Contractions

Technique (Analysing) 24th Sep 2011

In this video we looked at Standing Contractions, Twiddles, Core Training and Jumps in this video my timing was all over the place and I wasnt very focused however my alignment was good throughout and I am very proud of my flat back :)
0.16: Leg needs to be straight
0.17: Good bend
0.30: Flat back is good but my arms need to be straighter
0.37: Lack of energy
0.39: Good alignment
0.43: Too quick
0.49: Bit slow
1.00: My lovely flat back :D
1.08: Head needs to be down
1.15: Too slow
1.17: To quick
1.25: No energy
1.28: Touching my face
1.38: Nice plies
1.40: Good Alignment
1.43: Good plies
1.50: Arms need to be straighter
1.56:  Itching my nose
2.02: Back could be lower
2.04: Lack of energy
2.10: Good alignment
2.31:Too Slow
2.36: No clue what i'm doing, I'm just flopping around
2.39: Good Twiddle
3.12: No energy
REMINDER: DO NOT STAND BEHIND RAY!!
4.09: No energy
4.14: No balance
4.27: My leg is in the wrong place
5.10: Just Chilling
5.36: No effort
6.18: Flopped
6.34: HATE SIT UPS!
7.15: Need to straighten legs
7.26: Given up
7.53: Bums up
7.57: Need to go lower
8.16: Given up totally
Anything after this i am so dead!
8.57: Cool Down
8.56: So weak :(
9.03: Need to straighten my leg
9.06: Own moves
9.10: Last one :D

Need to improve:

• Stamina
• Focus
• Situps!

Martha Graham Technique 3( Analysising) 23rd Sep 2011

In this lesson we practised Martha Grahams Technique I felt through this video i had lack of energy and need alot more tension. I am out of time quite a bit too.
0.34: Arms need more tension
0.42: Good posture but my head needs to be up
0.45: Need to put my bum in
0.51: Head needs to be up however my foot is well flexed
0.57: Playing with hair
1.03: Need to stay still
1.07: Not tense enough
1.10: Floppy arms and my bums out
1.11: No tension
1.14: Contraction is okay; room for improvement though
1.16: Tripped
1.21: Have no energy!?
1.36: Out of time!
1.59: NICE flat back :)

Need to improve:

• Tension
• Stamina
• Strength

Cunningham Technique 1 28th September 2011(Analising)

In this video we experimented with Cunninghams Technique we learnt about:

• bounces in paralell
• torso twists
• plies
• food exercise
• glise
• torso twists (developed)
• shoulders

Bounces in parallel:

Focus Points:

• Shoulders relaxed
• Arms engaged for whole exercise
• Elbows not drooping in 2nd
• Sucking in

Torso Twists:

Focus Points:

• No bum out.
• Back straight
• Knees over toes

Plies:

Focus Points:

• Hips stay centre
• constant energy
• engaging all muscles
• flat back
• engage stomach muscles

Foot Exercises:

Focus Points:

• No floppy feet; point at all times
• Balance
• Energy from all body points
• Stright back
• Bum in

Glise( Pushing foot through floor to point and bringing it back):

Focus Points:

• Work your foot for the whole exercise
• Engage your leg
• Balance

Torso twist developed:

Focus Points:

• Energy for the whole thing
• No baggy limbs
• Put effort in to all movements
• Look to the back to stretch spine

Shoulders:

Focus Points:

•  Engaging finger tips
• Strong Core strength
• Control every movement

My arms need more tension and extention also i need to go lower on my plies and keep my head down. However at 1.10 i have good focus the group is in time and our movements are clear. My flat back is good too. My releves need to be higher and my abdomial muscles need to be more engaged.
1.25: decided to pick my eye. I need more energy and need to not burn out. Keep my hips still, remember my headlights on my hips.
2.11: My feet are nicely in parallel
2.20: I need to be sharper, my points need to be more pointed and my leg needs to be much more extented and my floor work is terrible.
3.20: Closer legs are needed!
3.30: my timing is good. and then i lose it and get out of time.
3.44: need to keep my hips still!! Arms need more tension and i need to place my movement and not bounce them. Need much more control.
4.27: HIPS NEED TO STAY STILL !!
4.56: NEED TO POINT!
5.08: Need to twist back more
5.09: Need more focus
5.35: Need to slow my roll down; go through the spine.
5.51: Bums up need to put it down
5.43: Good strength in my arms :)
6.32: Arms are good just need my palms straighter, relax shoulders and put arms closer together.
6.38: My plank is better here than in rehersals.
In this technique i need to:

• Keep my hips straight
• Bum in/down
• And Focus!

George Balanchine

George Balanchine (1905-1983)

George Balanchine was a contemporary ballet chorographer born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1905; one of the most famous 20^th century chorographers, Balanchine helped develop ballet in the United States and was also a co-founder and ballet master of New York City Ballet. In his life he choreographed more than 400 ballets, thirty-nine of which where choreographed to music by Igor Stravinsky. He expressed music with dance and will always be remembered for his musicality. He died after years of illness aged 79 in New York City of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease.

Balanchine grew up with a large family of composers and soldiers, his father a Georgian composer Meliton Balanchivadze helped initiate the Georgian Opera. His brother is also a well known Georgian composer. His mother had a love for ballet as did his sister. He first auditioned for Imperial Ballet School with his sister aged 9 years old and was later accepted into the Imperial Ballet School. There he was a student of Pavel Gerdt and Samuil Andrianov (Pavel's son-in-law). In 1921 he graduated with honors. However during the Russian Revolution in 1917 Balanchine played the piano for food, at cabarets and silent movie theaters, this gave him another talent which he fell in love with and after graduating went on to study advance piano, music theory, counterpoint, harmony, and composition at Petrograd Conservatory. Whist studying he worked in the corps de ballet at which he continued to dance with until 1924. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1923.

