Graeme Murphy and rafae bonachela essay

The third section of Duato’s work is performed by the female dancers. They represent the emotive response to the hardship of working and living on a poverty stricken land.

The two live dance works viewed this year were “Emergence”, performed by Sydney Dance Company, choreographed by Rafael Bonachela, performed at the Princess Theatre and a recorded dance performance titled “Image”, choreographed by Jason Northam and Liesel Link. The two dance performances substantiated were exceedingly diverse and dissimilar. The two performances juxtaposed their intentions and interpreted opposing elements through diversity in movement vocabulary, structural devices and form, performance skills and technical elements.

In terms of actions and dynamics for this piece, Bruce has used a few elegant balletic movements, such as arabesque and attitude, to show control and strength of what dominance

Alvin Ailey was a famous choreographer/dancer also founder of his own dance company (AAADT). Inspired by many, (including Katherine Dunham and Horton) he began dancing at the age of 15 where he found his love for dancing. Ballet, jazz and Broadway were the three main dance styles Ailey loved. These styles can also be recognised in nearly all of his choreographies. As choreographic styles identify the constituent features, when it comes to Ailey’s work we can clearly recognise them, through the movement used.

In “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, Gottschild begins by introducing unique aspects of the Africanist aesthetic including how it embraces differences and instead of the traditional European idea of resolving conflict, Africanist aesthetic presents a question and demonstrates the beauty in accepting conflict. One way in which the Africanist aesthetic differs from European ballet is how they utilize polycentrism, having multiple centers of movement, and polyrhythm, when different body parts keep multiple rhythms. Other ways include the high-affect juxtaposition, changes in mood, movement, or tempo, to the drastically contrasting sharpness and intensity in the movements. Gottschild’s main point in her article is to describe how the Africanist aesthetic is much less strict

The male dancer only wore pants and bared his upper body. This simple costume design not only made the people who watch the dance to have a clear vision of the dancer, but also better presented a predicament that the character was experiencing at that time. At the first half of the dance, the dancer would leave at least one part of his body on the bench, and tried hard to reach other parts of his body away. This muscular interplay between the dancer and the bench resonated with the audience to experiencing the same struggle feelings as the character. As the performance developed, the dancer started to leave the bench to fully use the space. The dancer had many different movements comparing with sitting on the bench previously. He started to lie down, roll over, stand on the bench and make a turn use only one foot. The level of the dance was no longer limited in the middle but changing from low to high as well. Having such a change, the dancer is converting a more delight and energetic feeling to the audience, in order to demonstrated that the character was recovered through the

The influence behind the dance company is what makes them so “widely acclaimed” when they perform internationally, for their distinct and unique music, choreography, movements and costume designs. The choreographers inspire the dance pieces, by the traditional stories and movements of various Australian Indigenous communities. Some of their best works include the performance productions of Ochres, Skin and Our Land People Stories.

Mauro Bigonzetti choreographed the first performance, Deep. This contemporary piece infused African influences that focused on togetherness of the human community. As the dancers brought their arms and legs together in a crossing shape towards their hearts, they expressed love and togetherness. Also, the angular movements with a contrast between sharp and smooth complimented the effortless lifts and breathtaking moments that made the audience wonder how they execute such strength and grace. Also, the choreographer’s use of modern music with a twist of African influences was a great mesh between tradition and modern day.

The melody sounds somber and serious and the energy of the dancers suddenly changes. A spoken word takes place and all of the dancer begin to tell their stories of pain and struggle through movements. The spoken word talks about the journey of men and women who overcame social injustice. In the dancer's movements you could clearly see how they correlated together. Movements were powerful and restraint at the same time giving the audience the idea of the women were pushing through something that was bearing them down. There was a lot of expansion in the chest, back, and arms followed by contractions in the body. As soon as the spoken word was finished the mood of the piece change again and the pianist began to play a upbeat tune that brought the dancers back in to a more positive and high spirit. A lot of polyrhythms take place as the dancers jump high and move their arms back and forth moving throughout the space. This happens in unison at first and then solos, trios, and duets happen in this section of the dance. The expression on their faces add charismatic charm to this piece. Their expressions continue to move them into different emotions and feelings that are relatable to everyday

Petipa’s production of Swan Lake is a beautiful example of the structure movements that dancers must perform; in the clip titled Odile entrance & Black Swan pas de deux, you see “The Black Swan” perfect posture and balance, dancing on en Pointe all the while managing to gracefully seduce the prince through her seductive movements and entrancing expressions. In contrast Modern dance focus is on the dancer expressing their inner most emotions and feelings through free flowing movements. The modern dancer uses their whole body more naturally and fluidly to convey what their current emotional state is, unlike classical ballet where the ballerina at all times keeps an upright posture, and performs with structured, angular lines. Martha Graham’s “Frontier” is a great example of the free movements of Modern dance; In this performance Martha Graham uses her whole body to move to the rhythmic sounds of the drums and music, you can clearly see that there is no confined structure in this performance, she is completely moving organically to how she is feeling and what she is trying to convey through her movements.

Watching a video of a dance piece called “The Moroccan Project,” choreographed by Alonzo King was quite impressive. Living in San Francisco and taking dance classes brought me to Lines Ballet which is King’s dance studio. I have seen a great deal of different types of dance at the studio waiting for my Ballet classes and there are some great dancers. It comes as no surprise that Alonzo would have such great dancers. It appears that Alonzo King is exploring different cultures in dance in Contemporary Ballet. His near-perfect choreography is articulate, passionate, and graceful- he brings diversity in dance to San Francisco and other parts of the world. This piece articulates the expression of the two dancers coming together yet dancing apart at times- it is a fusion of several different types of dances into one using video editing to create a story about the coming together of two individuals.

‘For me, it is important that the work I make finds connection … but at the same time… calls into question our conversations of what dance is’ (Garry Stewart, 2010). Garry Stewart, the Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) since 1999, began his dance training at the age of twenty, after leaving university studying social work. Through his explosive, energetic and electrifying style, his unique dance pushes drives boundaries empowering his works, which are technically demanding, frightful and exhausting, creating an intriguing performance. In his pieces ‘Birdbrain’ and ‘G’ a combination of classical ballet, contemporary dance and gymnastics is utilized throughout to create a fascinating performance. Stewart’s productions have toured

The movements were very specific and showed the story of the dance. The partners used many movements that contained many body

Merce Cunningham is one of the avant-gardes in the world of dance and choreography throughout his seventy year career. He had been a guide to most of the choreographers who became primary choreographers in modern times. Moreover, there are precise body movements in his dancing techniques that make him unique pioneer in choreography; also, there are various choreographic pieces by Cunningham that are still being imitated by many choreographers of our present time. Cunningham influenced by his long-term partner and artistic collaborator John Cage. The most controversial of the innovations that he and Cage introduced was undoubtedly the separation of dance from music which motivated by their belief that the both of the two arts exist in time.

The movement is, above all else, gestural. The gestures start out as being removed from meaning and feeling, but eventually become more sensual and fulfilled. The gestures are also what could be considered taboo. Both dancers grab their breasts, groin, and thrust their lower bodies repeatedly throughout the piece. As the dance progresses, the movement goes from being placed and calculated to becoming something more reckless and passionate. There is also a lot of