This page is not so much research but an exploration into the composition class I am taking during my junior at OSU on Tuesday’s and Thursday Fall 2018. It is taught by Eddie Taketa where we will be doing a great amount of things which will all be recorded.
This is where I will post my blogs (most current at the top):
9/26/17— Today was a spin off of the last class. For majority of the time, we were in groups of 6. We all got a chance to create movement based off of the position. We each had 8 minutes to create a one minute work. Below are the videos that I created and the ones I was in for other groups:
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My creation:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GiNM2XuN6ja8Yoxw2
Emily Gafga:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/TQ6AChFc4yZc3nIf2
Maddie Mazolo:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SMlsPem1FtD16hai2
Maxi Riley (this one was made with a large dose of humor):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ykEY7ONS2nvL8hNJ3
9/21/17— Today was a fun day as well. We did the lottery thing again and was split up into the same group numbers but we all had a different number. We then split up in the groups into pairs. Two were choreographing, two were dancing, and two were just watching. I got to choreograph the first group and I came up with a minute of movement. Here is what Maddie and myself came up with:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/IEr4bD0VnWC3gDRk1
Then the second group went and I was the peanut gallery. But it was interesting to see people move together. Then I was in the last group to dance. Gen and Katie were the choreographers. The guidance that we got from Eddie was that: we could not talk to each other. This what hard at first but it became easier once I was in it. Below is the video of what they came up with.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AejTrUDJZX27mT4E2
9/19/17— Today was a fun day in class. Eddie put out a lottery of numbers which we chose at random. I was number 10. He told us to get in groups from 1-7, 8-13, 14-20. In these groups we were given a folder that had 12 pictures in them. We were suppose to see the picture, in order from 1-6, and create a tabloid with our body. —A tabloid is action that is stopped in time. This is commonly used in Theatre productions to simulate a long extent of time passing by— After the first 6, we would go in order, from smallest number to largest number, and direct the group into a tabloid for pictures 7-12. The pictures we were using we pictures that were drawn from previous classes.
The idea that was created was to see how we created movement from something seen which was created from something else that was seen. Meaning, we just saw the picture and created something, due to a picture that was created because someone saw something, at first glance. Its nice to see how we can create things that were once generated from completely different explorations and experiences. What someone saw and what someone created in the picture is going to be different for someone else who sees the picture. (this sounded like a lot so I hope you can follow).
Below is the video that was created of the 12 different tabloids. We were given some guidance after we first showcased our movement. We were suppose to give weight at every second possible which was hard. I believed that some of the movement was lost due to that. I don’t have that recorded so here is the original phrase.
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/RqPhohOrSuwsSg232
9/14/17— Today was a little draining in class. First, we started in groups where Eddie put a picture, that someone drew from Tuesday, in front of us. We would turn the picture over quickly and we would improv what we saw. After the time frame that he gave us, we would move around in a circle to the next picture. We did this for 4 groups with varying times. The last time, Eddie had someone record us and we had one second to react to the picture. We did this for six pictures so in total we would have six, one second videos in our phone.
Next, Eddie split us up into groups of 3 where some one was 1, 2, and 3. Then he split us up further for the one’s to go to a spot, the two’s to a spot, and then the three’s to a spot. He gave each group of picture that they had to choose from and afterwards returned back to their original group. Now the next set of instructions were confusing. What we had to do was:
– person one improv’d to a picture that another person put down.
– the second person, who put the picture down, had to watch person one improv-ing and choose singular moments to record a set of 10, one second videos.
– the third person recorded person number two
– once finished, we would repeat this process so everyone had a chance at everything
At the end of this section, we had a total of 16, one second videos; six were our own movement, and 10 were movement from another persons movement, put on our body. We took those videos and created a piece from them. We just created whatever we saw and implemented it without making it precious.
This entire process was tiring for me because there was a lot of improvising for extended periods of time with little influence. I wouldn’t say I am happy with what I came up with by I am not dissatisfied with it either. Here is a video of what I came up with in the end with stage directions and implications from other classmates watching:
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/HMeLiiEqwluv2Kut1
9/12/17— I don’t know how to explain today but it was amazing. I wont get into words about this one because it was mostly about drawing, painting, or sketching what I saw. Below are a pictures of the drawings I made based off of certain dancers and their movement. I will say, I JUST LOVED TODAY because it is nice to take a step back and explore a different art!
