Exceptional Essays

            

1

Specific Methods of Modern Dance: 

Learned & Applied Knowledge 

Patrick Haskell

    I will explore the takeaways from the class. I cover Laban, Mary Wigman, Isadora Duncan, and Ruth St. Denis and their individual contributions to Modern Dance. Since assembling a solo and ensemble performance throughout the semester was a major part of the class, I wanted to acknowledge their specific methods that helped make my pieces possible. I go on to explain how I would apply the knowledge I have gathered from the course to my own field of study. With dance being a minor of mine, I hope to pursue the art after college in some way, shape, or form. 

    The lessons taught in dance are applicable to any field of study as they not only build dance skills, but strong leadership skills. I talk about my own feelings about the experience of the course, the students, and the subject matter. The class has been a crazy journey full of laughter, creativity, and memories that I share in more depth. I conclude the paper with explaining what it meant to be a part of the class. I am extremely grateful to have been a student in such an interesting class with amazing peers and an inspirational professor.

 

    While I have always enjoyed dancing, my knowledge on the subject, especially Modern Dance, was always pretty surface level. At this time after having reviewed the course material, I have been able to expand my knowledge on the subject and learn valuable lessons that I will take with me for the rest of my life. The solo and ensemble pieces help reflect the specific lessons we covered this semester through Laban, Mary Wigman, Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis and their contributions to the dance style. Laban encouraged me to explore different levels, directions, and space. By being observant of simple, everyday tasks like walking, it furthers the connection between the body and the mind. 

    Other contributions by Laban introduced me to geometricize the curves of natural movements, which I presented as the first eight counts of my solo. He also offered the eight effort actions, which are conveyed in the group ensemble. The efforts help to embody and understand internal impulse while developing an expressive body. Mary Wigman is often connected to dance expressionism and abstraction. I was able to incorporate eight movements in my solo performance that reflect how I express certain emotions. This requires me to be vulnerable and open to demonstrate my inner feelings. 

    Wigman was also known for her technique, which is structured in five main groups. My group integrated movements like stride, spring, vibrations, and oscillations into the performance to help express ceremony and story. Isadora Duncan used pictures of the Elgin Marbles to create her dance vocabulary. I created eight movements based on photos of Ancient Greek Statues, each one holding a story behind it. She also was responsible for using the solar plexus as the center for focus and flow in the body. Duncan went on to create the Mother and Revolutionary Study. 

    The men of the class had a lot of fun with this piece as we replicated movements of work, fatigue, and masculinity. I enjoyed seeing the women of the classroom put on their own piece, eventually merging the two to add to the ensemble performance. We also had the opportunity to explore ritual within the context of Duncan’s ideas about dance and her belief that the body and soul will grow so harmoniously in the future that the natural language of the soul would have become the movement of the body. We explored movements like circle formation, stomping, saluting to each other, to the earth, and to the sky and included them in the group ensemble. 

    

    The final pioneer of Modern Dance we covered was Ruth St. Denis who is known for music visualization and synchronic orchestration. I chose the tuba and created a movement phrase by listening to the music and letting my body move to the timbres, dynamics, and structural shapes of the piece in addition to its rhythmic base. Finally, I incorporated in dance piece Tai Chi and bound flow concepts through Ted Shawn’s all male dance comapany.

    I am currently studying dance as a minor at the University of Miami. While I am unsure of what I want to specifically do with that degree, I know the lessons I have learned and experiences I have undergone will set me up for a successful future. I have recently grown an interest in occupational therapy where a major part of this occupation is helping people with everyday activities, exercises, and other therapies. Dance and the knowledge of the body and how it moves would be very useful in this field and promote the connection between the body and the mind. The class helped me to understand material, communicate ideas, design pieces, and collaborate with peers, which will help me in whatever field I end up in after college. The individual solo piece is something that I plan on carrying with me for the rest of my life. It is a reflection of who I am and I would be proud to perform for anyone. Having the piece is a very unique asset to have, which I know will aid me in my future endeavors.

