Dance Movement Analysis Notes

Day 2 - Movement Analysis

Introduction

  • Welcome to day two of the course. Today's topic is movement analysis.
  • Content from May 8th lecture slides. Ancient greek stuff on Tuesday (condensed).
  • Focus on dance movement and the elements surrounding it.

Foundational Ways of Looking at Dance Movement

  • Dance is more than just movements; it requires context.
  • It doesn't exist in a vacuum; it involves people, environment, and purpose.
  • Key elements to consider:
    • Who is doing the dancing (sender).
    • For whom it is being done (receiver).
    • The environment in which it's done.
    • Its intended and perceived meanings (text).
    • These terms (sender, receiver, environment, text) are technical but not required for writing, but you should be aware of them for the quiz.

Sender: Who Is Doing the Movement

  • Identifying the bodies performing the movement. Two aspects:
    • Physical characteristics: describing the individual's physical attributes.
    • Non-physical characteristics: religious beliefs, political beliefs, etc (Less emphasis in this course).

Describing Physical Characteristics

  • Examples: Height, build (slim, fit), hair (or lack thereof), tattoos (description of tattoos), clothing (black t-shirt, red sweatpants).
  • Also, consider sex and gender (male presenting).
  • Ethnicity/Race: Important for describing bodies from different geographic locations.
    • Aim for the route of least offense when describing ethnicity.
    • Acceptable descriptors: "brown man," "black man," "Asian man," "white man."

Non-Physical Characteristics

  • Religious beliefs, political beliefs.
  • Clothing can sometimes indicate religious identity (e.g., hijab).
  • Less focus on non-physical characteristics in this course.

Receiver: For Whom the Movement Is Being Done

  • Receiver refers to who is experiencing or witnessing the movement.
  • Can categorize dances based on receivership.
  • Four categories:

Presentational Dance

  • Clear distinction between the sender (who is doing the movement) and the receiver (audience).
  • Example: Ballet - dancers on stage performing for a seated audience.

Participatory Dance

  • The person doing the movement is also the person experiencing it. Both sender and receiver are the same.
  • Example: Partner dance (tango, salsa) - you're dancing with your partner, and they're dancing with you.

Sacred Dance

  • Movement done for a non-physical entity (god, ancestor, spirits).
  • Two types:
    • Presentational: Movement is done to praise or worship a non-physical entity (e.g., dancing in church).
    • Possession: A god or spirit possesses a dancer's body, and the movement is done by that entity through the body (suspend your own opinion).

Reflexive Dance

  • Movement is done to and for oneself; no one else is involved.
  • Example: Dancing around in the kitchen while cooking. Purely for oneself.

Receiver Contiguity

  • Dances can fall into multiple receivership types simultaneously.
    • A ballet duet can be presentational (done for an audience) and participatory (between the dancers).
  • All dances are considered reflexive because the individual doing it has some stake in it (thrill, joy, cathartic release).
  • Exception: Possession dance - the argument is made that it's not truly reflexive.

The Environment in Which It Is Done

  • Two types of environment
    • Physical environment: Describing the space physically using all senses (visuals, sounds, smells, and feelings).
    • Contextual environment: Non-physical things such as social, cultural, political, religious, and artistic environments.

Physical Environment

  • Describe based on visuals (what you see), sounds (what you hear), smells, and feelings.
  • Example: Irish pub setting - uneven floor, smell of beer, clinking glasses, Irish drum, dim lighting.

Contextual Environment

  • Social and cultural environment, political environment, religious environment, artistic environment.
  • Example: Ballet in Canada vs. Ballet in Iran
    • Canada: Largely recreational, for health, fun, or career, secularly expressed, largely accepted.
    • Iran (post-1979 Islamic Revolution): Western practices defunded and pushed underground; ballet became an act of protest or sedition.

Text: Intended and Perceived Meanings

  • Intended meaning is the purpose or reason for the dance as done by the dancer or choreographer.
  • Perceived meaning is the receiver's perception or understanding of the dance.
  • Sometimes these align, sometimes they don't.
  • Example: Social dance - intended meaning is to socialize, and perception likely matches.
  • Example: Contemporary ballet - choreographer creates a narrative, but the audience may interpret it differently.

