Depicting Narrative Through Dance Creative Movement and Transformation to Choreography: A Mode of Research Presentation Carol Picard. (2008). Creative Movement and Transformation to Choreography: A Mode of Research Presentation. Nursing Science Quarterly. 21 (2), 112-114. This article brings forward the question, Can dance be used as a form of therapy? in particular people with illnesses, can dance and choreography be a form of self expression and reflection, portraying through movement perhaps something they cannot put into words? Picard suggests movement is key, arguing that by watching movement you can develop an understanding of someone or something, it goes onto suggest that movement is consciousness and Consciousness evolves toward increasing complexity in one s relationship to the world In The Male Dancer Bodies Spectacle and Sexuality the author brings forward a that in a professional dancing environment, most of the dancers are following the choreographer, and argues that the dancers have to force themselves into the emotions the choreographer is trying to represent, but this would be in a professional situation. The article also references the Bill T. Jones s film Still/Here which documents people living with a serious illness. In the film Jones who is HIV positive gathers a group of people who are living with life threatening illnesses and gets them to dance their lives coming to terms with the illnesses and how they live. What makes this film so poignant is the fact none of these people come from dancing backgrounds and many of them have never danced before, this makes the film feel raw and emotional, the film really captures the movement of these people, and makes the viewer aware through bodies and dance something that they may struggle to put into words, This is the essence of dance as a language connecting with the audience telling a story through motions and self expression. In making this we discover peoples reluctance to dance probably due to fear of the unknown, on a personal note this is vastly interesting especially for the documentary we are making, as we are interviewing people who also have no past experience with dance, and are often reluctant to open up about it, put down to the fact people are scared of something don t know much about. Another interesting point brought up in this article is Bateson the anthropologist s idea Can I, for instance, change my understanding of something by dancing it? This point is interesting as many people may overlook how we engage with different things, and by looking at something with as many different levels we can truly engage with it, and push the boundaries. Dancing Toward Positive Body Image? disagrees with this point saying that dance is no substitute for spoken words going onto say dance expresses embodied
feelings of physical space and emotional experience that are inadequately expressed in words. it goes onto suggest that dance is viewed as effeminate which is also why men are often uncomfortable to dance, as it questions their masculinity. finally Picard suggests that dance can indeed be used as a form of therapy, and the points she makes are very appealing, dance as a form of therapy is overlooked, and still needs a lot of research into it, however the benefits can be seen, It will take a long time before it is effective due to the the general view of dance in this culture. In regards to our film this article is very useful, it pitches the idea of dance in a way we might have overlooked, as a way to understand something, which will be used in regards to the final outcome of our film.
Dancing Toward Positive Body Image? Examining Body-Related Constructs with Ballet and Contemporary Dancers at Different Levels Viren Swami, Amy Sunshine Harris. (2012). Dancing Toward Positive Body Image? Examining Body-Related Constructs with Ballet and Contemporary Dancers at Different Levels. American Journal of Dance Therapy. 34 (1), 39-52. This article asks the question how do dancers perceive themselves in regards to body image, do views change when they increase their skill levels? Or even when they study different forms of dance. To do this they conducted a study in which they got two different dance classes, Ballet and Contemporary, then two different levels for each; Beginner and Intermediate; and asked them questions to do with how they view themselves, as well as taking into consideration weight and BMI. The results are interesting, intermediate ballet dancers have a lower body appreciation than the beginners ballet class. The contemporary class on the other hand showed different results, the beginners had a higher body appreciation than the intermediate class. For our studies, this is interesting as it shows a difference in mindset as well as the actual technical details between contemporary dancing and ballet dancing. This could be viewed as contemporary dancing as the name suggests is more modern, compared to the more classical ballet dancing, which demands a certain look and requires a more trained physical skinny aspect. Belly dancing on the other hand doesn t play to the ideals of body image in the same way ballet does; belly dancers have been shown to hold more inclusive body image norms, express a lack of pressure to conform to the thin ideal, and consequently have low levels of body dissatisfaction. I believe this is down to very different people in each class, belly dancing may even be more inclusive and welcoming as it is a much different style of dance to ballet and ballet is a very different style of dance than belly dancing. In our interviews with members of the public about dancing and ballet they would often bring up body image, especially when speaking about ballet, the general consensus of the interviews said that a bigger body type would be unpopular in ballet. Another thing to note is how often they would mention their own body image, often in a pessimistic light. Maybe under the circumstances of being recorded they wanted to come off as modest, It might be that in the experiment in this article people felt uncomfortable being asked these questions, and were possibly not giving their honest opinions, making me doubt how credible this research can be. Even with this taken into consideration, this makes the experiment interesting as the results might even suggest something deeper, about how experienced dancers want to see themselves portrayed.
In regards to how useful this article is for us, it has raised some very interesting points, including how do more intermediate dancers see themselves and not only how non dancers perceive dancers, as we had be concentrating on. This being a science journal was interesting to see and gave us some valid points, we will be focusing our view on how ballet is perceived for our film.
