DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
DIAVOLO
14 / 15 SEASON
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Student Matinee
FRI / MAY 1 11:00 AM THE BROAD STAGE AT THE SANTA MONICA ARTS CENTER 1310 11TH ST., SANTA MONICA, CA 90401 / 310.434.3560
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS STAFF Mitch Heskel, Director Amy Kirkland, General Manager Carolyn Palmer, Director of Programming and Education Alisa De Los Santos, Manager of Education and Community Programs Jonathan Redding, Dramaturg Klarissa Leuterio, Education and Community Programs Associate CONSULTANTS Kai Collins, Dance Consultant & Curriculum Writer
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Education and Community at The Broad Stage is supported in part by Austin and Virginia Beutner, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, Herb Alpert Foundation, John W. Carson Foundation, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, The Green Foundation, SMC Associates, Matthewson Charitable Trusts, The Roth Family Foundation, Bank of the West, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, Leonard M. Lipman Charitable Fund, the Santa Monica College Associates, and the City of Santa Monica Department of Cultural Affairs.
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EDUCATION & COMMUNITY PROGRAMS Phone 310.434.3560 education @thebroadstage.com thebroadstage.com/education
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
Greetings from The Broad Stage! Dear Educators, We are so excited to bring Diavolo back to The Broad Stage this season! The company will be performing on of their latest creations, Fluid Infinities, as well as several other pieces, giving audiences a glimpse of the meaning of their tag line “architecture in motion.” Please take some time to work through some or all of the activities in this guide with your students. Each element of the guide has been developed by dancers and educators to help explain the concepts behind the performance you’ll be seeing and to engage your students both pre- and post-show.
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Beginning with a discussion of the role of dance through history and in contemporary life, students can start a discourse about the importance and ongoing relevance of this medium. Pre-Show activities include warm-ups to open the body and release the inner critic that keeps students from working freely. The lessons develop into Post-Show movement exercises that involve teamwork and elements students will have seen in the live Diavolo performance. There are attachments to further explain the concepts behind the lessons to create movement pieces. Again, in preparation for the performance, we encourage you to look through this study guide and implement some (or all!) of these activities in your classroom. As always, the activities are supported by the California Common Core and the VAPA Standards. We hope that this guide proves to be helpful in preparing your students to for the presentation. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions or ideas. We’ll see you at Diavolo!
Sincerely, Kai Collins Klarissa Leuterio Dance Consultant Education & Community Programs Associate leuterio_klarissa@smc.edu
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Our goal is to help you generate a dialogue and an environment in which your students feel safe to explore, move, and create. We’ve incorporated elements of Diavolo into the lessons and have worked to promote new ways in which to view and participate in the art of dance.
CONTENTS
Diavolo Contents PRE-SHOW LESSON Introduction to Dance and Diavolo Dance Company
POST-SHOW LESSON (Feel free to use any combination of elements within these activities)
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Post-Show Activity 2: Creation through Collaboration Post-Show Activity 3: Get in Motion—Fluid Infinities
Appendix Viewpoints Interview with Artistic Director, Jacques Heim Vocabulary Words Branching out with other Curricula
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Post-Show Activity 1: Storytelling and Dance
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
PRE-SHOW ACTIVITY: Introduction to Dance and Diavolo Dance Company (Duration: 50 Minutes) DESCRIPTION An introduction to the Diavolo Dance Theater, the basic elements of dance, the role of dance in expressing ideas and emotions, and the way in which dances can represent human experiences. GOALS 1. Students will be demonstrate understanding of the role of dance throughout human history and contemporarily across cultures, including providing examples of the role of dance in their own lives.
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3. Students will be able to identify emotions and follow a story-line in dance phrases based on their knowledge of the elements of dance.
