SESSIONS -
PAPER
Notating Liu Feng-Shueh’s piece Tsao-Pi & Chen-Mi
Pascale Guénon, FRANCE
Ms Liu Feng-shueh is graduated from the National Chanbai Teachers College with a degree in dance and music. She studied modern dance and choreography at Tokyo University of Education. She went to Germany to study choreography and notation Laban at the Folkwang Hochschule (1970) with Albrecht Knust. Eleven years later, she went to London and earned a Ph.D. at the Cambridge University.
Director of her own group in Taiwan, The Neo Classic Dance Company, she has researched and reconstructed dances from the Chinese Tang, Sung and Ming dynasties and choreographed more than 120 dances.
Using labanotation, Ms Liu has recorded herself these historical dances, or hired others notators to write them down.
Chih Hsiu Tsui, graduated from the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, former student of Jacqueline Challet-Haas, recorded "Vast Desert, solitary smoke rises straight". The score was published in 2003.
Also graduated from the Conservatoire de Paris, I was contacted in order to record another dance of Ms Liu.
In 2004, I spent five weeks in Taipei. As the piece was almost ready to be presented on stage (National Theater in Taipei) I could not take notes on the spot, but I tried to shoot all the repetitions before and after performances to acquire as much material, in order to notate after my return in France. I collected about twelve hours of videos, in studio and on stage.
The choreography combines contemporary dance, Chinese classical dance and Chinese martial arts. The choreography takes place during the Three Kingdoms era, and in the piece historical facts interweaves with legends.
The dance is composed of four acts and lasts about 90 minutes. There are 31 dancers for 63 roles. There are a lot of handling of objects: sticks, swords, drums, stool, hat, scarf and costumes sometimes. Passages with large groups (between 7 and 17 dancers) add to the complexity in both the movement of organization of the score.
In this presentation, I will present the piece, the process of notating it, the challenge I faced as I had to adapt to these new styles of movement but also to a new culture. I will also present specific some features of the styles and how I notated it.
Pascale Guénon - Graduated in notation at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris (1998), she has notated works by Ashley Page, the Crowsnest Trio as well as variations from the ballet repertoire.
She is currently working on the notation score of an evening-length piece of Taiwanese choreographer: Tsao-Pi and Chen-Mi.
She is chair of Association nationale des notateurs du mouvement- Envol des Signes.
|
