MELISSA VAN OSSELAER

CANDIDATE
NUMBER :167044379
CHOREOGRAPHY LOGBOOK
UNIT CODE:
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Week 1:
For our first choreography class, we have been
introduced into the world of creating
choreographies and pieces. I found this class
interesting and instructive in a sense that I had
never been at the place of choreographer and just
a dancer that followed directions. But during that
class, we have learned what the word
choreography stands for, its history and origins and
the artists that had an influence into that world. He
have been given a handout where it explained the
artsy process of choreography, examples of the
creative process using different tools such as
dynamics, structure that we would learn
throughout the year. We talked about why dance is
considered as an art; not only dance was create to
entertain an audience, to create a beautiful
collection of move, one of the main purpose of
dance is a way to escape our daily lives, a way to
cope with pain and also being able express it in an
interesting and not harmful way. We also talked
about the fourth dimension, the importance of
connecting with the audience and entertaining
them. At the end of the class, we have been asked
to bring any object that had a particular
sentimental value to us. Added to that, we would
then create moves that represented the object.
The audience had to guess what was our object
and in the end, we showed it and explained why it
was meaningful to us.
Week 2:
During that lesson, we also have been
choreography based on an outside stimuli. In fact,
for that class we had to bring any sort of book, pick
up a quote that we thought interesting. We then
had to portray the meaning of the sentence and

choose moves that symbolize it. All of our moves

were purely improvised, so it was difficult at first to
find moves that could represent abstract ideas,
even if it did not matter if the movements were
literal or based on our emotions. My book was the
Power of Now and I chosed a moment in the book
where it said that by living in the present moment
and activating your sense of observation,
acknowledging what is around and being more
sensitive of our surrounding, we could be less
anxious, less in our head and find peacefulness. My
moves were slightly frantic at first with my eyes
closed but as I opened them, the dynamics of my
moves changed and I started to slow down, being
more grounded, I was trying to be more in contact
with the floor and still. I realized that day that we
can be stimulated by other things than just
watching dances shows but also by other forms of
arts, life experiences, books and so one. I realized
the endless possibilities that was offered to us if we
only payed attention to it. I also started to
understands the mechanism of choreography as I
was using dynamics during my improvisation
without really knowing what it was.
At the end of the class, we continued working on
improvisation as we had to dance on songs we did
not know. We basically had to be stimulated by a
couple of songs of different music styles and
rythms, acknowledging what kind of emotions it
gave us to then improvise based on those
elements. I find it hard as I had to dance to music I
am not used to hear before and thus I did not know
what kind of movements to bring up. But it was
interesting to see the impact of music on our
movement choices and importance of being
freestyle in a lot of dance genre as we will be
asked to freestyle for castings and jobs.

Week 3:
The subject of that lesson was to learn more about
motifs. We have been told that motifs were either
single or a short phrase of movement which
express the style and the intention of the dance. It
can be a pattern, a theme or a design for it.
In that class, we have discovered the main tools
that allowed us to create a proper choreography. In
fact, to create a group piece or solos that is not
one dimensional, it is essential to use
dynamics (the changes in speed of
movements), to use the space of the stage or
room intelligently, the directions of movements
and the different kind of levels we can dance on.
For this class, we had to work in pairs and
choreograph a couple of eights and then present to
the class. I felt really out of my comfort zone
because, it was the first time in my life that I had
to create something with anyone else, put our
minds together to create something that we both
liked. It was destabilizing to choreograph on a
music you dont know and the fact that my partner
had a dance style completely different than mine.
Week 4:
Week 5:
During that choreography class, we played with a
tool that is often used in group piece:
canon/unison. With a group of four people, we at
first had to do a routine using unison but make it
interesting at the same time. We used directions,
different floor paths and occupied different part of
the stage. Thats was the easiest task of the day.

Then, we did the same choreography while using

different sorts of canons
Week 6:
During that choreography class, we learned more
about structures. We were divided in group of four
and two people had to create a choreography to
teach to the other two others and vice versa. This
class allowed us to create and visualize our
choreography on other people than us. It also gave
us a chance to focuse on creative tools like
directions, levels, entrance and exits, pathways,
shapes. It was easy to create a piece this time
because it didnt have to be a complex
choreography as long as it had a strong structure.
The fact that we both had to create a teach the
same piece was easier for me as if I could not
explain myself properly, my partner would help
me.
Week 7:
During that class, the main task was to be creative.
With the help of a partner, the goal was to create a
story while following those instructions: one had to
be a victim, the other the villain, we had to
demonstrate particular emotions (suspicious,
distress, evilness,), prentend to use different
types of objects such as telephone and finally
choose dynamics. My classmate and I chose the
idea of kidnapping someone, keeping him hostage.
At some part of the choreography, the victim
decided to break free and a fight takes places
between both of the character.
Although I liked the idea of creating a narrative
piece and being able to use my acting skills, I still

found it still hard to work with a partner during the

creative process.
Week 8:
During that class, we did not have to dance. In
fact, all the class sat down and listened to music.
We were then required to write in our
choreography book the emotions we had while
listening to different songs, the movements we
thought could be performed on it. We also had to
associate colors with the music, a theme,
characters and their environment. It was such an
interesting class because I realized how
imaginative people are. The thought process of
some people were really different, they would
invent scenarios and visualize things I would have
never thought of and it was curious to know the
endless theme possibilities for one song.
Week 9:
The theme of the class was about relationships, the
one that you have with yourself and the one you
share with others. Our main focuse was to creates
moves that demonstrates how the body relates to
itself and another person during a dance.
During this class, we worked in groups of two and
create a choreography based on the relationship
that the characters have between each other. We
previously brainstorm all the emotions you could
feel towards a person (resentment, jealousy,
compassion,..) but also towards yourself. For the
group piece, we chose the protection and
domination as contrasting themes. During that
class, we also had to improvise on different kind of
songs based on different emotions, we have been
told to demonstrate. I could see a major

differences between the first time I had to

improvise and how easy that task became with
practice.
Week 10:
For the last class, we learned more about
choreography structure. Our task was to choose a
theme that could be deep or more basic and literal,
as long as it had a storyline. The choreography had
to had a structure in a sense that it was divided
into different sequences but the sequences could
be repeated at different times in the choreography.
For different sequences, we had to use symbolic
moves that let the audience know about the story
repeating itself. We were in pairs for that task and
my partner and I chose travel as a theme, starting
on the ground was a first sequence and as we
stood up, the next sequence started. Our structure
was ABA so after the second sequences, we had to
go back to the beginning. Thus, we learned in the
class the use of different forms like binary, ternary
and rondo ( AB, ABA and ABACADA).