This week we worked with gestures. What does it feel like to make movements in dance that have specific meanings or theatrical contexts? How does this change the way you move? How is it different from abstract movement?
I enjoyed the gesture movements. It seemed that there was a purpose to the dance, a goal to it, maybe communicating an emotion or speaking of a past event. This was instead of just letting ourselves be and dance somewhat as we like. Thus, for this reason I had to put more thought into it.
I honestly do not think that I communicated my event through very well, but I enjoyed watching other people try to do so.
I feels a little strange to just take a gesture and simply expand it or do something completely different with it. Gestures are usually hand motions used to help express what you're talking about and to make gestures into a form of dance is hard. It's hard to break it away from its original form and use, but once you do, it opens up a whole bunch of possibilities. It's different than abstract moving because you are taking something that people use all the time in everyday life and making it look different. Abstract movement is something completely unrecognizable and has a deeper meaning to it.
In the past, gestures to me personally has simple meant somewhat miming what you are saying as you express it through some sort of hand and body movement. However, our exercise shook things up a little when we had to expand on and connect the movements and tell a story with them. I thought that it was somewhat connected with the whole out of body experience in the sense that things just seemed to repeat and flow into different movements.
It is different from abstract movement because, even though you are free to expand and contract the gestures, it is not simply all made up from your head, there is a certain structure that has to be maintained.
Gestures changed the way I moved because they add a lot of purpose and incentive to the movement. My brain is a lot more involved whereas when I'm just moving abstractly, my brain kind of turns off and my body just goes. That was a huge difference for me when doing the gestures; my brain was a lot more active and I'm constantly thinking about what I'm doing. Using gestures while dancing was kind of strange for me, it made me feel like I was acting something out more than dancing. I love drama and acting, but I feel like dance is a different side of me that gets expressed, and melding the two felt really wierd. When I act and dance I get more musical theatre-y, so acting/dancing in modern was...interesting.
Using gestures was a completely new form of dance for me. I have done improv in various other classes in the past, but I have never really got into the theatrical side of dance. It was a challenge to me to tell a story through a dance, rather then just express emotions. What we did on class today (monday), using both words and gestures to tell a story was even more of a new experience for me. It changes the way I move because I feel like i have more of a purpose behind what I am doing, rather then dancing with no end in mind.
Gestures change the way I move in that they seem to use my facial expressions more (if I'm not talking too), which makes me think my dance is more of a story. I find it hard to create gestures though, possibly because I'm used to using American Sign Language for any movement that has meaning. That seems backwards to me, since you would think that it would increase my ability, but it is what it is I guess. It feels good to be able to use gestures though, since I feel like those who watch can understand more of what I'm trying to convey rather than it being mysterious and up to individual interpretation.
I'm still trying to separate a gesture from abstract movement, since I feel like abstract movements have meaning as well, so I get confused when I try to define things (which I guess I shouldn't do, since a movement can be a gesture if I want it to be a gesture, right?) I feel like the difference is in the intention of the movement. An abstract movement is movement for the sake of movement, while a gesture focuses more on the meaning that movement can convey.
I felt by having gestures, I moved more easily and I felt like I was more creative to abstract the gesture because I've done the gesture a kabillion times before. For example, I used to play the violin and when I played, I would just keep on playing until after I had down the rhythm. Once I got over that hump of learning the piece, I felt like that was when I became more creative. With Gestures, I feel like I know the gesture so well that I am comfortable to abstract it and have fun right away. I like doing gestures:)
The gestures exercise was an interesting way to dance. I have used gestures more in a theatrical way but not to express movement in dance. It made me stop and think, and added a new demension of expression to my movement. I can see the possibility of gestures adding more depth to a dance movement and supplying the word or feeling that cannot be expressed through simple lines. The sole use of gestures lends a more abstract expression of dance.
I took a pretty extensive choreography class over the summer and gestural theme and variation was a section that we studied, which we then performed as chance dances. I really like gesture movement but it's difficult to separate it from mime. I really like doing more theatrical dance but it is also getting really difficult to make it actually look like dance as opposed to isolated gestures. I'm a huge fan of the danced postcards and I feel that doing so made it a lot easier to make it seem more like a dance itself. I'd like to study more exactly what gestures are and how, specifically, they can be manipulated to look like real dance and movement.
working with gestures was very difficult, my brain couldn't help but use them as musical theater. This was tremendously difficult. I just couldn't think of it as dancing. It is a great struggle for me...when I speak I automatically go into theater mode. Its very frustrating. I have to really force my body to work...I don't like that at all....
