Week 7: Body Percussion
30/04/2015
Tutor: Jacqui Dressens
2 components to the tutorial:
Activities:
1. Walking in a circle - warm up
2. Creating a sound scape
Rubbing hands together (Leaves rustling)
Infrequent clicking (infrequent raindrops)
Small claps (thunder)
Big claps (big thunder)
Constant clicking (lots of rain)
Slapping of knees (lots of thunder)
Slapping of knees + stamping feet (loud thunder)
Wooshing with expanded body movements (climax, wind)
(then reverse order)
The piece was a "Unified Composition". This means that it has a introduction, development and a resolution with transitions in between. In this piece the climax was the major development of the composition, showing great contrast in movement. The movement of the climax was characterised by it's large dimension as arms and legs were fully extended. The movements were abrupt, involving kicking. We used the choreographic device of abstraction as the movements were greatly exaggerated.
More ideas for creating a soundscape:
3. Create a soundscape in pairs
Specifications: think of a theme, there is to be no spoken word, must be a unified composition, think of GLEFTS, use the ISARE process.
Together, Jess and I did the journey of a leaf falling down a waterfall. The introduction was the leaf travelling along, development was the leaf falling down the waterfall and the resolution was the leaf breaking apart and sinking in the water.
To evaluate, we paired up with another couple, performed and evaluated the clarity and creativity of their performance. We then watched a performance and deconstructed the expressive intention together. This is a great teaching technique as the teacher can facilitate students building the language they need to talk professionally about dance and the creating process.
The performance we watched is below. It is choreographed by Emily and Ellie. The piece is about getting pins and needles.
30/04/2015
Tutor: Jacqui Dressens
2 components to the tutorial:
- Using body percussion to create a soundscape: Focusing on creating student centred movement
- Gumboot body percussion: based on Patrick Motjali's choreography and concepts from South Africa. Patrick Motjali travelled to primary schools offering workshops and classes in his Gumboot Dancing, making a large impact on the curriculum and community in the 80s.
Activities:
1. Walking in a circle - warm up
- To complete body percussion you have to have a completely different body alignment: knees bent, feet flat on ground, shoulders over hips (slightly bent over), lower back straight - we walked in a circle progressively adjusting our posture until it was correct
- Completed some basic stretches and balances
- Doing a small amount of cardio and stretches ensures that our bodies and minds were prepared for movement. This allowed us to safely be able to complete the rest of the tutorials activities - Safe Dance Practice
2. Creating a sound scape
- This part of the class was based on the work by Karl Orf - we were going to create sounds through movement
- Jacqui stood in the middle of the circle. When she made eye contact with you you had to imitate her movement, in cannon we joined in. Once everyone was doing the same movement she begun to do another movement and the person she made eye contact with had to do this movement. It became a cannon of sound and movement. She did movements (in turn: sounds) in the following order
- After completing the activity Jacqui asked us: What was the theme (expressive intention)? We guessed that it could be a storm. We then went through the movements and began to understand that this was the case. We used the group structure of a cannon as we moved in succession throughout the piece. We unpacked the movements:
Rubbing hands together (Leaves rustling)
Infrequent clicking (infrequent raindrops)
Small claps (thunder)
Big claps (big thunder)
Constant clicking (lots of rain)
Slapping of knees (lots of thunder)
Slapping of knees + stamping feet (loud thunder)
Wooshing with expanded body movements (climax, wind)
(then reverse order)
The piece was a "Unified Composition". This means that it has a introduction, development and a resolution with transitions in between. In this piece the climax was the major development of the composition, showing great contrast in movement. The movement of the climax was characterised by it's large dimension as arms and legs were fully extended. The movements were abrupt, involving kicking. We used the choreographic device of abstraction as the movements were greatly exaggerated.
More ideas for creating a soundscape:
- Volcano Erupting: Intro = bubbling, building tension, Middle = explosion, End=ooze, slow down, turn to rock
- Earthquake
- Tree Growth and life
- Constructing a building
3. Create a soundscape in pairs
Specifications: think of a theme, there is to be no spoken word, must be a unified composition, think of GLEFTS, use the ISARE process.
Together, Jess and I did the journey of a leaf falling down a waterfall. The introduction was the leaf travelling along, development was the leaf falling down the waterfall and the resolution was the leaf breaking apart and sinking in the water.
