Into The Woods Witch Rap Choreography

We were set the task to create a set of movements to the Into the Woods song 'The Witch Rap' in which the Witch character sings a set of events with clear lyrics which we were able to use to our advantage as we could visually act out what she was saying for parts of it, an example of this is when the rap says how she could turn another character into a dog, we would act out as a dog. I think this level of visually showing the text helped add not only a sense of comedy but also helping in sync with the song to make the song more powerful as the song was making our movements and dancing stronger and entertaining.

Many lessons were spent highlighting the script and trying to place movements with individual lines, we soon realised that this was a hard task, but after the addition of two extra members (Niamh and Grace) we were on our way with the knowledge of the script we had already to a successful dance. Hip pop could be one word to describe the type of movements and dance elements we used as it was all in time with the music and 'funky' at points, we used movements from previous dances we'd done in the past to create a set of movements which followed the lines of the choreographic devices, such as the use of repetition, canon and the use of levels and movement to keep the audiences attention on the character.

We were used to help exaggerate the words the Witch was saying, for example, 'Nothing but beans'.

To conclude a strength of our dance was the use of strong movements alongside the song lyrics whilst a weakness of our choreography was keeping in time, although the movements were clear and linked the song was still fast and kept a uneven tune. If I were to choreograph a dance for the Witches rap again I would definitely ensure we used out space more effectively as at times we found ourselves getting too close to the audience or to the other dancers.

Video of the final performance.

Akram Khan - RUSH Review

RUSH video: http://vimeo.com/23261563

My interruption of RUSH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlYM3AjyUJQ

The stimulus of this piece of choreography, RUSH was free falling / paragliding.

My initial thoughts of the RUSH dance was drawn to the lighting as it was dark and was difficult to see the dancers, I believed this was the image Akram Khan wanted to give across, the dancers sprung up into dance and used canon to then return to their first position. Repetition and canon were used effectively to show off the stimulus of free falling / paragliding, for example the use of canon to show them all jumping out of the plane, levels were also used to show this.

Tempo was changed depending on which dancer was moving, this showed great variation in the dance and at what stages of the fall they were at, for example the slow movements followed by fast ones could represent them beginning to free fall or fall out of the plane.

Canon ended when the dancers, with their arms up began swaying as if to show almost the beginning falling sensation before what I believed to have hit terminal velocity as in canon their top parts of their bodies fall forward and their arms are stretched.

Travel was not used until after an intense pause maybe to show the freedom and powerful you get when free falling through the techniques of speeding up and slowing down and the strong arm movements into different positions.

The movements weren't smooth but edgy and light, as if they were skimming the air with their movements which has a strong correlation with free falling through the air and paragliding as the air comes up under you and pushes you forward.

RUSH was danced in a trio, I think this is because it shows just how free free falling is an example of this in the use of canon and exclusive movements for each dancer.

Lots of still gentle movements were used, for example the swaying, this gives the impression that free falling isn't all chaos and manic but at times peaceful and pleasant.

Each dance wore the same costume, not loose black clothing as they would be moving around a lot and it would be a big safety hazard if this cased them to fall or cause a collision with another dancer.

The music was felt repetitive and at times boring, I think this could've been changed to make the opening sequence more peaceful and quiet and the ending fast and powerful.

To conclude a good use of dynamics were taken into the choreography to make it an enjoyable dance with a good set of repetitive in the movements to keep the audiences attention and focus. If I was able to change one this about this dance is would be the lighting it was dark and I understood that it was supposed to resemble how although you were free falling you were still alone, heading in one direction, downward. I would have had the lights slightly lighter with a high contrast feel to it.

Choreographing Dance

15/09/14


Dance choreography
- Use of dynamics
- Stimulus
- Theme
- Choreography devices
- motifs


Main three: Stimulus, motifs and choreography devices

Dance is made up of actions such as jumping or turning some others include types of travel and expansion. Dynamics can also be used to change a piece of choreography for example how slow or fast a certain movement is could effect the visual interruption of the dance, other dynamics such as smooth and light dancing can do this also. Another way dance can changed and adapted is through the use of space whether you're dancing upstage, downstage or in most cases your level can be changed too.
Relationship based dance such as duets, solos, group dancing and trios are all dance techniques which can affect the mood and feel of the play, for example one person could represent a single subject or a feeling like confidence or loneliness. Body parts, props and even the audience can also be used to change the dance.

There is a structure to choreographing a movement motif, first you need the stimulus, the feeling, object, event; the thing the dance is about, then you need to apply motifs and apply choreographic devices such as changing the tempo/speed, repetition, retrograde (backwards) or in canon.

In class we watched a dance called RUSH which had the stimulus of free falling / paragliding, they used tempo/speed effectively alongside levels and canon to make the piece look and resemble free falling as much as possible, repetition was also used to exaggerate the main subject the dance was about.

Unit 3 - PAB Assessment Sheets