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| Joan van der Mast and the group of Ex Nunc Dance School, photo by Format Zero |
LMA as a dramaturgical tool in choreography
by Joan van der Mast, CMA, Aug 2010
"We should be able to do every imaginable movement and then select those which seem to be the most suitable and desirable for our own nature. Only each individual himself can find these. For This reason, practice of the free use of kinetic and dynamic possibilities is of the greatest advantage. We should be acquainted both with the general movement capacities of a healthy body and mind and with the specific restrictions and capacities resulting from the individual structure of our own bodies and minds." (R. Laban)
The process of making a choreography is always a mysterious challenge and a creative adventure of which the result and its final form is always a surprise that is mostly only being revealed at the very the end of the process. But the process of making a choreography has some phases and follows a kind of specific logic of sections that precede and succeed each other.
Whether you work from a conceptual, musical, emotional or even only a movement- sequence based point of departure doesn’t matter, the process is following some rules and phases.
These phases are:
- Defining the concept – goal and starting-point
- Translating it into the four strands: Dancer – Movement - Sound – Spacial Design
- Developing and creating movement material with the dancers
- Setting and choosing the material and composing it into its bigger context
- Cleaning, refining the material and the performance
- The actual performance
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| Joan van der Mast and the group of Ex Nunc Dance School, photo by Format Zero |
During the workshop I will address how LMA provides a rich overview of the scope of movement possibilities in any situation, but also how it helps to make efficient choices and how it is a very efficient tool in clarifying and cleaning dance material. The coaching and the choreographing aspects of creating a dance are equally important in the process of creating a successful dance performance as the functional and the expressive components.
The basic elements Body, Effort, Shape and Space (B.E.S.S) can be used to generate or to analyze movement. They provide an inroad for understanding movement for developing movement efficiency and expressiveness.
· Each dancer and choreographer combines these factors is his/her own unique way and organizes them to create phrases and relationships which reveal personal, artistic and cultural style.
· LMA helps to generate new ideas to the individual artist or in working with other artists.
· LMA provides knowledge, skills and insight in a methodological way so that craft-related problems can be solved efficiently.
· LMA can help artists to gain professional mastery in a certain discipline or dance-style.
· LMA helps to develop skills to co-operate with artist from any other discipline/ dance-style, to work and function in interdisciplinary teams (composer, designers, etc) and to lead a creative interactive process and motivate and communicate with others.
· LMA enables and facilitates the artist to communicate verbally and non-verbally about the results of movement research and artistic processes.
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| Joan van der Mast and the group of Ex Nunc Dance School, photo by Format Zero |
Each dancer, dance style and choreographer combines these factors in his/her own unique way and organizes them to create phrases and relationships which reveal personal, artistic and cultural style. By understanding these elements one can:
· understand movement as a whole
· determine and analyze the different parameters of movement
· understand the relation between the four movement factors Body, Effort, Shape and Space.
· clarify movement affinities and (personal) style
· embody, master and perform movement in an authentic way
· understand the expressive meaning of movement
· communicate by means of a clear language
· motivate choreographic choices
· explore a wide range of movement possibilities & skills
· create a wide range of versatility
· create ( new) movement phrases
· receive and give feedback.
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| Joan van der Mast and the group of Ex Nunc Dance School, photo by Format Zero |
During the workshop I will take the participants into a practical journey through these phases in choreography and the rich scope of applicable possibilities of LMA as a dramaturgical tool in choreography . I will use my choreography SHE and how I created the piece as a starting point and inroad for the assignments and the basic structure of the workshop. SHE is an autobiographic work for 6 female dancers. It deals about how six characters within one personality co-existent. We will analyze the characters through B.E.S.S and we will create some movement phrases, coach the phrases en refine the performance skills of the phrases through B.E.S.S.. The coaching and the choreographing aspects of creating a dance are equally important in the process of creating a successful dance performance as well as the functional and the expressive components are of equal importance. I will emphasize in the process how the layering of all these components is manifesting something fuller than the separate aspects.
In the end of the workshop there will be a short video presentation of ( a part of) SHE.
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| Joan van der Mast and the group of Ex Nunc Dance School, photo by Format Zero |
Joan van der Mast, Professor, Founder And Director Of Ex Nunc
Dance Teacher / Choreographer / Dance Coach / Dance Advisor. Laban Movement Analysis Certificated Specialist: C.M.A.-diploma 1988. Final thesis: Analysis of Modern Dance-styles and techniques; Master Course ”Teaching Strategies in Chorological Studies” by Valerie Preston- Dunlop, Laban Center-London. 1983 -1998; Different specialisation courses in West-European Modern Dance. 1983 : Diplome RDA (Rotterdam Dance Academy). Teaching profiles: Master teacher Space Harmony at Eurolab, Hamburg; LMA , Laban based improvisation, composition and Modern Dance Technique for universities, conservatories, dance companies and professional dance institutes, ig. Zagreb, Chelyabinsk, Talin, Budapest, Skopje, Murska Sabota, Salt Lake City, Cape Town, Cotonou, Bamako, Luxembourg, Louvain-le-Neuf, Amsterdam, Tilburg, etc. Since 1997 the Faculty member Royal Conservatory The Hague. teaching Laban based Modern Dance technique
