#you get to see each frame gradually decay in quality

[emmabrine]

happy june 16th everyone

[estreyaluna-blog]

In Bill T. Jones’ concert dance video “Breathing Show” there is a growing sense in the accumulation of every bodily feature. He shows this body growth by starting off with small body features and gradually incorporating bigger bodily features. For example, in the beginning he uses his arms, hands, fingers, shoulders, and chest to show his growth. Then he starts to incorporate his head, legs, feet, and torso which allowed for him to expand and do different gestures with his body. All the while, the growing variety in steps starts to come to an end once the body has reached its climax and the body starts “decaying” until it dies. Bill T. Jones tends to repeat most of his movements at least twice to four times consecutively or in between certain dance phrases in order move the choreography along while keeping a focus. By repeating or having similar dance moves occur in close proximity within each other, timewise, Jones’ dance does not seem too jumpy to the point where he could potentially lose his audience. Instead he keeps his audience engaged and focused on what he is doing. Bill T. Jones keeps his audience engaged by separating his solo into four distinct pieces while explaining them a bit in between every dance piece. In his first piece he just does a rerun of his dance which gives off an intense feeling causing his audience to be focused on him. While in the last three dance pieces Jones starts to talk which engages his audience in communication with him, forcing them to listen to every word that comes out of his mouth. Meaning is ascribed to gesture because a lot of body parts carry a symbolic meaning with them. When the different body symbols are put together the dancer is able to express an idea, represent an emotion, or tell a tale. Bill T. Jones consciously chose his mouth, which symbolizes power and control, as a form of expression. By using his mouth, Jones is directly connecting his dance to something else instead of leaving it up for interpretation by the audience.

All three choreographers Francis Farewell Starlite, Chance the Rapper, and Jake Schreier seemed to agree on using a lot of repetition for the dance video  “May I have this dance”. The choreographers matched the dance movements with the lyrics of the song. For instance, when the song says “I love you” Chance the Rapper points outwards as if pointing to someone and saying the lyrics to them. As a result of having the lyrics repeat themselves a lot, the dance steps repeat themselves as well. The white space used in “May I have this dance” looks very clean and confined. This idea of being confined limits the dancers movements, which is clearly shown when Chance the Rapper repeats his movements a lot as if he is trapped in this space and does not know what else to do in order to get out. While the idea of being clean is expressed in the dance by using short moves that have clear starts, and stops. The camera use and editing play big roles in this video because it helps enhance the story that is being told by the song, which makes the song meaningful. For instance, in the beginning we see two dancers - one with light and the other one who is more in the dark. This shows that the one with light symbolizes a spiritual being, while the other being who was cast in the dark symbolizes a tortured being. After the camera moves backwards, expanding the view, we notice the “spiritual” being disappear, and that Chance the Rapper was looking at himself through a mirror the whole time.  Hence, the camera is cueing that Chance the Rapper represents someone who is struggling internally with himself. The duet at the end of the video helps inform my interpretation of the dance by showing that in the end Chance the Rapper was able to embrace the different, or undesirable qualities he was struggling with because the light that was shining on both of the dancers. Bill T. Jone’s dance was different from the other three’s choreography because it felt more raw, meaning more natural.

Momo Sanno who is a contemporary dancer and choreographer who is based in Germany  - where he studied at the John Crank Dance Academy, and Romania - where he studied at Floria Capsali School of Choreography. In his dance video “Elements of Life: Air, Earth, Water, Metal, Fire” it is very clear that, similar to Bill T. Jones, Momo Sanno keeps his audience engaged by separating his dance piece into five parts. Even though he does not elaborately explain what he will do in each piece like Jones does, Sanno does give one key word to describe what his dance focuses on. However, unlike Jones who is part of a live performance Sanno’s dance video is more familiar with Chance the Rapper’s, Starlite’s, and Schreier’s dance video in the sense that it uses camera editing tools. For instance, both Sanno and Rapper+2 use close up shots to have a feeling of intimacy and connection between the dancers and the viewers. However, Sanno’s picture frame clips were more choppy and cutting while Rapper’s+2 picture frame clips were more stable and graceful. I find it ironic that even though Chance the Rapper’s dancing in “May I have this Dance” gave off a sense of an internal struggle the director, Jake Schreier, still chose to have the camera zoom in and out and around the box with such a slow and graceful flow. As opposed to Momo Sanno whose dance focuses on the five essential elements of life which are supposed to be living in harmony while representing pureness and inseparability; but his video shows the complete opposite since it has a lot of different shots that are shown one right after the other non-stop expressing a very disruptive and uncooperative environment. On another note, one way that Sanno’s dance is similar to both of the other artists’ dances is the uses of repetition with their dance moves, keeping the dance centered and coherent.