Shanice Cristyn Choreography

This blog is about my choreographic process, resulting to my finished work. It will include research, observations, inspirational images, and supporting photos/videos of evidence.

[shanicecristynwchoreo]

Final thoughts

I am feeling slightly anxious but also excited to share my work. Overall the experience has been very interesting and has helped me express myself through a personal journey through dance. Having a deferral for my assessment has given me time to ease my mind and take the pressure of daily mental battles that I face. I will never be embarrassed or made to feel ashamed of my mental health or my past, however I will continue to channel my emotions and energy into my future choreographic works and training.

[thefrizzkid-deactivated20220425]

Healing is not linear

[shanicecristynwchoreo]

Pina Bausch - Seasons march

This work is very gestural and almost seems comedic even to the point of mockery. In my opinion I would interpret this piece as everyone trying to carry on with their life and have fun whilst they’re doing it, however there’s something about the accompaniment that makes it feel slightly less genuine and could almost compare it to a Tom and Jerry soundtrack. My work is very different as I feel it has quite a dark but honest approach. I almost see this work as a reminder to let myself laugh or feel how I need to feel even when times are tough.

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photo by Hugo Glendinning

Rosemary Lee’s Meltdown perfectly grasps the idea of space, and how simple a concept can be, yet still be massively effective and powerful.

As I am doing a solo I will be performing on my own, so my presence in space will be the complete opposite to what you can see in the image above. I think both options can be just as effective as each other when supported and justified.  

[shanicecristynwchoreo]

Lighting  - in more detail:

The music has a strong influence on what happens at a certain time, but given the chance, I would also want the lighting to give an indication of what would happen next. I would want lighting similar to the above image with lots of haze to make myself almost look like a shadow. I would then want it to progress to a yellowy tone with less haze. I feel like white light is quite cold and emotionless whereas the yellowy tones for the second section of music brings in more of a sunshine, peaceful vibe, which could be seen as me ‘moving on’ and trying to reach enlightenment on my journey.

[2mainstreamhipster]

Hazy

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Creative Process - V

Space is an important factor of choreography. We spent some time on this in class and made observations on how different people or different things ‘filled’ the space or existed around it. The space in which it the piece of dance performed in, whether the space is shared or not, whether it is a large open space or small and confined; it all makes a difference to the intensity of what is going on around the dancers. Graham and Hogget said that ‘The space between two people is an epic point of dramatic tension.’ Even though I have created a solo, I want the lyrics in my song to feel important and present as they are valid and filling the space with sound.

[tea-and-tranquility]

An important piece of advice

[shanicecristynwchoreo]

Creative process - IV

In term time we were given a workshop by Maga Radlowska on contact improvisation. Radlowska taught us the theory behind contact improvisation; that the movement you master on your own or with a partner on the floor, will gradually be performed at a standing or flying level and that trust is a huge factor and will determine how well you will flow and work with a partner naturally. If I was doing a duet, I would consider using this practice as I think it could be very effective when applied to the theme of my dance, e.g. I could of used a dancer to portray my subconscious mind whilst I (also moving) would continue to fight it.

[shanicecristynwchoreo]

Jonathan Burrows  - The Stop Quartet (1996)

When I watch this piece, I find it difficult to see the purpose in which they’re moving so fast with such a huge difference in tempo with the music. I suppose that is the beauty and purpose of juxtaposition. However, in FADE! I have a pretty direct correlation between my movement and the music.

[nightmarechronicles]

[fornaxvoid]

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[shanicecristynwchoreo]

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater - Mixed Bill - Sadler's Wells Theatre

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater - Mixed Bill - Sadler's Wells Theatre

Seeing Revelations performed live, inspired what would be my lighting choices for my piece FADE! The deep yellowy-orange large spot light would come in as the music changes from Love Me In Whatever Way to Stay In The Shade as the guitars remind me of warmer tones in colour.

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Accompaniment

Song choices:

James Blake - Love Me In Whatever Way

José González - Stay In The Shade

sound fx: whispering

I started off by finding Stay In The Shade in my iTunes however this song was not long enough on its own to fulfill the 3 minute minimum mark for my piece. I carried on browsing and found another song that caught my attention but for different reasons. I felt like Stay In The Shade was capturing my progression through difficult times but there was nothing to necessarily show my struggle to get to that better place. I listening to the beginning of James Blake’s Love Me In Whatever Way and instantly knew I had to edit it into my track. The sombre and woeful mood that it produces was exactly what I wanted to depict my emotions at a very mentally stressful and sad time.

I also decided to use whispering sound FX to portray the busyness in my mind. At the time of the end of my relationship I felt like a had a million voices in my head telling me to believe all the suicide threats, abusive tirades and insults that were thrown at me. I also had a great deal of anxiety about what our family and friends must think, so I wanted to use the FX to demonstrate that through whispering. A ‘Loud enough for me to notice but not enough so that I can hear what they’re saying’ situation.

Above are pictures of the lyrics and the finished version of my music.

[shanicecristynwchoreo]

Creative process -  III

Improvisation - This is my favourite way to generate movement as I can express myself in that moment and keep in mind the things that I like. One of the other tools we used in class was to use music as a starting point. The tempo of the music determined the speed of the movement, the age and style of music determined how the dancers moved, the volume could’ve determined the size of the movement so on and so fourth.

I’m pretty sure most dancers will have a playlist that is used purely for creating work, or for imagining what you could create to certain sounds; I do anyway. I scrolled through my iTunes and found a beautiful song by José González called Stay In The Shade to which I immediately found myself closing my eyes, seeing my vision come to life. When I researched the lyrics, I related them to my own situation and felt like it was advising me to ‘move on’ other wise I will ‘fade’.

I combined the two elements of improvisation and music to finalise my concept and my creativeness naturally came in bundles and I then allowed myself to start structuring phrases and motifs together.

[indigenouscr]

[shanicecristynwchoreo]

I feel like the sunshine hitting the trees is sort of like when I realised I was better than what I was dealing with

[shanicecristynwchoreo]

DIS-CONNECT! or FADE!

Very untidy and general notes. I’ve decided on a title anyway. I think?