Artsource
DANCE ®
The Music Center’s Study Guide to the Performing Arts ENDURING VALUES
TRANSFORMATION
ARTISTIC PROCESSES
TRADITIONAL CLASSICAL
1. CREATING (Cr)
CONTEMPORARY
2. PERFORMING, PRESENTING, PRODUCING (Pr)
EXPERIMENTAL
3. RESPONDING (Re)
MULTI-MEDIA
4. CONNECTING (Cn)
FREEDOM & OPPRESSION
THE POWER OF NATURE
THE HUMAN FAMILY
Title of Work:
images. Her company has toured 48 states and 4
HereAfterHere (excerpt: “Compass Rose”)
continents sponsored by Japan-U.S. Friendship
Creators:
Commission (twice) and a State Department tour of
Company: Tandy Beal & Company Choreographer: Tandy Beal b. 1948 Composer: Jon Scoville b. 1943 - “Compass Rose” from Pirouette Park
Eastern Europe.
Background Information:
eternity, is a rich mosaic of traditional and
Tandy Beal is a dancer, choreographer, actress, comic
contemporary concepts of the afterlife with dance,
and dreamer. She was born into a theater family, the
theatre, video and even a magician. With 25 dancers
daughter of actors John Beal and Helen Craig. She lives
and actors, it bubbles with kinetic poetry, humor and
in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her long time
magical visuals. This dance “Compass Rose” (from
partner and collaborator, composer Jon Scoville. While
Jon’s CD “Pirouette Park”) is the dance to life, to
concerts and theater filled her early childhood, Tandy
experiencing the individual drive forward (as seen in all
only began studying dance in the ninth grade; her first
the lines of action thrusting across the stage) and
teacher was Ernestine Stodell, a former member of the
ultimately to finding connection and wholeness in
Doris Humphrey Dance Company. At fourteen she saw
community. It is a celebration of life and all its joyful
a performance of the Alwin Nikolais Company and
energy and an invitation to savor every moment.
intuitively knew that someday she would be working with
Creative Process of the Artist or Culture:
him. Two years later she was studying with Nikolais,
Tandy Beal’s work ranges widely from the lyric and
eventually touring with his company. At tweny-two she
poetic to the theatrical and whimsical. While dance is
moved to California and in 1974 she founded her own
the central medium for her performance art, theater and
company. In talking about the development of her own
music are essential elements. Ms. Beal often is inspired
work,
to
by a piece of music when creating a new work. Tandy
struggling artists: “The most important thing about
says - “Jon’s music and this joyful drumming score
performing is that you must be truthful.” It is this
propelled me into making this dance
conscious awareness and direction of energy that
with its visible motor and vibrancy.”
permeates her performance and her choreography. For
As in HereAfterHere a dance can also
Tandy, art teaches us to develop our capacity for feeling.
evolve from questions, ideas or
“As we look back,” she comments, “our most memorable
images.
Tandy
recalls
her
father’s
advice
About the Artwork: The full length HereAfterHere, a self-guided tour of
moments are those when our feelings were most engaged.” In her work she seeks to enlarge this capacity to experience the full range of emotions. Ms. Beal has been producing art for years. Through it all, she has been making sense of this life by creating moving
“Art can give us an alternative lens through which to see our world.” California Tandy Beal
Discussion Questions: After the video has been viewed: • What are your impressions about HereAfterHere after viewing the excerpt? • Did you feel anything? What? • Did the dance bring up any memories or ideas for you? • If you had a favorite part and you had a chance to change or add to it, what would you do? • Do you remember any specific shapes or actions? Can you show them? • What did the music make you feel? Describe it. • What are the things you are striving for in your own life?
Multidisciplinary Options: • Think of five to ten adjectives to describe your impressions of the dance from HereAfterHere. Create a poem using these words. • Use verbs and adjectives to describe the movements. • Draw a picture that has interesting directions, colors, shapes and energy. Find a way to show part of your drawing through movement. • Write a two-part idea about something from your life here and what you imagine life might be like in another place.
Audio-Visual Materials: • Video excerpt of “Compass Rose” from HereAfterHere, courtesy of Tandy Beal & Company. Musical accompaniment by Jon Scoville from his album, Pirouette Park. • Photos by Chunyi McIver, courtesy of Tandy Beal.
Additional References: • Joyce, Mary. First Steps in Teaching Creative Dance. 3rd Edition. McGraw-Hill: 1993. • Stinson, Sue. Dance for Young Children. National Dance Assoc. (AAHPERD), Reston, VA: 1988.
