Resource Pack for 2 One Another Secondary School Choreographed by Teachers and Students Rafael Bonachela Company

2 One Another pg 01 /16 Back to Contents Contents

01 Before the Show 02 About 03 About 2 One Another 04 Stimulus and Creative Process 05 Structure & Section Breakdown 06 Text and Dance 07 Production Elements 08 Choreographic Tasks 09 Analysis & Appreciation

Introduction

This Resource Pack has been designed to The suggested activities in the 2 One Another accompany the performance of 2 One Another Resource Pack can be adapted by teachers to give teachers and their students further and students to suit the requirements of insight, understanding and appreciation of the Stages 4–6 in NSW and the equivalent in making and performing of this work. other states.

The pack contains ideas for research and For further information, queries or additional discussion in the lead up to seeing 2 One support please contact Sydney Dance Another and follow up choreographic tasks Company’s Education Coordinator on and ideas for analysis and appreciation. [email protected] or 9258 4800.

2 One Another pg 02 /16 Back to Cover 01 Before the Show

Read Watch & Discuss The information enclosed in the Resource Video clips of Rafael Bonachela’s other Pack about the making of 2 One Another and works for Sydney Dance the people involved. Company available on You Tube: youtube.com/user/sydneydancecompany Explore Sydney Dance Company website: QQ What influences can you see in Rafael sydneydancecompany.com Bonachela’s and productions? This could be in relation Explore to dance style or technique, themes, Production Designer Tony Assness’ references to popular culture or the website to look at his style of work and costume, set and lighting choices. previous commissions: assness.com QQ How would you describe his style of choreography? Make a list of words that QQ What does this reveal to you about describe your reaction to what you see the work? and how it makes you feel.

Discuss Write QQ What does the title 2 One Another Prepare a question for the Q&A that will suggest to you? follow the performance of 2 One Another.

Rafael and Company dancers will be answering questions about the work and their roles, plus anything else about 2 One Another that you’d like to know. Think about what it is that interests you the most about this production, what you’d like to find out and who you will direct your question to.

2 One Another pg 03 /16 Back to Contents 02 About Sydney Dance Company

Information about Sydney Dance Company, Company Management including biographies of all their creative Here you’ll see the list of the management, teams and dancers can be found on the administration and production teams that website. Spend some time reading through support the productions and other activities the suggested pages below to get to know the of Sydney Dance Company. Have a look at Artistic Teams and performers involved with these roles to see what other careers are 2 One Another. possible in dance. sydneydancecompany.com/people/ About Sydney Dance Company management sydneydancecompany.com/about Collaborators Artistic Director, Have a look to see who has worked with Rafael Bonachela’s Biography Sydney Dance Company, these include sydneydancecompany.com/people/ musicians, choreographers, lighting artistic-director designers fashion designers and much more! You can read their biographies and learn Rehearsal Director, about the different industries they all work in. Chris Aubrey’s Biography sydneydancecompany.com/people/ sydneydancecompany.com/people/ collaborators/ rehearsal-teaching-staff/rehearsal-director

Company Dancers Find out about each dancers background, training and performance history here: sydneydancecompany.com/people/dancers/

03 About 2 One Another

Sydney Dance Company will be delivering Outstanding Female Dancer, Sydney Dance their 100th performance of 2 One Another Company for Most Outstanding Performance in its 2017 return to the stage. Originally by a Company. Winner of 2012 Green Room choreographed by Rafael Bonachela in Awards: Sydney Dance Company for Best 2012, the show has been performed in 9 Ensemble & Best Female Dancer and 2012 countries and 32 cities around the world. Helpmann award to Charmene Yap for Best The production has been recognised Female Dancer. through a variety of industry awards including: 2013 Australian Dance Awards You can read more information here: for Rafael Bonachela for Most Outstanding https://www.sydneydancecompany.com/ Choreography, Charmene Yap for Most productions/2-one-another-2/#overview

