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choreography module: comparing choreographers

In this blog, I will be discussing and comparing two choreographers and their pieces and how they relate to our own choreography. 

The first choreographer and piece I will focus on first is James Wilton and his work 'The Shortest Day' which is based around the psychological effects on people when they know their time is limited. By watching a small preview of the dance, straight away you can feel the sense of eeriness where the male dancer is stood by himself slowly looking around himself and not making any fast or jolted movements. This can be seen as a clear link to our choreography as we use the same kind of atmosphere in certain sections to create the creepy kind of vibe to the audience. Later on in the piece there is a sudden change in the music and the dynamics of the movement which could portray the sense of panic and chaos linking back to what the piece is based on. The movement seems to be grounded and powerful with moments of floor work and jumps which again links clearly back to the idea. From watching a small amount of the piece I can already see how we have used this choreography and work in particular when it comes to our own choreography. The use of repetition of movement in 'The Shortest Day', we use in sections to present the idea of being controlled or perhaps brainwashed when it came to being inside of the 'mental asylum'. As well as being inspired by the movement and atmosphere of the overall piece, we did take into account the accompaniment of the piece for example; the beginning section where the male dancer is stood alone on stage, the music is slow and quiet perhaps to make the audience focus on the movement the dancer is executing and help give off emotion he is trying to portray. In our choreography, towards the beginning, Lucy is stood in the centre alone and performs minimal movements and the music in this section is very quiet and slow.

The second choreographer and piece I will discuss is Jasmin Vardimon and her work 'Medusa'. From again only watching a small trailer of the piece, the dancers perform a lot of gestural movements only using their upper body and arms and hands. This has inspired us for one of the beginning sections of our choreography where we are stood in a triangle formation and perform a series of movements only really using our arms, hands and upper body and we perform this section in canon. We went along with the idea of small movements can come across more powerful which altogether turned out really successful and in my opinion is my favourite section in our choreography. After watching the trailer, there are moments where small groups of dancers are performing movements in unison which made the choreography look clean, sharp and strong. With that idea in mind and our stimulis, we made sure that some of our group sections were executed in unison to again portray the idea of being controlled and almost come across robotic as we have no 'freedom' once we enter the mental asylum.

Overall these two choreographers and pieces were huge influences when it came to creating our choreography and we can defintely say that we were inspired by their choreographies.


James Wilton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5_8XULLto0

Jasmin Vardimon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USUqBrdAyZE

Comments

  1. Daisy StonierNovember 30, 2020 at 1:58 AM

    Well done Hannah, you have clearly explained how you have been inspired by their choreography, as well as the atmosphere that their work creates. I also think it is really interesting how you have been inspired by the structure of their pieces, which I think has been really effective in your own choreography. What elements of their choreographic process or methods they use to develop movement have you been inspired by?

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    1. Hannah Tinsley-HopeDecember 3, 2020 at 4:52 PM

      Thankyou Daisy for your comment. Defintely their use of canon in the bigger group sections create such a huge impact on their themes makes me as a watcher really invested in their pieces.

      Delete
  2. sadie medcalfNovember 30, 2020 at 11:37 AM

    Well done. I can see that you have looked closely at the two pieces and took inspiration from them. Out of the two works, which is your favourite? Why?

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    Replies
    1. Hannah Tinsley-HopeDecember 3, 2020 at 5:09 PM

      I think personally that James Wilton's piece was my favourite as I prefer that contemporary style and its definetly something I will look into for my future career in contemporary. I like this piece more than Vardimon's piece as it links well with our choreography.

      Delete
  3. Abigail DowseDecember 3, 2020 at 5:46 AM

    Well done for this blog, its really well presented. I can see how clearly you have looked into the two pieces and the inspiration you have used. Do you find using a practitioner for inspiration an effective way of choreographing?

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    Replies
    1. Hannah Tinsley-HopeDecember 3, 2020 at 5:22 PM

      I found that researching into certain choreographers to gain inspiration for our own group choreography was very beneficial for me personally. Being able to watch small videos and looking into the choreographers background, we were able to grasp the idea of the pieces and use it as inspiration when it came to the feelings, emotions and movement idea for our piece.

      Delete

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