Sample Experiences: LEVEL I • Find ways to make a movement stop abruptly.
Experiment with ways to make a movement continue and last. Try putting these two ideas together in some way. • Using different parts of your body, attach yourself to a partner and find a way to travel together. Each set of partners shares three to five connected traveling ideas with the class. * • Select various forms of pasta and explore how each idea can be translated into body shapes and actions. Select some of your ideas, sequence them and create a pasta dance. LEVEL II • With a partner or trio, explore ways to create shapes which are symmetrical. Choose three to five, finding transitions which lead from one to the other. Share with the class. Repeat this idea by making partner or trio shapes which are asymmetrical (different on both halves of a center line). * • HereAfterHere is about change, exits and entrances. Do an improvisation which involves entrances, stop action poses and exits. Several people at a time can enter and exit five different times, stopping alone or in relationship to each other, then leaving to begin a new idea. • Moving around a circle, each person create a movement that takes four counts. Everyone in the circle learns it and then finds ways to vary it (size, rhythm, level, energy) without losing the essence of the idea. LEVEL III • View the video and see if there is a small section of the dance which the class can learn or improvise upon. • Do an improvisation with people moving and stopping on a cue, repeat the idea with people moving and stopping in their own timing. * • Create shapes which look as if they are supported by another, but can support themselves when the other person leaves. This involves the illusion of counterbalance, but actually involves individual balance. • Take an idea such as ‘here and there’ and show it in a gesture or simple movement. • Mark two points in space. Work with a partner or small group to find 5-10 different ways to travel from here to there and back. * Indicates sample lessons
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More about Tandy Beal Ms. Beal has had an off the map career that includes: The Pickle Famiy Circus, directing a show for NASA’s SETI project with Frank Drake and Carl Sagan, corporate shows (LucasFilms, SF 49ers, MCI, Coca-Cola, Pixar, Oracle), and the Moscow Circus in Japan for 2 years; acting off Broadway; choreography for all the characters in Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Xmas” and Korean National Dance Treasure Aeju Lee, guest performances with Atlanta Ballet, Momix, and in Europe, with Carolyn Carlson. Beal toured worldwide with Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis (Saddler’s Wells, Theatre de la Ville, Broadway, the BBC, Teheran etc.) She is the stage director for Bobby McFerrin and has worked with him in Israel, Korea, China, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Russia. Collaborations with composers range from John Adams, Art Lande, Jon Scoville, SoVoSó to Frank Zappa (and 65 life sized puppets!).
More about Jon Scoville Jon Scoville has composed music for Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis, Tandy Beal, Laura Dean, Sara Rudner, Stephen Koester, Douglas Neilsen, the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Hovik Ballet (Oslo), Oakland Ballet, Pickle Family and Moscow Circuses. His music has been on NPR, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Belgrade—and in Paris’ Théâtre de la Ville, Fête à Aix, Kyoto’s American Center, Tokyo’s Seibu Theatre, festivals in Verona, Pamplona and Santander, concerts in Athens, Rio, Brno and Sarajevo. Music for gallery installations on 3 continents and corporate work for LucasFilms, Capitol Exhibits, and Digital Equipment Corp. Grants from Meet the Composer/West, California Arts Council Composer Fellowship, Utah Arts Council, and Santa Cruz Arts Commission. His book, Sound Designs, (10 Speed Press), on the construction of percussion instruments is used by Stomp. He founded a 25-member band SAMBA GRINGA, (percussion music of Brazil and New Orleans) which played at the ‘02 Olympics, the Park City Film Festival. He has 9 CDs (available at albertsbicycle.com).
