Mhairi Wallace - First Year Choreography

Overall, I was quite happy with how the choreography assessment went, I felt like I was able to show the emotion I set out to portray, using facial expressions. Furthermore, I also feel like I acted on my feedback I was given from my studio performance and I was able to add more weight to my movement which made my choreography have a heavier, more dynamic feel. At the beginning I wanted to achieve a solo which would portray a storyline through facial expressions and also one which had the use of repetition to link to my stimulus. I think I was successful with this as my solo had a lot of repeated movements such as contractions and leaps, incorporating different arms and dynamics to also use the choreographic device argumentation. This was very clear within my solo, especially as the beginning motif of my solo is also repeated at the end although it has been altered slightly for the ending position. Overall, I found the whole process challenging at times but also quite fun. One diffic...

( Above is the TED Talk which was referenced in my vlog at 0:40) Bibliography; Thompson, J. (2017).  Everything you need to know about Wayne McGregor and why he matters . [online] Evening Standard. Available at: https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/wayne-mcgregor-how-the-royal-ballets-resident-choreographer-has-changed-the-world-of-dance-a3454416.html [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019]. Snow, G. (2017).  Interview with choreographer Wayne McGregor . [online] The Stage. Available at: https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/interviews/2017/wayne-mcgregor-people-will-tell-you-there-are-rules-but-there-arent-any/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019]. McGregor, W. (2012).  A choreographer's creative process in real time . [online] Ted.com. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/wayne_mcgregor_a_choreographer_s_creative_process_in_real_time?language=en [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].

Genus - Wayne McGregor   ‘Genus’ by Wayne McGregor was created in 2007 and was performed by Paris Opera Ballet. It was inspired from Charles Darwin’s ‘On the origin of species’ and is based around the theories about humankind. (Studio Wayne McGregor, 2019)   “I was interested to see how a ballet vocabulary could morph and mutate through a series of iterations, different kinds of physical attitudes, and all that seemed to coalesce around this idea of what is the origin of something.” (thestar.com, 2019) The piece is a male solo which is contrasting to ‘Infra’ and ‘Woolf Works’ which I have reviewed on my blog as they were a duet and a group piece. The male dancer is wearing a black bike-tard which has a white panel down the centre front and back. This may have been used to show an organism or portray a stage in the evolution of humans. In contrast, dancers in ‘Infra’ and ‘Woolf works’ both wore tight fitting nude leotards so the costumes didn’t particularly add a c...

During our choreography lesson this week I performed the solo I have created based on dementia. The aim of this task was to be able to perform in the space that we will use for our assessment and also the receive feedback for our solo to allow us to make improvements. Our learning outcomes are: 1.        Critically analyse and evaluate a variety of works by a chosen choreographer within the current dance scene. 2.        Demonstrate the application of theories, processes, devices and technical dance skills to choreograph, create and design original dance to pre-selected stimuli. 3.        Critically evaluate and reflect on personal choreographic work and the creative processes used. I personally believe I have fulfilled these as I have analysed and evaluated Wayne McGregor’s works including ‘Infra’ and ‘Woolf Works’, commenting on the movement, lighting, costumes and evaluating why they...

Woolf Works by Wayne McGregor was choreographed in 2015 and was performed by The Royal Ballet. The stimulus of the piece was “ themes from three of Woolf's landmark novels,  Mrs Dalloway ,  Orlando , and  The Waves , with elements of her letters, essays and diaries.” (Studio Wayne McGregor, 2019). Similar to ‘Infra’, the music was composed by Max Richter and the score was specially commissioned for the piece incorporating electronic and orchestral music (Roh.org.uk, 2019). The piece starts with one large white spotlight on the stage with travelling sequences across the spotlight in pairs. The duet work includes jumps such as pas de chats, temps levés and small leaps. There is also travelling lifts with jumps, kicks and slides, also plies and lots of body ripples.  The movement is constantly drifting into and out of the spotlight like an eb and flow. The theme of moving through the spotlight is continued throughout the piece as they increase to 3 spo...

