April 5th
I brought my violin to the dance studio for the first time and first practice memorizing the notes to “Concerto in A Minor” by Antonio Vivaldi. Since it was a piece that I’ve played before as an audition song, it wasn’t too difficult to memorize the first minute or so of the piece. Now what was truly hard was moving along while playing. Before I started my personal rehearsal today I already thought of some movements I want to try with my violin playing, but I didn’t expect the tone of my violin to fluctuate as badly as it did when I tried it out for reals. In my mind’s eye, it was totally feasible to turn with a lot of energy to give that emphasis, but reality told me that the legs actually got in the way of my elbow and messed up the angle necessary to bow the right strings. I had to tone down a lot of my movements because of this and questioned the viability of my ambitious project.
Then I thought of the hip hop song I wanted to use and went with “I’ll Find You”, a Christian hip hop piece I’ve listened to for a long time and had always wanted to choreograph to. I first tried to find the notes of the first verse so I can play it as an introduction for the modern song. I also thought about how I can transition from the classical piece–maybe stick with just a simple scale? I ended my rehearsal by recording my feet movements to the violin section so that I can keep practicing in the future.
April 11th
Today, I worked more on memorizing the notes to “Concerto in A Minor” and the technical aspects of dancing with a violin. It wasn’t much of a “creative” day since I don’t have a lot of free time available, but I did want to get the leg part down as much as possible so it’s presentable to the class tomorrow. I focused on stabilizing my body while moving so I can get a clear sound from the violin. There is definitely a reason why most violinist stand/sit still while playing and I realized just how vital bow stability is in clarity of sound and tone in playing the violin. I finally made the executive decision to lower the external energy of my movements and instead focus on internalizing the energy so that my movements are still interesting to look at even if they’re huge or impressive.
April 13th
Despite what I mentioned in the last journal entry, in today’s very short rehearsal session I still wanted to make my movements as big as possible while preserving the sound. My instinct in dance is always to fill the 3D space around me so that the audience has something to watch and not get bored, but I’m more and more coming to terms about the limited movements I am capable of while playing the violin. Another trouble I’ve been facing is playing the piece accurately while dancing at the same time. I thought this would be a problem easily solved after one or two sessions but I’m now realizing that when my focus is diverted into two things (doing the right moves and playing the right notes) I have difficulty doing both super accurately. This is something that will have to come with more practice, but wow, this is taking a lot longer than I expected.
My final thought is: how should I look while playing the first verse of the hip hop piece? Should I be perfectly still as a contrast to the classical piece or give a sneak peek of the fast movements coming up ahead?
April 17th
I finally started adding movements to the hip hop section. Now, this is the portion that I feel most confident in considering my background in dancing is mostly based on this style. Quick beats, sharp angles, hard down beats make me feel at home and I love being able to explore this style of movement again. I’m starting off with delicious movements and embracing things that bring me joy and make me feel good more than anything. I fully intend to incorporate the choreographic elements we’ve explored throughout this semester later on in the choreography or even add them to movements I already made so far, but as the jumping off point, I’ll be focused on my “happy” movements. If anything, I did think a lot about how my level affects my movements and how diverse I can be with it. After I go high, maybe I can do a squat to reach that low-mid level.
As I saw myself in the mirror, I realized just how much my dance team’s style is embedded into everything I do and laughed at just how similar I looked like my dance team’s director dancing. The balance of sharp, angled movements with moments of flow and groove is exactly how my previous teacher choreographed and the result of dancing to that style for about 6 years was evident.
April 18th
Today I finished part 1 of the rap section of “I’ll Find You”. I really considered how one movement leads to another and the connections each movement share with each other that makes the piece feel cohesive. One movement idea I was pretty happy about was exploring the shape of the letters “E” and “I”. One of the lyrics of the song says: “Don’t get bitter get better / I’m working on switching those letters”. I was inspired by Wayne McGregor’s TED Talk in which he explained one of his choreographic methods: exploring the shape of letters in space. I liked how I got to experiment with laying the letter “I” down on the floor then raise the letter “E” vertically to travel in both dimensions, leading to cool hand movements and floorwork in the choreography. I wanted my motivation for movement to come from various sources, not just music, so I thought about what this choreography meant for me. I then decided that I wanted to portray themes of loneliness (my first encounter to dance culture here in Grinnell) as well as different choreographers I’ve witnessed through this class like Wayne Mcgregor.