Full credits for video clip of HereAfterHere Choreographer: Tandy Beal Composer: Jon Scoville Media: Ben Jaffe Lighting: Derek Duarte Scenic: Kate Edmunds Video: Ellen Bromberg, Jess Damsen, Bruce G. Lee, Denise Gallant, Nada Miljkovic Costumes: Maria Crush
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DANCE
PASTA SHAPES TRANSFORMATION
LEVEL I Sample Lesson INTRODUCTION: Pasta comes in a multitude of different shapes. These variations can serve as a point of departure for exploring shapes with the body. Also, the fact that pasta is stiff before it is cooked and soft and pliable after it is cooked can help young students become aware of ‘stiff’ and ‘floppy’ or ‘rigid’ and ‘flowing’ energy concepts, as well as an example of transformation brought about by a chemical change caused by water and heat. OBJECTIVES: (Student Outcomes) Students will be able to: • Make a variety of shapes alone and with others to represent different types of pasta. (Creating & Performing) • Sequence several ideas in movement and design and repeat the sequence.(Creating & Performing) • Describe, discuss, analyze and connect information and experiences based on this lesson. Refer to Assessment at the end of this lesson. (Responding & Connecting) MATERIALS: • A container with several different types of pasta shapes (wheels, long and thin, flat and wide, spirals, curved and straight tubes). PROGRESSION: • Introduce the class to different shaped pieces of pasta. Ask them to describe these shapes using descriptive words. If you know the Italian names, such as macaroni, lasagne, fusili, spaghetti and rigotoni, you may wish to incorporate them. • Take different pieces of the pasta, one variety at a time, and ask the students to show their impression of the shape with their body or a body part. Use the words they came up with earlier to describe each type. e.g. long and thin, wide and flat, circular with straight spokes, etc. Ask the students to find two to three variations for each idea. • When the students have explored each of these ideas, select three to five and have them move from one shape idea to another, forming a simple sequence; e.g. wide and flat, spiral, straight, curved. Repeat the sequence of ideas, allowing the younger students to create new ideas within the category each time and encouraging older students to remember and repeat their specifically designed shapes each time the sequence is given. • Have the students group themselves in clusters close to each other in space. Have them repeat the above 4
problem, being aware of how their shapes relate to those near them. They might also choose to include a direction or a level change to make the group designs work better. • Ask the students what else might be served with the pasta. e.g. sauce and sprinkled cheese. Using these ideas, have them design a “Pasta Dance.” Ask them how they would like to begin and which ideas they want to include in the dance. Sequence the ideas, select an ending and decide how the dance will be organized. • It is usually a good idea to have about ten students perform their interpretation of the dance while the rest of the class observes. Offer opportunities for the observers to comment on ideas that worked and to give suggestions which the next group can incorporate. • When creating this dance, emphasize the movement words so that there is ample opportunity to improvise within each section. This will allow the students to become much more involved in developing each concept within the dance. The following is an example of a sequence: • Dance begins with students representing the spaghetti leaning or standing together in a pot. • As the water boils the spaghetti begins to lose its stiffness and becomes floppy and pliable. • The spaghetti is drained and poured onto a large serving dish (encourage shapes which curve over and under each other with spaces between each person). • Sauce (a second group of students) flows over the spaghetti and can ooze in, around and through the spaces. • Last comes the cheese which ‘sprinkles.’ The same group of students can perform each part, playing off the various energy words. • Discuss the experience with the students and ask them to recall the shapes and movement ideas they performed and observed during the class.
HereAfterHere Tandy Beal & Company Photo: Chunyi McIver
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HereAfterHere Titles Tandy Beal & Company Photo: Chunyi McIver
EXTENSIONS: • Ask the class to draw a series of pictures which show the shapes they created with their bodies. This can be done on a full sheet of paper or the paper can be folded into sections so that each body position fills one section. They can incorporate both the pasta and body shapes to capture the essence of each idea. Ask the students to write words next to each picture to describe its main qualities, feelings and shapes. • Divide older students into groups of three or four and have them build group shape designs which create a whole idea. It works well to have a different student be the director for each design. They should consider such things as variations of level, body facing and whether the body parts are connected to each other or remain near, but separate. • The lesson can end here or you can go on to explore the transformation which occurs in pasta when it is cooked. Ask the students to show how they would show this change in movement (beginning with stiff movements and positions to loose or floppy ones). Have them spend several seconds exploring these two different qualities. VOCABULARY: pasta, shape (as a dance, rather than visual arts definition), transformation, energy, spiral ASSESSMENT: (Responding & Connecting) DISCUSS: Discuss how you made your choices to build a sequence of shapes. ANALYZE: Look at each different type of pasta and discuss the similarities and differences between them. Discuss how the differences were portrayed in body shapes. CONNECT: Discuss the concepts of stiff and floppy. Ask students to think of other things that have these qualities. (e.g. starched clothes and unstarched clothes or bristles on a broom and a string mop) Emphasis on: Common Core - CA State Standards for Language - Reading; Writing; Listening; 6 Speaking
