Taane choreographed a dance that is called Manawa. Taane
choreography was inspired by his mum. His mother was very sick and Taane looked
after her in her last days. While Tanne was looking after him, she told him all
the family story so they could pass them on to future generations. No one else
knew of these stories so it was a real connection they had with each other.
When Tanne lived with his mother they were living next to an orchard that had a
lot of birds that they could hear singing all the time. The sound of birds now reminds
him of his mother whenever he hears them.
The intention of the dance was to show a lot of feeling and
emotion that would be portrayed throughout the choreography. The music to this
dance has the background sound of birds, also we do movements that symbolizes a
bird e.g. the movement with our arms out to the side and the group movement
that represents wings. There are a lot of breath movements throughout the dance
because this dance is meant to represent the breath of life. We show this by
doing slow breath movements with our bodies, group breathing movements, etc.
The ideas and understandings I brought to the dance from the
intention was the movement of breath representing the breath of life. Also, the
bird arm movement which was to represent Taane’s mother.
There were also other ideas that I brought in to the dance
from things we were told to do. The first task we were given was to go into our
messages, text or emails on our phones and pick out words and put them into a
sentence. We then got some ideas and inspiration to make some new interesting
dance movements and had to think creatively and put theses word into a short
dance sequence.
We were given a task to choreograph a small section of dance
that relates to texts and small sentences you have. We then got into groups and
taught each the small section that we made up. We then mashed them together in
our own way and adapted them to suit our abilities and so they would link and
flow better. These were then put into the dance and was done with half the
dance members of the dance and was then adapted again to have connection
between other people that were dancing their choreography at the same time. We also
learnt small parts of other people’s chorography, so we did some parts of
theirs and some parts of our own. This was good because it meant that we could
have some of our own choreography in the dance which meant we were also able to
relate to the dance a bit.
Section one:
Section one of the dance was the ‘box’ which was to create a
shape and bring awareness to the space and environment. This part of the dance
is at the very beginning when we are sitting on our knees which an up right
back position and looking straight ahead to look determined and focused. In
this section, it begins of at a slow tempo and gradually increases in speed.
Also in this section as it goes on the movement become more complex and
difficult (i.e. the dance starts off with steady walks from one side of the box
to the other and becomes more complexed by turning directions and weaving while
still walking and gets more complexed by adding roles etc).
Section Two:
In this section, our dance class was split up into small
groups of three to four. We then made up a short section creating a
conversation with our movements and our relationship with the other dancers in
our group. Some of the movements that we were to use were from previous groups
we were put into at the workshop. In the previous groups, we were to firstly
come up with a short section ourselves and then teach it to the other 5 or 6
people in our groups and uses some of their choreography and put it into your
own by mashing things together and adaption some things. We the use some of
these things and adapt them some more for the conversation piece so there shows
a relationship between the dancers and shows connection. In this section, the
first group does their conversation piece while there rest of the group remain
still and focused in the box shape.
Section Three:
For section three we were taught some of Taane’s
choreography. One of our tasks was to adapt some of his choreography to make it
have more levels, different speeds, changes in formation, changes in shape,
cannon, etc., so when it is performed in a group it looks more effective and
interesting.
Section Four:
For this section, we were put into another new group to
create a lotus pattern. For this task, we were to be in a group and somebody
slowly moves and everybody follows and somebodies else might make a different
move and then we follow that person and so on. We then used those random
movements of whatever came to our heads. We then made a slow section that was
very in time with our groups so it looked effective. To get to these positions
in the dance we walk to our positions with determination straight out of
Taane's choreography.
Section Five:
In our class groups, we were given four words; spine, snake,
flocking and wings. We then had to create group movements and positions that
showed or had relation to these words.
Spine - For the word spine we were all linked by
putting our hand/arms on the person's back in front of us. We were in a curved
C position that went from low to high. The first person started sitting on the
ground with the arms stretched out in front on the floor with the next person's
arms on that person's back and got gradually higher until the last person is
fulling standing but still curved over and head down. While we were in this
position we did a cannon breathing movement starting from the person at the
start on the C on the ground to the person at the other end. We did this breathing
motion twice.
Snake - In this movement we are positioned in a
straight diagonal line with person at the front at a low kneeling level with
people behind getting taller. To get into this position ran but smoothly moved
to where we needed to be. We are connected by holding the person's elbow that
is in front of us. We then did three waves from the first person starting the
wave and then the rest follow like a ripple effect. The first wave starts off
slow then get to medium speed by the second one and the fast on the third wave.
Flocking - For the flocking we got into a tight bunch
and did slow controlled movements synchronized.
