Creating a Peroformance: Seven Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Sins

When given the task of agreeing upon a theme for our Dance Festival piece, it wasn't much of a surprise that we, as a group, went for something rather dark and twisted: The Seven Deadly Sins. Naturally, there were those amongst us who wanted to do something slightly cheesy (LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAAAAAAAAIN!) and those of us who wanted to do something more innocent (Let's do the LazyTown dance!). However, the sinfully sinister dark approach won.

I WAS PRIDE ;)

Stimulus Items?

Clare gave each of us in the group an area of stimulus to look at. I was given literature. Naturally, I took it with great pride. After looking through the internet for a famous or two, I decided to write my own. After all, I like writing and dark, twisted themes are something I can get behind. Here it is, in its full glory:

They say seven devils own the seven seas
They’re the reason many sailors do not return
We, on our island, are isolated in greed:
The taste of power corrupts those in need.

She tells me seven devils own the seven seas

Between the swigs of mead and forks of meat she feeds me
Gluttony cannot find me whilst on land
Safe between by parapets of sand.

She simpers ‘seven devils own the seven seas’.
Beautiful lady! Stories to amuse.
She beckons me again, lust eyes wide and inviting
How do you refuse a creature of pure beauty, so enticing?

Servants whisper that I have been corrupted by the seven devils who own the seven seas
HAHA! Fools that they are! Who dares to claim their King is corrupt!
I keep them protected with my power and pride
They’re lucky that they’re allied.

Mother once told me that seven devils own the seven seas.
I slept through the day and watched the ceiling through the night
She calls me sloth, but a must disagree.

Why work when sleeping is free?

Seven devils own the seven seas?
I want to own the seven seas!
Devils don’t scare me; I want what I want NOW!
Envy is nothing, compared to me, what to see how?

Father told me as he died that seven devils own the seven seas.
It does not matter who own them; they all lead to his killer
Revenge, I am told, is never correct...
.... But how can I sit here when I can kill the only suspect?

Seven devils own the seven seas
Please please, mercy on me?
I have no place for lust or gluttony or envy or pride
What good is revenge or sloth or greed?

Please spare my mortal soul

How many sins can one man uphold?

... Yes, I know, rhyming couplets are cool. :)

What happened with the stimuli?

Along with everybody else, I took my stimuli into school with me. Now, in my head, there were seven different characters, all controlled by one of the seven deadly sins. And the final two stanzas, all the characters would be the narrator of this. But, when my poem was stuck onto a piece of HUUUUUGE paper, and the team began to bounce about ideas, other interpretations came to light.

Dionne saw the final narrator as a sailor, and the seven sins were attacking him. This was a nice concept, as it would be able to show some strong relationships between the different personalities. Unfortunately, though, there were three students who weren't able to be in the Christmas concert for different reasons.

Complications?

We were faced with many different complications whilst creating this dance piece.

Some were easy fix: Timing with the music, some people wanting to contemporary dance and others wanting to do street style dance, Et Cetera, Et Cetera.

Then, there were tougher struggles.

Firstly, two students dropped the subject. Ouch.

Secondly, I was ill for an entire week. Oops.

Thirdly, Luke wasn't able to make the Dance Festival for valid, personal reasons. Oh well.

These three issues meant that people had to change choreography, change positions, change... nearly everything. Because I was ill for a week (I'M SORRY), I also had to learn a lot of new choreography. I really struggled to learn a move, too, which I'm certain caused tension within the group.

Clare pointed out to us that the dance wasn't really, well... dance-y. How does that happen, you may be wondering? Here's how:

I, Ant, Holly, Tilly and Luke all did drama GCSE. Dionne did dance. So, most of us won't pirouette but we'll happily walk insidiously slow for two and a half minutes.

We had to include more choreography into the dance. Of course, we tried our best to follow the new routine, though a couple of us (ME) did get stressed out over the constantly changing routine. As somebody who misjudges the amount of steps she has to walk down before reaching the bottom frequently, moving isn't my strong suit.

One issue that I think the group needs to work on is, sadly, team work. I wasn't the only one who felt singled out for criticism when making the wrong move, only to then have to person who criticised you laugh when they made a mistake.

Insecurities?

I am very insecure about dancing in front of people. You might think 'what, but you dance in musicals?!'. While that is true, I do dance in musicals, there is a large difference in doing box steps and jazz hands when compared to the style of dance you see at, well, a dance show.

When it comes to musicals, even if I do bad on the dancing side, there's always the singing and acting sides to make up for it. Sadly, these safety nets aren't there when performing a dance piece.

I think what I was most scared of was going wrong in the live performance. It didn't help that the Dance Festival was on a Thursday, when the Thursday Curse was bound to strike.

Space

What is Space?

In dance terms, you use space when deciding how much space to use on the stage, and which direction to use. It often can be interlinked to travel, and the space take up as you travel.

This image shows the different ways you can use space on the stage.

This image shows the LOD, which is the line of dance. This helps dancers know which direction and which part of the stage they should go to.

motifs

Motifs! stofim! sfitom!

