Personal Development

By immersing myself in Marco Goecks piece called Nijinski in my last blog, I felt inspired and became influenced to generate a similar quality of movement that encapsulated the significant amount of tenderness that Nijinski is profound for. My intention behind this section was to portray what the relationship was like at the beginning before dominance became an overwhelming factor. This is one section where I began challenging my natural movement style with more tender, generous movements, however, I kept finding the desire to go back to my accustomed staccato style testing and therefore had to choose the music first in order for my movements to flow along with the gentle rhythm. I want the audience to be 'moved, touched or affected', (Flatt 2019) by my choreography and I believe that beginning with more tender and resistant movements aids the audience into feeling captivated and empowered. 

A Promise To Keep is a painting by Anuja Sachdeva which was uploaded on June 15th, 2017

At the beginning of my choreography, I was eager to portray what a domestic relationship entailed and therefore wanted to jump straight in and be fully committed to the stimulus I had chosen. Due to my style being extremely intricate and fast-moving, I was confident with what I had achieved and I felt as though I had embodied my message well due to me being creatively stimulated and driven within the research that I had carried out. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been formulating other ways how to begin my piece as I wanted to enhance the story and give the audience an awareness of how drastically a relationship can change. I wanted to incorporate Goecks contrast of movements as in Nijinski, I was fascinated by the strong and soft arm movements and the grounded and resisted motions of the torso etc. By critically analysing my piece, I have made a new section for the beginning of my choreography, which I am proud of due to me not being self-judgemental with what I have created, despite it not being my natural style.

New beginning section:

As dancers, we often identify our incapabilities and identify qualities in others that we don't possess ourselves, making us undervalue our strengths. Rachel Moore mentions that if 'you work on your strengths, your unique voice is ultimately going to be your artistic calling card', (Moore, 2017). Creating gestures based on the start of the relationship, I have expressed the desire of being in love and have created motions such as hugging myself and brushing a hand across my face. Developing these small motifs demonstrates the desire to feel close to a loved one and the compassion that is given. I want this piece to be as symbolic as possible, ensuring that each section has a purpose that's has been creatively developed with the help of my knowledge and research from my practitioner studies. 

Reflecting back on my process so far, I have enjoyed having the creative freedom to become a choreographer as well as a dancer, however, there are times when I do feel less motivated to choreograph due to myself having high expectations of the end product. I understand that 'if you don't start somewhere, then you won't go anywhere', (Burrows, 2010) and this has influenced me to carry on striving toward the end goal. Throughout my time as a choreographer, I have discovered that I have wonderful eccentric ideas, but I find it hard to physicalise them. I want my possibilities to be endless, however, I have realized that the visions that I have in my head are sometimes beyond my own expectations. As opposed to becoming disheartened by this, I have decided to take Rachel Moors advice and remember that self-assessment is not a bad thing, so long as 'its objective and realistic',(Moore, 2017). I am still drawing inspiration from these ideas, as I believe they were emotive, but I'm being practical with what I can accomplish and attain with precision.

Reference

Burrows, J., 2010. A Choreographer's Handbook. Oxford: Taylor & Francis Ltd, pp.54-57.

Flatt, K., 2019. Choreography: Creating and Developing Dance for Performance. Chapter 7: Structure and the Choreographer's Eye. Ramsbury: The Crowood Press, pp.119-120.

Moore, R., 2017. What does success look like for you? In The artist's Compass: The Complete Guide to building a life and a living in the performing arts. New York: Touchstone, p. 2.

Bibliography

Burrows, J., 2010. A Choreographer's Handbook. Oxford: Taylor & Francis Ltd, pp.54-57.

Flatt, K., 2019. Choreography: Creating and Developing Dance for Performance. Chapter 7: Structure and the Choreographer's Eye. Ramsbury: The Crowood Press, pp.119-120.

Moore, R., 2017. What does success look like for you? In The artist's Compass: The Complete Guide to building a life and a living in the performing arts. New York: Touchstone, p. 2.

Nijinski Ballet Premiere ⎮ Marco Goecke ⎮Ballet Zurich. 2019. [video] Directed by E. Hock.

Anon, A promise to keep by Anuja Sachdeva. Fine Art America. Available at https://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-promise-to-keep-anuja-sachdeva.html [Accessed February 1, 2022].