I finished the rehearsal with some more delicious movement.
April 26th
One of the most ambitious ideas I had for my choreography was to incorporate a costume change in the middle of it. I wanted it to look as cool as possible with flashy movements and dramatic moments to draw the audience in while still having a clear purpose behind them. Beyond the flair, I want the moment to be another transition between my “classical music” side with the hip hop side as I start taking off the clothes that are associated with the formal, proper environment of typical violin playing. It was a very fun section to choreograph as I wondered what I can do with my articles to clothing to let it become more than simply props to carry around. It also gave me the opportunity to think about stage space and how I want to travel between the center of the stage and the chair with the violin and my outfits to make sure the moment isn’t killed off.
On the technical side, wow button ups are hard to take off. The cuff links especially are a big pain and I have to be prepared for them to not come off easily in the final performance of this piece. I made choreography in that part in the music in case I am fortunate and am able to take off my shirt on time, but I am knowledgeable in my piece enough that I can immediately join the choreography as soon as I’m done with the costume change.
Now, despite having fun choreographing the costume change itself, I was very frustrated with this session because none of my movements seemed to spark joy in me as the other moments did. I didn’t feel good about the movements I made in a style I’m supposed to be confident in and that gave me a lot of internal struggle throughout the rehearsal time. I felt stuck and couldn’t think of any motivation of movement and left the rehearsal feeling discouraged. I hope that looking back on my work in the future can make me feel better about this moment and use as a stepping stone to prepare myself for future moments when dance–the thing I love–feels like it has betrayed me.
April 28th
Today was the day–I’m finally done! I reached the part of the choreography where I got to dance with my violin like a dance partner and show that it’s not a restrictive side but a part of me as well. I thought of the musical instrument as an extension of my body and a tool to cover more space around in shapes I couldn’t make with my body before. Some critical responses I’ve received from my classmates in the previous class inspired me to try out more vertical space and embrace the moments of stillness. For the vertical and forward space, I tried to embrace as much of that in the violin section and extend my bow in those directions. While I was wondering about where I can get inspiration for stillness, I thought about how my violin influenced how little I moved at the beginning of the piece. So I incorporated a section with my entire body still except my hand crawling up and down my body like the neck of a violin then finish with a vibrato with one hand and another hand drawing the bow across my stomach.
My final thoughts on this choreographic process were that I was relieved and fascinated by the journey I just went through. There was a lot of ups and downs and as I mentioned in my previous entry, looking back on the choreography made me feel better than I felt in the moment. I was glad that I had the opportunity to experiment with throwing away ideas instead of having to with whatever idea first popped into my head.
May 2nd
This was just a technical rehearsal day for me to clarify all my movements and be prepared to show what I have for the class showing tomorrow. I hurt my knee a couple of days ago and it gets in the way of some of my knee spins but hopefully, it’ll get better by the time of the performance. On a positive note, it seems like I’m getting faster and faster taking off the buttons o my dress shirt. Although the cuffs are still a little troublesome, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be too big of an issue when I have to take it off for the actual performance. I filmed myself rehearsing and it came out to be 4 minutes and 29 seconds: the longest choreography I’ve ever made. My dominating emotions are pride, worry, excitement, and stress as the final performance approaches.
May 3rd
I was not expecting to make a journal entry but after today’s critical response session, I realized that I wanted to change the costume change section. From the beginning, I had a nagging feeling that it was too flashy, too much like an exotic dancer to be the emotional transition that I originally wanted for the section. My worry was that it would be too “boring” to watch me just take off some clothes but maybe that calmness is exactly what I needed all along. Virtuosity is great but I don’t want the meaning to be taken away from the moment of going from one side of my identity to another. I could maybe keep some of the costume change choreography, but not the parts when I’m doing fancy tricks or throwing away my clothes. I could preserve more of the meaningful aspect of this section by putting on clothes as well as taking them off…how would a blazer and a hoodie combo look together I wonder?
Works Cited
TED. “A Choreographer’s Creative Process in Real Time | Wayne McGregor | TED Talks.” YouTube, conference talk by Wayne McGregor, 14 Sep. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPPxXeoIzRY.
Lecrae, and Tori Kelly. “I’ll Find You.” By Lecrae. MP3. Frank E, Danny Majic, 2017.
