2. Contemporary Dance is a combination of
several dance genres. It is a style of
expressive dance that combines elements
of several dance genres including modern
, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet.
The term “contemporary” is somewhat
misleading: it describes a genre that
developed during mid-20th century and is
still very popular today. It is a expressive
dance.
3. Dancers in contemporary styles concentrate
on floorwork and let gravity drag them to the
ground. In this type of dance, bare feet are
frequently worn. Various musical genres can
be used to accompany contemporary dance
performances.
The dancers in contemporary dance explore
freedom of movement, enabling their bodies
to freely express deepest emotions and
convey tales. The movements are performed
to a variety of songs and span from quick and
sharp to sloppy and smooth.
4. Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and Merce
Cunningham were pioneers of modern dance
because they disobeyed the rigid restrictions of
ballet. All of these dancer/choreographers held
the view that dancers should be able to move
freely, expressing their innermost thoughts
with their body. It's crucial to remember,
though, that Cunningham is frequently
referred to as the founder of contemporary
dance, whereas Graham pioneered what is now
known as modern dance and Duncan's style
was distinctly here own. She was among the
first to raise interpretive dance to the status of
creative art.
5. There are many features that both modern and
contemporary dance share; they are, in a sense, branches
coming from the same roots. Ballet was a term used to
describe theatrical dance performances in the 19th
century. With Catherine de' Medici's assistance, court
dancing throughout the Italian Renaissance evolved into
ballet, a formal discipline that gained popularity.
Ballet conventions started to be broken by a few dancers
around the tail end of the 19th century. Francois Delsarte,
Loe Fuller, and Isadora Duncan were a few of these
people who created distinctive movement genres based
on their own philosophies. All of them put greater
emphasis on emotional and physical expressiveness than
on formal procedures.
6. Contrary to ballet or Duncan's "Isadorables," a new dance
style known as "modern dance" arose between about
1900 and 1950. Modern dance is a codified dance
technique with a particular aesthetic. Modern dance,
which was created by trailblazers like Martha Graham, is
based on breathing, movement, muscle contraction, and
muscle release.
Martha Graham had Alvin Ailey as one of her students. He
was the first to incorporate African American aesthetics
and concepts into contemporary dance, although
maintaining a closer link to previous approaches.
7. Merce Cunningham, a different Graham student, started
experimenting with his own kind of dance in the middle
of the 1940s. John Cage's utterly original music served as
Cunningham's inspiration for creating an abstract
dancing style. Dance was liberated by Cunningham from
the traditional theatrical setting and from the necessity to
convey particular stories or ideas. Cunningham
popularized the idea that dance steps may be arbitrary
and that every performance could be distinctive.
Cunningham is frequently considered to as the father of
contemporary dance because of his full abandonment of
traditional dance practices.
8. Dance is an ephemeral art form that has inspired a range of
opinions, oftentimes ones that are diametrically opposed.
But there is no denying that dance has shaped and
informed our conceptions of the nation and nationhood.
It cannot be denied that nations have constantly had to
strike a balance between upholding their identities and
meeting the demands of the ever-changing socio-political,
economic, and cultural re-alignments around the world.
This is especially true in the age of intense globalization in
contemporary Southeast Asia, where national borders have
ostensibly given way to the fluid movement of economic
goods, peoples, and cultural practices.
9. As a result, cultural practices are constantly entangled in larger
cultural and political networks and become embroiled in disputes
that are expressions of the nation's continuing power, despite or
precisely because of the contentious nature of the globalization
debate. In fact, the reorganization of international power
dynamics has led to the reassertion of national boundaries rather
than the "transcending of nations." As a result, numerous cultural,
historical, sociopolitical, religious, economic, gender, racial, and
sexual discourses continue to be forged in the nation as a
discursive practice.
In the Philippines, dance has made a significant cultural
contribution. There is no denying that dance in the Philippine
context has integrated itself in society over many years and is
deeply ingrained in culture, from one of the oldest dated dances
lled the tinikling to other folkloric dances like the pandanggo,
cariñosa, and subli, and even to more contemporary dances like
the ballet.
10. A variety of styles, including ballet, modern, and
"post-modern" (structureless) dance, are
incorporated within contemporary dance today.
While some contemporary dancers improvise in
their own distinctive ways, others perform wholly
new creations as they construct characters,
dramatic events, or storylines.
11. ALIGNMENT
This refers to how your limbs, torso,
and head are placed in relation to
each other. It’s like posture, but for
poses and movement. Correct
alignment not only helps the dancer
complete the movements with the
correct visual style, but helps
prevent injury.
BREATHE FLOW
This is an aspect of movement.
Consider water from a hose: Free flow
is water pouring out, uninterrupted; it
can be turned on or off at the source.
Add a nozzle or sprinkler, it’s now a
forced and regulated motion, it’s
bound or constricted flow. Remove
the valve from the spigot and you
have continuous flow.
In the strictest sense breathing
relates to your use of oxygen while
dancing, but breath more
specifically refers to the use of
inhalation and exhalation as
theatrical tools to add to a
performance.
12. INTENTION
Intention is the reason for the
dancer’s movement and the
movement’s purpose in the larger
choreography. Like ‘motivation’ for
stage actors, intention is a very
important part of the relationship
between the performer and the
audience.
MOTIF SPACE
Another word that comes from the
language of music, a motif is a
central movement or collection of
movements around which a larger
piece is based on. Think of it like a
visual theme.
This refers to the area that the dancer
inhabits and commands. Additionally,
space is a quality, a dancer can portray
through their movements uneven
space, expanding or contracting
space, space which is troubled by
external forces or space that protects
the dancer from external forces.
Motif
13. TEXTURE
Texture refer to the feeling of a
movement for the dancer as well as
the feel that the dancer is
portraying. Textures often work
closely with the music to capture the
spirit of the score.
TIME WEIGHT
Weight is understood in two ways
in contemporary dance: A dancer has
weight (obviously), but a dancer’s
actions and movements also have
weight. For instance, a lightweight
action would appear almost effortless
to the viewer, like a flick of the wrist.
While a heavyweight motion requires
the dancer to portray more exertion
and effort.
This can mean the same thing that
it does in music, the tempo or speed
of a piece. However, in dance time
can also refer to an aspect of
movement, whether it’s sustained
or quick and cut off. Think of the
pedals on the piano and their
relationship to notes in musical
phrases.
14. CHOREOGRAPHY
This is the mapping of the steps and
movements which make up the
dance. Think of it like sheet music
and arrangements in music or
direction and script in film and
theatre.
GESTURE CANON
Dance often uses the same
terminology as music, which is exactly
the case with canon. Only instead of a
repeating musical pattern built
around one central movement, here
you have a section of choreography
where a specific type of movement is
repeated either in time with or against
sync with other dancers.
Part of the theatricality of a
contemporary dance, a gesture is a
movement that conveys feeling or
direction without moving the weight
of the body. For instance: A wave,
smile, head nod, and jazz hands are
all gestures. A grand jeté (forward
leap borrowed from ballet) is not.
15. ISOLATION
The ability of the dancer to isolate a
movement from the rest of the
action or to create an inaction with a
specific body part while movement
is present elsewhere. It is an
important form of control.
DYNAMICS
This is how a dancer utilizes aspects of motion like
flow, space, time, texture, and weight to create
movement. Try to visualize each of those aspects next
to a control knob which allows various gradients of
effort and you will quickly realize that–like music–
there is an incredible amount of combinations and
variation in the dynamics of dance. It is an important
form of control.
16.
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