Balanchine choreographed his first work still in his teens a pa de deux named ‘La Nuit’ which means ‘Night’. His next duet was called ‘Enigma’ which is another word for puzzle; this piece was performed in bare feet. In 1923 with the dancers he formed a small ensemble ‘The Young Ballet’ however the chorography proved too experimental for the new authorities. Balanchine arrived in the U.S in 1933 which he stayed until his death in 1983. America made him who his was. He moved there to establish a ballet school to develop dancers who had the strong technique and style he wanted. In all of his pieces we see how strong his dancers body strength was, especially their upper body strength and foot work. Balanchine work was all about flexibility of the lower half, in most performances dancers legs wouldn’t look attached to their bodies. In 1934 Balanchine formed his first ballet company ‘American Ballet’. By 1938 the company had moved to Hollywood in which the company soon became known as the ‘American Ballet Caravan. The company toured North and South America. Unfortunately the company collapsed after several years however Balanchine quickly formed a new dance company and named it ‘Ballet Society’. Many successful performances later, the company became resident company of the New York City Centre for Music and Drama. In 1948 ‘Ballet Society’ was renamed ‘New York City Ballet’ which is still performing today.

He’s biggest influence was Fred Astaire, Balanchine described him as "the most interesting, the most inventive, the most elegant dancer of our times... you see a little bit of Astaire in everybody's dancing—- a pause here, a move there. It was all Astaire originally."

By Ellouise Champion

Martha Graham

Martha Graham (1894-1991)

Martha Graham is an American dance goddess, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Form an early age she had a major passion for dance and started her training in the 1910’s at Denishawn School of Dancing & related Art at which she stayed until 1923.

In 1925 she became Head of Drama at Eastman school of music and in 1926 she opened Martha Graham Centre of Contemporary dance. After 10 years of training her work was defined in the piece ‘Chronide’

In 1938 Erick Hawkins join the dance group they married in 1948 he left her trope in 1951 and they divorced in 1954. Graham danced and choreographed for over 70 years and she was the first dancer to ever perform at The White House. She travelled all over the world as a Cultural Ambassador in which she received the Highest Civilian award.  

Graham was still dancing in the late 1960’s, her last performance was in 1970 aged 76. In her life Martha suffered from depression and abused alcohol to numb her pain, she tried to commit suicide and then in 1972 she quit drinking and went back into the studio, she says ‘dance saved my life’.

Graham will always been remembered for her use of emotions in her dance routines, she believed you could tell some ones whole life story by the way they dance. Her training was a bit like an actor’s, when trying to get a certain emotion across think of a time you have felt that way and use it to show how it felt. She took realism and made it 3D. She trained her dancers to know their body inside and out therefore making the routines more memorable and nothing like before. It helps to prepare them as when you are in a mind set of an emotion it makes you more focused and as a result the performance is more believable. It makes them think of that emotion and as they are attached to the memory they become attached to the dance hence performing it to the best of their ability. 

Her last completed ballet was in 1990’s. She died in New York City aged 96. In 1998 ‘TIME’ listed her as ‘Dancer of the Century’. She was termed the ‘Picasso of Dance’. In her life she choreographed 97 performaces and her dance company is the oldest in America.

By Ellouise Champion

Merce Cunningham

MERCE CUNNINGHAM (1919 –2009)

Merce Cunningham, an American dance extraordinaire, was born and raised in Centralia, Washington. He was the second of three sons and both he and his brothers followed their father’s foot steps in the dance career. However Cunningham did not only dance his also choreographed some of the most amazing dance routines in the world. Unfortunately Cunningham died in 2009 but after a seventy year career his legacy still lives on today.

Cunningham started his first professional training at Cornish School (now called Cornish College of the Arts) in 1937, he continued to train here until 1939 until Martha Graham saw him dance and asked him to join her own dance company where he stayed for six years before starting his own dance company ‘Merce Cunningham Dance Company’ in 1953. Cunningham first performed solo in 1944 in New York with composer John Cage who became Cunningham’s life partner until his death in 1992; whilst alive Cage collaborated with Cunningham frequently. As a couple they joined together to create ‘Walker Art Center’ first performance in 1963, they done many collaborative work for 25 years.

In many of Cunningham’s performances he would use the ‘I Ching’ in order to determined the sequence of his dances; this is when the dancers would get set moves/sequences labeled 1-6 and Cunningham would roll a dice and then the dancers would dance out whatever has been rolled, Cunningham liked to be un-expected and spontaneous. Cunningham himself performed as a dancer until 1990 aged 71. In his life he choreographed 200 dances and 800 events.

Cunningham’s influence on the dance industry is defiantly one of the largest in the world, he was known for his originality and expansion of space, he used kaleidoscopic imagery of city streets, natural processes and animals. He overarched classical clarity, dignity and virtuosity. By elaborating inflections of the spine and varying articulations’ of the legs he made a new style of dance.

Cunningham’s technique wasn’t like other chorographers of his time. In his first years of dancing dance was about emotion and looking fluent. He changed that, many of his dances can appear quite wooden but structured, they don’t have to flow at all. This type of technique helps a dancer to become sharper; the movement has to be perfect as if not it will show. His most famous ‘Dice’  technique prepares a dancer for if something goes wrong, they should always be prepared for the next step, he says 6324 and they will be able to it as they know 1-6 off my heart to an exceptional standard. Most dance company where about expressing movement, Cunningham was about knowing movement, not just knowing though; performing the movement.

In his life he was recognized for his dance skills on many occasions he received numerous awards one being British Laurence Olive Dance award in 1985.