                        

    I enjoyed every moment of Modern Dance. The use of videos, readings, and actual dances helped me receive the material in an effective and fun way. Not only was I responsible for learning the material, but I was able to apply it as I gradually choreographed the solo and group performances. I feel I have gathered a strong understanding of Modern Dance and hope to use the knowledge and lessons I’ve acquired in the future. I did not know anyone in the class on day one, however I feel I am leaving with twenty-three new friends. My peers and I not only talked about things relating to dance, but we shared deeper connections as we talked about college, sports, and just life in general. I especially liked talking to the International students because I feel there is so much to learn from them. While I was unfamiliar with Modern Dance before, I have grown to love it. The subject matter is interesting and the different styles and techniques were a lot of fun to learn and perform.

    During the last class of the semester, each student was asked to say one word that represents their feelings and takeaways from the course. When it came my turn to speak, I recall saying “memories”. Being a part of Modern Dance meant to be vulnerable and honest not only with others, but yourself. As we learned about Laban, Mary Wigman, Isadora Duncan, and Ruth St. Denis and gradually built our solo and ensemble pieces, it was important that we reflected upon their contributions and incorporated their styles in a way that felt personal. The class allowed me to further my knowledge on Modern Dance while embodying the lessons I learned and making it my own. The class offered me a lot of opportunity to engage with my peers and learn from them. With everyone having a different background and skill level, I was able to learn a lot not only about dance, but about life. I made meaningful connections and had eye-opening conversations with my classmates that I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life. 

    There is a saying that some of my teachers used to say that went something along the lines of, “You’re going to get what you put in”. I feel this saying is true for Modern Dance as the more you engage with the lessons and course material, the more you are going to grow as a dancer and person. I was excited to come to class every day and make more memories. It is hard saying goodbye to a course that brought so much joy and insight to my life, however the lessons I learned are everlasting.

2

Rudolph Laban: Founding Father of Modern Dance

Yuri Kitajima

 

            Rudolph Laban was an Austro-Hungarian dancer born in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 1879. He dies in Waybridge, United Kingdom, in 1958. He is called founding father of the Expressionist Dance.”  His contribution to dance was extended by many of his famous collaborators, such as Kurt Jooss and Mary Wigman, who we learnt about in class this semester. Laban’s two major contributions are the invention of “Labanotation” and "Kinetography Laban". Laban dance notation system is by far the most widely spread and most practical way of notating dance scores available today. 

            The western dance world compares "Kinetography Laban" with Einstein's theory of "Relativity." It is believed that the theory of "Relativity" refers to the laws of the big universe, while "Kinetography Laban" refers to the laws of motion in the small universe. Laban divides the human body movement into twelve directions. These directions come from an imaginary icosahedron with different lines and levels, forming a sphere closest to the dancer's movement. 

            Through the changes in the relationship between space, time, direction, and force, dancers produce dramatic and expressive movements with various possibilities. These changes were materialized in his conceptualization of terms such Choreutics, the Harmonic Three-Dimensional Scale, Space and Relationships, Patterns of Body Connection and the Components of Human Movement. Laban Movement Analysis, also called LMA, includes four main category: Body, Effort, Space, and Shape. Thus, this essay delves precisely in the meaning of each of these concepts as a way to lay out the conceptual foundation of what became Modern Dance.

Choreutics     

            Laban combines his modern movement study with Pythagoras' mathematics in the foreword to his book "Dance Studies." This can be observed in Laban’s articulation of the "harmonic relations" that exist between musical scales and geometric forms just like right triangles and circles. The word “Choreutics” was created by Laban based on the Greek root terms “khoreia”, which means dance in unison, and “eu" which means dancing, beautifully, and harmoniously. “The practical study of harmonized movement” is what Laban called Choreutics. 

            Later, Laban’s colleague Irmgard Bartenieff depicted Choreutics as the “spatial organization for dance” and “the theory and practice of ordering movement in space.” Why is that? Let's have a closer look through. Choreutics is concerned with movement's spatial features as well as its structure and sequence. According to an analytical study, dance portrays the limbs and body trace on space around the body's natural trajectory. “Trace-forms” is the word that Laban used to depict this kind of movement. In order to be consistent with Pythagoras' roots, Laban's theory of dance specifies the movement scale as analogous to the harmonious space sequence of the music scale.

Harmonic Three-Dimensional Scale

            The Harmonic Three-Dimensional Scale is one of the working concepts that Laban created. In the Harmonic Three-Dimensional Scale, diagonals are extremes of far reach space that crisscross the body's center. The crossing goes from one corner of an imaginary cube to the other corner when three dimensions, or spatial pulls, are combined. To investigate these extremes of personal space, Laban created the Harmonic Three-Dimensional Scale. 

