Things you can do with the cards:
pass them out individually to students and give them assignments, for example:
TIME – transform – repeat
“Repeat your duet until you are able to perform it by heart.”
combine them with different categories, for example:
DANCERS – group constellations – duet with
DANCERS – connection to audience – diagonally to audience with
DANCERS – connection to one another – canon
“Dance your duet at a diagonal to the audience and in a canon.”
Under Composition, you can find additional examples for combining the cards for Dance and the Creative Process with cards from other focus areas.
You can find ideas for developing assignments here.
In the focus area “Dance and the Creative Process”, attention is given to the various processes of creation found in contemporary dance. A choreographic form is ultimately the product of the combination of selected subject matter with ideas for its creative expression. By taking part in this process, students experience how movement arises in TIME and SPACE through improvisation and COMPOSITION, resulting in a choreography.
One way of getting to know different creative methods is to examine works by selected contemporary choreographers. Taking their pieces as examples, aspects like movement language, the use of music, space, light, objects or props and the interaction of these elements within the choreography can all be conveyed vividly and clearly.
Video recordings can help to test the various effects of the movement language. What effect does a sequence of movements have in silence? What about when accompanied by various types of MUSIC? What effect does an animated MODE OF EXPRESSION have? What about a more detached one?
Within a choreography, students experience themselves as a part of a temporary collective. They belong to a whole, while having space to express themselves and reach consensus, since dance is a relational art based on sensitivity for one’s partner and the collective.
In the creative process, students become DANCERS and choreographers themselves. Improvisation exercises and techniques support them in developing their own movement languages and experimenting with them.
Solo
Duet
Trio
Group
unison
in canon
in dialogue
as shadow
as mirror
next to one another
on top of one another
in front of one another
behind one another
back(s) to the audience
facing audience
perpendicular to audience
diagonal to audience
speeding up
slowing down
adding pauses
repeating
looping
rewinding
in slow motion
in fast motion
circle
line
rectangle/square
triangle
polygon
star
angle
jumble
curve
spiral
silence
with voice
noises/sounds
“canned” music
live
HIP-HOPPER
KING
LAZY BONES
FOOTBALLER
BALLET DANCER
WILD WOLF
ELDERLY PERSON
BUNDLE OF NERVES
When you connect terms from different categories with one another, a composition takes shape. By giving more or less weight to these categories, you can place emphasis wherever you like. You can even combine terms from different focus areas with one another. There’s no limit to your ability to experiment here with abandon.
Use the cards to formulate composition exercises and develop choreographies independently. Finally, students themselves can also choose terms independently for choreographing.
group
One person dances a solo and passes on this movement sequence to the group.
In doing so, the group can either stand in front of or behind the soloist and either act like a shadow or a mirror image of the sololist.
In this way, the solo is transferred to the group.
individually
Change the rhythm of a movement sequence by adding pauses and accelerations.
in pairs
Move towards your partner along a line in the space.
In order to get to the other end, you have to pass each other – but without leaving the line!
Try out different possibilities for getting past one another, while exploring the movement sequences that enable you to stay on the line.
group
As a group, dance a movement sequence in silence.
Repeat it until a clear, shared rhythm emerges.
individually
Alter the expression of a movement sequence by slipping into different roles. For instance, you can dance the sequence like an old man or a queen.
Your expression will change in interesting ways if you picture the characters as vividly as possible in your mind’s eye and let it influence your dancing.
Try out several different roles and observe how your movements change.