Other Expressionist Influences: Partnering

 

 Paul Taylor Dance Company: The Green Table - NYC-ARTS
 
 I
 
Unit: Relationship
Theme: Partnering
 

II

Introduction 

Today we will review Wigman's concept of technique which differ from Laban's ideas about the organization of movement in space. Thus, her new dance sought to gain freedom of movement, which is why the dancers focused on expressing their emotions more than on the artistic technique. Today, we will address "partner dances", which are dances whose basic choreography involves coordinated dancing of two partners, as opposed to individuals dancing alone or individually in a non-coordinated manner, and as opposed to groups of people dancing simultaneously in a coordinated manner. We will try to turn partner dance into expressionist.

   

 III

Learning Objectives

  • Understand the application of the idea of "dance discovering its own terms of expression" (1)
  • Explain how "liberation from traditional, predetermined steps" helps the dancer to develop body expression
  • Gain awareness of the possibilities that "honoring an internal sense of motion" brings to the dancer's expressive movement.
  • Experience the body's inner "rhythm and expressive gesture" to develop your own sense of "depth and sophistication" when dancing
  • Reflect on the work done in class

 

 IV

Main Lesson



  1


Warm Up
Alignment
Stretching
 
2


Review of Solos and Ensemble Phrases
 
3
 
Sommerdans by Mary Wigman

 Question 1
 
In which way is Sommerdanz an expressionist piece?

 
4
 
Dance of Death by Harald Kretzberg

 
Question 2
 
How would you define vibrations
 
 5

Contemporary partnering


Question 3
 
How can partnering be useful to modern dance?
 


V
Activity

Students decide who would be A and B. A creates a move and B distorts that move. Then, the switch roles. 

Students recreate the same movement individually.

 The same happens with a second, third and 4th move as they also propel their partners into a transitional move from movement to movement.

They add their 4 moves to their previous phrases.

 

 VI

 

Reviewing Phrases

Solo: Cube, Kinesphere, Patterns of Connectivity, Emotions, Partnering 

Ensemble: Directions, Breath, Movement Components, Wigman's Clusters of Movement


 ---------------

 VII

Case Studies


LINKS

 

a)

Laban and Jooss

 This creative process seems to have had considerable influence over Jooss for as a choreographer he too worked through improvisation to generate dance material – for example Jooss recalled Ernst Uthoff’s contribution to the creation of the role of The Standard Bearer in The Green Table: “He got very excited about that dance and often tried out movements with the flag, what he could do with the flag. I didn’t invent all those movements. They came from his enthusiasm for the flag […] he found one movement and then another and my work was to put them properly together and to balance them and to set the accents where I thought they belonged.”9 Unlike Laban Jooss’s use of improvisation was supported by a strong dance technique developed after his time with Laban during the mid 1920s-early 1930s.

Question 4

Based on the reading above: how was improvisation an important aspect of the creative dance process? 


b)

Video

The Green Table by Kurt Jooss

https://youtu.be/t5BUkCd2Hfw?si=FUtsi0WosqpCWPP6

The Founding Father of Tanztheater 

Question 5

Strauss (2024) says:

 It was this sense of injustice that fueled Jooss’ artistry and led to a new form of dance theater, which paved the way for the work of Pina Bausch and choreographers working today, like Suzanne Linke and Mats Ek. 

Question 6

After watching The Green Table (video above), what would you say is new about the piece as dance-theater?

 

 -----------------------------

 

 VIII

ACTIVITY


Solo Work


Think about the "why" of your dance. Is there a story? What are you trying to say?



 -------------------------


 IX
Journaling
 
X
Glossary
 
XI
Sources
 
G. Ravdan.  German expressionist dance, a fundamental current to the birth
and development of modern dance. https://icc-online.arte-ct.ro/vol_06/32.pdf


 XII
Students' Work
 
Open a post and write down in a sentence what you are trying  to say with your phrases.

 

 

 



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