9/07/17— Today was an interesting day. Everyone was not in the right mindset for class so Eddie decided that we take it easy. He told us to remember what we did from the 8/29 class and just perform it with our group of people. Everyone had some comments to say about each other but then the commentary started to take an interesting turn. We started to dissect what it meant to “be” precious, “make” something precious, and if we can “control” precious. Some people had detailed explanations but when we were asked if we can “make” precious, I automatically thought, No! In my opinion, making something precious is not possible because the idea of something being precious exist on the emotional context we, as humans, add to it. For example, if I was in a dance piece that helped mold me, through blood, sweat, and tears, into the story, movement, and environment… that piece is going to be precious to me. That piece is going to be SPECIAL to me because I found some piece of me through that journey. I don’t mean that something grand had to happen. It could be something small as figuring out my style of dance or understanding the group of people who I can work with.
The idea of precious brings something that is stationary or lifeless and makes it tangible and real. When we say something is special, it has become something that is out of our control. We have allowed it to be what it is without the pressure of accomplishments, becoming, or success.
This is such a large concept because dancers will find themselves creating movement that is precious. They want to create something that eventually becomes important to them and when asked to change, no one is willing to. In a sense, that thinking is good. You want to make something that is real to you without the judgement of someone else telling you to change it. Although this could be great thinking, it could also hinder you from fully growing.
I do understand that thinking but I believe whatever “precious” is, explains the meaning of something. Once I got onto this concept, my mind further ventured into the realm of “how different cultures value ‘precious'”. Example: In high school, we generated movement that eventually resonated into a deeper meaning then once created. Being in a predominantly African American dance department, our movement fostered from a long history of black culture. Everything had a meaning! So when I came to OSU, I was told not to make something that was so precious but in my mind, I felt like I was told not to make something meaningful. I did not know what it meant to make something that did not have any meaning because movement was ALWAYS created with meaning.
Overall, this discussion was extremely lucrative but it draws up another question that people could argue: What is meaning? and why is it so important to people??
9/05/17— Today was an interesting day. We did not have a full class. Eddie decided to split us up into three 40 minute groups with 6 people to a group. I was in the last group from 4:20-5:00. When we got in, Eddie said that we would be doing a room read which is what we have been doing for the past few classes. Three people started out on the floor where two other students plus myself gave them words and phrases to create movement to. We gave them words such as: 10 mirrors, plaid shirt, and greenery, just to name a few. The other dancers worked their assignment into muscle memory which then was recorded. Finally we moved on to the next group. My group had the following list of words:
- branches
- light reflection from window
- empty crate
- Alize’s lunchbox (it had flowers on it)
- 2nd line on the ground
- 2 clips holding the shade open
- the chord to pull the shades down
- the bongo drum
- the orange strip on someones sock
- a mop
- Alize in the mirror
- large rectangular panel
Throughout this entire exploration with movement, my mind was completely blank when it came to thinking about movement or overthinking the words given. I let my body create whatever it felt like making. I believe I made some great discovers in movement for it to only be a few words and phrases.
——————————Videos——————————-
This is the video taken from class. Its real time movement and we only performed it once.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/eYePd9UqdIoW4nHc2
8/31/2017— Today in class we gave Eddie some words from a room read. He came up with movement that we then reacted to. We recorded our reactions and created a variation of our own. After some time, we showed our work to each other. Everyone picked a word that they saw from the works which the dancers then chose a word and embodied it in the phrase. We didn’t know which word the dancers chose so we had to guess. It was fun figuring it out and a lot of people were spot on with the words but no one was able to figure out my word. My word was serpentine. You can tell the difference in my movement and how I embodied the visual representation in my head from the video
Throughout this class I was having a hard time. It was due to the fact that I did not know how to “respond” to the movement Eddie was giving. I wanted to copy or mimic what he was doing. I felt like my movement wasn’t good but I didn’t stay with that idea for long. When it was time for me to go, I performed my work. When finished everyone gave some words that they saw that correlated with the movement. I fought between the words serpentine and longing but I decided to use serpentine. I was told my movement changed dramatically. I also realized that it was easy for me to interpret the feeling because of my tendency to directly portray the movement. This explains why I struggled with the “responding” in the beginning but succeeded with the indulge at the end. I finally came to this realization but I do realize that it has its pros and cons.
Sidenote: I’ve been having great epiphanies after my classes recently so I intend on talking about them here in this blog. We will see how that goes!
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First Video: original movement with no word guidance
https://goo.gl/photos/16w7piGL4TdcYkcD7
Second Video: embodying the word “serpentine”. Also my eyes are closed in the beginning of the video
https://goo.gl/photos/nXjonURuVGmAvimr5
8/29/2017— So today in class we combined the room reading and phrases together. I was in a group of 4 where one person was being directed. We had to create a list of 24 words and phrases. The person created the movement and at the end, they taught it to us. Then we all had to take that base movement and create a variation for it. Surprisingly, this study was not as hard compared to the last class. Last class, I was hard on myself. I kept getting down on my movement but today I didn’t think twice about the movement I created. I would create something then evolve it once or twice and then leave it alone or move on to the next phrase. Not spending a lot of time on movement allowed me to appreciate what I was coming up with.
