Contemporary Dance Technique and Performance

What is Contemporary Dance?

'Contemporary dance blends elements of multiple dance styles and lets dancers express emotionality through movements and breath.' MasterClass

What are the key features/characteristics of Contemporary Dance?

Contemporary is thought to be unbound by much rigidity and rules which is very unlike traditional forms of dance. Dancers of this genre can transform performances based on their own interpretations. Contemporary focuses on ballet-influenced leg movements, fall and recovery, floorwork and improvisational elements. This genre of dance is danced barefoot as it allows dancers to have more fluidity in movement and connection to the dance surface.
Contemporary dance has many aspects but its most important is the element of improvisation. Contemporary dance relies on improvisational movements to evoke a range of feelings in the viewer. Improvisation also gives the dancer the opportunity of full creative freedom to perform emotive pieces that identify with them.
Modern-day contemporary dance is incredibly interpretive. The versatility of this genre of dance allows the dancer to use the influence of a storyline and music to form characters and entire theatrical performances that stray away from the traditional methods of storytelling.
Harlequin Floors
The characteristics of 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. It also employs floor work, fall and recovery, and improvisation characteristics of Modern dance.' Charlesworth Ballet School
Overall, contemporary dance has 5 characteristics: 5 Characteristics of Contemporary Dance

Graham
Limon
Release
Improvisation
Contact Improvisation

1. Graham

Graham 'focuses on the use of contraction, release, recovery, and fall. Graham is distinguished by floor work and the use of pelvic and abdominal contractions.'

2. Limon

'It involves exploring the use of energy in relation to gravity and working with weight in terms of rebound, fall, suspension and recovery. Limon technique uses the feeling of “heavy energy” and weight in the body, and movement is initiated using breath to lift, and swings through the body to create and halt movement.'

3. Release

'Placing emphasis on minimizing tension in the search for fluidity and clarity and the efficient use of breath and energy...we release through the muscles and joints to create ease of movement, releasing the breath to support the release of the body.'

4. Improvisation

Improvisation 'focuses on the relationship between movements and performance and on the investigation of movements. Development of individual movement material is made possible through a variety of creative explorations.'

5. Contact Improvisation

'Contact improvisation describes a duet dance form characterized by fluid movement, weight exchange, and touch. Partners improvise the dance using the natural movement of the body.'

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

Graham

'Graham is distinguished by floor work' 5 Characteristics of Contemporary Dance. In our dance piece we include floorwork when Gracie, Lola and Rachel do their trio dance section, symbolising Puck and his fairies. The fluidity of their dance movements represents the way the fairies fly and float around the couples. Their floorwork is also meant to look 'dream-like', representing the aspect of sleeping as one of the key themes in the play is, 'dream'.

2. Limon

Limon is in relation to gravity and working with weight i.e. lifts. In our dance piece, we have incorporated lifts. For example, in the partner work, my pair (Verity and I) have incorporated 2 lifts and 2 additional movements that work with weight. All the duet sections resemble the couples in, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and mine and Verity's duet represents Demetrius and Helena. In our pair Verity is Helena and I am Demetrius.
Our first movement that works with weight is a trust fall. We added a trust fall as it symbolises how Helena has full trust in Demetrius to catch her and also how Helena has 'fallen' for him. Our second movement working with weight is a ballroom style floor spin. For this movement I am spinning Verity on the floor. This movement represents how Demetrius is pushing away Helena's love for him but her love always circles back to him as I help Verity up off the floor again and we continue to dance with one another. This foreshadows the ending of the play and Demetrius and Helena do end up together.
Our first lift in our duet is a basic lift where Verity jumps up vertically towards me and I catch her and spin. This movement represents both what Helena dream their relationship was like but also when Demetrius is spelled by Puck to fall in love with Helena. Our second lift is a push lift. Verity runs towards me and jumps up but I push her away while she's in the air. This lift finishes our duet piece and it represents how the spell has worn off/ Helena's dream of their love is over as Demetrius is pushing Helena away.
As a group we have added a lift that includes all of us. We lift Gracie onto Ellie's and Harrison's shoulders and then Gracie falls backwards into our arms. While Gracie falls back she extends her arms as if she is yawning. This lift finishes our dance and it represents how our whole dance has been a dream as Gracie is falling back asleep.