To evaluate, we paired up with another couple, performed and evaluated the clarity and creativity of their performance. We then watched a performance and deconstructed the expressive intention together. This is a great teaching technique as the teacher can facilitate students building the language they need to talk professionally about dance and the creating process.
The performance we watched is below. It is choreographed by Emily and Ellie. The piece is about getting pins and needles.
We watched the performance twice described the movement vocabulary thinking about GLEFTS.
- The climax is depicted by the change in level (starts low level, resting until there is panic, middle level) and the chance in the pace of the movements (time) (quick movements to demonstrate trying to wake up limbs)
- They showed the restricted blood flow by slapping and patting their bodies. The patting/slapping is a motif throughout the piece, it is used at the start to show the heart beat, in the middle to show their panic - trying to wake up the legs and at the end, showing the heart beat again.
- To improve this piece, they could further develop the transitions between the introduction, development and resolution.
4. Gumboot Body Percussion Introduction
We then began the second half of the class. We watched 2 videos on gumboot dance, watching South African men dance together, making music with their gumboots, hands, feet, shakers and mouths. The background of the dancing can be found here
5. Learn technique and gumboot body percussion
We walked in a circle, realigning our bodies and progressively learnt a range of short movement phrases.
We then faced the mirror and put together, here is a video of the process.
- The climax is depicted by the change in level (starts low level, resting until there is panic, middle level) and the chance in the pace of the movements (time) (quick movements to demonstrate trying to wake up limbs)
- They showed the restricted blood flow by slapping and patting their bodies. The patting/slapping is a motif throughout the piece, it is used at the start to show the heart beat, in the middle to show their panic - trying to wake up the legs and at the end, showing the heart beat again.
- To improve this piece, they could further develop the transitions between the introduction, development and resolution.
4. Gumboot Body Percussion Introduction
We then began the second half of the class. We watched 2 videos on gumboot dance, watching South African men dance together, making music with their gumboots, hands, feet, shakers and mouths. The background of the dancing can be found here
5. Learn technique and gumboot body percussion
We walked in a circle, realigning our bodies and progressively learnt a range of short movement phrases.
We then faced the mirror and put together, here is a video of the process.
After this, we also practiced some hand clapping games students can play in a circle.
Connection to AusVELS through an activity:
Improvise and structure movement ideas for dance sequences using the elements of dance and choreographic devices(ACADAM005) (ACARA 2014)
Grade 3/4:
Students work in pairs to create their own soundscape. The teacher first of all asks students to lie on the floor while they play a variety of soundscapes e.g.
- A storm
- A waterfall
- A car race
- The ocean
In a circle, the teacher asks students to create one movement with their body, creating a sound from the sound scape. The teacher models this through stamping their feet and clapping hands to demonstrate thunder and lightning in the middle of a storm. The students show their move one by one and quickly explain what it shows.
In pairs, students create a short soundscape consisting of 5 movements based on one of the soundscapes they heard earlier (or something different if they come up with a succinct idea).
Resources:
ACARA 2014, Australian Curriculum, Education Services Australia, accessed 15th April, <http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/>.
World Arts West 2009, South African: Gumboot Dance, People Like Me, retrieved 15th April 2015, <http://worldartswest.org/main/program.asp>.
Connection to AusVELS through an activity:
Improvise and structure movement ideas for dance sequences using the elements of dance and choreographic devices(ACADAM005) (ACARA 2014)
Grade 3/4:
Students work in pairs to create their own soundscape. The teacher first of all asks students to lie on the floor while they play a variety of soundscapes e.g.
- A storm
- A waterfall
- A car race
- The ocean
In a circle, the teacher asks students to create one movement with their body, creating a sound from the sound scape. The teacher models this through stamping their feet and clapping hands to demonstrate thunder and lightning in the middle of a storm. The students show their move one by one and quickly explain what it shows.
In pairs, students create a short soundscape consisting of 5 movements based on one of the soundscapes they heard earlier (or something different if they come up with a succinct idea).
Resources:
ACARA 2014, Australian Curriculum, Education Services Australia, accessed 15th April, <http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/>.
World Arts West 2009, South African: Gumboot Dance, People Like Me, retrieved 15th April 2015, <http://worldartswest.org/main/program.asp>.