RESEARCH
COMPOSITION
Composition 1
In my first semester of composition, we had many different studies that we worked on throughout the semester.
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The first part had a very heavy influence on finding different initiation points in the body, the use of space, focus and embodiment of the work.
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After that, we began weight studies. We worked with resiliency to really focus on the rebounding quality of weight. It was very weighted into the ground and had a lot of circularity in that weight. The next one was lightness. It is the opposite of resilient. It is very airy and is working against gravity to go up and then let gravity bring the limbs down. The last of the weight studies was strength. It was very athletic and physical. It was in the transverse plane, unlike the first two, and was very forward moving, especially with the pelvis.
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Upon coming back from spring break, we had our first group study. It was sight specific. There was not many limitations on what we were doing. We got to decide where the audience was and got to work with the other people in our group to choreograph.
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The last and final study that we have is our final project. We are able to work with music and are working on incorporating everything that we have learned throughout the semester.
Final Study
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To start out, I really had to force myself to push out my comfort zone. The first day of choreographing I was staying where I was comfortable and not really pushing my limits at all. After realizing that I knew that I would have to change something to end up with the final product that I was hoping for. I found a song that really pushed the limits and has a lot to offer. The movement is very big and physical, which is what I was really wanting to play with for this final solo. I started finding new initiation points within my own body as I was working to completely avoid what was comfortable. I wanted to utilize more accented and exciting movement to contrast from the typical light, sustained movement that I do. I wanted to still have things in it that are more calm and quiet to really contrast the other movement and ultimately make it more exciting. This contrast would help heighten what the quote was saying. In order to find the intricacies of the music and find what the music was trying to say to me, I had to really study the music and find it within my own body. Because the music is so powerful, I was looking to contrast it with silence in my body. Stillness is something that I struggle with, especially in a solo setting. The music was inspiring some stillness in my body that I hadn’t felt before.
After getting comfortable with the music, I started creating a lot of small phrases and then would go back and connect them together and find smoother transitions. To really push myself and keep moving forward, I would just quickly generate a lot of movement and would not really edit it at all. I waited until I had about two minutes of material to go back and then edit all of that. It created a very different dynamic for the work as opposed to me stopping and editing as I created. It gave it a drive and push that I have never really had when creating work. It gave me the space to just create movement and not be so critical and hard on myself.
After getting some progress made and having some work created, I was able to receive some feedback from my peers. I was surprised to know that the work took up a lot of space but I needed to work on taking bigger steps within that. I could take up even more space than I already was. I found that my lower limbs were very capable of taking up space but my upper body, specifically my arms needed to work on really taking up more space. My kinesphere was very small in terms of my upper body. That is something that I have trained in my body for a long time and is a habit that I have. I found that it was okay to have and keep for when it was appropriate, but I wanted to improve on moving bigger to help with my versatility and be able to pull it out whenever it was needed from a choreographer.
I did a lot of research about darkness and light throughout my process of creating this final solo. I really started to understand how much they truly compliment one another because without the other, they would not exist. The darkness makes us really appreciate the light and vice versa. I also really believe that there is light and darkness in every single person. It just depends on which one they choose to harvest and nurture more that projects out of them. So after all of my researching, I decided that the title would be “Only Light Can Drive Out Darkness.”
From this whole process I learned that I just need to continue work on pushing my comfort boundaries. I have the control and awareness in my body to keep pushing those boundaries. I just want to keep pushing them even more so that I can be as versatile as possible in the future for work with many different, versatile choreographers. From this experience, I also learned that choreographing is not my most comfortable place to be in because I would rather perform other people’s work that I am given. I just need to keep pushing myself as a choreographer and developing my own voice and artistry.
For my final study in Composition 1, I really wanted to work on pushing outside of my comfort zone as a choreographer. From past experiences I wasn’t super comfortable with choreographing because I am more comfortable performing other people’s works rather than creating my own. I found a quote that I wanted to work with that would help me get out of my comfort zone. It is a quote by Terry Pratchett that says “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.” I wanted to work with more physical movement that was much bigger and external than I typically did.
Composition 2
In the second semester of composition, we worked a lot on structure of choreographing and different ways to build that structure. Not only did we work on choreography, we also worked on our writing. This helped me to understand composition and structure in a different way than just choreographing.
Final Study
Final Paper
RUBBERBANDance Group created a dance film titled Gravity of Center to express ideas about the pack vs. the individual. The film embodies the animalistic quality throughout to show inner conflicts of the people in a pack and struggles that they have as a group. Gravity of Center’s choreographer Victor Quijada utilizes the animalistic movement quality, music and the use of film to emphasize the need to survive.
Victor’s background in hip hop and contemporary merge to create a clear narrative about the mentality of a pack in order to survive through scarcity and need to be individual. Through the use of partnering and rigorous movement, the dancers show this need to survive. The use of solos emphasizes the constant individuality in the group that creates conflict and confusion. This confusion creates a disconnect between each dancer since they aren’t fully invested into the group which creates a lot of tension in the group. The movement becomes more physical and aggressive because of the mood shift to darkness.