I found it easier for myself to involve my face and emotion and portray meaning on my face more when I was dancing with gestures. Sometimes in abstract movement, either I don't identify with a story being told enough to portray that aspect of the performance, or I identify a lot (like in my choreography) and it's very personal and I get nervous to portray the emotion behind it. While working with gestures however I found it very simple and clear how to connect and what to portray.
Dancing through gestures was an interesting experience that I'm still getting used to. I had never thought about taking ordinary gestures that I use in my everyday lifestyle and turning them into a dance. It was a little uncomfortable at first when we had to take three completely different gestures and connect them together to tell a story but it became more comfortable the more we continued with it. Gestures are different than abstract movement because they require a certain structure. It isn't completely random, while abstract movement is more of a free flowing form of dance.
I haven't done gestures very much, so it was an interesting experience. It felt like my movements were slightly restricted, but probably only because I was having to multi-task, with speaking and moving. I think that with more time and maybe writing out my postcard, it would be a bit easier to make the movement more interesting and varied. Looking back at my postcard, I know that it could be more clear and intriguing with more practice. I also felt like I needed to dance while I was talking, or vice versa, which isn't necessarily the case. I liked the process, because, like the story telling with sounds, it was another chance to perform in front of the class and try to become more comfortable with this.
I enjoy the gesture style movements alot! I feel that I put more emotion into a gesture then into an abstract movement. I also feel more natural or comfortable doing gesture movement as opposed to abstract movement. Gesture movements seem easier to commit to memory. It is funny how a gesture can become a dance and when taken out of context becomes an abstract movement such as in our story pieces on Wednessday.
Dancing with gestures is a very different style for me. I’ve never done any sort of theatrical dance before and I’m not sure how good I am at it…It’s definitely a little bit out of my comfort zone. The only time I’ve ever used gestures before is when miming, or trying to explain something using body language. Abstract gestures are very different. It’s kind of interesting to use a gesture not to actually explain something, but just literally use it as a dance movement. At first I found it kind of difficult, and it still is a bit hard for me, but I’m getting used to it. I really love the dance we have put together using all sorts of gestures. Starting with the piano, the waves, the flowers, the flying, etc. It’s really quite a fun piece. It’s so unique and unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I definitely enjoy that dance more than the vocal ones.. While it takes some getting used to, I’m learning to enjoy dancing with gestures and I can’t wait to perform the routine!
Making movements in dance that have specific meanings or theatrical contexts for me feels like I am communicating better with the audience. I kind of like the idea of "talking" with the audience with your body. I think also that it is very fun to watch because you can see the personality of the dancer and also feel what they're feeling or have some kind of emotional response or just enjoy having someone interacting with you. There's something about an interaction between the audience and the performer/s that can make or break a performance. For me when someone interacts with me through gestures I am able to feel the "weight" of the conversation or dance. In a theatrical context not related to dance gestures are necessary and also for theatrical dance. Essentially within yourself this changes the way you think about your piece and therefore for me it change the specificity of the way I move. I'm not sure how it's different from abstract dance because I don't think I know what that is. joelle
I really enjoyed working with gestures. Gestures are a very normal part of communication for me, because even though I'm only one-quarter Italian, I match completely with the stereotype of Italians talking with their hands! However, moving my hands while I'm talking is totally subconscious and doesn't convey specific meaning as much as emphasis, but in our dancing we were creating intentional gestures to communicate a story without words. I enjoyed the process of building around gestures because I felt less pressure to make movements interesting or beautiful and more encouragement to convey a message. Communicating for me is more natural than performing, so I really felt comfortable dancing in this way.
I enjoy being able to tell a specific story in dance. It's something I'm not used to. However I feel that if my dance experience was limited to this kind of structure I would get annoyed very quickly. It's very nice to have a certain point you're trying to convey in performance and be able to expand that as the dancer, but I'm a free spirit. Abstract movement is really fun and feels amazing in the body, however it is not as definite and clear as the gesture movements. I think that both gesture and abstract movements have their purpose and are very useful to dance however being limited to either would, in my opinion be detrimental to the creative process.
I guess it changes the way I move by putting a more specific focus on my movements, something I can readily relate to. And thus I execute the movement with more clarity and intent. At least that's what it feels like. When abstracting gestures I think one tends to loose a little bit of that focus and clarity. And I think that is the goal, to have the same clarity in abstract movement as in theatrical movement with meanings.
I enjoy it BUT i am absolutely new to it! I'm bad enough with projecting as a regular person..BUT to add movement to it? Sometimes it becomes more challenging as you put more thought and consideration into it. You just have to let loose and do as your body and mind feel. That may be the best to go about it..
