Wigman's Technique

 

Review

 Rudolff Laban

Choreutics 

The Cube 

Trace Forms

Diagonal Movement Scales 

Kinesphere

Art Nouveau 

Elements of Dance: Space (levels, directions, focus, pathways, size)  

Breath patterning assists the coordination of the internal body that is vital in human movement. Functionally, every inhalation and exhalation is a complex event

Patterns of Body Connectivity

4 Components of Human Movement

8 Efforts

Mary Wigman

Expressionist Feelings

 

 

1. What is expressionism?

expression allowed to break from tradition and explain avante-garde art. It also allowed it to override impressionism.

2. What aspect of Schonberg's music could have influenced Wigman's ideas about dance?

Schonberg’s music could have influenced Wigman’s ideas about dance because it gave moments of pause for breath and allowed to create movement that allows to explore choreography that can tell a story. Every sound seemed to have reflect a time of emotion which would have been tied to a dance movement which would reflect the tone of the music.

 

 

 

 I

 

Unit: Body

Theme: Mary Wigman's Technique

 

II

Introduction 

Today we will review Wigman's concept of technique differ from Laban's ideas about the organization of movement in space. Her ideas about the liberation of dance from traditional, predetermined steps, besides utilizing improvisation and an internal sense of motion, rhythm and expressive gesture, also included a technique based on contrasts of movement; expansion and contraction, pulling and pushing.

   

 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

Video

 INFLUENCES

 

Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter

4

Analysis

Students discuss among themselves Mary Wigman's ideas about dance. Using the question below as a prompt, they write about it and post their reflection on Discussion Board.

Question 1

Based on this video, what is expressionism?

 

5

LINKS: Reading

Expressivity Schools

Check the link and scroll down to page 110.

Analysis

Students discuss among themselves Mary Wigman's ideas about expression, using the question below as a prompt, they write about it and post their reflection on Discussion Board.

Question 2

After reading the article on "Schools of Bodily Expressivity: Mary Wigman," what was the main difference between Laban and Wigman in terms of dance?

6

Wigman’s Technique

Mary Wigman worked upon a technique based on contrasts of movement; expansion and contraction, pulling and pushing.

 Activity 1

Students try Wigman's movements 

 Her technique is structured in five main groups:

1 - Striding and sliding

2 - Springs, vibrations and bouncing

3 - Momentum and oscillations

4 - Falling and dropping (floor technique)

5 - Tensions: relaxed, sustained and motor tensions

 

V

A Note to Remember

 

VI 

Case Study

Video

Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-century classical music, and a central element of his music was its use of motives as a means of coherence. Schoenberg created new methods of musical composition involving atonality, which may have influenced the ideas about movement developed by Wigman. In this video, Leonard Bernstein, an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian, explains Schoenberg's atonality.

Berstein on Arnold Schönberg's music

Analysis

Students discuss among themselves Schönberg's ideas about music. Using the question below as a prompt, they write about it and post their reflection on Discussion Board.

Question 3

 After watching Bernstein's presentation on Schönberg's music, what aspect of Schonberg's music could have influenced Wigman's ideas about dance?

------------------------------------------------ 

 

VII

Activity 2

 

Students review their solo and ensemble  phrases and move to a piece composed by Schönberg.

VIII

Glossary

Impressionism: 

It describes a style of painting developed in France during the mid-to-late 19th century; characterizations of the style include small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.

Tonality: 

 Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is called the tonic.

Atonality:   

Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality, in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a single, central triad is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale function independently of one another.

Chromatic Scale:

(Or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches used in tonal music.

 

 

IX

Journaling

 

 

X

Sources

 

XI

Students' Work