2 One Another pg 04 /16 Back to Contents 04 Stimulus and Creative Process

In thinking about what makes his work One of the first decisions Rafael made distinct, Rafael Bonachela believes the about the work was that he would use essence of his work is about people, about a selection of already existing music, with human emotion and behaviour, which he some original composition, rather than explores and presents through his abstract commission a full score from a composer. and highly physical style of movement. This in itself led Rafael on a new pathway He is fascinated by the interaction between through the creative process. Rafael’s dancers which can be seen in the intricate choreography always connects strongly to and breathtaking duets that he choreographs. the music so using a variety of tracks with a variety of moods has influenced the journey 2 One Another takes the idea of interaction, that the work takes. and relating to one another, a step further. From the moment that we enter this world For the first time with Sydney Dance Company, we are shaped by our experiences, our Rafael has used text as part of the creative interactions and our relationships with the process through collaborating with a poet, people we meet. Samuel Webster. Rafael was originally drawn to Samuel’s writing about dance coming In this revealing work Rafael draws on his from a non-dance perspective and was then intimate relationship with the Company interested to experiment with how he might dancers. Together they closely examine the respond in writing to the action in the studio. complexities of human relationships, as an Samuel’s direction in the early part of the individual, a couple and within a group. creative development was to write instinctively and with immediacy to what he was observing. The title 2 One Another suggests these At some points in the development phase, themes, and has been interpreted and the dancers were also encouraged to write explored in three ways: responses to the movement material using various written forms such as stories, poems, 1. How we relate to one another dialogue/script and word lists. 2. The couple (two), the individual (one) and the group (another) Samuel’s poetic phrases were used as 3. The progression of the work takes us a stimulus for structuring some sections of on a journey from one world to another 2 One Another and were used to generate movement material through improvisation In past productions Rafael has used and choreographic tasks. In this way, resources such as images, films, books the phrases are absorbed into the work but and maps to spark ideas within his creative they can also be heard in the soundtrack process but in the making of 2 One Another (see Text & Dance pg 09 and Production his inspiration comes directly from the Elements — Music pg 10). studio; from the interactions and responses of the dancers and from the output of his Watch Rafael share insights with composer collaborators. It is a personal work for Nick Wales into the creation of 2 One Another: everyone involved, intimately revealing youtube.com/watch?v=JiHTlC3XCn8 personalities and qualities of the individual.

2 One Another pg 05 /16 Back to Contents 05 Structure & Section Breakdown

2 One Another is loosely structured in four The opening line in the soundtrack also sets sections closely following the emotional the mood: Can you hear that? It buzzes by journey of the music as it builds in intensity your ear, indecipherable. Maybe we’re not and resolves towards the end. Although meant to understand the meaning of all there is no narrative, each section of the work things. Maybe we just need to know they’re reflects emotions that can surface when we there. Like all the phrases that were selected interact with one another. The progression of for the soundtrack, this phrase comes from the work takes us on a journey from one world the creative process and is open-ended and to another, with visual, aural and emotional inclusive. This phrase, in the introduction of changes in the last section that give the the work, has us consider our place in the impression of being in a new or different world. context of the wider world.

The creative team used a title for each section We move through a number of short duets, to guide everyone in the same direction during or ‘conversations’ between two dancers, the making of the work. Although these to the main exploration of the couple. Could titles and descriptions aren’t shared with we support the world together? If I place the audience, they are a helpful way to break my hand here, and you put yours over there, down the work when we disect the piece. maybe there’s enough strength between us to make sure it never falls down. Welcome to our Universe 2 One Another opens with the full Company on In an emotional duet for a man and a woman stage, moving in unison through a sequence we see pulling and supporting partner work of pedestrian gestures with an intense and highly technical skills. This duet is an focus. The gestures are only minimal which expression of grief and sadness with a very prompts us to consider how we are able to fluid and soft quality that is emphasised by communicate with one another using very the music. However the virtuosic nature of the small movement. This is the introduction to choreography and the power of the dancers the work and to the world that we have been gives the duet strength. It is an emotive invited into as an audience. The groupings combination of softness and strength. The on stage are significant with one dancer phrase: What use is consolation if we both upstage, two dancers downstage and a group end up bearing the weight? drives this duet. in the middle. From the beginning we can see relationships and the different dynamics of the Watch the duo here: individual, the couple and the group. https://vimeo.com/sydneydance/ review/228303488/51b7dee6a8

