in 1959. It combines dance, theater, improvisation and influences of Japanese traditional performing arts with German Expressionist dance (Neue Tanz) and performance art to create a unique performing art form that is both controversial and universal in its expression...'
Butoh defines itself as ' a corpse standing upright in a desperate bid of life'; While the basic requirement of ballet is to stand in a correct alignment, Butoh starts with a 'body that cannot stand up'.
'Contemporary dance' is so diverse, and the definition vague. I thought there were mainly two traditions; Germany(Neue Tanz) and America(Graham,Cunningham)... I have a feeling that in Japan, the line between contemporary dance and physical theatre has now become quite a blur.
Hi Mina,
ReplyDeleteOne of my interviewees mentioned Feldenkrais Method- this method focuses on learning action through movement - it talks about learning more about yourself at a deeper level- which is how most of my interviewees have described how they feel about partaking in contemporary dance and this seems to be throughout the different techniques. What does connecting at a deeper level mean to each of my interviewees, I did ask some this question but not all and now wished I had.