DANCE
STOP ACTION ENTRANCES AND EXITS TRANSFORMATION
LEVEL II Sample Lesson INTRODUCTION: HereafterHere explores change, as well as making an exit from one place and an entrance in another. This lesson explores these ideas through improvisation. The idea of stop-action involves stopping time and containing active energy. Each person must learn to capture a moment in time by freezing the action in space, while keeping the energy alive, but contained in the stillness. This can only be accomplished effectively when each dancer is focused completely on the task and has discipline and control of his or her body. It is also about the drive to move forward, even when we stop. OBJECTIVES: (Student Outcomes) Students will be able to: • Start, change and stop action with an aesthetic and kinesthetic awareness. (Creating & Performing) • Describe, discuss, analyze and connect information and experiences based on this lesson. Refer to Assessment at the end of this lesson. (Responding & Connecting) MATERIALS:
HereAfterHere Tandy Beal & Company Photo: Chunyi McIver
• Drum or other percussive instrument. PROGRESSION: • Have the students practice walking and stopping on a verbal or musical cue. Challenge them to stop with quick, controlled energy. When they are successful in this exploration, ask half the class to try the same idea using running and darting, rather than walking movement. Let the rest of the class observe and then switch roles. It works to use the word ‘freeze.’ Check the active and controlled energy of their stopaction poses to see if parts of the body are held with tension or are loose and floppy. • Then have the students respond to quick level changes of body position; e.g. “Every time you hear the drum, change to a position (shape) at a new level. Freeze each position until the next cue is given.” Ask that they work for speed, control and focus. • Divide the class into smaller groups. Define a large space in the room and ask them to run quickly across it. At some point in their journey they must have a stop-action pose which suddenly interrupts the flow of running. It can be done wherever they wish, but must happen before they reach the other side. Each 7
• As the group gets comfortable with this improvisation, ask them to stop in different relationships to one another, and change the level and direction in which they are facing. They may hold for longer than eight seconds or may have the option of quickly changing to a new pose at another level in the same spot, rather than simply running off or on again. • Repeat the improvisation several times, adding new challenges each time. Some options might include: • doing a gallop or slide (sideways gallop) instead of a run. • changing the facing so that the person can stop with his or her back or front facing the audience. • allowing the exiting action to return to the same place as the entrance action (reversing directions). • trying the entrances and exits in slow motion and shape changes in fast motion or vice versa. • adding some music. • doing the entrances and exits in relationship to a partner. EXTENSIONS: • Divide into groups of six and each create an Entrance-Stop Action-Exit dance study, showing at least five different ideas which are planned and sequenced. Have each group perform their idea for the class. • Each person select a sports action or sequence of their choice. Have them perform the action at normal speed, then at slow motion speed and finally in a series of stop and start actions. Have several students perform their theme and variations simultaneously. Discuss how the flow of energy and use of time changed the way each action looked and felt.
HereAfterHere Tandy Beal & Company Photo: Chunyi McIver
VOCABULARY: active stillness, stop-action, focus, variation ASSESSMENT: (Responding & Connecting) DESCRIBE: Describe “Stop Action” as you perceive it. How is it different from ordinary stopping? DISCUSS: Discuss why and how dance is different from mime or everyday movement. ANALYZE: Analyze why it is important to ‘contain energy’ during the stops in this dance improvisation. How is the use of energy different when moving? Emphasis on: Common Core - CA State Standards for Language - Reading; Writing; Listening; Speaking 8
DANCE
COUNTERBALANCE ILLUSIONS TRANSFORMATION
LEVEL III Sample Lesson INTRODUCTION: Actors and dancers often create illusions for an audience. They sometimes create an environment which doesn’t actually exist. The physical universe, bound by physical laws, such as gravity, only allows certain things to happen. However, the world of the imagination is not bound by such laws and so the artist is able to create illusions which show dreams, images or other possibilities conceived by the mind. In the dance HereAfterHere, Tandy Beal creates illusions which show us some of her ideas about life. This lesson will deal with the concept of how we can play with and control balance. Students will also learn how to create the illusion of counterbalance between partners and groups, in which they will ‘appear’ to be supporting each other’s weight, but will actually be supporting and controlling their own. This is a very good lesson for fourth grade and above. The students will enjoy the challenge of balancing in a variety of ways and also the illusions they can create for the viewer. OBJECTIVES: (Student Outcomes)
HereAfterHere Tandy Beal & Company Photo: Chunyi McIver
Students will be able to: • Control the balance of one’s own weight in a variety of aesthetic positions which relate to others. (Creating & Performing & Responding) • Create an illusion of counterbalance and interdependence in a variety of creative designs. (Creating & Performing) • Describe, discuss, analyze and connect information and experiences based on this lesson. Refer to Assessment at the end of this lesson. (Responding & Connecting) MATERIALS: (It would be very valuable to show the Artsource video excerpt of HereAfterHere.) • Music is optional. If used, it should be of a New Age sound with sustained quality and not highly rhythmic.
