THE STUDY OF TEARS BLOG: Dance

Showing posts with label Dance. Show all posts

Sunday, 28 November 2010

The Study of Tears | Continuos: Two Solos

A dance piece choreographed and performed by Bethany Millns and Frances Weir

Camera & Editing: Riccardo Iacono
Format: colour stereo video
Duration: 3:00 minutes
Year: 2010

Monday, 25 October 2010

Laughing and Crying 1

Camera: Andrew Wint
Performer: Sarah Hockell
Format: colour, silent video
Duration: 1:56 minutes
(c) Project Volume 2010

Laughing and Crying 2

Camera: Andrew Wint
Format: colour, stereo video
Duration: 1:31 minutes
(c) Project Volume 2010

Dance of The Teardrop: Behind The Lens 2

This video explores the way in which lenses bend light and influence our perception. It also looks at body language; how the things we see, feel and hear affect the way we behave.

Camera: Steven Jones

Format: stereo video, colour

Duration: 3:29 minutes

Dance of The Teardrop: Behind The Lens 1

This video explores the way in which lenses bend light and influence our perception. It also looks at body language; how we communicate and respond to what we see.

Camera: Steven Jones

Format: silent video, colour

Duration: 1:12 minutes

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Thomas Dolan Visual Scores

Thomas Dolan, an experienced dancer, created a series of drawings to outline his choreographic ideas in response to tears.

The drawings were used as a visual score for his duet with Samantha Walsh, exploring reflex tears; how the eyes respond to irritants.

Click HERE to view the video of Thomas and Samantha's dance duet.

Click the images above to enlarge.

(Photo documentation: Judie Waldmann)

Monday, 4 October 2010

The Study of Tears | A Dance in Three Scenes

Documentation of live performance at Dance Exchange, Birmingham, 17th August 2010.

Choreography: Vanessa Cook and Ruth Williams

Dancers: Ruth Williams, Vanessa Cook, Thomas Dolan, Bethany Millns, Frances Weir, Persephonie Dixon, Sarah Dixon, Samantha Walsh, Susan Norwood

Camera & Editing: Riccardo Iacono

Video Format: DV colour stereo

Duration: 6:08 minutes

Year: 2010

The Study of Tears | Laughter and Sadness

Choreography: Susan Norwood

Dancers: Ruth Williams, Vanessa Cook, Thomas Dolan, Bethany Millns, Frances Weir, Persephonie Dixon, Sarah Dixon, Samantha Walsh, Susan Norwood

Camera & Editing: Riccardo Iacono
Video Format: DV colour stereo

Duration: 5:21 minutes

Year: 2010

The Study of Tears | Reflex Tears: A Duet

Choreographed and Performed by Thomas Dolan and Samantha Walsh

Camera & Editing: Riccardo Iacono
Video Format: DV colour stereo

Duration: 1:56 minutes

Year: 2010

Friday, 17 September 2010

The Study of Tears | Sadness Duet

Choreographer: Susan Norwood

Dancers: Vanessa Cook and Ruth Williams

Camera & Editing: Riccardo Iacono
Format: colour stereo video

Duration: 2:51 minutes

Year: 2010

The Study of Tears | Ruth Williams Choreography on Vanessa Cook

As part of her professional development, Ruth Williams choreographed her first work on a non-disabled professional dancer, Vanessa Cook. Her piece explored the contrasting characteristics of basal tears and reflex tears and was performed at Dance Exchange, Birmingham, on 17th August, 2010.

Choreographer: Ruth Williams
Dancers: Ruth Williams and Vanessa Cook

Camera & Editing: Riccardo Iacono
Format: colour stereo video
Duration: 2:45 minutes
Year: 2010

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Professionalism

Project Volume's Summer Dance Intensive at Dance Exchange provided an opportunity for participants to receive mentorship and professional training in dance and choreography from dance artists, Vanessa Cook, Hayley Arundel and Susan Norwood.

The participants included: Samantha Walsh, Sarah Dixon, Persephonie Dixon, Ruth Williams, Thomas Dolan, Bethany Millns and Frances Weir.

Dance was taught following the model of any professional dancer; a warm up and a technique class, before then exploring creative ideas to create choreography within the framework of working as a team.

Monday, 6 September 2010

Sarah Dixon's Writing on Tears

(Photos: Sarah Dixon and Persephonie Dixon by Judie Waldmann)

In preparation for the sharing of work at Dance Exchange, (August 2010), some of the participants were asked if they wanted to contribute to the event in ways other than film and dance. Sarah Dixon responded through a piece of writing:

Dance on Tears

"Tears fall from our eyes through emotions, reflex and basal tears. We have been dancing as a wonderful group to show how tears work for us. Magically presenting the 3 reasons why we cry emotions run through our hearts hurting our soul so tears will stream across our face while our hearts deal with the pain.

Reflex tears will arise through pain or irritation towards our eyes. Tears will wash away to clean our gate way to our soul from dirt or pain.

Basal tears protect our eyes each and every minute of the day. They only stop once we sleep. Movements

Some of us our gentle and elegant. Some of us are loud and proud with movements. "

Sarah Dixon

Choreographic Approaches

Photographer Judie Waldmann

Working on the summer intensive for dancers with learning disabilities, with talent and experience of dance, we worked hard exploring the different inspiration of the science of tears. We did this through the participants choreographing their work. The participants were mentored in choreography by myself, Susan Norwood and Vanessa Cook.

This brought two very different approaches to making dance. Vanessa's highly physical and high impact style, with my own. My style was to strip down the movements to the core of their intention. This means that the dance relies on the dancer to reveal their thinking and their intent through their skin. This contrast worked well with the subject, Vanessa introducing ways of approaching the reflex tears and myself approaching the subtle shifts of emotional triggers within performance.

I was really impressed with how the participants came out of their comfort zone to embrace and take on these two approaches. It is vital to say that the complexity of what the participants achieved was outstanding, as I gave them exercises I had studied during my degree and Vanessa through her professional work experience.