Choreography for Group Performance (MU503740)

Now that our assessment has been undergone and our piece performed for the final time, I will take this opportunity to reflect and summarise my experience across the module and evaluate our final performance. (Swain, 2022) When we performed this group work in assessment, while it went well, there were a couple of moments where we were out of sync with one another, and the choreography became vague.  I feel this lack of clarity made the movements less impactful than in rehearsals, especially in sections where we are dancing in unison.  In hindsight, while we had rehearsed the piece, we rarely were able to dance it with the music being audible to everyone due to there only being one speaker and, again, links to us being reluctant to put ourselves forward as a group.  Creating this piece was enjoyable because of how well we worked together as a group.  Everyone was motivated to make the most of our studio time to develop and clean movement, as well as sticking to our de...

When we began this project in September, we set out to create a piece centred around a portrait series by artist Bryan Charnley.  These seventeen works were Charnleys' attempt to authentically convey his internal experience while reducing and eventually cutting out medication prescribed for treating his paranoid schizophrenia, creating a self-portrait and journal entry for every day of this journey  (Charnley, 2022) (Charnley, Bohannon, 2022).   We aimed to show a person challenged by schizophrenic delusions descent into becoming increasingly paranoid and disconnected from their 'self' and how isolating this experience can be.   When researching for this piece, I focused on the specific delusions and intrusive thoughts Charnley was suffering from.  The concept of thought-broadcasting is depicted heavily in Charnley's portraits and regularly mentioned in his journals.  This delusion is when a person becomes paranoid or convinced that others can hea...

As the date of assessment comes closer, our group has been allocating extra attention to working on the final section of our piece and the impact we want to leave our audience with. This last section begins with a 'mind/body duet' between Naomi and Mia. Like the previous duet, this sequence starts with a scene of one dancer being consumed and manipulated by the other but newly with an underlying melancholy tone. However, as the duet goes on, a sense of surrender develops. The two performers transition from power struggles, such as pushing each other down or grabbing the other's head as a reference to the disease gaining control, to leaning on each other as equals with many elements of high release. There is a strong sense of tranquillity as Charnley gives in, accepting the disease. The section continues with fluid and calm movements while still implementing motifs from throughout the piece and occasional sharp dynamics that contrast the music. Originally the ending to the p...