The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities Ramsay Burt. (1995). Dance, Masculinity and Representations. The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities. London: Routledge. 31-49. This resource is specifically about the male dancer, which in regards to our film is appropriate. The first point raised, can dance be used as expression, or self expression? The question at first seems trivial, but what it really seems to ask is what are the limits of dance? where can dance begin and end, which it seems to reply that there is no right answer to this question, that resemblance, description, denotation, exemplification, representation and expression is the way we truly perceive the world around us, similar to the article Creative Movement and Transformation to Choreography which implies that Expressive techniques such as creative movement employ what Varela, Thompson, and Rosch (1992) called the embodied mind, the fullest expression of wholeness these two articles support each other and both describe this idea of the embodied mind and how the world interacts with you and your relationship with objects, in particular our film, will play with this idea, as dance brings us new possibilities to engage with something, even if it is from a whole new direction of thinking. In sequence the article goes onto talking symbolism, using references from Susanne Langer, suggesting the relation between the dance and the dancer s feelings is not literal and direct but is mediated symbolically. explaining that the dancer is the vehicle and reads the right symbols of the choreographer to portray the right emotions needed for the dance. This bears a significant relevance to our documentary as originally we recorded a ballet dancer s own thoughts on the stigma against male ballet dancers and planned to use the recordings alongside the strangers to ballet s opinions. Our decision to cut his recordings was because we want to portray his feelings through the dancing: we will represent it symbolically. When using symbolism like this, does the audience pick up on the cues? Or does the audience read into the performance what they wanted to see? Another interesting point is that men are reluctant to dance as it is often viewed as feminine, Quoting Ann Daly movement itself has traditionally been consigned to the realm of the feminine, set in opposition to male mastery over language This is another parallel we can draw from our interviews as many said that they did not enjoy dancing (sober). Continuing, the article suggests that being verbal is more masculine, and that movement is more feminine, an argument I do not necessarily agree with as there are many aspects to masculinity, including movements for example Muhammed Ali s mantra float like a butterfly, sting like a bee starkly contests their idea. The article also puts forward the idea of Dance is not a substitute for words I agree with this as I feel
although both can be used for expression, they are vastly different, and one cannot exist without the other, when people speak, they use their hands and move around, which is a similar sort of dance, but used to help us portray emotions or actions.
Bibliography 'Choreography' Is Narrative: The Programmes of the Eighteenth Century "Ballet d'action" Edward Nye. (2008). 'Choreography' Is Narrative: The Programmes of the Eighteenth-Century "Ballet d'action". Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research. 26 (1), 42-59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40263986 This article is about the Ballet d action which is a form of ballet, it has routes in the french art of mime, but evolved into a form of ballet and pantomime, it differs from ballet as it isn t is large, or grand as a ballet, the emotions are portrayed mainly through facial expressions much like mime. Finnish Dancers' Attitudes toward Folk, Competitive Ballroom, Ballet, and Modern Dance Pipsa Nieminen and Väinö Varstala. (1999). Finnish Dancers' Attitudes toward Folk, Competitive Ballroom, Ballet, and Modern Dance. Dance Research Journal. 31 (2), 63-79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1478332 This journal takes notice of the attitude of of different dances from the finnish dancers point of view, interestingly it brings the point of dancers not respecting other forms of dance, as well as more controversial subjects of homosexuality, nuclear power and abortion which can be seen in a dazzling array of different lights. A Ballet Class with Michel Fokine Dawn Lille Horwitz. (1979). A Ballet Class with Michel Fokine. Dance Chronicle. 3 (1), 36-45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567502 The Journal explores the proceeds of lessons with Russian ballet instructor Michel Fokine, it explores what happened and how they learnt as well an insight into the life of Michel Fokine.
Is Fitness Necessary for Dancers? Yiannis Koutedakis, Paul Pacy, N. C. C. Sharp and Fiona Dick. (1996). Is Fitness Necessary for Dancers?. Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research. 14 (2), 105-118. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1291004 Exploring the ideals of fitness put against dancers, who may necessarily not use only dance as fitness, this explores the different kinds of fitness and body compositions. Body Composition, Weight Control and Nutrition in Dancers Paul Pacy, Magita Khalouha and Yiannis Koutedakis. (1996). Body Composition, Weight Control and Nutrition in Dancers. Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research. 14 (2), 93-105. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1291003 Investigating the health of dancers across the board, taking into consideration injuries, illnesses, and diet, summarizing a program called Healthier dancer programme Performing One's Age: Cultural Constructions of Aging and Embodiment in Western Theatrical Dancers Liz Schwaiger. (2005). Performing One's Age: Cultural Constructions of Aging and Embodiment in Western Theatrical Dancers. Dance Research Journal. 37 (1), 107-120. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20444622 Dancers go through a lot of struggle aging, as you can t dance forever, bodies go through change, and for dancers who have been dancing their whole life this can be a challenging time.
Visual A Video we shot of a the Ballet Dancer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buuj1c2fj6s Ryan Woodward Thought of you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obk3ynrbtsw A Nice visual style that fully expresses emotion through dance, even though the models don t have faces.
Susan Young Carnival http://vimeo.com/43310581 A striking animation, I really enjoy the brush work on the dancers, it is very abstract yet at the same time so recognisable as a human form in motion.
Still/Here Bill T. Jones http://vimeo.com/36236488 A very emotional dance piece by Bill T. Jones he interviews people with serious medical conditions and lets them express themselves and their daily lives through dance, which came part of this project combining video, dance and music.