AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland

How have dance processes led to this project?

My body of work was largely influenced by the idea of everyday movement. This idea was thoroughly covered in lectures and practical sessions, which left me debating the idea with myself for the following days. Throughout the lectures and practical sessions focusing on everyday movement, I found there were endless possibilities to what everyday movement within dance discipline encompassed. I have experience in ballet and tap, so the idea of dance as everyday movement provoked many thoughts which are displayed in this piece. Previously, I considered dance as a series of vast sweeping and flowing movements which were carefully choreographed. But I have discovered that dance is whatever a person makes it, it is a state of mind (Berrol, 2006). Therefore, I questioned the movement of others in my everyday movements and our surroundings. Watching people move, how they did it, the speed and technique at which they did. Whilst analysing their consciousness of the surrounding medium. Through this project, I have discovered that the world around us is continually dancing and it is up to each of us to witness and partake in this dance. Because if not, there is nothing left but a destination and an unconscious linear movement through life.

What were your particular starting points?

After deciding that everyday movement was going to be my main process of exploration throughout the piece, I allowed myself some time to analyse my own everyday movement. I then decided to include the everyday movement of others around me in my analysis. I decided the idea that I would aim to illustrate would be the importance of being conscious of everyday movement and the beautiful environment we are surrounded with. Following this, I developed the idea of mindfulness. As explained by Kabat-Zinn (1994) mindfulness means paying particular attention in a particular way on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally. Consequently, this piece incorporates a vast variety of clips and photographs to display the importance of being mindful in each moment instead of being fixated on the end goal. Each of the images in the piece portrays times in my life when I was mindful of the present and conscious of my surroundings and movement. Although many of the images do not occur daily, it is significant to realise that life is not linear and recurring, therefore I have shown more than my everyday movement throughout the semester and the spontaneity that everyday life can encompass?)

What is your creative intention?

This piece aims to introduce the idea of mindfulness in viewer's everyday movement. I aimed to show the dance that each of us subconsciously does on a daily basis and that if we were fully conscious in this dance, we would be aware of the beautiful moments and surroundings.  Often these moments that we miss are because we are fixated on a destination or goal and we ignore the path we take to get there. I used film as the medium to display this idea because it is not explicit and each viewer will interpret it differently. The lyrics in the song used by Diablo and Bastille (2016) “what’s going to be left of the world if you’re not in it, what’s going to be left of the world” prompt the ideas behind the piece, showing that life is not for the unconscious mind and displaying the importance of living in each moment fully. This is followed by “every minute of every hour, I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more” which symbolises how the world will continue its dance and we are needed to appreciate it. The footage in this piece shows mine and others everyday movement and the beautiful surroundings around the person that they appear unaware of for an unknown reason. I used my own everyday movement to symbolise how the routine we are in can force us into this unconscious state. The pictures that flash in the middle sequence of the piece symbolise the purposeful particular attention in each of the moments capturing the world in its dance as previously explained by Kabat-Zinn (1994). The final concept that I aimed to show within the piece was the variation between individuals. Through analysing the everyday movement of myself and others I observed a difference in technique, application and choreography of these movements, some appear improvised and some appear rehearsed. This is due to the different personalities between people and the level of interaction we each have with the surrounding people and environment. This further explores the ideas that dance is what a person makes it and that it is a state of mind (Berrol, 2006).

What movement ideas underpin the body of this work?

Within this piece, the everyday movement is a key process used, aimed to demonstrate the importance of being mindful throughout your everyday movements. Social choreography is a concept derived from everyday movement, describing the difference in the movements between people and how we dance with one another (Hewitt, 2005). The piece begins and ends with the movement of walking which signifies my awareness of movement. It then analyses the movement of others and mindful situations. Ending in my own walking to symbolise that I am now mindful of what has been shown in the prior footage and am now conscious of my own everyday movement. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's idea of mind-body centring was a somatic process unintentionally derived in the finished piece. This idea explored the mind and body as unified and requiring a balance between the two to discover the principle (Eddy, 2006). This was derived when discussing the unconscious everyday movement of others. When analysing the movement of others, I realised that in order for them to move subconsciously, their mind and body must be one. For people to be able to move from one place to another without consciously thinking about it, our mind and body must be unified. The Feldenkrais method is another concept intertwined in this piece. The movement of walking features heavily in this piece and requires a great deal of mindfulness and persistence to correct (Feldenkrais, 1972). Therefore, the difference in walking between individuals is habitual, but also shows the style of each dancer.

How did you go about selecting and developing material?

My choices behind the materials that I have used are based upon the concepts of everyday movement and mindfulness that I was attempting to portray. Before beginning this project, I spent a long time planning and thinking about it. The song by Diablo and Bastille (2016) fitted well with the idea of mindfulness in movement. From there I began to film my own everyday movement, the filming only occurred when I found myself mindful of the situation I was in. For example, on my walks to a class that I did not video was because my mind was elsewhere, on another task. I started off only filming my own movements and began filming the movements of others and our surroundings. The footage and pictures in this piece were collected over the duration of the semester and from past events. The idea of mindfulness was instilled in me in my yoga practice, following the end of each class the instructor would dedicate five minutes to a mindfulness session. Regular maintenance of this class has allowed me to incorporate mindfulness into my other daily activities. The week prior to the project deadline I began to collate the footage, editing the clips to fit the beat of the music creating a dance from a collection of everyday movement. The organisation of the piece is largely influenced by the way the movement fits with the song to display the ‘dance of everyday movement’.

Which artists inspired you and in what way?

An artist who I drew inspiration from was Logan Dodds, who develops pieces similar to mine. The particular piece of work that I drew upon for this piece was Kiwi Daze, this follows the movement of Logan Dodds and Trent Nattrass through New Zealand showcasing what is readily available in the backyard of New Zealand (Dodds, 2016). The creativity of the footage and editing inspired me to make something similar linking music to film and other principles. The medium which Logan Dodds uses is easy enough to share through social media allowing people to view it at their leisure. Logan Dodds uses a hand or hifive covering the lens of the camera to link between different clips. This inspired the different walking scenes in my piece to show the different styles of everyday movement. Another technique used by Logan Dodds is an increased speed of footage to contrast between movements. I have applied this in my piece through the driving scenes that have been speed up to show the variations between situations resulting in differing movements. Fast flashing footage is another technique by Logan Dodds that I was inspired by. The flashing pictures in the middle sequence of my piece are a quick insight into what mindfulness in everyday movements looks like. The editing in Logan Dodds Kiwi Daze piece is the most inspirational technique, the transition of footage directly on the beat of the music creates a dancing effect on the piece. I applied this to my piece to display that everyday movement is a dance. But this was not made explicit because dance is a state of mind and is interpretative to a given audience.

Reference list

Berrol, C. F. (2006). Neuroscience meets dance/movement therapy: Mirror neurons, the therapeutic process and empathy. The Arts in Psychotherapy,33(4), 302-315.

Diablo, D. & Bastille. (2016). Good grief. Virgin Records Ltd. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMKB1t2zo_w

Dodds, L. (2016). Logan Dodds: KiwiDaze 2016 #MyKiwiOE. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysnYFy2edME

Eddy, M. (2006). The Practical Application of Body-Mind Centering (BMC) in Dance Pedagogy. Journal Of Dance Education, 6(3), 86-91.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2006.10387320

Feldenkrais, M. (1972). Awareness through movement (Vol. 1977). New York: Harper & Row.

Hewitt, A. (2005). Social choreography: Ideology as performance in dance and everyday movement. Duke University Press.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Catalyzing movement towards a more contemplative/sacred appreciating/non-dualistic society. In Meeting of the Working Group.