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PROGRESSION: • Have the students stand with their feet together. Ask them to lean from their ankles, keeping their body in one piece, and explore how far they can lean in different directions without falling. Direct them to move in a circular path, first to the right and then to the left, still keeping their feet together. • Next, ask the students to move their feet a comfortable distance apart with toes facing outward. Ask them to experiment by shifting their weight from side to side, eventually lifting one leg off the ground, and still maintaining their balance. Ask them to see how far they can lift their leg and if it helps to extend their arms for greater balance. Explore the same idea moving forward and backward. Ask them to design specific positions which can balance on one leg. Balance is aided by focusing the eyes on one spot and stretching the parts of the body in opposing directions. • Have them find ways to lower themselves (descend) to the floor and get up again without using their hands for support. Ask them to design a circular pathway which takes them to the floor and immediately back up again. Try this problem in different amounts of time. Use counts of eight, six, four and two a set to descend and a set to ascend. • Repeat this idea with eyes closed, moving in slow motion. This time other supports such as the hands may be used. Ask them what it felt like to move without seeing. Repeat this idea a few times. • Introduce the idea of ‘base of support.’ Give them examples of objects which have different numbers of supports to balance their weight; e.g. a table, lamp, three-legged stool. Ask them to think of things they know which can balance on different numbers of support bases. • Challenge them to find balanced positions which have different numbers of supports which touch the ground. Give commands such as, “Find a position which uses three supports.” Then try one or four or five. Give them plenty of opportunities to experiment. This problem can also be done in partners or trios where they have a certain number of supports between them. • Explain the word ‘illusion.’ It is something which gives the appearance of being real, but isn’t. In partners, have them explore different positions which give the illusion of being counterbalanced, but are individually maintained. The design looks interdependent, but when the ‘supportive’ partner leaves, the remaining partner does not fall. Share some successful examples. • Divide the class into groups of five to seven. Have them work together to create positions which are illusions. Some people should be the supportive shapes and some should be the ones looking as if they are leaning, suspended or supported. Then, have the supporters carefully and slowly leave the design, revealing the other shapes or poses. If done with understanding and concentration, it will create a magical vision for the audience. Task: Design and perform a partner dance featuring three or more counterbalanced designs. Suggested Criteria for Dance: • Cooperation with partner • Innovative partner/group designs that look as if one dancer is supporting the other 10
• Three or more different designs • Active pulling, pushing, leaning or supportive energy • Smooth transitions from one to the other • Use of different levels and directional changes
EXTENSIONS: • Students need to do this lesson several times. They will get more adept and will begin to create wonderful extensions of their own. This idea can be developed into a dance by working out movements for the entrances and exits and creating transitions which use slow, exaggerated and flowing energy. Give students the opportunity to evolve these ideas into their own dance study which they can perform for each other. Ask the class to comment on each other’s work in a supportive and constructive way. Just as written work is critiqued, edited and reworked, so should dances be developed.
• Expand this concept to include a combination of running, stopping quickly in different balanced positions, then going off balance and falling. Have five to eight students at a time play with these ideas in an improvisation. Encourage them to respond to the timing and actions of each other. Sometimes it helps to give a time limit for the improvisation, such as one minute. Direct the running to be quick and clear. Challenge them to accomplish this without bumping and to stop their action suddenly and unexpectedly, with concentration and focus. The falling action can either be slow or quick, but avoid landing on bony parts of the body. • Try creating designs with partners and small groups which are based on mutual weight and support -these would be true counterbalance designs, not ones based on illusion. To achieve counterbalance supports, work with the concepts of pulling away from each other and pushing or leaning in toward each other. VOCABULARY: balance, counterbalance, illusion, base of support, shape (as in dance), improvisation, concentration, focus ASSESSMENT: (Responding & Connecting) DESCRIBE: Describe some of the specific things you did to create illusions of support with your partner. Discuss which designs were the most successful and why. DISCUSS: Discuss the way it felt to move with eyes open and with eyes closed. Identify some of the other senses that came into play when eyes were closed. ANALYZE: Make comparisons between the ways visual artists work to create illusions of depth, weight, distance, volume, etc. in paintings and the way illusions might be created on stage in either dance or theatre. CONNECT: Think of other things in the world that are illusions we create. Discuss these and why we work to present things differently than they are in reality. Emphasis on: Common Core - CA State Standards for Language - Reading; Writing; Listening; Speaking 11