3. Release

Overall, we haven't really included this technique into our dance piece. Release is ease of movement/ fluidity mainly focusing on how you release your body weight into the floor. We have ease of movement and fluidity when it comes to our group clump section where we all extend our arms out and pulse but we haven't really focused on releasing our body weight into the floor. We have kind of done that in Gracie's, Lola's and Rachel's trio section at the start of the song but we haven't done it to its full extent. This could be a target ,for our group, that we make sure to add more release into the dance.

4. Improvisation

All the main sections of our dance have been choreographed about from the transitional movements. In our dance there are a couple of points where we either canon or at the same time do little movements to transition us into our next dance section. The first is right at the beginning of the dance when we are coming out of the group positioned clump. We have choreographed positions but when we are moving to our places for the next part this is all improvised. Another part that is also improvised is when we all move into our second group clump after the duets. The movements to stand up have been choreographed but the way we walk to our next place is improvised. We could add more improvisation and this could be a target.

5. Contact Improvisation

Contact improvisation is basically the use of duets in a contemporary dance piece. In our dance, we include 3 duets that all overlap each other to represent the 3 couples in, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream': Demetrius and Helena, Hermia and Lysander & Titania and Oberon. 'Partners improvise the dance' 5 Characteristics of Contemporary Dance and that's the one thing we haven't included. We have duet work but all our duets have been choreographed. They started as improvisation when we were choreographing them but have not been improvised further.

How have we embodied the themes of Midsummer in our dance piece?

Themes:

Love - love's difficulty, love in it's many forms
Appearance vs. Reality
Dreams
Magic
Order & Disorder
Mischief

We embodied the theme of 'Love' through our duet sections as they represent the 3 couples in the play. We have staged the couples in a triangle shape: 2 in the front corners, 1 in the back middle. The 2 in the front symbolise Hermia and Lysander & Demetrius and Helena. These duets show the contrast of love: unrequited and requited love.
We embodied the theme of 'Appearance vs. Reality' in Verity's and I's duet piece. We have dance movements where Demetrius (me) pushes away Helena (Verity) but also movements where they are in an embrace and dancing together. This symbolises when Demetrius is spelled but also what Helena wishes their relationship is. Our duet finishes with me pushing Verity away, representing how we are back to the reality of their unrequited love.
We embodied the theme of 'Dreams' through our group lift. Gracie extends her arms as if she is yawning and when she falls back, this symbolises how she is falling asleep in a dream-like state. We also embodied this theme when we are in a horizontal line across the front of the stage and we all cannon on top of each other as if we are all going to sleep.
We have embodied the theme of 'Magic' through our vertical line work with our arms. The overall effect it gives is that Harrison, who is at the front of the line, is a magical being as it looks as if he has more than 2 arms. It symbolises Oberon and the arms kind of look like his wings.
At this point, we haven't embodied the themes of 'Order & Disorder' or 'Mischief'. We could set a target in relation to this and make sure we add movements that correlate to these themes.

Rehearsal Reflection - What physical and interpretive skills did we use?

Physical:

Posture & Alignment: We used these physical skills during the group lift and Verity and I used posture and alignment in our duet section during our lift. We also use posture and alignment when we are in both our group horizontal and vertical line. Particularly with the vertical line as we stand straight so that we are completely hidden behind Harrison. We also use these skills when we are in the clump before we extend out with our arms.
Balance: We use this physical skill right at the beginning of the dance when we are in a messy, entangled clump. To give the effect that we are entangled into one another, some of us our balanced on someone else or using someone else to remain balanced. We must have good balance in this section as we have to remain still until it is your number to move on. It will also ruin the effect of this positioning if we become unbalanced.
Coordination: We mainly use this skill in the dance break after the horizontal line choreography. We are split into 2 groups. Group 1's do something completely different to group 2. We have to have good coordination in this section so we don't loose focus of what our separate groups are doing. This skill is also used during the duet section and in the trio.
Flexibility: This skill is used throughout the dance. It's firstly used in our first dance section that we have in unison with the whole group. We do a high kick before we exit off stage so that the trio can do their dance dance section. The trio uses flexibility throughout their choreography through high kicks and leaps. The skill is also demonstrated before we get into the clump through straddle kicks on the floor and Penchés into forward rolls. The skill of flexibility is also used in the dance break after our horizontal line canon where kicks and leaps and Penchés are used again.
Strength: For all the lifts in this dance we use core strength to be able to lift and hold another person's body weight. You have to use your core strength so they remain up and so you don't let them fall. We are also using this skill in our freeze frame position at the very start of the dance. We use our core strength so we are able to hold our positions without moving.

