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Exploring Dance Composition

This is an excerpt from Discovering Dance-2nd Edition by Gayle Kassing.

Dance composition is learning how to make a dance. During the dance composition process you explore a movement idea by creating dance movement or selecting steps in some dance genres, then you manipulate these elements and materials of dance into movement modules of various lengths to compose a dance. To understand how to use your tools for composition, you need to be familiar with choreographic design principles, structures, and devices. For a dance work to have solidarity and value, the choreography should connect to aesthetic principles that underlie artworks.

In the Movement Invention activity, you invented two contrasting dance phrases (a short series of movements that connect into a pattern) or longer sequences. In the next activities, you will create a movement sequence (a group of movements that form a unit), and then you will develop a movement statement (like a sentence). All of these movement segments contain a beginning, a middle, and an end. Coupling movement sentences together builds a dance segment like a paragraph in writing. Regardless of how long or short it is, a dance composition focuses on the beginning, the middle, the end, and on the movement between these points. Creating and composing the movement is one part of the choreographic process. Checking to ensure choreographic principles underlie the dance modules requires you to analyze your composition during the process and when it is complete. Table 4.1 lists the basic choreographic principles that underlie a dance composition.

The following sections lead you through the choreographic process as you compose your movement segments.

Creative and Choreographic Processes

Different dance scholars present similar creative and choreographic processes. Some scholars write about the creative process, while others write about the steps to create a dance. Both processes underlie making a dance.

The creative process in dance making requires a period of preparation in which you collect ideas. This preparation time should include time for developing choreographic ideas; in other words, you need to figure out the central idea and how to approach it. Next you have to experiment with movement for a deeper insight into the movement ideas. In later sessions, you evaluate the movement and determine what works and what does not work as part of the dance work. The final step in the process is elaborating on the movement ideas you have selected.

Another dance composition process uses similar steps. First, observe the world around you and explore ways of imitating or symbolizing what you have observed using bodies and movement. Working by yourself, do movement explorations and collect external experiences by observing the work of others. During the composition process, group reflections and discussions provide feedback that should be sorted out as to how well it applies or transfers to the dance in progress. In creating a dance, use your synthesized information from exploration and reflection. After the performance, a final group reflection helps to analyze the process and the product. Then extend the group reflection to a journal of what you learned and what ideas have been sparked for future choreography.

You should know the reason behind your writing activities in relation to your movement activities. Choreographic journaling has been part of dance composition courses since at least the last quarter of the 20th century, and this type of journaling continues today.

In academic dance courses, you usually keep choreographic journals to collect written records of your observations, movement experiments, research, and findings as you go through the dance composition process. Often you write about personal goals in the class and challenges you have faced during a course. You also write about how you or your group responded to the process or what you learned from the composition process to help you frame or propose your next project.

With the creative and choreographic processes in mind, the next step is to survey your ingredients for making a dance. In chapter 3 you learned about the elements of dance that play a central role in creating a dance. However, other ingredients also contribute to dance composition.

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