About the name “DIAVOLO”: Dia—Spanish for “day”, Volo—Latin for “I fly” To the Diavolo Dancer, this means, “I fly through the day”
Part 1: Engagement Brainstorm some of the reasons people dance, past and present. Can you think of celebrations or other events in your life where people danced? Have you been to a dance performance for entertainment? Write students’ contributions on the whiteboard. Encourage students to think about the role dance has played in human history, and the role dance plays in their contemporary lives. Note that humans have dances for religious and ceremonial reasons (e.g. Native American Ghost Dance), celebrations (Tunisian wedding dance, Hungarian harvest dance), and entertainment. Ask Students: What styles of dance do you know? What differences have you noticed in these styles of dance? Do you have a favorite style of dance? Is dance only for Dancers?
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2. Students will be able to name the basic elements of dance—Body, Action, Space, Time, and Energy (B.A.S.T.E)—and demonstrate the range of these elements through improvised movement.
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
PRE-SHOW ACTIVITY: Introduction to Dance and Diavolo Dance Company (continued)
Part 2: Activity GET EXCITED! Warm-up: Start by moving into an open space in a room to begin exercises. Examples of warm-up exercises, K-12:
2. Stretch for ten seconds in various directions. Ask students to imagine reaching the sky, stretching to reach both sides of the room at the same time, reaching down through the floor and into the ground- help release them from thinking in terms of “impossible.” 3. Carefully roll down through the spine, one vertebra at a time, to the floor for a count of ten. Take ten seconds to roll and return to standing. 4. Instruct students to imagine a balloon tied to the top of their head. Ask them to grow five inches taller. And then another two inches taller. Remind them that holding their breath isn’t going to help. 5. Ask students to climb a ladder, imagine stretching up rung to rung, higher and higher. 6. Jumping Jacks! Have students complete a set of 25 to get their hearts moving. 7. Repeat 1-5. Ask if they noticed changes in their body this time. Do they feel any lighter? Heavier? More or less energized? Did they get any taller?
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1. In a circle, shake out different body parts for counts of ten: hands, arms, feet, legs, shoulders, elbows, nose (sometimes the sillier, the better, to get them relaxed and ready to participate). Finish with shaking out the whole body.
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
PRE-SHOW ACTIVITY: Introduction to Dance and Diavolo Dance Company (continued) NAME GAME AND MOVEMENT CIRCLE In a circle, have students stand with straight posture and hands out of pockets. Students, one-by-one, will turn to their write, look at their neighbor in the eye, and state their own name with purpose and clarity.
Tell students that they’ll now be incorporating movement into the circle. One by one, have students share a movement or gesture. Examples: a wave of the arm, a kick, a hand clap. As a group, have them repeat their movements at the same time while playing with pace- ask them to go as quickly as possible, ask them to take an entire 30 seconds to complete the move, etc. Continue to change up the tempo. Challenge your students: ask the to add emotion to their movement. Suggest a series of emotions and have the students repeat their movements, one at a time, with this emotion in mind. Examples: fear, joy, annoyance. Instruct them to focus on conveying the emotion to the group by using their whole body, not just their face. Ask students to think of someone they admire and repeat the motion as they’d imagine that person would. Next, ask students to think of someone they dislike, and repeat the motion as they imagine that person would. Ask the students to think of an animal and complete their movement as that animal would. Have the class guess what the animal is.
TAKE IT FURTHER Brainstorm common expressions that have to do with movement and dance (eg., jumping for joy, walking a thin line, bending over backwards, pull yourself together…). Write these on slips of paper and put them in a hat. Have students randomly select a slip of paper and take turns demonstrating to the class—without talking—the expression while the other students try to guess what expression is being shown.
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When everyone in the circle has gone, evolve the activity by adding tempo; (eg., say your name, but let’s move through the circle faster, like the wind, or slower, like molasses.) or add a quality (eg., say your name like a lion, and add the element of switching directions and saying names across the circle, using eye contact and a clear voices.