Motifs are a phrase of dance that is performed in a piece. Motif development is when the motif is changed in different ways and then repeated throughout the piece in this way.

This is the dance I and Summer created in our motif lesson... can you spot the motif?

The image below shows different ways that we can develop our motifs. We followed these in our lessons in pairs as we developed the motifs that we had learnt from Ghost Dance by Christopher Bruce.

Developing our motifs

I worked with Dionne in order to develop three of the six motifs we had spent time on learning. We chose to do Anthony, Holly and Luke's motifs, as these were, in our opinion, the best ones to develop. We changed the timing of Luke's motif to make it slower, which then changed the dynamic also. The then changed the level of Holly's motif in a way that made it lower down, thus seeming more sinister. Then, with Anthony's motif, we decided to add a lift and then make it flow lighter. The video below shows you I and Dionne's motif development.

Relationships in Dance

Relationships in dance

The first of our RADS is relationship.

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (mother and son):

C asked the group to identify the relationship in Matthew Bourne’s (WOOP!) Swan Lake, specifically the scene between the Queen and the Prince which occurs in the latter’s chambers. This happens 26 minutes and 25 seconds into the video. You can watch it here.

I get the sense that, unlike in what is expected of a mother and son relationship, the queen did not appear too fond of her son. She made him hold his head up high, as if she were more bothered about his status rather than his own feelings. The prince, however, seemed desperate for attention. His movements were like those of a child’s; holding onto her tightly. However, due to his age and strength, it made his manhandling of her seem almost sexual, although I don’t believe he wanted her sexually. He wanted affection from the one woman who had never given it to him. The music, to me, sounds desperate and dangerous. It helps to show the distance in the relationship between the Queen and the Prince.

My chosen video:

I have chosen to look at a dance piece called El Tango De Roxanne. Originally, I wanted to look at the Moulin Rouge version, but, after talking to C who said that she wanted the same message to come across without the lyrics giving anything away. So, I looked and found this video. I think that this is better for the task that C has set us, because it's different to the dance in the movie.

One thing I liked about the relationship was that the relationship seemed violent from the beginning. However, at first it was more sexually violent, but around 1:40 seconds into it, it seems more personal, as if the man is offended. although in the movie, the dance is between and prostitute and an actor, I feel as if though this piece takes it into a different direction. The man seems hurt that he isn't able to control the sex worker. To me, it seems as if the sex worker doesn't want to be tamed, whereas the man wants to do just that.

If you watch the video with the music, it quite clear that she's a prostitute. However, what isn't clear id the man's role. I think this is interesting as it can lead to many different interpretations.

Dynamics in Movement

Looking at Dionne's group's dynamics in both tasks:

The dynamics used in Donne’s group’s work, in order to suit the music Requiem For A Dream, were robotic and jagged. The movements are intense and purposeful, and created a dark sense of foreboding. I thoroughly enjoyed the powerful, intense movements of the upper body. Furthermore, I enjoyed the fluidity of the slow motion sequence.

I liked the fact that, after we were told to use juxtaposing movements to our piece, Dionne’s group turned their movements into more gentle, caring movements that felt timid and shy. It was also interesting to see how the slow motion sequence was made softer, more passive.

How did you feel about the tasks?

All in all, I felt like the task to juxtaposing movements to music was difficult, but quite fun. One major issue that I had was timing; we made our movements faster, more harsh than our original movements to Blue Sun. Because of this, I was unsure with the new timing and how long to hold movements for.

Do you like dynamics?

I do! Dynamics, I feel, correlate well into drama. Movements are used to create an emotion, and you could juxtapose motions to music or setting in drama, too.

Analysing the Other Group's Video

What are you analysing?

Today, we are looking at action within dance. Now, for this the groups were split. In my group, Tilly, Keavy and Summer. The other group; Holly, Dionne, Anthony and Luke.

Previously, I uploaded my group's video, which the other group then has to analyse. I, on the other hand, have to analyse that group's video, which can be found here. So, I've been told to just look at th

e actions that I can see in the group's work.

So, I'll just bullet point what they do, and then go into more detail:

• The group begin with stillness
• They then put one foot in front of the other
• The group do a half turn
• The group then crouch
• They then roll onto the floor
• They are still
• The group do another roll
• They go back up into a kneel
• Luke and Anthony do a quarter turn and then go into a roll
• Dionne and Holly are still
• Luke and Anthony stand up straight, which then leads into a run behind the two to create a square
• They all do a full turn
• Then, they all do a waving gesture
• Another full turn s performed
• The group end in a half jump to face the audience.

I quite enjoyed watching their performance, and on a not so action-y level, I also enjoyed the different levels and shapes the group made with their bodies. It was interesting stuff! Now, I don't think from my bullet points above that I could recreate their dance. But, at least now we know the actions that take place in the dance.

So, when we begin to look at the other aspects of RADS, I know that I can at least identify the Actions that take place.

Maybe one day my knowledge will be so vast I could describe any dance in immense detail...

... Or I could just use Labanotation.

Dance: Exploring Action

This is the video that Clare wants you to study.