A skill we use in our dance that isn't one of the physical skills of dance is the technique canon. We use this technique multiple times throughout the dance.

Interpretive:

Emphasis: We used this skill in our group clump when we slowly extend our arms out and pulse for 2 beats. The slow movements when we extend our arms but we emphasise that movement more with the pulse. This contrast the next movement is fast as we come back into our clump sharply, like a snap.
Focus: When we are doing the duet work, which is more intimate as we are solely dancing in pairs, are focus is on the person we are in a pair with. This closes the audience off from us as if they are like Puck, watching the chaos. When we are dancing as a group our focus is out to our audience, including them into the dance as we are like the fairies when we all dance together.
Phrasing: '"Phrasing” refers to the matching of the figures of the dance to the phrases of the music. Commonly, the phrasing of the dance corresponds to the phrasing of the music.' RSCDS Overall, the only time we use phrasing, is when we are doing movements in canon as this requires us to move on specific beats. For example, the first canon that begins the dance requires each of us to move on a different beat for example I am the final beat in the bar, which is the 8th. We have to make sure we move on the correct beat otherwise that throws the whole section off.
Timing: We use this skill throughout the whole performance to enable us to keep in sync with one another. As we sometimes dance separately from each other for example, the duets, we use timing to make sure we enter/exit and start/end at the correct points in the song so that we can transition to the next part of the song. We need to make sure we finish certain parts at the right point ready for the next part of the choreography.

Strengths in the dance

One of our strengths is definitely the duet/trio sections of the dance. Each pair and trio choreographed these parts so we are very confident in our own parts as we made them up ourselves. As there are only 2 of us in a pair or 3 in a trio, it makes it a lot easier to be in sync with one another as there are less of you to make sure you are together. Our strengths is also when we are in the clumps or when we are doing line work. The movements involved in these sections aren't complicated but are very effective all together. The simplicity of the movements makes it easy to perfect. It allows us to really focus on our movements as there aren't many of them in these parts. Another strength is our timing for the beginning clump all the way up to the duets/trio. We have worked on this part the most and really focused on it in rehearsals. As it has had more practice, particularly with music, we are better at these sections.

Weaknesses in the dance

One of our weaknesses, is definitely synchronisation. Some parts we are very well synchronised but with the newer sections we have added we aren't very synchronised as we are still in the learning process and figuring out timings. Our synchronisation will improve the more we practice. Our weakness is also our timing in the dance break section after, the horizontal line. This part of choreography was only recently added to the dance so we need to to have more rehearsal time focusing on it so we can get better with our timing. Another weakness in this dance is the ending lift with all of us catching Gracie. We were quite nervous with this lift so we weren't using our core strength very well and were quite wobbly. With more practice, we will get more confident with this lift.

Personal Targets

My personal target is to work more with my flexibility by doing stretches that can help improve my flexibility as it is one of my weaknesses. My personal target is to also work on my timing in the dance break section as I am currently unsure of when certain movements are meant to be.

Group Targets

Our group target is too wok on our synchronisation when we are all dancing the same thing together. When I watched back the rehearsal videos, it looks messy when we are unsynchronised which is not the effect we want to give off. Our target is to also improve the final group lift so that we become more confident with it. Another target would be to add more elements of improvisation in the dance as well as the technique, Release.

Rehearsal Videos

30/11/23

1st Recap: Run through of the dance