2 One Another pg 06 /16 Back to Contents 05 Structure & Section Breakdown

Loving / Falling / Saving Breaking down / Pushed over the edge As the journey continues the dancers once In a change of dynamic, the full Company / Nothing to lose again begin to work in sync with each other, enter the stage walking in a straight line to Opening with a duet, this section continues to performing duets in unison and that same duet music with a regimented beat. There is order explore the different variations of the couple: material in two groups. There is still a sense of and precision until we hear the softening man and woman; man and man; woman and the battle continuing between the couples and of the music with the introduction of the violin. woman. The different dynamics between between the two groups when they split into At this point the dancers break away from the genders, and the combination of different a face-off, although there is no physical contact line into smaller groups and the movement personalities of the dancers, has us think between them. The movement material comes and patterns in space become more fluid and about our own relationships and how each from the duet task of impulse and response rounded, in contrast to the straight rigidity of can be so different. The relationship we have (where one dancer responds instinctively the line. The dancers move in and out of line with our mother, teacher, best friend are all to the movement of their partner) so we can and shift from the intensity of the big group different and the relationships themselves clearly see how each dancer is driving the to the playful energy of the smaller break out shift and change as we do. other. It is fast, short, sharp movement with groups. only moments of fluidity and a repeated The first duet, between a man and woman, explosive jump that punctuates the phrase. Watch the group line phrase here: travels diagonally across the stage using a https://vimeo.com/sydneydance/ development of the gestures we saw in the Watch the group battle phrase here: review/228303627/285cf20779 opening of the piece. The dancers manipulate https://vimeo.com/sydneydance/ one another in this quirky duet that at times review/228303583/5985ad6dd5 From this sense of the group we move on to seems to resemble two puppets. the individual in an exploration of solitude and what it means to be alone. We see a repeated As the music builds, so does the action on gesture of open palms in each solo coming stage. This energy then breaks down with from the phrase: These are open palms. the music to leave one dancer on stage There’s nothing here to give, only space with performing a contorting solo on the floor. which to take. As she twists, bends and stretches she transforms into another creature, introducing Watch the solo video here: us to a darker world. https://vimeo.com/sydneydance/ review/228303520/656f8157c0 In this darker moment we see an aggressive duet between two men where they lock Momentum then builds with the running and their bodies into positions with strength and constant movement of the dancers circling tension then find ways to release themselves. the space. There are only fleeting moments of Using violent actions of pushing, grabbing quiet where we see an individual left behind and kicking, the two dancers react and on stage to then get swept up into the group respond to one another. This masculinity again. We feel a sense of turmoil. Are the and power then builds even further when dancers being chased or are they running the trio of men enter the stage to continue after something? the aggressive and violent nature of this section. The change in the way the dancers Watch the group circling video here: are relating to one another shifts the emotion https://vimeo.com/sydneydance/ of the work to explore less harmonious and review/228303551/7f7a09077d more hostile interactions.

2 One Another pg 07 /16 Back to Contents 05 Structure & Section Breakdown

Warmth / Hope / Colour As the dancers move from duets to small This whole world is me. This whole world groups to the larger group they are finding is me. This whole world is you and me and different connections and interactions silence. Even in silence I can show you where between themselves. The work comes to it ends and where it begins. In this personal a conclusion with a very soft and tender moment, the dancers sit at the very front of duet for a man and a woman inspired by the the stage intimately moving through a series phrase: We fell together, into an emptiness, of small gestures that replicate the opening and still I stroked your hair as we fell. Until sequence. It is like they are revealing their gravity kicked in, you were in my arms. true selves to us for the first time. They have all been on a journey, together and alone, which has ultimately shaped them.

