Ruth St. Dennis: Music Visualization
Video 1
Question 1
What was the importance of the Denishawn School and Company?
What did St. Denis think of automation?
Video 2
Question 2
Why was Shiva an important symbol for St. Denis?
What was her view of the dancer?
Video 3
Question 3
What was St. Denis' idea of the dance thought?
Video 4
Question 4
What did St. Denis think about the creative spirit?
Video 4
Question 5
What would you think was St. Denis' task in life, according to her?
-----------------------------------
Biography
From an early age Ruth Dennis displayed a marked interest in
the theatre and especially in dance. She began dancing and acting in vaudeville
and musical comedy shows when she was a teenager, and she appeared in David
Belasco’s productions of Zaza, The Auctioneer, and Du Barry. While touring in
the last play she was reputedly inspired by a cigarette poster featuring an
Egyptian scene of the goddess Isis to begin investigating Asian art and dance.
Dennis took the stage name Ruth St. Denis, and in 1906,
after studying Hindu art and philosophy, she offered a public performance in
New York City of her first dance work, Radha (based on the milkmaid Radha who
was an early consort of the Hindu god Krishna), together with such shorter
pieces as The Cobra and The Incense. A three-year European tour followed. She
was particularly successful in Vienna, where she added The Nautch and The Yogi
to her program, and in Germany. Her later productions, many of which had
religious themes, included the long-planned Egypta (1910) and O-mika (1913), a
dance drama in a Japanese style.
In 1914 St. Denis married Ted Shawn, her dance partner, and
the next year they founded the Denishawn school and company in Los Angeles.
During that time, St. Denis’s choreographic style broadened to include group
numbers occasionally derived from European as well as Asian sources.
Among her choreographic innovations were “music
visualization”—a concept that called for movement equivalents to the timbres,
dynamics, and structural shapes of music in addition to its rhythmic base—and a
related choreographic form that she called “synchoric orchestra”—a technique,
comparable to the eurythmics of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, that assigned one dancer
to interpret the rhythms of each instrument of the orchestra.
St. Denis and Shawn separated, both professionally and
maritally, in 1931, though they never divorced. St. Denis, who retired briefly
from public performance, founded the Society of Spiritual Arts and devoted much
of the rest of her life to promoting the use of dance in religion.
In 1940,
with La Meri (Russell M. Hughes), she founded the School of Natya to continue
the teaching of South Asian dance. She resumed performing in 1941 with an
appearance at Shawn’s Jacob’s Pillow Festival in Massachusetts, where she
continued to appear annually until 1955. Often called the “first lady of
American dance,” she remained active into the 1960s, when many of her
better-known solos were recorded on film.
--------------------
CONCEPTS
Music Visualization: a concept that called for movement equivalents to the timbres,
dynamics, and structural shapes of music in addition to its rhythmic base.
Synchronic Orchestra: a choreographic form or technique,
comparable to the eurythmics of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, that assigned one dancer
to interpret the rhythms of each instrument of the orchestra.
-------------------------------------
ACTIVITY
Students will use music visualization to interpret the rhythms of each instrument of a symphonic composition.
Each student chooses what instrument to move to as he/she interprets the rhythm of the chosen instrument.
Choose
8 moves out of the movements you were dancing while Bolero was playing
and create another phrase you will add to your solo piece.
Maurice Ravel: Bolero
Make-Up Students
Follow the sounds of the orchestra you feel most attracted to and move them from beginning to end.
Choose 8 moves out of the movements you were dancing while Bolero was playing and create another phrase you will add to your solo piece.
RECORD AND POST YOUR PHRASE ON DISCUSSION BOARD.
-------------
FOR AMBITIOUS DANCE STUDENTS WHO WANT TO LEARN BEYOND
Instruments in a Symphony Orchestra
The modern-day Symphony Orchestra averages between 85 and 100 musicians. Below is a list of the families of instruments.
Strings
16 – 1st Violins
14 – 2nd Violins
12 – Violas
10 – Cellos
8 – Double Basses
Woodwinds
2 to 3 – Flutes (one on Piccolo)
1 to 2 – Oboes
2 to 4 – Clarinets
2 to 3 – Bassoons
Brass
3 to 4 – Trumpets in Bb
4 to 6 – Horns
3 to 4 – Trombones
1 to 2 – Tubas
Percussion
Snare Drum
Bass Drum
Cymbals
Mallets (Xylophone, Marimba, Bells, Chimes, Celeste)
Timpani (1 – 4)
Aux. Percussion
Source: https://studionotesonline.com/instruments-in-a-symphony-orchestra/
Comments
Post a Comment