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
POST-SHOW ACTIVITY 1: Storytelling and Dance (Duration: 30 Minutes) DESCRIPTION Students collaborate to tell a story through movement and reflect on the ways in which dance can represent human experiences. GOALS 1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the role of dance in our culture while providing examples of the rule of dance in their own lives. 2. Students will collaborate to create choreography and perform for their peers 3. Students will be able to identify emotions and follow a story-line dance phrases based on their knowledge of the elements of dance.
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Ask students: Did they enjoy the performance What about it? What would they have done differently? How did the costumes, lighting, and props affect the performance? Did they enhance or impede the work? Can they recall examples of the elements of dance? Did the dancers use different elements to communicate different experiences or emotions? Discuss how the dancers had to work together and trust one another. Ask them to share examples. Review what a journey is and that there are different types of journeys (literal and emotional). Have students describe a journey they have taken in their life? Was it a physical journey? Changing schools? Facing a fear? Fulfilling an aspiration? Traveling to somewhere they had never been? Then ask students if there were any obstacles that came up during this journey. Did they experience this journey alone? Did the journey change them?
Part 2: Activity Divide students into small groups. Have students choose a journey to represent and choreograph movements to represent that journey. Remind students this is like creating a sentence or telling as tory, but through the use of movement. Have students create clear beginning, middle, and end of this phrase that clearly illustrates their journey. Share their dances with the class. Discuss what it felt like to share their personal journeys through movement for an audience.
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Part 1: Engagement
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
POST-SHOW ACTIVITY 2: Creation through Collaboration (Duration: 45 Minutes) DESCRIPTION Students collaborate to tell a story through movement and reflect on the ways in which dance can represent human experiences. GOALS 1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the role of dance in our culture while providing examples of the rule of dance in their own lives. 2. Students will collaborate to create choreography and perform for their peers. 3. Students will be able to identify emotions and follow a story-line dance phrases based on their knowledge of the elements of dance.
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Ask students: Did they enjoy the performance What about it? What would they have done differently? How did the costumes, lighting, and props affect the performance? Did they enhance or impede the work? Can they recall examples of the elements of dance? Did the dancers use different elements to communicate different experiences or emotions? Discuss how the dancers had to work together and trust one another. Ask them to share examples. Diavolo is about representing “architecture in motion.” ASK students to think about how their own bodies can create architecture and change the space in which they exist. How can they make art out of nothing?
Part 2: Activity CREATE One by one, have students walk to the center and freeze in any position. There is no wrong; the only rule is they must somehow connect to at least one other student. Remind them they must also be able to hold this pose for up to five minutes! PHOTOGRAPH their final tableau after every student has joined the living sculpture. Then, instruct individual students to step out, in a different order in which they joined. Continue to photograph the ever-changing sculpture and ASK students to note how removing a single body changes what they see and feel.
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Part 1: Engagement
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
POST-SHOW ACTIVITY 2: Creation through Collaboration (continued)
FINISH with a single student or few students holding their pose and PHOTOGRAPH this. SHARE the images with the class and ask them to DISCUSS what moods or emotions they think their shared tableau conveys. Does it remind them of anything? Have students SUGGEST possible titles for the name of the architecture/sculpture they created together. ASK how it felt to create their own art with no music, props, costumes, money, etc. How does the vision with the entire group differ from vision of the individual? If time permits:
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DISCUSS with students following the repetition of the exercise how this mood informed the pose they struck. Ask them to talk about how the “mood” sculpture they created differed from the first exercise.
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DIVIDE students into small groups. Have them repeat the exercise one group at a time as the class watches. Instruct the student audience to SUGGEST a single mood prior to that group’s students taking their poses. Examples: hope, rage, triumph. Have students freeze in a position that represents this emotion to them.
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
POST-SHOW ACTIVITY 3: Get in Motion—Fluid Infinities (Duration: 45 Minutes) DESCRIPTION Students collaborate to tell a story through movement and reflect on the ways in which dance can represent human experiences. (Educators, see attached info about movement using “Viewpoints”) GOALS 1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the role of dance in our culture while providing examples of the rule of dance in their own lives. 2. Students will collaborate to create choreography and perform for their peers 3. Students will be able to identify emotions and follow a story-line dance phrases based on their knowledge of the elements of dance.
