Contemporary Dance Technique and Performance

 Contemporary Dance Technique and Performance

What is Contemporary Dance?

Contemporary is an important genre of dance performed in societies around the world, celebrated by both young and old. Developed during the 20th century, contemporary dance involves incorporating aspects of movement from several other genres such as jazz, modern and ballet.

What are the key features/characteristics of Contemporary Dance?

Contemporary dance combines the strong but controlled legwork of Ballet, with elements of Modern Dance, focusing on the contract and release of the body, and the unpredictable changes in rhythm, speed, and direction.

How have you used these features and characteristics in the Midsummer Night's Dream Dance?

We have incorporated some ballet moves into the Midsummer Night's Dream dance with moves like the pirouette. Our body is very released throughout the dance which is shown when we are in a line and reach outwards flopping down. Finally, direction is used in this a lot, which is shown when we are in a clump and we are stretching backwards diagonally. We also incorporate direction when we are in a line facing stage left as we are facing a new direction we all haven't faced together throughout the piece, we then proceed to reach our arms up towards stage right which shows another use of direction. 

How have you embodied the themes of Midsummer in your piece?

Like stated before, in mine and Chloe's dance at the back towards the beginning we tried to show the themes of love with actions like reaching out towards each other and making sure we lock eye contact to show the connection between the characters. Another time we show themes from A Midsummer Night's Dream in the piece is as a group at the end. We all clump back up and do the beginning clump in reverse but to end it we fall to sleep on each other to resemble us dreaming in the forest.

Contemporary Dance

From this dance I believe I have improved on my ability to choregraph. A lot of mine and Chloe's dance piece at the back I choreographed and it was very difficult to think on the spot of moves that would fit in with the vibe of A Midsummer Night's Dream. But I tried to think of moves that would flow smoothly from the last move into the next. I think it has came out perfectly and exactly how I imagined. I tired to make it show the ups and downs of one of the "relationships" in A Midsummer Night's Dream, with a move that shows me pushing Chloe to the floor which could resemble as my character not feeling the love between the two. And also a move where me and Chloe try to reach out for each-other, trying to show the mend of the "relationship". I made sure with every move between me and Chloe that we made eye contact to show the connection the characters have in the dance.

Also from this dance I believe I need to improve on my stamina and making sure to keep up with everybody else. This was a struggle for me towards the end of the dance when we were in three lines and we were numbered from 1 to 2 and had to do a dance that group made up. It was quite fast what we came up with, so it's very difficult for me to keep up and remember what the moves are. But I am slowly seeing progress in this the more we do rehearsals on this dance and I am feeling positive for the outcome.

The first target I will set myself for improvement in the future is to push myself and try take part in choregraphing the group pieces, I felt after choreographing the piece between me and Chloe that I could do it but I didn't try as I thought it would be too much of a struggle for me. The second target I will set myself for improvement in the future is to be more enthusiastic when doing the moves. I feel as if this will make me feel more confident in knowing what I am doing and it would make it look better because it would make the dance look more bigger and bolder. Finally, the third target I will set myself for improvement in the future is to use facial expressions. I feel like I do this in my part between me and Chloe, but after that I am too worried about the next move and my placements so I'm not as focused on how my face looks as a character in A Midsummer Night's Dream.