Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE DCS1004

 
TITLE Foundations of Choreography 2

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 5

 
DEPARTMENT Dance Studies

 
DESCRIPTION Exploration of the craft of choreography through:

- Employment of a range of starting points derived from analysis of dance movement vocabulary and ideas for choreography in the following contexts;
- Non-literal dance, tasks, scores and chance (post modern dance);
- Abstracting from pedestrian and non-literal movement to make dance symbols;
- Study of the processes involved in forming or structuring dance material, including indeterminacy and chance;
- Consideration of the relationship of accompaniment to the dance piece.

Exploration of the dancer in performance through:

- Performance of the selected dance material created from tasks, scores and chance;
- Practise of dance pieces to achieve technical and non-literal qualities in performance.

Study of methods of analysis of choreography and its performance to enable students to critically evaluate their own and others’ performances.

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit introduces the fundamentals of dance-making through a study of:

- Dance movement vocabulary from non-literal sources;
- Dance ideas through practical explorations, reading and viewing video resources.

Students undertake choreographic research, particularly in terms of:

- Developing the ability to process tasks, scores and chance/indeterminacy;
- Develop the ability to improvise to explore, develop/extend non-literal movement;
- Develop the skills of improvising with, expanding upon, structuring and presenting non-literal movement;
- Understand how to perform the abstract in performance;
- Make appropriate sound accompaniment choices;
- Articulate choreographic choices and critically evaluate dances through the medium of writing a reflective log.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Demonstrate the ability to undertake choreographic research: Merce Cunningham, Judson Dance Theater, New Dance;
- Demonstrate the ability to define non-literal material;
- Demonstrate the ability to abstract movement from various sources;
- Demonstrate selected skills to improvise, generate, develop, structure and present non-literal movement;
- Demonstrate their understanding of how to communicate abstract dance in improvised and choreographed performance;
- Make appropriate sound accompaniment choices;
- Articulate personal choreographic choices and critically evaluate dances through the medium of writing a reflective log.

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Engage in improvisation, movement exploration, composition, performance and production, based on an acquisition and understanding of appropriate performance and production vocabularies, skills, structures and working methods;
- Apply creative and imaginative skills;
- Work within a group to make performance;
- Articulate practical experience through portfolio.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

- Adshead, Janet, ed. 1988. Dance Analysis: Theory And Practice (London: Dance Books).
- Blom, Lynne Anne and L. Tarin Chaplin (1982) The Intimate Act of Choreography (USA: University of Pittsburgh Press).
- Blom, Lynne Anne and L. Tarin Chaplin. 1992. The Moment of Movement: Dance Improvisation (Dance Books).
- Cohen, Selma Jean. 1969. The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief (Wesleyan University Press).
- Hodgson, John and Valerie Preston-Dunlop. 1990. Rudolf Laban: An Introduction To His Work And Influence (Plymouth: Northcote House).
- Humphrey, Doris. 1959. The Art of Making Dances. (NY: Random).
- Minton, Sandra Cerny. 1997. Choreography: A Basic Approach Using Improvisation (Champaign, Ill: Human Kinetics).
- Preston-Dunlop, Valerie. 1998. Looking at Dances: a choreological perspective on choreography (London: Verve).
- Smith-Autard, Jacqueline. 2004. Dance Composition, fifth ed. (London: A + C Black).
- Tharp, Twyla. 2006. The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use It For Life. (Simon and Schuster).
- Butterworth, Jo and Wildschut, Liesbeth. 2009. Contemporary Choreography: A Critical Reader (London: Routledge).
- Burrows, Jonathan. 2010. A Choreographer’s Handbook. (London: Routledge).
- McGreevy-Nichols, Susan, Helene Scheff, and Marty Sprague. 2004. Building Dances: A guide to putting movements together, sec. ed. (Human Kinetics).

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Pre-requisite Study-unit: DCS1003

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Practical, Independent Study and Group Learning

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Logbook SEM2 Yes 40%
Practical SEM2 Yes 60%

 
LECTURER/S Francesca Tranter

 

 
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The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

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