Page 51, choreography exploration exercises explained by Blom and Chaplin and used in Kerri Canedy's Advanced Modern Dance class at St. Lawrence University: Page 71, Doris Humphrey reference in Blom and Chaplin's The Intimate Act of Choreography: | Reading this book felt very familiar. Perhaps this familiarity stemmed from its frequent references to Doris Humphrey's The Art of Making Dances, or my recognition of many of the activities which were used in Kerri Canedy's Advanced Modern Dance course here at St. Lawrence. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the the work: "You do not learn to choreograph by reading about it, hearing about it, or by watching the major companies in concert. You learn by choreographing, by experimenting, by creating little bits and pieces and fragments of dances and dance phrases, by playing with the materials of the craft over and over again until they become second nature," (Blom and Chaplin 3). "know what your intention is - then say it with clarity and simplicity...we should know what we are trying to say with movement," (8). "Turning is magical, mystical, as in trance dances. By analogy it is connected to whirlpools, spirals, to the circle and all the symbolism that it calls forth," (47). I like the first quote above because it describes a lot of my work this semester - experimenting over the course of hours, days and weeks with the dancers and how they move with elastics. The second quote is also very relevant to my project because my performance had an intended message which I had to work with both verbally in the Dance Concert video clip and also in movement with the dance performance itself. The third quote caught my attention because at one of the high points in the "Bewilderments" choreography, the dancers lift one dancer and collectively turn. As the quote explains, this was a visual metaphor established in my choreography representing the changes that a person goes through when interacting with others. |
Overall, I enjoyed reading The Intimate Act of Choreography and think that it was a like a second in depth look at Doris Humphrey's The Art of Making Dances. One quality that I particularly loved about both of these books were the suggested in class exercises that choreographers and dancers can use to discover new movement. I thought that the exercises were useful whenever I felt stuck or caught up in one dynamic. In short, I recommend both of these books to anyone jumping into the world of choreography.