In this week’s choreography lesson, I continued creating my solo based on dementia. So far, I have managed to create the beginning section, part of the middle and a few core motifs which I aim to use choreographic devices to develop within my piece. A challenge I having been facing recently is trying to link my movement to my stimulus and chosen practitioner. To overcome this, I decided to re-watch some of Wayne McGregor work and made notes on different movements that he uses to ensure his influence and processes are clear within my piece. Some movements he frequently uses are leg extensions, body ripples and lots of sharp and precise footwork and arm placements. I have started to show this by doing arabesques, low développé s and kicks with resistance. In the future, I want to add more sharp, angular movements to try and include his stylisation more. I also did further research into the effects that dementia has on someone mentally and physically so I have a deeper understanding of...

In this blog post I will be discussing my research into my stimulus of DNA which will help me explore different ideas in my choreography. From my stimulus of DNA I’ve decided to create my solo based around the idea of dementia which is primarily caused from Alzheimer’s Disease, a neurodegenerative disease causing brain cells to die.  Dementia is usually diagnosed in people aged 65 and over, but can also affect someone younger in early onset dementia. Although there are 200 types of dementia, there are 5 more common subtypes; Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia and mixed dementia. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s Disease. It is caused when an abnormal protein surrounds the brain cells and another protein damages it. This damages the nerve cells meaning that messages cannot be passed from the brain to the body. When the brain cells die, the DNA is broken down meaning it is no longer useful, causing the symptoms of de...

The duet from ‘Infra’ choreographed by Wayne McGregor in 2008 was performed by The Royal Ballet. The word ‘Infra’ comes from the Latin word of ‘below’ (Roh.org.uk, 2019) , the stimulus is meant to show ‘emotions beneath the surface of human interaction’ and ‘explores the feelings we keep hidden from those around us’. Another stimulus was the 2007 London Bombings as people’s behaviour in London changed from being busy and ignoring people to showing a sense of empathy and care. (Spexe.org, 2016) This idea is shown within the duet as there are instances of love and affection shown. For example, the male dancer kisses the female dancer’s hand, they are seen to be hugging and holding hands amongst the chaos of the choreography. This may suggest that love and happiness is always around even in the most chaotic and busy times, such as in London. This also establishes a romantic emotion and relationship between the dancers. The use of pench é s and turns within the duet could suggest ...

Bibliography McGregor, W. (2019).  A choreographer's creative process in real time . [online] Ted.com. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/wayne_mcgregor_a_choreographer_s_creative_process_in_real_time [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019]. Youtu.be. (2019).  Max Richter and Wayne McGregor on the secrets of their creative process (The Royal Ballet) . [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/FV4CZCrs1Ew [Accessed 25 Oct. 2019].

I have chosen to use the DNA stimulus for my choreography solo. A lot of different factors influenced me to use this, one reason was that I have quite a lot of knowledge on DNA due to taking A Level Biology and have a lot of interest in DNA. Additionally, I liked the idea of creating a solo around the DNA stimulus because there was multiple pathways for narratives and creative processes. I’ve decided to create my solo based around the idea of dementia which is primarily caused from Alzheimer’s Disease, a neurodegenerative disease causing brain cells to die. When the brain cells die, the DNA is broken down which means they are no longer useful, causing the symptoms related to dementia. These include memory loss, disorientation, low control of emotions, language problems and decreased judgement due to damage to nerve cells within the brain. I have a few initial movement ideas, stemming from my biological knowledge on DNA which can link to choreographic devices withi...

In Lesson 5, we started to look at our stimuli and analyse them to help us come to a decision which stimuli we would use for our solo. We went into pairs and made notes on each of the 8 photos, commenting on different ideas and themes shown in the photo and different ways they could be interpreted.   The stimuli that interested me the most was the DNA photo. This interested me as shows the double helix, A human made up of lots of different structures and fade out into structures of DNA molecules linked. I liked this because you could link it to the idea of degenerate diseases or genetic diseases, or the idea of DNA breaking down due to the way the photo fades out. Also coming from a scientific background, I could use my understanding of DNA replication and structure to influence my choreography and motifs. For example, the structure of the DNA double helix is a spiral so that could influence circular movements and turns but the two DNA strands are reversed in order which ...

