Dance Assignment
Dance Assignment
Attend a live dance concert from the current quarter. Please note that reviews about dance concerts that happen prior to the current quarter or reviews of a
video of a concert will not be accepted. (Dance Concert Calendar on the Resources page)
Develop a perspective that compares and contrasts two pieces or sections from the show,and create a thesis statement that is the last sentence of the
introductory paragraph. Here are examples of well-developed thesis statements:
"The choreography presented at Cornish Dance Theater was incredibly diverse in style and theme, however in the two pieces, "XXXXX" and
"YYYYY," the choreographers payed particular attention to his or her use of the stage space to communicate an idea."
You have now seen and written about enough dance that this should be fairly mature. Your perspective could be primarily INTERPRETIVE: what did you think the
dances were about? It could be ANALYTICAL: did the choreographer/s use the same movement or compositional devices in unique ways from each other? It could be
EVALUATIVE: did you think the dances were particularly successful at communicating their idea or in their use of choreographic choices? or in their actual
performance of the movement? Or it could be a combination of all those, it is important, though, that your review is not just a synopsis of the dances but
offers a unique well-developed thesis rooted in course concepts.
Determine what movement or other compositional devices from the dances will be the evidence to support your thesis. What did you see that allowed you to
arrive at your thesis, how can you best describe what you saw to the reader to help make your ideas clear? Be sure to include 3 component descriptions
Put it all together. In the first paragraph, introduce your perspective, set the context for the whole concert, and then, clearly outline the idea you are
going to develop more fully through the rest of the review. In the following paragraphs develop your evidence. Whatever your idea is, you should be
supporting it with clear descriptions of actual bodies moving.
Review your work, does the review effectively make the point you want it to make?
The final review will be one-two pages, typed, double-spaced, with 12-point font and should include a heading in the left hand corner of the paper with first
and last name, Lesson 4 Assignment, and the date.
compositional devices:
Acceleration: to gradually increase the speed with which the movement or movement phrase is done
Deceleration: to gradually decrease the speed with which a movement or movement phrase is executed
Accumulation: a sequence of movements which develops by repeatedly starting at the beginning: 1; 1,2; 1,2,3; 1,2,3,4; etc.
Augmentation: to lengthen time values of some or all movements (TIME); to increase the range of a movement or phrase (SPACE)
Dimunition: to condense the time values of some or all movements (TIME); to reduce the range of the movement or phrase (SPACE)
Development: to carry an aspect or aspects of a phrase to a new choreographic intention
Dynamic variation or transformation: to modify the TIME and ENERGY aspects of the phrase with a view to change its quality or “personality”
Embellishments: to add movements of certain body parts on top of other movements (for example: from a normal walk to a walk with the head shaking violently)
Insertion: to splice new material into a phrase
Inversion: to perform the spatial opposite or counter-direction with the same body part (i.e. The right arm goes from high right side to low left side)
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