SESSIONS -
WORKSHOP
Using the Language of Dance Movement Alphabet to facilitate the creative process
Susan Hughes Gingrasso, USA
Workshop Purpose.
This workshop demonstrates how using the Language of Dance® (LOD) Movement Alphabet® methodology I developed jumpstarts the creative and choreographic process. I will share the process of how I quickly created, rehearsed and performed a challenging six-minute solo using four Movement Alphabet concepts to construct 12 motifs that I then sequenced and manipulated into the final form of the dance, Breath Child. Using a DVD of the performance, I will connect the notated motifs to those actually seen on the DVD. Given time, I will guide participants in the use of this creative process to create and perform their own movement motifs.
Context.
In 2007, Joyce Crain, a Minneapolis-based fiber artist, asked me to choreograph and perform a work for the installation of Atmosphere at the College of Eastern Utah-San Juan Campus in Blanding, UT. Crain had received a commission from Utah’s Public Art Program to create this stunning kinetic sculpture (11’h x 33’w x 4’d) for the southwest facing floor to ceiling window of the foyer of the Health Science Library on the campus. Suspended 12’ over the floor of the foyer, Atmosphere presents a constantly changing rainbow of shimmering colors that reflect and refract sunlight to simulate virga, the rain clouds of the Southwest (picture on page 4).
Creative Problem. I had to create and rehearse the choreography in relationship to the window and to how Atmosphere hung in the foyer. I also had develop a methodology that would allow me to create rich material, assemble movement ideas in an order that made metaphoric and choreographic sense, get the sequence into my body and bring the whole work up to performance quality in a very short period of time. I could not rehearse in the foyer until after Atmosphere was installed.
Creative Process.
I had a vision of how Atmosphere would look and hang in the space from my visits with Crain as well as the pictures and detailed drawings she sent. She commissioned Minneapolis based composer Mike Olson to create the music that captured the natural sound scape of the Southwest. In listening to Flute Clouds I mapped the guiding metaphors and supporting Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) concepts, subsequently selecting four Movement Alphabet ideas from which I would ultimately construct the piece: tilting, traveling, falling, and minor displacements. The day after I arrived in Blanding to assist with the installation, I devised the following process to ground me: score the music; devise and notate three short motifs for each of the four Movement Alphabet concepts; give them descriptive names; sequence them in relationship to the score, make adjustments in the sequence and rehearse to embody the meaning. In eight hours (over 2 days), I had created and notated 12 short motifs. The next afternoon after Atmosphere was in the air and the mobile lift was no longer in use, I began the short but intense rehearsal period. The installation ceremony was Monday afternoon, September 24 at 4:00 pm when the maximum amount of sunlight illuminated the 6,000 reflective and refractive dichroic acrylic squares.
Results.
Through this creative process, I discovered that being able to identify specific Movement Alphabet ideas from which to create a work, using each idea to make and notate three motifs grounded the process. In performance, I discovered that the work captured the essence of what I wanted to convey in both the content and performance. This process allowed me to synthesize all of my LOD knowledge and LMA expertise to quickly and thoroughly embody the movement ideas and into the realm of performance where I no longer do the movement but I “am” the movement.
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