Wings - For the wings movement we were in a straight
vertical line from the heights starting from low to high, with the first person
sitting and the end person standing talk. We do a connon arm movement with the
front person's arms starting in a low bird position and the person behind arms
are higher and so on the person at the back is like a curved high V. the first
time we do this movement were start from the front and connon up and the second
time we are dropping our arms back down to the sides of our bodies from the
back cannoning down to the front. In the middle of doing these we are in a
still bird position and then from lean side to side but keeping the same
position and keeping the arms in the right place which is slightly higher than
the person in front of us.
When I was performing my eye focus was up and straight ahead
which helps show that we are focused. In the performance, we also use dynamic
movements e.g. fast shape movements, slow gentle movement and smooth movements.
These things help enhance the ideas and communicate the ideas to the audience.
Activity
Three:
Photographs
Photograph 1
When I was performing this section of the dance I was
thinking about relationship and the connection we have with other people in
this dance, which also relates to what the dance is about and the relationship
Taane and his mum had.
Photograph 2
In this photograph, we can see that this section is in
cannon. It starts off with the two people in the middle of the front line to do
the first movement of this section, then the two people on the outside of the
front line join in on the next movement and then the back line joins in on the
movement after that. The rest of the section we in unison but some movements
were done at different levels. One of these movements that were danced in this
section was danced at different levels. The front line started off from a low crouch
and the back line started in a standing upright position. Once we were in these
positions, the front line slowly raised from a crouch to an upright standing
position with the one arm reaching up and pulling down as they stand and the
other arm by their sides. The back line did the same but in the opposite direction,
they started standing upright and ending in a crouch position while doing the
same arm movement as the front line. This small movement can represent something
very important. It could represent how Taane is growing and learning more about
his family as his mum told him about all the family stories, it is like he is rising
because he is in possession of knowing all the family stories (how the front
line start low and rises). The back lines movement represents the mother and
how she was passing on all the family stories and how she is on longer the
holder and in possession of the family memories now she’s passed away.
These messages and meanings that came behind the choreography
and the meaning behind the dance definitely changed how I performed the dance. It
made me really think, and perform the dance with real focus and emotion.
Photograph 3
In this photograph,
we are in a vertical straight line. In this line, we are positioned to go from
a high level at the back and gradually the levels get lower to the people at
the front. Our arm positions are also at different levels. The person at the
front has their arms in a curved low demi second position and the person behind
is slightly higher with their positioning of the arms and so on until the
person at the back is in a high V. to get our arms into these positions we
canon them up, starting with the person at the front and ending with the person
at the back. Ones we are in this position we do a small movement with our arms.
We all do a small breathing movement with our arms at the same time which looks
very effective because we are at different levels. After the breathing movement
with our arms, we tilt to the right side then the left side synchronized
staying in our straight line and same level position.
When I was performing this part of the dance, it reminded me
of a flock of birds spreading its wings and flying together as do birds usually
do. This helps to show a connection between the dancers and a connection
between the meaning behind the dance. It relates to the music that is played
with the dance. The music has the sound of birds singing and tweeting in the
background.
The deeper meaning of the movement could also help
communicate the story and meaning behind the dance. When we were doing the bird
arm movements, we did this movement quite strong and defined like how Taane’s
and his mum was trying to be strong during the time she was sick. When I was performing,
I was imagining what I would be like if I was going through something like this
and how I would have felt and how I would have tried to be string through a
time like this.
Activity Four: Technique
the techniques that are important for the performance of the
dance is focus. The focus of this dance is very important, especially the eye
focus, it would look very silly if you were doing the dance and looking around
like look at the ceiling or if your eyes were wondering around the room. If your
eyes are not focus it really effects the dance and the effectiveness of it, it
makes the dance look very unprofessional if the focus is not good. Another thing
with focus is, when you are focus on the dance and the meaning behind it you
are less likely to laugh or mess up which is very important because if you do
these things it really destroys the performance of the dance.
Another technique that is very importance while performing
the dance it timing. Timing is a very important thing in most if all group
dances. Timing is what makes dances look very effective and makes people want
to watch more. If there was no timing and the dancers were not aware of their surroundings
then the dance would look very tragic. We needed to know timing so we knew when
we needed to come in in certain sections of when we all needed to be synchronized
in our movements so this means we needed to be aware of our surroundings and
use our peripheral vision to watch other dancers to make sure we were in time. Some
examples when timing was important was at the beginning, we needed to watch each
other so we knew when it was our time to walk and do our movement. Another example
would be the locus section when we were in two group within our dance and we
were doing movements synchronized which looks much more effective than if we were out of time with each other.
