... and their impact on dance
Photo by Dorina Köbele-Milas
What it's about
I'll be honest: This part of my research has probably been the most difficult so far. Perhaps because it forced me to subordinate myself to the music in some ways. My habitual and well practised pattern of a continuous flow over the music was often a barrier for me to be able to approach the phrases of the music and the phrasing of my dance. It is not necessarily about making stops, but about conscious decisions in dealing with the phrases. It was important for me to notice when a phrase begins and ends and to consider its musical characteristics. What motifs do I hear? Which intervals? What is the tension curve of the phrase? How do breath and phrase relate to each other? How do I deal with what I hear in the dance research?
My first "session"
From the musicians point of view, the separated, and thus spatially and rhythmically more precisely defined, movements were a clearer interpretation of the melodies.
I was able to try out some ideas and tasks during a session with a musician. The direct communication between the fiddle player and me, between live music and dance, was an exciting, challenging and new question-raising experience. The session with the fiddler gave me the opportunity to work with improvised music and to influence the music with my dance. On the other hand, it gave me the opportunity to break down the melodies into their "single components". I tried to express intervals played by the musician with pauses as directly as possible with simple movements. I also tried to change the body parts with each new interval. So to speak, to let the intervals "jump" from one body part to another. Little by little, we added notes until short melodies were formed. From the musicians point of view, the separated, and thus spatially and rhythmically more precisely defined, movements were a clearer interpretation of the melodies. In reverse, this meant questioning how a melody could be read or identified when series of movements were danced in a very connected way.
Enough reflection. Here is a selection of the tasks I worked with which, in a narrower or broader sense, address phrase and phrasing:
Active listening:
Before going into movements, listen to the Slow Air once or several times and pay attention to where the phrases begin and end. How are they structured? Which phrases repeat?
With this knowledge, go into the movement research, play the music and feel and follow the phrases.
Mark the beginning and end of the phrases by changing your spatial direction. For example, move first to the right with one phrase and then to the left with the next. Or turn 180 degrees with each new phrase. Then increase as desired to four spatial directions, then eight, etc.
Include the characteristics of the phrases and transfer them to the movement research: Are the melodies falling, rising, wave-shaped or arch-shaped, etc.? In other words, how is the musical phrasing designed?
Consider and eventually decide on which level (trace) the music, its phrases and melodies should be perceived: 1. formally-analytically, 2. associatively and pictorially, 3. by listening for physical states of arousal.
This led to the task of describing the respective Slow Air associatively while listening to it. Sometimes I used all, sometimes only three, of the words written down as a basis for the next improvisation. This approach can be combined well with tasks that examine the phrases more formally.
Connecting the tension curves of the phrases with physical tension curves. This implies understanding the musical tensions as body-musical movements.
Build up tension while dancing, then break it.
Interpret the phrases with swings, round line swings to be precise. Same here, break the swings.
The same applies to 'get up momentum', 'rebound' and 'collapse'.
"Stacking": Choreograph movement phrases. Start with one movement. Repeat it and add another. Interrupt. Repeat and add another... Each time or when you're inspired, add one or more movements. This way the phrase becomes longer and longer. Moreover, this can be done while listening to a Slow Air or with the memory of a certain music.
Examine the relationship between the musical phrase, the phrasing of your dance and your own breath.
Breathe simultaneously or with a time delay to the music.
"Extract" and remember a phrase and vary it supported by the breath.
Experiment with breathing in combination with stacking.
Observations
Not in every Slow Air it is clearly recognizable, at least for me as a non-musician, where a phrase begins and where it ends. Phrases are musical units of meaning. Focusing on phrases has sharpened my understanding of melody. In a way, melodies "live" within phrases. The phrases determine the process, the story, of the Slow Air that the melody describes with sounds instead of words. The curve of tension is not always congruent with the phrase. Sometimes the tension is released in the middle of a phrase, sometimes it is carried over into the next.
Slow Air: "Her Mantle so Green" by Peter Horan & Gerry Harrington
Special thanks to tanzbasis Berlin
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