Movement Study (11/6)
The aim of my Emerging Choreographers work is to give form to the intangible emotions of emptiness and despair that are ultimately conquered through the power of the human spirit. At its core, it serves as a lesson in resilience. My piece (with a working title in development) contains two movements with both clean versions of the songs performed by Kendrick Lamar entitled “The Heart, Part 5” and “Silent Hill.” My decision to choose a hip hop song set to a contemporary piece was immediate, as I remember the first time I witnessed a piece at a company’s concert with the same concept. I thought that it was such a different and brilliant fusion that dignifies hip hop by elevating its presence in Theatre; that it is just as deserving to be presented on a stage as anything else.
Regarding any alternate songs, I have considered “Dream Sweet in Sea Major” by Miracle Musical. With its whimsical sounds and themes of navigating obstacles throughout a dream-like landscape, my existing choreography is tailored to be seamlessly adjusted to this song if need be.
The stage itself will symbolize the brain and each of the dancers represent any thoughts, memories, and experiences based on my own processing of them over time. My themes of love, guilt, despair, and triumph will be represented by more rhythmic movements, but the contemporary fusion definitely magnifies the intense emotional qualities of my piece.
My movement creation is more aggressive in nature with its contemporary choreography. Of course, the movements are soft during the more tender scenes of the dance, but the aggressiveness tends to overpower it in order to capture various levels of desperation. The second movement of my piece is the joyful act; it is the redemption arc and climax of the narrative that I am aiming to convey. It includes a short strictly hip-hop section within this movement, representing the rhythmic burst of energy at the main character’s triumph. I am aiming for this climactic burst to be so distinguished from every other moment in the piece that it is emphasized by the use of an entirely different genre of dance.
The lighting will be twice as bright to distinguish it from the dim lighting of Movement One. There will be many repetitive patterns of staging the dancers in moving circles surrounding the main character as an intimidation tactic, intentionally making her claustrophobic and anxious. At the time of my main character’s spiritual death and rebirth, a very thin sheet will be snatched from her head. This particular scene is inspired by the ballet Giselle, when the Queen of the Willis removes Giselle’s veil from her bowed head, signifying her entrance into the afterlife. Similarly, my cast of dancers, at this moment in time, serve as Virgil-like figures who guide the soloist through the final moments of her painful journey, and into the beginning of a new and beautiful life ahead. At the end of the first movement after the sheet is removed, the dancers organize themselves throughout the stage and greet their new leader with one outstretched arm and flexed palms mirroring that of Balanhine’s Serenade.
I have included certain movement motifs, such as repeated rocking motions throughout the dance that are inspired by the gospel choirs and patrons of my church. I have drawn inspiration from the soulful nature of the people of this community who feel so consumed by the Holy Spirit, that they all join in this basic, unchoreographed motion. So after much of the more aggressive and chaotic choreography, the distillation of all that movement into its most basic form— the simple two-step— adds such a powerful contrast. I also make use of cannons to represent the layers of cognitive dissonance.
I plan to use as much of the space as possible to represent the far-reaching extent of such scattered thoughts and feelings. There is also a repeating theme of the dancers emerging from the corners, like the common television trope of a villain emerging from the shadow of a dark corner in a room. This shows that there is yet another problem (represented by a dancer) that has infiltrated the brain “system.” In the second movement, the main character interacts with the rest of the cast in a more positive way, as she has finally learned how to take charge of and organize the chaos, even bonding with them as recognition of their purpose as tools to help her grow. Spacing is crucial for my piece because I intend for the lighting to spotlight dancers at certain times, representing the distance in connection between the self and the rest of the emotions.
Generally, my piece follows a narrative structure because my intention is to lay out a specific journey of a character’s transition from beginning to climax, to end. Just like any story, there is a moral as well as defining characters that play a part in moving the narrative along. The strongest example of my currently-in-progress attempt at ABA structure is shown in a section of my submitted video (the structure will be clearer and more evident in the final version of it), in which the dancers pass through each other with a restatement of the same movements. On a side note, this is a personal lesson learned— I will continue to focus more on structure for now than precision during the bones of developing this piece.
I am using the rhythm of hip hop to enhance my concept of the long journey toward triumph, because the rhythm of the music itself does my concept justice in such a unique way. A regular song, mainly a sort of sad, piano-style piece of music is just not enough for me, rather, the power and intensity of the hip hop rhythms magnifies my message; it has now become an urgent matter worthy of commanding immediate attention. The rapper is explicitly telling the audience what the problem is, compared to the largely metaphoric language of a normal song. Like many others, I compare the lyricism of this hip hop song to a form of poetry, and combined with the fast-paced beats it will continue to move my narrative along in a clear, linear direction.
Movement Study No. 3 (12/4)