What is a choreographic approach?
A choreographic approach comprises two aspects:
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-The creation of the dance material
-The organization of the dance material
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However, the factors that influence how you approach your choreography are:
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-The type of stimulus or idea
-The message you want to communicate
-The type of movement you use and how you create material with your dancers
-What do you want the audience to perceive
-How the choreography relates to the other elements of the production
All these elements will influence your decision. In general, it is essential to remember what outcome you want to achieve and what you want the audience to perceive. This will help you decide what choreographic approach is best for your choreography.
Following, you will find some examples of choreographic approaches.
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Contact Improvisation
Contact improvisation is a way of making dance that involves two or more people exploring different ways of taking each other's weight. This could lead to developing a dance vocabulary involving actions such as push, pull, lean, lift, catch, and throw. This device challenges the traditional roles played by men and women in partner dance. In the video, you can see an example of a choreography created using contact improvisation by the choreographer Siobhan Davies.
Chance
This approach works well when movement is a dance's starting point. It might include a random selection of movements and aspects of time and space, resulting in chance relationships between dancers. Numbers, dice, playing cards, flashcards, and so on could be used to decide on the actions, the order, and the directions dancers take. This choreographic approach is often associated with the choreographer Merce Cunningham. If you would like to learn more about this choreographer and his choreographic practice, here is the link to his website.
Collage
This is a way of organizing the material and piecing together the dance ideas that you have created. It could include several choreographic techniques and approaches. A collage approach to suggest a theme could consist of different elements in the dance that can indicate that concept.
Task 3
Find an example of a dance piece that uses the collage choreographic approach and explain how the choreographer has used it. Create a short written paper and share it on our forum platform.