Sources Assignment Preliminary Project Topic/Question: Use of Text in Choreography

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1 Source #1 Sources Assignment Preliminary Project Topic/Question: Use of Text in Choreography On the Move: Poetry and Dance by Jack Anderson APA Citation Anderson, J. (2010). On the move: Poetry and dance. Dance Chronicle, 33(2), doi: / Summary The article is written in the first person and discusses the links the author, who is both a poet and an avid dance enthusiast, finds between poetry and dance. He begins by listing the many novelists, poets and critics who, through their work, have also exhibited a profound love of both art forms. Anderson goes on to carefully dissect various poems and compares them to choreography. The article takes a particular focus on the mutual respect and seeming collaboration of poet Ben Belitt and Martha Graham. All of which support Anderson s main thesis that both dance and poetry rely heavily on the elements of space and time to convey meaning and effect. Source Analysis Quotes 1. " Words thereby become the equivalent of bodies, and the way they are arranged in print could be called verbal choreographic patterning. Even if an audience hears a poem without having it on hand to consult, the way the speaker recites it will Questions/Comments 1. I like the idea of words as bodies. Until now I assumed I would create a solo. However it might be fun to experiment with a group work. Each of the dancers embodying a different aspect of the poem? I m also intrigued with the notion that a poet

2 presumably be determined by how the poet has notated it on a page" (Anderson, 2010, p.257). 2. "The spoken word in drama tends to be faster than the sung word in song or opera. When music is joined with words, the words slow down. But dance can convey thoughts or feelings with astonishing rapidity in fact, with such great rapidity that newcomers to the art occasionally complain that they have difficulty understanding what dance steps mean as they flash before the eyes. A mere touch or glance can speak volumes in a dance. And dances in slow motion can be startling or hypnotic simply because their pace is so radically different from what we are accustomed to"(anderson, 2010, p. 257). manipulates how a speaker recites a poem by the particular way it is written on the page. What is the equivalent of this in dance? How do I as a choreographer manipulate the way the dancers interpret the choreography? Is it by giving them various images to think of? Or maybe by putting limitations on the dancers? Maybe this is something I can try in my own work? When I eventually choose a poem, perhaps it will suggest to me what limitations and manipulations can be put on the dancers to get a certain type of performance. 2. What initially excited me about using poetry as the inspiration for a dance was the use of visual imagery. I had not considered poetry in terms of the element of dance TIME. Of course I knew that particular words or phrases might suggest a sense of time like darted seems fast or meandered seems slow, but here the author is talking about the actual pace at which the reader reads the words. As I read this I began to think of how different people will read a poem in a different way and with a different pace. Once I select a poem to work from it might be interesting to give it several different people to read. I could use the various paces as inspiration for different sections of the dance or maybe for giving different dancers different speeds. I might even record the various readings of the piece and use them as accompaniment for the dance instead of music. 3. "Music without words is the most frequent companion of ballet and modern dance. Of course, dance has also worked well with vocal music, although such pairings can occasionally create problems, forcing choreographers to puzzle over whether their steps should illustrate or at least reflect the words in some fashion. If they do, choreographers can be accused of superfluous literalism; if they don't, there may be moments when the words sung and the steps danced appear ludicrous together" (Anderson, 2010, p.259). 3. As I've become a more experienced choreographer I've found what the author says here to be very true. I used to create based only on the words of a particular song. However now I start with what I want the dance to be about and then seek music which usually doesn't have lyrics. On the occasions I've tried to go back to creating with music it seems hard or as if the dance I come up with is unoriginal. I hope though that poetry because it offers so many different opportunities for involvement will be easier to use. I can use only the words I want to use or even not use words at all and just use the poem as inspiration. 4. "The language is rich, with many words 4. I think this is an important point. If I try to

3 suggesting opportunities for action (e.g., banquet, angels, breath, returning, pilgrimage, plummet, engine, reversed, thunder, piercing, spear). But what sort of dance could be based upon these rushing words? Their literary effect derives from the way they tumble forth, and a choreographic attempt to match each image with a separate action might result in a dance interminably long and ponderous. However, if a choreographer sought to give an overall impression of those words, events might flutter by rapidly, but incomprehensibly" (Anderson, 2010, p.260). 5. "Dance poses special problems of perception. Audiences are not always able to look at and assimilate all that is happening on stage at a single viewing, just as a first reading of a poem may not always be sufficient for anyone wishing to come to terms with its content. But first readings can be easily followed by second or third readings, whereas a dance may be presented only a few times during a season and then not be repeated for several seasons to come"(anderson, 2010, p265). represent each word literally not only is that impossible but it would just look like pantomime. I think this will be one of the main challenges if I decide to have the poem read during my dance. I'll have to decide how closely I want the dance to follow the words. Abstracting movement can be one way to do this. I might start with a motif based on a word and then abstract it to find other ways of doing it. Which makes me wonder if it even matters if the audience is aware of what the poem is saying. Is the point of my dance to represent the poem or is the dance it's on entity? 5. This actually was something I had not considered. E that's part of the challenge of a choreographer. Makin happens by not focusing on having one singular interp feeling. This way different viewers are able to take aw people do from poetry too, but for dance I think empha because they will probably only see the work once. W keep things simple. I think it might be easy to overcom Next Steps/Final Thoughts I am pleasantly surprised and satisfied with this source. After the first few paragraphs I realized this author was much more of a poet than a choreographer. I was worried because it seemed the article was heavily slanted on analyzing poetry, rather than using poetry for choreography. However, it turned out to be very useful. As I was reading this I realized that my project will be dependent on my ability to dissect and analyze the poem I use. I want to look beyond the surface "easy interpretation of the poem and understand it the way a writer would. This kind of in depth understanding will hopefully mean I am able to create a better more sophisticated dance. One that doesn t just

4 pantomime the poem but actually represents the essence of it. This article helped give me some of the tools to do that, or at the very least, helped me realize I need to keep researching those skills. Even beyond poetry analysis, this article inadvertently gave me some choreographic ideas I hadn't considered. For example I'm now very sure I will be choreographing for a group rather than a solo. This realization will greatly affect the poem I choose. I hopefully will be able to find one that has various layers or concepts within it. I may even use one of the poems mentioned in this article. Overall, this may prove to be my most useful resource, I will certainly be coming back to it as a reference when I actually start my project. Source # 2 Title and author, plain text not bolded APA Citation Bibliographic citation goes here in correct format. Notice a long citation of more than one line includes a hanging indentation. Or in other words the second and subsequent lines are indented. Summary Informational summary goes here. Plain text. Left aligned. Source Analysis Quotes Responses

5 1. Quotes from source go here with in text citations. Notice that numbering the quotes and responses makes it easier for Ms. Herndon to grade. 1. Responses to each quote go here. If your quotes and responses are particularly long, you may use as little as 9pt font to conserve space as long as the entire table use a uniform size font. You may also use single spaced lines to conserve space. Next Steps/Final Thoughts A reflection on the source as a whole goes here. Left aligned. After each source insert a horizontal line to separate each source from the others. Source # 3 Etc..

6 References Anderson, J. (2010). On the move: Poetry and dance. Dance Chronicle, 33(2), doi: / Cunningham, C. (2001). Poetry in motion. Dance Spirit, 5(8), 57. Green, D. (2010). Choreographing from within: Developing a habit of inquiry as an artist. Champaign, IL.