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Ask students: Did they enjoy the performance What about it? What would they have done differently? How did the costumes, lighting, and props affect the performance? Did they enhance or impede the work? Can they recall examples of the elements of dance? Did the dancers use different elements to communicate different experiences or emotions? Discuss how the dancers had to work together and trust one another. Ask them to share examples. Explain that the name Diavolo comes from the Spanish, “Dia,” meaning “day,” and the Latin “Volo,” meaning “I fly.” The work of Diavolo represents the idea “I fly through the day” or, “Today I fly”. INSTRUCT students to think about a positive intention for the day. Examples: Today I laugh, Today I stand up for myself, Today I let go, Today I accept myself.
Part 2: Activity MOTION AND SPACE ASK students to stand and spread out with space around them. All together, have them speak their intention aloud and with purpose. Ask them to repeat them and truly mean it. Have students repeat several times, with intensity, until they’re practically shouting. GRID: Instruct students to walk on a grid. They can move anywhere in the room, but only at right angles. After a minute or two, remind them of the intention they set and let it affect the way they move.
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Part 1: Engagement
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
POST-SHOW ACTIVITY 3: Get in Motion—Fluid Infinities (continued) TEMPO: Increase the tempo. Remind them to be safe, but ask students to move about the space as quickly as possible, while staying at 90 degree angles. Have them slow down to normal speed. Continue to have them to slow their pace until they’re moving in slow motion. (You may use different MUSIC to help with this, but it’s not essential.) Play with speeding them up and slowing them down. SPACE: Instruct students to abandon the grid and move about the space normally, keeping their intention in mind. Have students FILL the space with their bodies, encouraging them to try new things, move in different ways, and to take up as much room as possible. Again, play with tempo, instructing them to change up their speed and the energy. REPETITION: Have the students pause and create a movement that represents their intention. Examples: raising their arms overhead, a spin in a circle, a jump. Have them repeat their movement. Play with pace, having them repeat it at different speeds. Ask them to take their movement around the room, repeating and adapting it as they move through space.
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DISCUSS with students how they felt at the beginning versus the end of the exercise. Did they start thinking it was foolish or doubting themselves? Did focusing on grids, speed, and space free them to explore their intention in different ways? Ask if their belief in their ability to accomplish this intention changed in any way. Could they fly through their day?
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RESPONSE: Have the students freeze. Allow them to pause to look at their classmates and the different ways in which they’ve chosen to move.
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
“Viewpoints” Viewpoints are a system of physical training originally developed by dance choreographer Mary Overlie and adapted by theatre director Anne Bogart. Their primary intentions are 1) to strengthen the dancer’s awareness of the body in time and space and 2) to be used as a method of discussing and creating movement for the stage. Just as Diavolo creates a dialogue, reacting to the space and world around them, use of the Viewpoints allows students to move and respond to their own environment in a new way. The original Viewpoints include eleven aspects of movement and this lesson has been adapted to incorporate these essential themes. Through these movements, students get to play, by playing with: tempo, shapes, space, architecture, spatial relationships, repetition, duration, kinesthetic response, gestures, and topography. By moving as a group, students can release their inner critics and create more freely. By allowing their bodies to lead and generate group energy like that of Diavolo and other performance groups, they can cultivate a new appreciation for movement and create inspiring work together.
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(TBS) How old were you when you began studying dance? (JH) 22 years old. (TBS) How did you choose dance? (JH) It was an art form where I didn’t have to worry about the language barrier (TBS) What attracted you to dance? (JH) I have been in theatre and the movement and lack of words made it attractive. I discovered that movement at times is more powerful than words. Movement never lies. (TBS) Did you make any sacrifices or trade-offs while learning? (JH) No. Learning is a privilege (TBS) What is your specialty? (JH) A combination of athletic movement and visual impact. DIavolo is not traditional modern dance. We never dance on a bare stage. We perform on an oversized staircase, a wall, a cage, a huge rocker, or use ladders, or benches. The performances are a mix of dancers, actors, and gymnasts, dancing on large structures.