A duet of intertwined and connected bodies takes place at the front of the stage without leaving the floor. The dancers support one another throughout the duet and use the floor to support them both as they roll, stretch, reach, climb, balance and fall.

2 One Another pg 08 /16 Back to Contents 06 Text & Dance

Note on the text by Samuel Webster Examples of phrases created by the “A poem is a comment that the world can’t company dancers forget.” (Australian poet, Robert Gray) —— These are open palms. There’s A poem is a comment, a short story is an idea, nothing here to give. Only space with a novel is a world. When writing poetry I try to which to take. keep this in mind; focusing your ideas into a comment keeps them from being vague and it —— You held out your hand, so I ran for it. also forces you to make each phrase valuable. But it was gone.

When we selected phrases to use in the —— So much relies on the direction of our soundscape of 2 One Another we cut any fingertips. phrases which directed the audience too much. We wanted the poetry to trigger —— Could we support the world together? something deep and that had to come If I place my hand here, and you put through subtlety. The hope is that the phrases yours over there, maybe there’s enough will encourage the audience to connect with strength between us to make sure it the work by remembering the way they’ve felt never falls down before. —— This whole world is me. Even in silence One of the more ‘physical’ phrases we used I can show you where it ends and where in 2 One Another was: I pushed my chest it begins. against the carpet like I was skydiving. My arms reached for pockets of air we had —— It was only in the last inches of my forgotten were there. movements that I began to feel the humanity draining away. The language used is quite casual, which gives it subtlety. Its subject matter is also —— Come close, I need to tell you something. quite obvious - it refers to seeing a dancer Just one thing. lying face down on the floor, then lifting his arms and feet up in the shape of a falling body. What makes this poem work is the last line, which takes that physical moment and extends it into the emotional - the ‘pockets of air’ are symbolic of life, freedom, lightness and so forth, and the idea of having ‘forgotten’ introduces an idea of imperfection.

2 One Another pg 09 /16 Back to Contents 07 Production Elements

Music by Nick Wales The third movement is entirely composed The score is a journey in four movements, by Nick Wales and is a musical climax exploring the different emotive qualities that exploring the idea of being pushed over the can surface when we relate to one another. edge. There is an emotional duality of ecstatic It brings together a range of existing music highs and dark desperation mixing new with original composition by Nick Wales and classical string textures, Samuel’s poetry the poetic phrases by Samuel Webster. and driving electronics and percussion. The phrases selected for this section all When selecting the tracks of already existing reference body parts and have a feeling music, Rafael was looking for a variety of of desperation and aggression. styles of music that would give him different textures, energies, emotions and atmospheres to play with. He wanted to find contrasts between the tracks to create unexpected tension yet the tracks also had to gel with each other and make sense. The result is a score that encompasses varied musical styles and composers, from new classical music to Renaissance and Baroque landscapes, rich soundscapes and driving electronica. The recordings of Samuel’s poetic phrases were electronically processed then incorporated into the score by treating each as a ‘gesture’ in response to the movement.

2 One Another Pg 10 /16 Back to Contents 07 Production Elements

Production & Costume Design QQ What is the between the by Tony Assness movement on stage and the images on “The intention of the production design of 2 the screen? One Another is to frame the action, while my intention as costume designer is to get out of My goal is for the screen to work perfectly the way of that action while simultaneously with all the other elements – screen, lighting, dressing it.” (Tony Assness) costumes, music and of course the dance are all integrated and working as one. Everything Interview with Tony that is happening around the dancers is connected, inspired and triggered by them QQ Why did you and Rafael decide to use a and the choreography. All the imagery that is screen with imagery for this production? displayed on the screen is inspired by sitting in on the rehearsals as an observer. On one Rafael and I had a great time discussing ideas level the screen and images are simply a and possibilities very early on. We talked and backdrop, but on another level we are aiming looked at a lot of things and I sent him things for a certain visual poetry that enhances the that I thought he may respond positively to. experience of watching the dance. It was through this rather organic and casual exchanging of ideas that the idea of a screen came up. There are a lot of reasons why we decided to use this screen, one of them is to make a great show, one that has a certain visual impact, one that will delight and move an audience. The screen is very large, physically filling the entire back of the stage (16m wide by 5m high), for me it supplies a context for the dancers. The white floor plus the screen creates a space that showcases and etches out the dancers bodies in the most powerful and thrilling way I believe possible.

