Routledge. Discovering the threedimensional. Shape Qualities. Chapter 8

Transcription

1 Chapter 8 Discovering the threedimensional body Shape Qualities Watch one of your favorite classical or contemporary ballet performances online. After you watch it, close your eyes. What movements and images come rushing back? Feel into those images the quality and emotional content of the movements, the musicality, the way the dancer(s) moved through space. Imagine describing this performance to someone, but use movement, instead of words, to convey your impressions. Perform three movement phrases that illustrate your impressions and memories of this dance. What shapes or positions do you include? How do you move from one position to the next? How does your body move through space? Many times, after I have viewed a live or recorded ballet performance, I close my eyes and recall the dramatic snap shots that flooded my senses during the performance. Often, I see the form of the movement first: images of legs and arms unfolding into the space and bodily shapes that are angular, spiraled, linear, or rounded. Ballet dancers inhabit clear forms in space, and as viewers, we capture those images in our memories. Balletic movement is more than static sculpture, however. Images of bodies bending and elongating, expanding and condensing, descending and ascending also race into my memory after a performance. I am often drawn to the kinetic pulse of the movement. I am curious about how dancers change their form, how they transition from one step to the next, how they imbue movement with dynamism. Does this fascinate you as well? Recall the movement phrases you created in the above exploration. Did you remember more than just the steps? I bet you did. Your movement phrases likely included specific information about movement transitions, body shapes, timing, and movement dynamics. When you watch a dance, you notice the quality of the dancer s performance, as well as the steps the dancer performs. CE...TSOê08-Discovering-the-Three-Dimensional.indd 1

2 2 Creative Ballet companion website material Table 8.1 Shape Qualities The three-dimensional forming process of the body into the surrounding space. Where is the body forming in space? Rising/Sinking Spreading/Enclosing Advancing/Retreating (Vertical) (Horizontal) (Sagittal) This chapter continues the focus of the previous chapter by examining the qualitative aspects of shape and form. While Shape Flow Support (SFS) taught you to feel the subtle process of shape change in your torso, Shape Qualities (SQs) teaches you how to move those initiations into space. There are six SQs: Rising, Sinking, Spreading, Enclosing, Advancing, and Retreating. Similar to SFS, they emphasize shape change in all three dimensions. Shape Qualities: technique and artistry SFS initiates internal, subtle shape changes in the body, which are lived out externally in space via SQs. Both offer increased awareness about how the whole body moves from one position to the next, and when supported by conscious and active breathing patterns, heightens awareness of the center of the body around which the process revolves. 1 Technically, SQs help you discover how to access three-dimensionally supported movement transitions and stabilize the body in dynamic rather than static ways. Artistically, learning to enjoy the forming process supports an inner to outer approach to ballet technique, one that enhances your expressive movement potential. Table 8.2 Technical and artistic benefits for Shape Qualities Shape Qualities are useful when: 1. Working on whole body coordination and movement phrasing. 2. Accessing three-dimensional volume as you move through space. 3. Stabilizing dynamically in balances, such as, accentuating the oppositional forces of the Retreating leg and the Advancing arm during a balance in arabesque. 4. Making different shape choices to enhance artistry. In a piqué first arabesque, for example, you might emphasize Rising, or Advancing, or both. CE...TSOê08-Discovering-the-Three-Dimensional.indd 2

3 Discovering the three-dimensional body 3 Figure 8.1 Forming into space Shape Qualities Practice using both SQs in the following short port de bras at barre. 1 Begin, in fifth position, left leg devant, left arm bras bas, and right arm on the barre. 2 Inhale, filling your body with air. Then, exhale, depressing the ribs as the left arm Spreads into an expansive second position port de bras. Enclose and Sink the arm to bras bas with an inhale that Lengthens the spine. 3 On your next exhale, Spread and Rise the left arm through second position port de bras and into fifth position; allow your upper body to soar upward and outward in space. 4 Exhale as the left arm Sinks and Advances into an arabesque port de bras and the right arm Retreats along the barre, allowing the spine to rotate slightly to the right. Maintain this port de bras in the next step. 5 Glissé en avant by Sinking and Advancing through the lower body. Continue to Advance as you Rise from the plié to right pointe tendu derrière. 6 Switch the arabesque port de bras, Advancing the right arm and Retreating the left arm in space. Accentuate the moment of Spreading as your arms sweep through second position port de bras. 7 During an exhale or inhale, Lengthen and Widen the torso as your arms and body Rise into relevé sous-sus with fifth position arms. CE...TSOê08-Discovering-the-Three-Dimensional.indd 3

4 Figure 8.2 Spreading and Rising the arm to fifth position Figure 8.3 Rising into sous-sus CE...TSOê08-Discovering-the-Three-Dimensional.indd 4

5 Discovering the three-dimensional body 5 SQs provide directionality to your flowing form. They facilitate your ability to connect one shape (or step) to the next shape (or step). For example, in the above port de bras you used: Spreading as a transition from one arabesque port de bras to the other. Sinking and Advancing as a transition to pointe tendu derrière. Retreating and Advancing of the arms to transition from fifth position to arabesque. Explore the above port de bras a few more times. When you feel confident with the sequence, begin to exaggerate the SQs. Notice how SQs accentuate both the still positions and the transitions. Let s explore SQs! One exercise, one SQ! 1 Rehearse a recent centre floor grand adagio from technique class. 2 Choose one SQ to focus on in the grand adagio: Rising, Sinking, Spreading, Enclosing, Advancing, Retreating. 3 Perform the adagio. Attend to moments when you use your chosen SQ to transition from one movement to the next. For example, notice how you use Enclosing to move into fifth position, or perhaps Advancing to travel through space. 4 Repeat the process in #3 with two more SQs. 5 Reflect: How do these SQs strengthen your technical execution of the steps? How do they affect the expressive quality of the movement? Expanding and condensing! Choose one category to focus on during an entire technique class. 1 Expansive SQs elements: Rising, Spreading, and Advancing 2 Condensing SQs elements: Sinking, Enclosing, and Retreating During the next technique class, focus on the other category. Reflect: How do different SQs affect how the exercises feel technically and expressively? How did they assist your locomotion in space? Note 1 Bartenieff, I. (1980, 2002). Body Movement: Coping with the Environment. New York:, p CE...TSOê08-Discovering-the-Three-Dimensional.indd 5

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