List of phrases:
- blue
- arts
- first aid kit
- Bing Bing Bing
- pringle pool
- idea factory
- smudgy
- cords and wires
- ticking hand on clock
- hard wall
- yellow label
- unlit
- beautiful locks
- patrage
- shifty
- 11 giant rectangles
- ponytail
- Laura’s pants
- Bibibop
- figs and feta
- hairball
- “aaaaahhh“
- rubbing your belly & patting your head
- pencil marks (mencil marks)
—–The phrases in blue are what I came up with.
So in my group, we all came up with different variations from the original movement. The class then comes together and Eddie gives us a few ideas to play on. We showed just to show but then he said a group of 3, then 6, then 10. Now with a group of 3, you can visually see movement and patterns. In 6, the same ideas are there, just more evolved. Now with 10 people, I started to lose the sense of looking at movement. I noticed that I was paying more attention to the numbers in the phrase such as how many people, who was up or down, who was moving, who stopped etc. There was a lot of playing around with the movement to see what would happen with the group as a whole. Some amazing things happened and connections were made in the movement which told an interesting story.
All around this was an interesting class and I enjoyed today even though I was tired. Below are some videos.
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First video is the base movement created by Maddie (pretty white shirt):
https://goo.gl/photos/q94dgdHBmrdgkbXHA
Second video is the variation I created:
https://goo.gl/photos/FLLo2AQkpsDL3xZz9
Third video is from a group portion:
(you lose me a little in the video because the other group was instructed to close their eyes for a little time. After, she does follow me once her eyes are open)
https://goo.gl/photos/4uaF21H5DxPaNY6S9
8/24/2017— Today was frustrating to me. The second we come in, Eddie says, “Get a notebook and a pen”. Next thing I know, he starts saying random words and phrases. It started off as ten. Then he told us to take this information and create a 1-4 count for each phrase… At first I was like “OK”…. but it started to get complicated because I started to judge my movement.
*this is something that I have a great problem with and I am on the path to working on this.
So as we progress, I come up with movement. Then he adds 10 more words/phrases which we create ourselves. We create movement, piece it together, then receive 15 MORE words/phrases that we all come up with. Finally, Eddie makes us get in a group and create 10 more words/phrases then create movement to it, to add to the beginning of our entire phrase. When I say I was done, I was done. I felt like I had no movement for anything. I thought I was repeating myself also.
I also expressed this and Eddie made me perform my work in front of everybody. I was not ready. I was also really nervous but I did it. Eddie told me I did a good job and to not be worried. So I am going to work on that.
Below is a picture of the words and phrases that he gave us along with is some of the responses other dances made on my own work. I also include the video so you can see how it all plays out.
——————————Videos——————————-
Sorry for the crappy video. I forgot my movement in the beginning so please bare with me.
https://goo.gl/photos/6kdFDD2gVbVpye337
8/22/2017— Today in class we worked with using things in the room to create movement. For example: You get the word “alarm”. Whatever comes to mind, just do. When I did it, I was with a partner who chose 25 items for me to do in 10 minutes. I struggled because I thought to hard about it. When we switched, my partner only had 25 items in 7 minutes. Being on the receiving end, I felt like I had too much time to think things through. When I was the one pointing out items for her to embody, I told her to just use what came up and not think too much about it. I said that because I felt like I over thought mine way too much! I also realized when we were both working was that we used the floor a lot. We created movement on some form of balcony each time we created movement. We were also pointing out things that were below us on some type of diagonal which made us go to the ground more. I didn’t come up with this idea until after class when I sat and had time to think about what we did. Overall, my mind was not completely in class… maybe because it was the first day. With that being said, this specific blog post will not be as long. But here is the list of items I had to embody (in order):
- the letter “M”
- white paper with words
- a light that was blown
- black spot on ground
- crane
- corner
- cobweb
- the letters “OO”
- water bottle
- double lines on a girls shirt
- trashcan
- handle on a door
- arrow
- construction cone
- a chunky box on the ceiling
- chair
- sewer drain
- tree
- big circular structure
- red OSU hat
- the action of people staring
- squares on a rug
- crumbled paper
- silver square on the wall
- open space between bars
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Here is the video to watch all of this come together!
https://goo.gl/photos/AngerQn3bkY3EZPN8
Brianna Rhodes 