(Above) Images used as inspiration for the screen content

2 One Another Pg 11 /16 Back to Contents 07 Production Elements

QQ How is colour used in the costume and Tony’s note on Costume Design production design? A most fascinating part of the whole design process is how the costumes evolve. What The white floor and screen will create a very does one clothe a dancer in, given that an luminous space and a vivid environment that audience is there to see limbs, torsos, hands will etch out the dancers as they move. All the and faces, feet, necks, spines, shoulder screen content and lighting in the first three blades moving through space? What the movements are quite cool and stripped back, dancer wears is not there to tell a story, these the costumes in these sections are a sporty dancers are not characters, and covering mid- tone grey – in other words the costumes their bodies with real clothes would be a are not coloured. This grey is a non-colour waste of time. So what do the costumes but one that will contrast graphically with the mean? All I’m doing here is creating a second coolness of the surrounding environment. In skin for each performer, one that is unique to the last movement there is a seismic shift as each dancer’s body while at the same time the lighting and screen content warms and the visually connecting every body that is on costumes change to become a rich blood red. stage to one another.

(Above) Images used as inspiration for costume design

(Right) Costume design sketches

2 One Another Pg 12 /16 Back to Contents 08 Choreographic Tasks

The choreographic tasks in this Resource 01 Communication Task (Duet) 02 Contact Task (Duet) 03 Gestural Phrase (Solo or Group) Pack were used in the making of 2 One Another as a way to generate movement This task is based on action and response Once a duet has been created with the In a public setting, such as a waiting room, material. These tasks are designed to evoke and relies on instinctively responding to your Communication Task above, find ways to shopping centre, at a bus stop, on the train, personal and individual responses in keeping partner. Think about a conversation between connect and make contact with your partner in the playground or at home, observe the with the nature and concept of the work and two people which goes forward and back as throughout the duet. small gestures that the people in that setting for that reason can be delivered to a range of it progresses and how the response is always are making unconsciously. It would also be students of differing abilities. triggered by what was said before. Aim to make connections that are slightly interesting to observe a conversation that two awkward, or not as natural, by finding the less people are having and note the gestures they In pairs, the first dancer does an impulsive obvious solution. You could do this by: use when interacting with each other. Look action which the second dancer then out for the smallest of gestures such as a tilt responds to instinctively. Try not to think —— Connecting different body parts on of the head, wipe of the brow, shrug, scratch, about your action too much but as a guide you different levels point. may like to consider relating or reacting to: —— Playing with the speed and dynamic of the connection Take these gestures into the studio to create —— The dynamic of the action (strong, soft, —— Taking some of the weight of your partner a sequence of minimal gestures by adding sharp, fluid) in a different way (while staying safe) a number of them together. The details are —— The speed, rhythm or timing of the action very important in a phrase like this to keep the —— Where in space the action happened interest for the viewer. —— Which body parts were used To develop and abstract this phrase: Repeat the action and response process to build a phrase of at least six movements each. —— Change the speed to add in slow and fast moments Play with the length of your response to —— Do the action with a different body your partner as in a conversation. Are you part or on a different body part communicating just one word or a sentence? —— Change level and direction during Also play with the pauses between the action the phrase and response. —— Add in pauses / moments of stillness

Write down one word to describe each action that you do to help you remember the impulse behind it. Once you have created a phrase with your partner compare your words to share what each of you were thinking within the silent conversation.

