Ghost Dances – Christopher Brunce

He was born in Leicester in 1946 and began dancing to strengthen his legs after contracting polio as a child. He went on to become one of the great male dancers of the post-war era, and subsequently one of Britain’s most important and popular choreographers, renowned for his ability to create emotionally-driven works which bridge the gap between classical and contemporary dance. My task was to watch a dance piece from Christopher Bruce’s ghost dances and take ideas and make a group dance up. We were put into groups of 3 or 4 and brought together some basic ideas. Flowing Pirouettes

Graceful yet contemporary Spins Solo pieces But together Ballet influenced Lifts Pointed or flexed feet strong movements We thought of a few basic things, which came from watching the pieces of the performance we had to use and take ideas from. We put them into a spider diagram like the one above. The group watched the video several times and picked up different moves we preferred and how we could interpret them into our dance. This was the foundation of starting our own choreographed routine. Our piece needed to be 2minutes long with a 30second set routine built-in. each group had to put this into there piece)

Each member of the group came up with ideas that we could put in, either that they thought up of themselves or that were influenced by the video. I brought to some ideas into conversation to. Our routine needed to be understandable and flowing and clearly set out, the audience needed to we wowed! We had to use our knowledge of the different choreographic and put them into our routine. Simple plans of unison, canon and repetition appear in the dance to make it work well and also look superior.

We took each lesson as it came as the dance had to be completed in a limited time. A range of different techniques were used, I though that moving around then stopping and being still and maybe just turn your head. Stillness can make a great impact on the audience. We needed to think about our stage directions and placing through the routine and what kinds of movement we used movement of the body in a particular space and movement of the body through space. Whether it was a spin into place our jolted walk. The Dynamics of the dance gave it its emotional impact.

We tried to vary our moves-percussive, flowing, angular, smooth, jagged, hesitant, and confident. “Dynamics – the quality of movement – is central to all dance creation and performance. ” We also needed to show the relationship and interact each other in the course of the dance piece Even if the dancers are working independently in solo. What they do relates in some way to the rest of the dancers on the stage. We tried to put the devise unison into the dance; all the dancers work together, all doing the same thing at the same time.

This is the sort of relationship, which we all naturally fell into, even though it is not always appropriate. The piece that was set we all did in unison; I thought that it is a very affective. We also used different levels, when some were on the floor and then some bent then some one else was stood tall. As I have a disco dancing background I have got used to using a different variation of levels, so I gave the advise of what we could put in like high movements (reaching upwards or leaping or jumping), low (crouched, sitting or lying) or in the middle, which mostly where our dancing takes place.

The process in which we brought the dance together was.. * Decided on different ideas we wanted in the dance * What actually was a good idea and what we wanted not to use * Started choreographing the routine * Where to put the set piece * Practising all different ideas * Gradually putting the ideas together to make them flow into one another * Scrapping movements that did not work * Practising the first part of the routine so it made an impact * Sorting out our staging direction and where our faces should be according to the audience What costumes? * Figuring out an ending position

* Practising the whole routine to make it perfect This dance piece was not as hard I thought it would be for me, I am used to throwing myself around in disco dancing, where as this piece needed I needed to be careful with, I had to watch what I was doing and how I was doing it. It was slower and graceful movements as in disco it has hard earthy pumping moves, I couldn’t just do a few spot turns if I went wrong! I also had to think of what the audience not just echoing the beat of the music!

In addition I thought I would find it boring, as it is “contemporary” which is a modernised version of ballet, but this style of dancing tells a story, explores states of mind ir ideas, or reflects the music. Did it all work well in our group? I found it very hard to work together in my group, I am used to lots of ideas flowing up and down, and no one was throwing any. So naturally I took the lead of just choreographing a routine myself and teaching the rest of the group it, but that that is not what the task was.

The task was to work as a team and put in equally into the routine. I found it hard not having any ideas from anyone; I did understand though that the members of my group had not been taught at a dance school or took any dance lessons. So I informed the teacher and it did sort things out for a few lessons, then it re-occurred so I decided just to get on with it, and improve on what I was doing. I think also that it was that I was not in my friendship circle and had to get used to new people I was working with. But in the end we did work our routine out ok.