Motif Development

 Blog 5: Motif development

Due to still being absent, I have decided to work productively from home and continue my progression with my solo. When reflecting I had decided that the beginning of my choreography didn’t feel fitting, and I wanted to add something before setting the tone. My group has informed me that they have been working on a pedestrian section that comes before my solo in the structure of our choreography. This is used to set the scene and show Borders and others heading through New York City to the World Trade Centre. I thought I could continue this to make the transition more seamless. I decided to add in some pedestrian movement of my character arriving at her desk and beginning work. When the implosion happens, I decided to switch my movement into slow motion to link with the phrase already created. With trial and error, I made this work and feel I have achieved more fluidity between sections. A benefit of working from home whilst in this creative process is that I have a desk where I was able to go to and fully envision what a person would do when setting up for a working day. I found that I put my bag under my desk and sat down, got my water bottle out then turned on my laptop. I decided to use this process in my pedestrian movement, so it was realistic. I’d inspired myself to create content for further into my solo. I wanted to repeat this pedestrian movement of setting up for the day but in a different tone and adjusting the choreography to become fitting for the story. I thought I can make the movement more ‘dancey’ and erratic as if Borders is reflecting on the fact that she’d just come for a mediocre working day, but this had been so drastically distorted. I decided to use the same sequence of movement but to adapt it to become erratic. The franticness is used to display anxieties building and the disbelief of what has become. 

 

Now making progress with my choreography, I found it was the best time to pick out some music I could use. I thought that when the impact happens, to create drama, I could use some high-pitched white noise. This is a subtle yet intense way to set the tone and depict to the audience what has just occurred. I found ‘Ex Luna Scientia’ by Max Richter, from listening to it I could envisage my choreography thus far fitting and felt inspired by aspects of the song to create more. I decided I want to use from 1 minute 50 seconds as it begins with a similar ambiance to the white noise. This is where I added my composition as at 2 minutes there’s a knocking noise where my breathing motion fits well. From here on Richter’s piece is very eerie and has many layers that creates an anxious atmosphere. Many layers include knocking that to me could signify the collapsing of the building and footsteps of people trying to escape. Going forwards I would like to link movements to the different layers and tempo to build up my solo and create tension to add depth. 

 

Although I like that I now have music, I wouldn’t enjoy choreographing solely from this and going forwards will use it as more of an inspiration but less of a basis. I find that when I only focus on what I can hear, my piece loses its intension and I begin to construct movement for the aesthetics rather than the intent.