Group-work starts at the forefront. As the work progresses, the tension heightens and the partnering becomes more strained. Different people step out and have individual moments of struggle that have a bound, restricted quality
The group work becomes less important as the piece starts to focus on what the individuals seem to be working through. It shows their personal tension as other people try to help them but this constant repetition of slipping through other people’s grip becomes apparent.
The first piece of music used in the work compliments the calm movement and scenery, then the bass kicks in and shifts to an aggressive piece. The music creates a full atmosphere and then the music changes to another slower piece of music to match the duet that happens in the field. The tone of these three pieces of music creates an ABA structure in the beginning.
With the break to the scene of the woods with a male solo, the music becomes eerie and broken. This particular piece of music has many layers to it. With the high pitched piano as the constant, strings layer over it with many pauses within it. Another layer adds in with DJ controller sounds that break up the music even more. This broken music creates a heavy, isolated feeling that matches the atmosphere of the scene. This all reflects her inner conflict of needing to be himself while still relying on the pack.
A scene change to the industrial area prompts another shift to ambient noise that turns into unmetered piano music. This music evokes a juxtaposition to the chaotic state that the dancers are in. With this section, the dancers break out from the group to show their need for individuality and then a retreat back to the group. This music has an aura of calmness to contrast what the dancers feel. The woman’s solo is chaotic and she does a lot of jumps and flinging of the arms that show how trapped she feels. The music constantly progresses throughout. As the man starts his solo, strings join the piano to create more chaos in the music and dancing. The strings sound distressed and uncomfortable but then progressively become more calm and natural sounding as vocals add in over the piano. With all of these layers, it stays calm but immediately becomes more complex. All three layers begin to fade out and it becomes just ambient noise with some direct piano keys. The music in this piece progresses with the narrative and encourages the audience to feel the tension between the dancers.
The use of film effects used in Gravity of Center bring an edge to the work that wouldn’t be possible during a live performance. The opening scene presents an industrial, urban area that the dancers use throughout the film. The opposing scenery reveals an open field which shows a rural, animal-like area. To emphasize these scene changes, the movement quality of the dancer’s changes to match the scene that they are in. While in the industrial area, the vocabulary becomes rigid and bound with a low pelvis and grounded plié. The opposite remains grounded and one with the earth but also show a lightness that became absent in the industrial scenes. After these scene changes create a constant structure, an abrupt scene change to the woods breaks it up. The scene of the woods breaks up the rhythm that the film had developed.
EDUCATION
I am working on my BFA in Dance and a minor in Integrative Approaches to Health and Wellness. I am looking for my focus in the dance department to be in education and performance. I want to use the knowledge that I have in dance to go to Physical Therapy school after my undergrad and focus on movement therapy for young kids.
ONE HOUR STUDY
What are you watching?
A study on how social media affects a dancer's self confidence.
The purpose of my project is to show how the convenience of seeing dance on social media affects a dancer’s perception of themselves.
With the convenience of our phones and social media and being able to see dancers so often on our phones, it could potentially affect dancers in a negative way or positive way. They could possibly let it be inspiring and motivation to get better but it could also be a tool used to tear themselves down and take away their self confidence.
I wanted to investigate this idea and really dive into how all of this access to dance on social media affects dancers mentally and how that could possibly transfer into their own movement.
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Results
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Commercial dance made people feel inspired and wanted to create by watching commercial dance.
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This made all 100% of the participants want to dance even more.
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This video only made 38.5% of participants feel a little self conscious. The other 61.5% didn’t feel self conscious at all.
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This video inspired 10 of the 13 participants. Some of the participants really wanted to learn the work and be able to perform this piece.
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Ballet dance made 46.2% inspired and 46.2% a little bit inspired with 7.6% not inspired at all.
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The Ballet video only made 61.5% of the participants wanting to dance more and the other 38.5% wanted to dance less after watching the video.
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The Ballet dancers in the video made the participants more self conscious of their bodies and made them feel as if they were not good enough. Only 15.4% did not feel self conscious when watching this video.
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This concert dance video made 92.3% of the participants feel inspired and made them want to dance.
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84.6% of the participants wanted to get into the studio and create movement after watching the video of concert dance.
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This video made only 46.2% of the participants feel self conscious about their own dancing ability.
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This video made 92.3% of the participants want to dance more rather than less.
Watching commercial dance has the most positive impact on dancers and how they feel about themselves. Ballet dance videos made the dancers feel more self conscious and made them really question their own abilities. Concert dance is a little in between. Overall it mostly had positive impacts but there was still some negative outcomes.
PERFORMANCE
2017 Crystal Michelle Perkins "The Difficulties of Flying" Ohio State Faculty Concert
2018 Alexandra Stilianos "Unbound We Howl" Ohio State Senior Concert
2018 Alexandra Cassady "Push Through" Ohio State Spring Concert
2018 Crystal Michelle Perkins "Lush Departures" Ohio State Faculty Concert
With a performance background from high school and being able to work with professional artists, I have developed a big interest in performing. In my time as a BFA at Ohio State, I hope to work with the faculty here as well as other BFA students and the MFA students to gain more experience.