20 comments:
I enjoyed the gesture movements. It seemed that there was a purpose to the dance, a goal to it, maybe communicating an emotion or speaking of a past event. This was instead of just letting ourselves be and dance somewhat as we like. Thus, for this reason I had to put more thought into it.
I honestly do not think that I communicated my event through very well, but I enjoyed watching other people try to do so.
I feels a little strange to just take a gesture and simply expand it or do something completely different with it. Gestures are usually hand motions used to help express what you're talking about and to make gestures into a form of dance is hard. It's hard to break it away from its original form and use, but once you do, it opens up a whole bunch of possibilities. It's different than abstract moving because you are taking something that people use all the time in everyday life and making it look different. Abstract movement is something completely unrecognizable and has a deeper meaning to it.
In the past, gestures to me personally has simple meant somewhat miming what you are saying as you express it through some sort of hand and body movement. However, our exercise shook things up a little when we had to expand on and connect the movements and tell a story with them. I thought that it was somewhat connected with the whole out of body experience in the sense that things just seemed to repeat and flow into different movements.
It is different from abstract movement because, even though you are free to expand and contract the gestures, it is not simply all made up from your head, there is a certain structure that has to be maintained.
Gestures changed the way I moved because they add a lot of purpose and incentive to the movement. My brain is a lot more involved whereas when I'm just moving abstractly, my brain kind of turns off and my body just goes. That was a huge difference for me when doing the gestures; my brain was a lot more active and I'm constantly thinking about what I'm doing. Using gestures while dancing was kind of strange for me, it made me feel like I was acting something out more than dancing. I love drama and acting, but I feel like dance is a different side of me that gets expressed, and melding the two felt really wierd. When I act and dance I get more musical theatre-y, so acting/dancing in modern was...interesting.
Using gestures was a completely new form of dance for me. I have done improv in various other classes in the past, but I have never really got into the theatrical side of dance. It was a challenge to me to tell a story through a dance, rather then just express emotions. What we did on class today (monday), using both words and gestures to tell a story was even more of a new experience for me. It changes the way I move because I feel like i have more of a purpose behind what I am doing, rather then dancing with no end in mind.
Gestures change the way I move in that they seem to use my facial expressions more (if I'm not talking too), which makes me think my dance is more of a story. I find it hard to create gestures though, possibly because I'm used to using American Sign Language for any movement that has meaning. That seems backwards to me, since you would think that it would increase my ability, but it is what it is I guess. It feels good to be able to use gestures though, since I feel like those who watch can understand more of what I'm trying to convey rather than it being mysterious and up to individual interpretation.
I'm still trying to separate a gesture from abstract movement, since I feel like abstract movements have meaning as well, so I get confused when I try to define things (which I guess I shouldn't do, since a movement can be a gesture if I want it to be a gesture, right?) I feel like the difference is in the intention of the movement. An abstract movement is movement for the sake of movement, while a gesture focuses more on the meaning that movement can convey.
I felt by having gestures, I moved more easily and I felt like I was more creative to abstract the gesture because I've done the gesture a kabillion times before. For example, I used to play the violin and when I played, I would just keep on playing until after I had down the rhythm. Once I got over that hump of learning the piece, I felt like that was when I became more creative. With Gestures, I feel like I know the gesture so well that I am comfortable to abstract it and have fun right away. I like doing gestures:)
The gestures exercise was an interesting way to dance. I have used gestures more in a theatrical way but not to express movement in dance. It made me stop and think, and added a new demension of expression to my movement. I can see the possibility of gestures adding more depth to a dance movement and supplying the word or feeling that cannot be expressed through simple lines. The sole use of gestures lends a more abstract expression of dance.
I took a pretty extensive choreography class over the summer and gestural theme and variation was a section that we studied, which we then performed as chance dances. I really like gesture movement but it's difficult to separate it from mime. I really like doing more theatrical dance but it is also getting really difficult to make it actually look like dance as opposed to isolated gestures. I'm a huge fan of the danced postcards and I feel that doing so made it a lot easier to make it seem more like a dance itself. I'd like to study more exactly what gestures are and how, specifically, they can be manipulated to look like real dance and movement.
working with gestures was very difficult, my brain couldn't help but use them as musical theater. This was tremendously difficult. I just couldn't think of it as dancing. It is a great struggle for me...when I speak I automatically go into theater mode. Its very frustrating. I have to really force my body to work...I don't like that at all....
