"Dance is the art of movement of the body, usually rhythmically and to music, using prescribed or improvised steps and gestures. "A dance" is any one prescribed sequence of such movements, or the music to which it is performed, or an event at which it takes place.[1] Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communication recognisable in other animals; in bee dances and behaviour patterns such as mating dances."
Personally I'm not a big fan of dance.
I never really connect with it as most people do, I won't be able to watch a dance for a while and understand what they are trying to communicate through movement but I appreciate those who do and those who choreograph to express.
We looked at a variety of dance videos and history in our briefing lesson, the beginning of this post is going to look at the ones I quite liked or thought were interesting. The end of the post will be looking at a couple of the ones I didn't quite get, or like.
Le P'tit Bal - Philippe Decoufle (1994)
This was my personal favourite of the day, it was quirky and interesting to watch, it also reminded me of sign language and upon further research I found out it was just made up rhythmic hand movements.
Woman (Reading) - La Dispute
I'll admit the beat of the music is why I initially liked this video, however after listening and watching the video quite a lot I find the dancing absolutely wonderful. The various sizes of the places she dances, and the fact that they used a variety of camera angles instead of the same front on angle makes it flow.
Ghostcatching - Paul Kaiser/Shelley Eshkan/Bill T Jones (1999)
The meaning behind the dancing and the video was lost on me, I just have pure admiration for the technology used to create a different look to dance, especially as this was made in 1999 when the technology wasn't advanced as it is now.
Husk - Eiko and Koma (1997)
I didn't get this one at all; it could be them attempting to connect people and nature, maybe making the camera person a dancer, I do not know I just know I didn't like it. This is just my opinion but it wasn't anything interesting or special, it is quite literally someone dragging their naked body along a floor covered in leaves.
Channel/Inserts - Merce Cunningham (1982)
The main problem I found with this piece was the sound, personally I hate dance videos where they let you hear the breathing and the feet tapping because it distracts me from the dance itself. The fact that this sound didn't even match up to the piece just frustrated me, if this is what the piece is meant to do it's done it well.
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