Another thing that is very important is lines and formations. If the formation are not right or off centre or if the lines are not straight it makes the dance look messy and unrehearsed. When dances are very good formations and the dancers are in the right place and have straight lines when the lines are meant to be straight it makes the dance look a lot more polished and more professional.
A movement in the dance that I found challenging was the wings part in the group section. I found this part difficult because I was at the front of the line and I had to guess when the person at the back had put their arms up so I could move on to the next movement. To make sure I was getting the correct timing I really had to think about the timing and estimate how long it would take for everyone to put their arms up in their position in a canon and everyone is counting on my timing because I was at the front of the line. When I was performing this section I was thing, the better the timing the more effective it looks.
Another thing in the dance that I found a bit challenging
was Taanes choreography section and the timing for it. I found it a little difficult
when we were all trying to keep in time with each other but there were no solid
counts and beats in the music during this section. To make sure we were in time, we had to use
our peripheral vision to watch each other for timing and to know when to start
each section.
The idea of breath is quite important in this dance piece. It represents the breaths of Taane’s mother which can be shown through movements throughout the dance. One of the movements of the dance that clearly shows the idea of breath is one the group shape
The idea of breath is quite important in this dance piece. It represents the breaths of Taane’s mother which can be shown through movements throughout the dance. One of the movements of the dance that clearly shows the idea of breath is one the group shape
Activity Five: Technology
The music has a large influence on the way I perform the
dance. The music helps tell the story and meaning behind the dance. In the music,
it has the sound of birds singing, which tells a lot about the story. When Taane
was living and looking after his mother they were lived next to an orchard that
had lots of birds around it. The sound of the birds brings back memories of
Taanes to a time he loves and cherishes. This made me want to perform the dance to the
best of my ability because of the amazing meaning, story and feeling behind the
dance and the choreography. The music also relates to some of the movements
very well also. One of the movement is one of the group shapes. This group
shape movement represents a bird spreading its winds and flying way and being
free like his mother would have been, the feeling of being free and letting go
of her pain. This movement can also relate to Taane, and how he is spreading
his wings and carrying the family memories.
If I was to design a costume for this performance it would
look something a bit like this. This is a contemporary costume which would
match the style of the dance because this dance is a contemporary style. The skirt
would be very flowy and would look very effective with all the floaty and fluid
movements. This costume would also look good while doing all the sharper
movements as well as the smoother movements. For the gold pattern on the
leotard, I would make the pattern into Maori patterns because
Taane’s family in Maori and this would make the costumes have a connection to
the story and meaning behind the dance. The black colour of the costume
represents how it was a say time but the sparkly gold colour can represent hope
and love and because it is very sparkly it over shines the black colour. This helps
to show how it was sad that his mother past away but it is also a happy time because
she would be more comfortable where she is now. The costume would also match
what I would have the lighting like, it would match the colours of the light
and the mood that the light portrays.
If I was to design the lighting for the performance, it
would start off with a dark stage and dim spotlights on each of the dancers to
show the square shape. When the dancers start moving from one side of the
square to the other, the spot light follows them and also the spot light is
lighter on the people that are moving till everyone has a light spotlight which
will light up the whole centre of the stage which would happen at the end of
the square section.
When the group one is doing their own choreography, the
spotlight will be on them and when group two is doing their choreography, the
spotlight will be on them. This will help the audience focus on and what is
important in the sections.
For the group shape section I would have the lighting the
same shape as what we are making with our bodies for the floor pattern so it is
more defined and obvious so you can clearly see the shapes. Also in this
section of the dance, when the movements are cannon I would make the lighting
have a rippling effect to help show the cannon and it will make it look very
effective.
For Taanes choreography section I would makes the light be
brightest up stage and fade down to darker at down stage. This would give it an
extra effect and make it have more of a 3D effect.
For the ending of the dance, I would have the lights to
shine in a vertical straight line over the dancers and black on the rest of the
stage. And once we would have done the last breath of the bird wings I would
have the light fade out it black (dark).
Most of the lights would be white lights. In some section of
the dance I would have there be a slight tinge of green in the lights to show the
relation to nature, and in some parts of the dance there would be a slight
tinge of orange light to represent warmth and happiness.
Throughout the whole dance, I would have bird like figures
with spread wings projected onto the floor moving around. Sometimes these
moving dots (bird figures) would be very bright bold light and in other parts
of the dance it would be very subtle lighting so you can see them as clearly.
All the lighting would smoothly fade and merge into the next
lighting position that it needed to be in so it looks professional and also the
dance it quite smooth so the lighting would relate to the dance.
The lighting would help influence the mood of the dance
which is quite serious but is happy and loving at the same time. The lighting
also incorporates nature into it as well because it was a big part of Taane’s
life always being surrounding by nature.
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