Scholarship Dance

Students will be marked on their a) choreography, b) their discussion of their choreography, and c) their discussion of their performances. These three areas have equal importance.

Teacher Notes One of the topics for the 3.8 external is dance and politics. I thought it would be interesting to use the same idea for some choreography work and perhaps even use it as a stimulus idea for 3.1.

This resource uses the idea that dance can be used to make political statements, but it is hoped that students will also see how some of the ideas can be adapted to the topics they have chosen. Students could also use ideas suggested in previous years, for example water in 2012 or the idea of waiting in 2011.

Ideas for exploring politics through choreography include:  Exploring a school, local or national issue eg Do governments have the right to spy on their citizens?  Using a political speech as the stimulus for a dance eg Nelson Mandela, Emmeline Pankhurst  Using a person who has stood up for the rights of others as the motivation for a dance eg Maya Angelou, Whina Cooper  Discuss the political ideas that concern the students’ peer group and use one or more of these as stimulus for a dance  Some young people think political discussions are boring and of no concern. Find out what students think and make a dance about indifference or involvement  Find out why some people are prepared to die for their political beliefs. The list can be expanded.

Below are some ideas for the choreography and associated workbook entries that students might do for Scholarship related to this topic. These ideas can be adapted to other topics. Because the workbook is restricted to 18 sides, teachers will need to guide students toward the ideas that are most relevant for their choreography and performance.

There are more ideas than students need. Choose what is appropriate, or adapt or produce ideas of your own.

Some of the bullet points may give ideas about how the choreography could be developed.

The performance material may be generated from performances used for 3.1, 3.2, or 3.3 or performances done as part of extra-curricular activities. Choreography and Workbook Students will choreograph a dance for Scholarship:  Do some research about students’ attitudes to politics. Explain how anything you found out influenced your work.  Explain how you got your dancer(s) to understand the ideas you wanted to express in the performance.  You decided to use the voice(s) of the dancer(s) in your dance. Explain how you used their voices and comment on the effectiveness of this.  Make a dance that shows both sides of a political argument using an AB structure.  Take a photograph of moments in the dance that show strong contrast or strong emotion. Explain, with reference to the photographs, how you captured the

emotion / idea through the body shapes, use of space, and relationships.  Describe the ways you used ideas from a political speech as stimulus for improvisations and for developing movement ideas.  Watch a person speaking about a political issue. Use their gestures as the basis of movement motifs for a dance.  Create a diagram to illustrate the structure of your dance and show how it follows the same structure as a political speech you studied. Comment on the effectiveness of the structure for dance.  Explain how you explored sounds and music and how you arrived at your final decisions about the sound that accompanied your dance.  Photograph a moment where the lighting effectively contributes to conveying the mood or idea in you dance. Explain how the lighting does this.  Explain how another dance or dances that dealt with political issues influenced your ideas for this dance

 Explain how the work / technique of a New Zealand choreographer influenced you.  Explain how you achieved a sense of unity with your dance ie a sense that everything in the dance belonged together.  Explain the title of your dance. How does it reflect or allude to your main idea?  Take a photograph of three moments from your dance and use them to explain how you achieved unity in your dance.  Explain how another dance that did not have politics as its theme influenced your ideas or movement choices.  You have decided to use one large and one smaller object as a set on an otherwise bare stage. Discuss your choices and explain how they relate to your theme.  You have made a site-specific dance about a community issue that is performed in the community the issue affects. Explain your choice of site and how the site influenced the movements you choreographed. Performance and Workbook The students might include one dance, excerpts from several different dances or several different genres, two versions of the same dance with different choreographic intentions or other combinations. Remember, the performance will not be marked but will provide a context for workbook comments about performance.

Teachers could use or adapt some of the following questions and activities for their students to include in their workbooks:  Show a photograph of a moment from your dance and discuss your use of focus at that moment.  Explain how you developed the dynamics of the movement in order to convey the ideas in the dance  Explain how you used paintings or photographs in order to understand how to express the intention of the dance.  Describe ways you used energy to enhance the ideas in the dance.  Draw the floor pattern and annotate for a dance to show where in the space you conveyed the strongest emotions or the strongest ideas. You might add photographs to this.  Discuss ways that the music influenced your performance.  Describe the costume worn for the performance. Explain how you used the costume to help convey the ideas in the dance.  Comment on the various ways you use expression when you perform your dance.  Explain how you interpreted the choreographer’s idea or intention for the dance. How did your understanding influence the way you performed?  What technical skills did you need to perform the dance well?

And / or to show versatility students might also include one or two more excerpts from dances that demonstrate other performance qualities. For example, for an ethnic dance:  How did you convey the traditional meaning of the dance in your performance?  What emotions are expressed when people perform this dance? How did you convey those emotions?  If there were some parts of the dance that were traditional and other parts that were more contemporary, how did that influence the way you performed the dance?  Photograph three gestures used in the dance. Explain what each gesture suggests and how that influenced the way you performed it.  Describe the techniques that are important for this performance.

Resources for Dance and Politics

An online exhibition Politics and the Dancing Body that explores how American choreographers between World War I through the Cold War used dance to celebrate American culture, to voice social protest, and to raise social consciousness. http://myloc.gov/exhibitions/politics-and-dance/pages/default.aspx

Hofesh Schecter: politics and dance – Israeli choreographer and composer based in the UK whose first full-length work, Political Mother, played at the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival. This interview was aired on Radio New Zealand National in 2012 http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2510345/hofesh- schecter-politics-and-dance

Look at images of Schecter’s dance Political Mother. Use them to stimulate ideas about group choreography https://www.google.co.nz/search? q=Hofesh+Shechter+Political+Mother&client=firefox-a&hs=3pW&rls=org.mozilla:en- US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=e2zTUfisOrCyiQfS8YDoBw&ved=0 CCsQsAQ&biw=1426&bih=858

Read a review about Political Mother http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/may/23/hofesh-shechter-political-mother-review

Watch sections of Political Mother http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_06hcelswgc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv4TBdmeZs8

Atamira – Ngai Tahu 32 tells the story of a man, Wi Potiki, the loss of Ngai Tahu land, file 32 containing his Potiki whakapapa, and his descendants' survival. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw8sWtD9IUQ

Atamira – Wai – issues associated with water excerpts at the end of this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLSSU1eoZn8

Ghost Dance – Christopher Bruce took the theme of the Day of the Dead, simple symbolism and indigenous dance movements to convey the plight of the innocent people in Chile and their courage in the face of adversity. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=lRcdlqAyIps

Dance and Human Rights: An interview with Christopher Bruce http://www.criticaldance.com/interviews/1999/cbruce990700.html

Swan Song by Christopher Bruce is a dance performed by a trio – two guards and a prisoner, with the former torturing the latter. This dance also deals with human rights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=038BdfaaVVs

A unit of work Dancing Towards Respect Part Three: Respect for Human Rights by Julie Cadzow http://artsonline2.tki.org.nz/resources/units/dancing_towards_respect/respect_for_huma n_rights/

Black Grace – Gathering Clouds This was Neil Ieremia’s response to controversial claims made by economist Greg Clydesdale in which he warns that Polynesians display “significant and enduring under- achievement” – a problem he believes immigration is making worse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAZtZFQMY7k

Steps in the Street – Martha Graham This dance was choreographed in the same year that Marha Graham turned down Hitler’s invitation to perform at the 1936 Olympics. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xtoIsk8GXtU

Martha Graham’s Dance Company Political Dance Project 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut9XjQ8RESE

Many sites deal with Flashmobs as a form of political demonstration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8d6H5SSgMk