Genre Analysis
Experiment 1: Dance
Personal genre:
Is dance a genre? I think so. It is a form of art, just like literature, and it does have categories. I suppose in the most basic list of genres, my experiment would be fiction, but more of a “based on a true story” sort of thing. I do not have autism, but I intend to dance from the point of view of a person with autism based off of my research. Why turn autism into movement? Some of the people I have worked with who have autism have been non-verbal. To communicate, they have needed to find other outlets such as writing or tablet-based communication. As a dancer, I feel there is immense power in expressing oneself through choreography. This is a mode of communication that is not often utilized for people on the spectrum due to a general lack of motor coordination. Because I have the coordination to do so, I feel creating this dance could help me and many others understand and appreciate what people with autism might want to communicate in a new way. The dance is the message, a true means of communication, something that people with Autism Spectrum Disorder find challenging to achieve. Dancing allows both the dancer and the audience to experience emotion. This is vital because people with autism rarely show varied emotion. But that doesn’t mean they lack emotion; they just could use some assistance in showing it. That is where (I hope) this dance comes into play.
The genre or style of dance will be contemporary, as I will incorporate various styles of dance and non-typical dance movements in order to convey the motions of someone on the spectrum. This will work more effectively than other styles because I will require the creative freedom to incorporate the varied tics and motions typical for someone with autism, as they are rarely if ever used in more traditional styles such as ballet or jazz.
Components of a dance:
Message: Most dances convey a message through the language of movement. Using expressions, styles, and movements, an audience member is able to understand what the choreographer was thinking and how the dancers are feeling. Some dances tell an extended story (think: The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, etc), while others are less intricate, perhaps telling the story of a breakup, a relationship, or an event. Still others simply convey a topic such as abuse, the circus, or teamwork. Lastly, some dances don’t take on a specific theme, but demonstrate an emotion. These dances often demonstrate the meaning of the song to which they are set. It is the goal of a dance to leave the audience feeling something by the end, creating their interpretation of the message that was left on the stage.
Expression/emotion: Related to the message of dance is the expression or emotion that is conveyed. Through the use of facial expressions, quality of movements, and audio, both the dancers and the audience are left feeling an emotion they didn’t feel before the dance. Because dance uses the body as an instrument, the art form is inherently connected with human emotion. The feeling is necessary to have to portray a message.
Audio: Although not all dances have audio (some use silence), all choreographers decide what audio to use (or not use) very deliberately. The most common audio used in dances are songs, both lyrical and non-lyrical. The emotion of the song is absorbed and used in the dance to enhance each other. Spoken word is becoming more popular to use as a dance’s audio. Dances move to the rhythm of the words and, similar to when songs are used, dance to enhance or elaborate on the message of the words. Whether audio is used or not, the decision is made based on how the purpose of the dance can be better conveyed.
Technique/style: The quality of movement is another aspect of a dance that enhances it’s message. The way that the dancers dance can make all the difference in the piece. The moves could be soft and gentle, staccato and angry, or drawn out and yearning. The style of the piece can change with the message, as it depicts emotion, and it is also very important to the dance as a whole, as having cohesive technique makes for more effective expression.
Costuming/props: Similar to audio, costuming is always deliberately decided upon. Many dances use simple costuming such as a white t-shirt so as not to distract from the emotion and style in the piece. Other choreographers carefully create or choose their dancers’ costuming to enhance the emotion, including utilizing specific colors and styles. Props are used in various dances to make an abstract message more obvious or to strengthen a concrete one. Props can, and often are simple items like teddy bears or chairs, but there are also dances that employ the use of constructed sets.
Modeling:
I intend to model my choreography off of this untitled dance by using similar sharp and energetic movements. The dancer in the video uses the contemporary style to vary her movements, incorporating technical dance moves and minute movements that relate more to autism. First, she conveys distractibility that is common in people on the spectrum especially when trying to perform a focused task, as the dancer is in the beginning. Later in the piece, she effectively communicates overstimulation by putting her hands on her ears, jumping, and making her movement quick. She ends the dance back where she started, attempting to complete the task, and finally giving up, exhausted. This is similar to how the second part of my choreography will look- quick, jumpy, and overstimulated. I appreciate how her use of small movement is precise and stylized, but also works effectively to demonstrate an abstract idea like distractibility. Although I intend to make my choreography less angsty and more inspiring, I will base the quality of my movements off of the style she has created to convey autism.
I will include a shift in my piece similar to how this piece, titled Medicine, shifts. The dance in question tells a story of a man who is struggling with addiction. The addiction is portrayed by the woman. The tone shifts at 3:00 when the woman puts on a white shirt, has red eyes, and embraces the man, possibly representing how the man succumbed to the addiction and it became who he was. The change is not only demonstrated in the costuming, but also in the choreography itself. Before the shift, the woman clings to the man and climbs over him, as a struggling addict would experience with his addiction. When she changes, they dance in unison, struggling and showing weakness together. Similarly, I will use a shift in my dance, starting the routine by demonstrating the outside-looking-in point of view of someone with autism, then changing to more of what the person on the spectrum truly experiences. This shift will be, at the most basic level, a shift from negative (challenges, struggles) to positive (creativity, intensity, attention to detail, etc.). Although I intend to shift from negative to positive, which is hard to compare to the abstract shift in the example, I will base this idea of a change in costuming and choreography to convey a mood/story switch. I also plan to start the shift much earlier in the piece. The late shift was effective in the example dance because it was necessary to demonstrate the long struggle before giving in. Because I hope to show the fact that the positives of autism outweigh the challenges, I will shift to positive after a short negative section.
For the logistics of the piece, I am fascinated by this presentation called Peace of Mind about what it’s like to live inside the brain of someone with anxiety. The dancer creates movement to soft music and facts about anxiety, dancing to both the music and the rhythm/meaning of the words. For example, at 1:29, the narrator reads the definition of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, characterized by excessive worrying and rumination. She demonstrates these words with her movement by pausing, sitting, and bringing her knees into her face. I am considering overlaying speech in my piece, first explaining some of the more ‘challenging’ facts about autism and then shifting to facts about what makes people on the spectrum so great. I would be able to dance to the rhythm of the speech and more easily convey the two sides of autism that I am familiar with. At the same time, I feel that this is a cop-out, and that I want to rely solely on the movement to show these sides. Will that be enough information for the viewer? Also in Peace of Mind, the presentation is full of sudden cuts and abrupt switches. I think this is an interesting technique to show the passage of time. In my case, it could also show distractibility, in particular in the ‘negative’ section of the piece.