2 One Another Pg 13 /16 Back to Contents 08 Choreographic Tasks

04 Using Text as a Starting Point (Solo) The way the text is embodied into movement Creating Writing Task is very open to interpretation however the aim In collaboration with Samuel Webster For this task you will need to start with some is not to act out or dramatise the words but to short text which could either be a poem, a find other ways to creatively respond. This creative writing task could be used word list or a paragraph from a story. Below to develop the choreography that you already are some of the phrases written by Samuel Improvise movement ideas from the text to have by adding another layer or dimension Webster during the making of 2 One Another create a phrase. to it. Or it could be used as a starting point which you may also like to respond to: for choreography by using descriptions of You could respond to the text through physicality in another setting outside of dance, I fell just to catch myself, again and again. movement in the following ways: such as a sports match or in the playground. I had to prove to myself that I was worth saving. I had to prove that I would never hit —— Use the rhythm or sound of the words When observing the dance or other activity, the ground alone. —— Use the emotion or feeling that the text make a list of what is going on physically, trying gives you to note things like masculinity, femininity, These are open palms. There’s nothing here —— Pinpoint the key words which are aggression and vulnerability. Once you have to give, only space with which to take. physical descriptions or have a physical a list of physical details, try to give them voice resonance by converting them to dialogue or description. I pushed my chest against the carpet and pretended like I was skydiving. My arms Example reached for pockets of air that we had Physical phrase: Arms extend, palms open forgotten were there. In dialogue this could become: I open my I left my limbs around the house, in places palms to show you I’m innocent which could where I thought you might notice them. be developed into Can’t you see? I am the I hoped they might remind you just how much innocent one here. I have to give. As a description this could become: The bare So much relies upon the direction of our palms move forward which could be developed fingertips. into I watched as her palms moved forward to calm me.

Repeat the process until you have built a vocabulary or a bank of phrases. The phrases could then be used in the soundscape for your dance piece, as inspiration for choreography, or just to help you get your mind around the ideas you are trying to represent.

2 One Another Pg 14 /16 Back to Contents 09 Analysis & Appreciation

Write —— Compare and contrast your interpretation A review of 2 One Another of 2 One Another with someone else.

Consider who you are writing for and where —— Write your own definitions of abstract the review will be published to inform the dance and narrative dance. style of writing. —— Find examples of choreographers and Your review should include: their dance works which are abstract. Compare and contrast two examples. —— First Impression —— Description —— Find examples of choreographers and —— Interpretation their dance works which are narrative. —— Evaluation (informed criticism) Compare and contrast two examples.

Compare and contrast your review with a Explore review in the press or with someone else in Text & Dance your class. Rafael used Samuel Webster’s poetic phrases Explore in the creative development of 2 One Another Abstract & Narrative Dance and in the score in an abstract way (see Text & Dance pg 09). Rafael’s choreography is abstract even though it comes from a personal place —— Find other contemporary dance works for him, the dancers and his creative that use text in either the creative collaborators. ‘I think my work is becoming process or final production. more and more about what it is to be human. It’s abstract but it has a lot of emotion. What —— Compare and contrast two I’m trying to do is make you feel something. contemporary dance works that use But how you read it, that really is up to you.’ text in a different way. Rafael Bonachela —— Write your own definitions of dance There is a concept but no narrative to his theatre, physical theatre and work so the interpretation is left open to contemporary dance. How similar are the audience. As a choreographer, Rafael is these genres and can some dance particularly interested in spatial and structural works cross all three categories? patterns so some of the decisions he makes are based purely on an exploration of pattern.

2 One Another Pg 15 /16 Back to Contents Copyright & Credits

Written and compiled by Sydney Dance Company

Photo credits: Pedro Greig

© Copyright protects this Education Resource.

Except for purposes permitted by the Copyright Act, reproduction by whatever means is prohibited.

Limited photocopying for classroom use only is permitted by educational institutions.

2 One Another Pg 16 /16 Back to Contents