Exercise 1: Describing a Dance

  • Watch the provided video clip. (Al?n Martel's duet from 2016).
    • Describe the dancers physically.
    • Describe for whom it is being done (receiver type).
    • Describe the physical environment.
    • Describe what you think it was about (perceived meaning).

Laban Movement Analysis

What is Laban Movement Analysis (LMA)?

  • A system for analyzing movement. Addresses what is the movement and how is it done.
  • Developed by Rudolph Laban (1879-1958).
  • Laban born an architect, but then became one of the most prominent dance theorists in the Euroamerican world.
  • Laban is also a big name due to the dance notation system named after the developed.
  • His work focused on documentation, analysis, and interpretation of movement in artistic fields, industry, labor, and therapy.

Space Harmony

  • One of the two primary areas in Laban's theory.
  • Kinosphere: The invisible sphere around you that you can touch with your fingertips and legs without moving your place in space.
  • Proximal and Distal Space:
    • Near Kinosphere: Interacting very close to the center of the sphere.
    • Mid Kinosphere: Interacting on the middle of the sphere
    • Far Kinosphere: Interacting with the far part of your kinosphere.
  • Different movement practices and cultures use the kinosphere differently.
  • Laban: recognize that there are infinite points in that kinosphere that a part of the body can move.
  • Laban divided the kinosphere into 27 points to help analyse the space, he broke the kinesisphere down was through direction and level.
  • Direction
    • This symbol here (∧) indicates forward
    • This symbol here (>) indicates right
    • This symbol here (v) indicates back
    • This symbol here (<) indicates left
  • Levels
    • symbols on the left here with a dot in the center indicate a middle level.
    • The ones that are shaded in indicate a low level.
    • The ones that are hatched indicate a high level.
The Use of Space Harmony
  • Which part of the body is doing the movement.
  • Which direction it's moving in.
  • What level it's moving at.
  • The pathways it takes to get there.

Efforts

  • Deals with how of movement. Four components, but we'll only focus on three:

    • Space.
    • Time.
    • Weight.

  • Space: Ranges from direct to indirect.

    • Direct: Concerned with the destination, takes the most efficient path.
    • Indirect: More about the journey, takes a circuitous path.

  • Time: Ranges from sustained to quick.

    • Sustained: Slow and prolonged movement.
    • Quick: Fast movement.
    • Time is relative, everyone's comfortable speed is different.

  • Weight: Ranges from heavy to light.

    • Heavy: Trying to affect an object, to move it. Resists gravity.
    • Light: Trying not to move something out of the way. Yields to gravity.

Combining Efforts

  • Laban Combined each binary aspects of space, time and weight to get what are called the different efforts.
    • Thrust Movement: Direct use of space, quick time, and heavy weight. ex. Punch.
    • Dab Movement: Direct use of space, quick time, and light weight.
    • Press Movement: Direct use of space, sustained use of time, and heavy weight.
    • Glide Movement: Direct use of space, sustained use of time, and light weight. ex. skating
    • Slash Movement: Indirect in its use of space, quick in its use of time, and heavy in its use of weight.
    • Flick Movement: Indirect, quick, and light.
    • Wring Movement: Indirect, sustained, and heavy. You can think about literally rin
    • Float Movement: Indirect, sustained and light.So the complete opposite of a thrust
    • FREE - confidence within the movement(not necessary to understand movements

Mechanical vs. Poetic Descriptions

  • Need to balance Mechanical and Poetic descriptions.
  • When writing about movement: create a story that drives the feeling and pace of what was seen.
  • It is more important makes the writing interesting than mechanical. Though other contexts may require the mechanical.
  • Achieve a balance of description and ideas using analogies, similes, and metaphors.

Exercise 2

  • Watch same video clip. Find 10 seconds where there is significant movement that is happening.
  • Describe what you are seeing in a balance description to what is happening.

Assignments

  • What you should have between today and Tuesday is Just a reading and prepare for your quiz (BAKY)
  • Between Tuesday and Thursday complete your participation.
  • Between that Thursday and May 25th, complete your descriptive video analysis. 1000 - 1200. no less than a thousand words or will get penalized. Make sure you are consistent w your information.