In our 4 th choreography lesson we started to watch work of Wayne McGregor and Crystal Pite, to give us inspiration for choreographic techniques. Pite listens to music first to help aid her choreography whereas McGregor’s movements come from visualisation and is more research based, so he makes the movement and then puts it to music. We used this method in our next creative task. We watched a video of raindrops falling on a window and how the droplets crash into each other causing another droplet to move, the stillness of some droplets but the knowledge that as water is a liquid even if it seems still, the particles are constantly moving and flowing. We were challenged to an improvisation task in which we were to make movement as if we were a raindrop. I did small movements to begin with by stayed constantly moving and then increased the speed and height of my movements. I also used the idea of rise and fall/release to show the idea of another droplet bumping into me causing me to m...

Justin Peck ‘In countenance of kings’ We watched ‘In Countenance of Kings’ and made notes based on questions on observations made throughout. Thoughts and feelings towards the piece I thought the piece was really interesting due to the shapes and pathways used such as circles which gave quite a mechanical feel, like cogs turning. The way the dancers change from being in groups to duets and solos make it seem quite chaotic but it is also neat and well-rehearsed, like an organised mess. Also, the fact that the dancers were doing classical dancing in trainers rather than ballet shoes or pointe shoes gave the piece a more modern day feel. I enjoyed the fact that it kept me on the edge of my seat as I was never sure what would happen next and particularly liked when suspense built as the dance never pauses making it seem busy and when the dancers repeated the same movements several times at the end with more dancers joining in each time. The camera angle really intensifies t...

Wednesday 25th September During Lesson 3 we watched ‘In Countenance of Kings’ by Justin Peck. We analysed his work, saying our thoughts and feelings about the piece, whether there was a story line and movements and choreographic devices that we recognised. We also learnt about his choreographic process to help us choreograph a motif. Justin Peck uses drawings or sketches of geometric shapes to help him with his choreography as he uses the shapes as formations and pathways for the dancers. The first part of our task was to draw a shape on a piece of paper, which everyone drew a different shape or pattern. This was our ‘map’ which we had to follow within the choreography of our motif using the different shapes as either movements, gestures or pathways but they had to be linked back to the map as if we were following it. Initially I found this task quite difficult as I wasn’t sure where to start or how to include some of the shapes, but I got inspiration from trying to use diffe...

Wednesday 18th September During lesson 2 were shown different choreographic devices and how they could be used. We developed our previous motifs of either our name or our number and combined the motifs in pairs to form a sequence. We were given the task to identify any choreographic devices we had already used within our sequence and then we had to develop further by using 4 different choreographic devices and be able to explain where we used them. My partner and I decided to use repetition, retrograde, inversion and canon. By doing this we added more contrast into our motifs and increased the length just by editing and re using motifs. We then made up a motif using adjectives that describes our zodiac sign. I’m a Sagittarius so the strengths of my sign are insightful, superior, rational, brave, beautiful, lively, lovely and optimistic. The weaknesses of my sign are forgetful, careless and rash. I based my motif from the words using them as inspira...

Wednesday 11 th September We started the class with improvisation, beginning lying flat on our backs and gradually increasing level and energy/force in our movements, moving onto knees doing floor work and rolls and then coming up to standing and introducing turns, jumps, kicks and leaps. We then did a similar task across the room, starting on a low level, then mid-level to high level increasing energy level in the different stages adding more power in the jumps, kicks and leaps than into the floor work.   We then had another improvisation task where we had to make a motif out of the letters of our name using different body parts. We developed this to have different dynamics based off an adjective. I used the word bright so I made my movements more powerful and jumped higher, making my arm movements sharp and dynamic. We also did a task in which every number from our phone number equated to a different movement. 0 was a shunt, 1 was stillness, 2 was a jump, 3 was a turn, ...