            In class, we explored how it feels to imagine these lines come cross the body inner core to the other corner of the imaginary cube. There are three directions in Laban’s dimensional scale we experienced in class. They can be vertical, horizontally, and sagittal. As we can imagine, vertical goes up and down. Horizontal goes side to side. Last but not least, sagittal goes forward and back.          

    To explain these three dimensions, for example, the standard feeling is experiencing the gravity as base. Vertical dimension feels downward towards the earth, and upward towards the sky. When I experienced the three dimensions in the class,  I felt really relaxed. Furthermore, I found my own sense of rhythm through my body movement when moving from the up to the down positions.

Patterns of Body Connections

            In Laban’s thought three several categories of the human body. The kinematic included body and space. The non-kinematic included effort and shape. The structural and physical aspects of human mobility were described in the human body category. This category was responsible for stating which body parts were moved, related, and impacted by other body parts, as well as general assertions regarding body tissues. 

            Effort, also known as dynamics in Laban’s concept, was defined by Laban as a system used for comprehending the subtle aspects of movement in relation to inner intention. Shape was defined as the way the body changes the movement. Shape is a significant elements of body categories. Since the categories are all connected to each other, the shapes created by the dancer can lead the body to meaningful movement choices. 

            Space is one of the most primary contributions by Laban. Space includes the connection through environment, spatial patterns, spatial tension, pathways, and lines. Space sometimes can change the body movement in geometric forms. It is used to refine the movement. It also used to observe individual movement. 

Space and Relationship / Laban's Cube

            The kinesphere is “the sphere around the body whose periphery can be reached by easily extended limbs without stepping away from that place which is the point of support when standing on one foot.” This definition of kinesphere given by Laban is useful when moving in space. When we move our weight, the spherical space around our bodies moves as well. It is also the first area of motion exploration before entering the "general space”. It follows anatomical limitations, and it is actually elliptical and not spherical. Essentially, the general body extends more forward than backward. 

            The kinesphere is invisible until we begin our movements. The tracing of our limbs and body movement makes the kinesphere somewhat tangible. The kinesphere is an individual space, area, and body territory. We can adjust its size and range through our body movements and limbs. The kinesphere is made of three dimensios, which include angular geometry inside a round geometry within a larger space.     

Components of Human Movement

            Body movement is really an important part of ourselves because it can unify our dimensions. Laban’s space harmony or Choreutics is the practice to stimulate human’s infinite energy. The spatial harmony sequence created by Laban traces enormous symmetrical patterns around the body using the kinesthetic cube. The right or left arm navigates and sweeps through a three-dimensional space in a traditional embodiment. 

            This body movement is coordinated by the locomotive stride and the lower limbs' support. This necessitates the body’s spine bending, extension, and rotation, as well as a shift in back tension patterns throughout the body. Laban's dance sequences are "harmonious" in that they need cooperation between all of the body parts. essay, they are all connected by each other significantly, but in different subcategories.

Effort Actions

            Through Laban's eight efforts actions one can examine the role of detailed movement in the expression of the body. They are also used to expand the dancer's actions vocabulary and their ability to play characters. The eight efforts of Laban include: Float, Punch (Thrust), Glide, Slash, Dab, Wring, Flick, and Press. These eight efforts guide dancers and actors physically and also emotionally. From these efforts, we can clearly identify the characters and every individual. In the class this semester, we included these eight efforts in our ensemble dance piece. The eight efforts can guide choreography in the expression of different emotions and atmosphere.

Influence on Modern Dance

            Rudolph Laban the founder of Modern Dance. He made an important contribution to the art of dance.  Labanotation is one example of those contributions, usee to record any human body motion. Labanotation uses symbols to clarify and record direction and levels when producing body movement. This includes the movement of body parts, their timing and direction. Moreover, Rudolph Laban created the idea of an invisible cube he called kinesphere, which is invisible, but can be made “visible” through the dancer’s movement.  Everyone has his/her own kinesphere. It can be huge, tiny, tall, or low. I found that our kinesphere is in our brain. We can imagine it in our brain and make our own perfect kinesphere.