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Interview with Artistic Director, Jacques Heim
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
Vocabulary Words Choreography: the art of symbolically representing dancing; the composition and arrangement of movement Collaborate: to work jointly with others tor together especially in an intellectual endeavor in order to create or to resolve something Improvisation: to create on the spot, in the movement. Teamwork: to work jointly with others or together in order to create or to resolve Trust: assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone.
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Creativity and Collaboration are important tools that make up the foundation of all Diavolo work and help the dancers grow as teammates and artists.
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
FOR EDUCATORS: Branching out with other Curricula CURRICULUM APPLICATION/ARTISTRY Dance is an excellent barometer of student understanding of various concepts and lessons. ‘It’s hard to dance it if you don’t understand it.’ Dance can also enhance and help understanding, leading the study to explore, think creatively, and ultimately learn. Here are some ideas for dance artistry/curriculum application. Use the warm-up and activities as guides to incorporating these ideas. GEOGRAPHY Students can create a dance that demonstrates their understanding of terrain by using changes in body levels.
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Students can pick a specific country, or area, or state, and then use movements, shapes as well are they imaginations to create a dance metaphor. HISTORY Students can create a dance, with corresponding movements to illustrate a historical event, like the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, or the Bering Strait Migration. VOCABULARY Common social studies words—such as democracy, revolution, or freedom, can be demonstrated by students using movement, shape, tempo, etc. SCIENCE Movement concepts of trust, collaboration, and teamwork, are particularly valuable in the sciences. Dances can be created to show the dependence (collaboration or teamwork) or: - Body Systems: respiratory circulatory, digestive, nervous - Seasons and Cycles: life cycles, a specific season - Machines and Mechanical Actions: pulleys, levers, tools, engines. - Electric and Magnetic Forces: polar opposites, pull, repel, circuits. - Space and Solar Systems: rotation, relative size, order of planets. - States of Matter - Gravity VISUAL ARTS Instead of a pencil, use a brush and make a “movement” painting.
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A narrator can be added to describe a tour across a place. The dance will show a relationship to mountains, valleys, desserts, canyons, etc.
DIAVOLO STUDY GUIDE
FOR EDUCATORS: Branching out with other Curriculas (continued) MATH Math dances can be enlightening exercises to demonstrate how clearly students understand basic math concepts. Students can be given problems (adding, multiplying, geometric shapes, fractions, etc.) and them asked to show the solution the problem through movement, phrases, shapes and working together. In addition, dance cab help a student understanding quantity. For example: 75%, 1/3, etc. Students can begin set tempos at which to move, and then changes in tempo will be called out (“now move at 50% of that speed”).
LANGUAGE ARTS There are a variety if ways to demonstrate or enhance students’ understanding of language and ideas. Students can tell stories through dance and a narrator, or using word cards to increase vocabulary and an understanding of the meaning of individual words. Students can create poem dances by choosing a poem, and them choreographing movements for each line of the poem. Creating antonym and synonym movement comparisons by asking students to create movement for basic emotions and their opposites: love/hate, sad/happy, etc. Move onto other word pairs: smooth/jerky, tight/loose. Pair the students and have one create movement for one word, the other for its antonyms. Do the same for synonyms. Dance a scene or a play or a story. Or, in groups working together, choose a scene from a play or story and create a shape that best describes it. Freeze in the shape. LANGAUGE ARTS WRITING PROMPTS Pretend that you are a newspaper reporter. Write a review of the performance you saw. What did you hear? How did it make you feel? Would you recommend this performance to a friend? Describe in prose or poetry the feelings a dance gives you. Read Biographies of dancers and report on them.
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Areas can be marked out or students may be asked to walk through 2/3 of the space.