The first was medieval themed and explored the archetype 'maiden'.
The second was a baladi piece
The third (yet to be performed) explores what is called a 'swan's song'.
These three choreographies have challenged and rewarded me in different ways. I hope to share my thoughts and reflections on these three dances and through them my dance journey over the last year.
Dance 1: The Maiden
This dance was inspired by a workshop given by Pauline Qu on 31st March '12 (http://www.britishtribalstyle.com/). Organised by Azhara Dance (http://azhara.weebly.com/) the workshop involved an exploration of several peformance archetypes; Maiden, Temptress, Diva and Wise Woman. The workshop encouraged participants to 'let down [their] inhibitions and allow [their] inner persona to shine through'.
After exploring the four archetypes I found myself wanting to be the wise woman; she is the woman I aspire to; I was indimidated by the seductress; my body could be her but not my mind, and I was unsure about how to be a diva. I found the Maiden the most comfortable archetype.
At that point in time in my life my responses were not surprising to myself, the maiden was a comforting retreat and a safe persona to enact and the positivity of innocence was very appealing.
I felt that it would help my personal healing at that time to get in touch with this part of myself that I was drawn to. I hoped she would help me approach my dance and life with a new, fresh, positive and lighthearted outlook.
After the workshop, and when I had decided I wanted to choreography a dance based on the maiden, I returned to the workshop notes.
They said:
'MAIDEN - Air
Keywords: Innocence, lightness, flighty, airy, joy, shyness, coyness
Focus: Outward, upward, seeking, discovering, open hearted
Caze: Clear straight gaze, open smile, daydream
Motivation: The love of dance, the love of life, joyful expression of youth and the promise of the future
Body Centre: Upper Body, Lifting Arms, open body language'
This was my starting point for the dance. I began by dancing like a maiden to lots of different pieces of music and exploring the characteristics. This part did involve prancing around the garden singing to flowers and birds, which i could quite happily spend most of my time doing! (Snow white was my inspiration here ;-) One dance and song in particular stood out in my mind as a great example of 'maidenly' dancing; the scene from Severn Brides for Severn Brothers where the girls are dancing around the bedroom dreaming about getting married: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faQHDd1KEwg
(Anyone fancy re-eancting this song at a hafla with me?? hahaha!)
I also had an event and music in mind;
3 months later Mel Jones was hosting a Games of Thrones hafla. Although a pure fantasy theme, It seemed the perfect context in which I could a explore a 'medieval' themed dance. My academic study of medival history and learning belly dance are to great loves in my life and I have always been tempted to incorporate elements of medieval history into my dance.
However I did have to take into consideration that it could not be authentic (having studied medieval history at University I tried not to be too serious about authenticty, I would have gone bonkers and had to write an essay justitifying my dance otherwise!)
In the end the only near authentic part of my dance was the medieval music (based on a piece of music written in 15th century France but played with modern reproductions of medieval intrustments and played by modern musicians). In respect for medieval history I cannot claim that it was in any way a medieval dance rather a medieval inspired dance influenced more by fantasy than fact.
My outfit owes a big thank you to Rita Williamson (http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ruabellydancer/) for amazingly putting into reality the dress I had in mind and creating the following outfit (picture to follow at later date) from descriptions and very badly drawn diagrams (Included below just for you to laugh at!)
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The end result was thus:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGh3ibpiiw&feature=plcp
The picture is not clear due to low lighting but I hope it is clear enough to see the dance :)
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I really enjoyed the performance and dancing The Maiden helped combat some performance nerves as approaching my performance and dance itself with her pure joy of life, love and laughter and innocence was liberating and alot of fun.
Perhaps In the future I will try to explore the other archetypes in my dance, when those parts of me want to be expressed and explored :)