I found it easier for myself to involve my face and emotion and portray meaning on my face more when I was dancing with gestures. Sometimes in abstract movement, either I don't identify with a story being told enough to portray that aspect of the performance, or I identify a lot (like in my choreography) and it's very personal and I get nervous to portray the emotion behind it. While working with gestures however I found it very simple and clear how to connect and what to portray.
Dancing through gestures was an interesting experience that I'm still getting used to. I had never thought about taking ordinary gestures that I use in my everyday lifestyle and turning them into a dance. It was a little uncomfortable at first when we had to take three completely different gestures and connect them together to tell a story but it became more comfortable the more we continued with it. Gestures are different than abstract movement because they require a certain structure. It isn't completely random, while abstract movement is more of a free flowing form of dance.
I haven't done gestures very much, so it was an interesting experience. It felt like my movements were slightly restricted, but probably only because I was having to multi-task, with speaking and moving. I think that with more time and maybe writing out my postcard, it would be a bit easier to make the movement more interesting and varied. Looking back at my postcard, I know that it could be more clear and intriguing with more practice. I also felt like I needed to dance while I was talking, or vice versa, which isn't necessarily the case.
I liked the process, because, like the story telling with sounds, it was another chance to perform in front of the class and try to become more comfortable with this.
I enjoy the gesture style movements alot! I feel that I put more emotion into a gesture then into an abstract movement. I also feel more natural or comfortable doing gesture movement as opposed to abstract movement. Gesture movements seem easier to commit to memory. It is funny how a gesture can become a dance and when taken out of context becomes an abstract movement such as in our story pieces on Wednessday.
Dancing with gestures is a very different style for me. I’ve never done any sort of theatrical dance before and I’m not sure how good I am at it…It’s definitely a little bit out of my comfort zone. The only time I’ve ever used gestures before is when miming, or trying to explain something using body language. Abstract gestures are very different. It’s kind of interesting to use a gesture not to actually explain something, but just literally use it as a dance movement. At first I found it kind of difficult, and it still is a bit hard for me, but I’m getting used to it. I really love the dance we have put together using all sorts of gestures. Starting with the piano, the waves, the flowers, the flying, etc. It’s really quite a fun piece. It’s so unique and unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I definitely enjoy that dance more than the vocal ones.. While it takes some getting used to, I’m learning to enjoy dancing with gestures and I can’t wait to perform the routine!
Making movements in dance that have specific meanings or theatrical contexts for me feels like I am communicating better with the audience. I kind of like the idea of "talking" with the audience with your body. I think also that it is very fun to watch because you can see the personality of the dancer and also feel what they're feeling or have some kind of emotional response or just enjoy having someone interacting with you. There's something about an interaction between the audience and the performer/s that can make or break a performance. For me when someone interacts with me through gestures I am able to feel the "weight" of the conversation or dance. In a theatrical context not related to dance gestures are necessary and also for theatrical dance. Essentially within yourself this changes the way you think about your piece and therefore for me it change the specificity of the way I move. I'm not sure how it's different from abstract dance because I don't think I know what that is. joelle
I really enjoyed working with gestures. Gestures are a very normal part of communication for me, because even though I'm only one-quarter Italian, I match completely with the stereotype of Italians talking with their hands! However, moving my hands while I'm talking is totally subconscious and doesn't convey specific meaning as much as emphasis, but in our dancing we were creating intentional gestures to communicate a story without words. I enjoyed the process of building around gestures because I felt less pressure to make movements interesting or beautiful and more encouragement to convey a message. Communicating for me is more natural than performing, so I really felt comfortable dancing in this way.
I enjoy being able to tell a specific story in dance. It's something I'm not used to. However I feel that if my dance experience was limited to this kind of structure I would get annoyed very quickly. It's very nice to have a certain point you're trying to convey in performance and be able to expand that as the dancer, but I'm a free spirit. Abstract movement is really fun and feels amazing in the body, however it is not as definite and clear as the gesture movements. I think that both gesture and abstract movements have their purpose and are very useful to dance however being limited to either would, in my opinion be detrimental to the creative process.
I guess it changes the way I move by putting a more specific focus on my movements, something I can readily relate to. And thus I execute the movement with more clarity and intent. At least that's what it feels like. When abstracting gestures I think one tends to loose a little bit of that focus and clarity. And I think that is the goal, to have the same clarity in abstract movement as in theatrical movement with meanings.
I enjoy it BUT i am absolutely new to it! I'm bad enough with projecting as a regular person..BUT to add movement to it? Sometimes it becomes more challenging as you put more thought and consideration into it. You just have to let loose and do as your body and mind feel. That may be the best to go about it..
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