PHASE I

 

A CONSCIOUS APPROACH TO MUSIC: LISTENING AND  ANALYSIS

 

Music and Dance are sister art forms that both describe or articulate time and space. Possibly the first scenographic elements that a Dancer must confront are sounds and silences, while the plasticity and dynamism of the human Body in Motion are likely to have been among the first Inspiration for melody and rhythm. In any case, history indicates that These two art forms appeared simultaneously, and that they have almost always been practiced as a hybrid. We could say that they nourish, or even have given birth to each other, an incontestable relationship. Music and dance feed on one another. Their bond is inescapable.

 

The objective of this Workshop cycle will be to provide dancers with the analytical means to a more profound and rewarding relationship with Musical material. A more acute ability to listen and hear can allow a more lucid appreciation and collaboration with Dance's first Partner, sound.

 

Using pre-recorded Music, we will examine composition, rhythm, and theme development. A large part of the session will Focus on rhythm, because the first relationship of the dancer is the mapping of time through Pulsation or frequency, whether regular, irregular or Abstract. Simple, complex, even or odd, micro and macro structural rhythms will be examined in Detail.

 

Please bring a Piece of Music you would like to analyze.

 

"The relationship between music and dance is dialectical in nature. Dance presupposes music and is also conditioned by it, but at the same time dance influences or even controls music as it takes possession."

 

'An idea of Music is always present in a Dance, because, if as John Cage said, Music is all we can hear or say, we will at least hear the dancers footsteps or hear their breathing.'

                                       Luciano Berio

 

PHASE II

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Chapter 2 Contemporary traditions - The polyrhythmic body

 

Live Music: Lorenzo Gasperoni /Guest Star: Eric Acakpo ( Benin)

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In all ancient traditions, dance and music are vested with important spiritual and social roles, and are considered fundamental to the expression and guiding of both collective and individual dynamics.

Our research focuses on the characteristic intimacy between polyrhythm and the dancing body in the cultures of West Africa and the Diaspora. In these traditions, dance and music are inextricably linked, in continuous dialogue. Mirroring each other they come together in a single language that is in continuous metamorphosis.

During the work, we will discover the universal bio-mechanical and the subtle rhythmical principles on which many traditional motifs are built.

Merging the inherent wisdom of tradition and the latest studies in somatic practice, we aspire to facilitate a profound intimacy between live music and the moving body, suggest ways in which both can assist in the gathering of skill and awareness, as well as engender and enhance creative expression.