Jun

27

Sixteen Ways to Manipulate a Motif

June 27, 2007 |

OK.  This is an amazing text.  It’s intended for dancers, but applies wonderfully to object manipulation.  You can take a riff or motif (or a ‘trick’ for those tech peeps), and tweak it.  Lots.  We played with it a bit @ Feuerkunst Berlin, and the talented Fabien asked if we could get a copy online.  If anyone can help me source it, I would be very thankful.  I attended a dance workshop in Australia a couple years ago, and got an unreferenced photocopy.  I’ve typed it up, with a small amount of editing.

Update: the very talented Rachel Brice just told me the source text: The Intimate Act of Choreography, Lynne Anne Blom & L. Tarin Chaplin, University of Pittsburg Press, 1995. Nice one Rachel :)

Enjoy!



So make yourself a Motif and try:
  1. Repetition.  Repeat exactly the same.
  2. Retrograde.  Perform it Backward.
  3. Inversion.  Try inverting the motif.  Flip it upside down or sideways.  eg > becomes <.
  4. Size.  Take the motif and do it as small as you can.  Try it even smaller.  Now make it as big as you can.
  5. Tempo.  fast/slow/stop.  Do the motif as fast as you can.  Try again, even faster.  Be careful not to let it get smaller.  Do it as slowly as you can.  Remember the size and space of the motif the same.
  6. Rhythm.  Vary the rhythm but not the tempo.  The variety and pattern of the beats should be altered, not the speed or total length of time it takes.
  7. Quality.  Vary the quality of the motif.  Try the same motif whilst quivering, with dramatic tension etc…
  8. Instrumentation.  Perform the motif with a different body part; try several different parts of the body.  Let another performer do it.  Have a whole group do it.
  9. Force.  Vary the ammount of force you use.  Do it with a great deal of force, from start to end.  Now dot it with very little force, gently, weakly.  Try to keep the change in force only.
  10. Background.  Let the rest of the body be doing something else while the motif is going on.  Eg sitting instead of standing, twisted in a knot, using another person etc…
  11. Staging.  Perform the motif at a different place on the stage and or with a different facing to the audience, such as sideways or on a diagonal.
  12. Embellishment.  The movement of the motif can be embellished (eg little loops or zigzags occurring along the path of the movement); or a part of the body can be embellished as it is involved with the movement.  Eg if it is the arm performing the motif, also wiggle the fingers.  Try embellishing both the movement path and the body.
  13. Change of Planes/Levels.  Try changing the motif to another plane.
  14. Additive/Incorporative.  Additive.  Whilst doing the original motif, try a jump, a turn or any other movement path.  Incorporative:  Turn the the motif itself in to a jump, a turn or any other movement path.
  15.  Fragmentation.  Use only a part of the motif, any part.  Use it as an entity in itself.  Use it to attend to a detail, a part worth isolating that might otherwise be overlooked.  Or use several parts of it, but not the whole thing- eg the beginning third, a tiny piece halfway through, and the very, very end.
  16. Combination.  Combine any of the above so that they happen at the same time.  Fragmentation is particularly effective when combined with others.  You may combine three or four manipulations at the same time.  Variety and complexity grows as you combine more and more of these manipulations.


Comments

9 Comments so far

  1. Gabe on June 27, 2007 5:57 pm

    That’s great! Applies to parenting too ;)

  2. Loz on June 27, 2007 8:45 pm

    yeah, nice one Kyle - would like to see more of this sort of choreographical influence in spinning shows!!

  3. Fab* on July 13, 2007 2:27 pm

    thanx alot for the ‘talented’ and for typing the text :)
    add following things:
    take the motif and do it monkey
    add some sexual tension
    do it like a robot

    and last but not least:
    FASTER, LESS CONTROLL

  4. Kyle on August 3, 2007 11:16 pm

    LOL that last one seems to be a popular one to shout at people…

    Nice to see this text has been getting around.

    If you happen to be French, I got a note from Kooothor over at Burn Crew Concept that they have a translation up there.

  5. Rachel on June 22, 2008 7:46 pm

    Hey there… the source is: The Intimate Act of Choreography, Lynne Anne Blom & L. Tarin Chaplin, University of Pittsburg Press, 1995

    Thanks for posting this here,

    Rachel

  6. Kyle on June 22, 2008 8:55 pm

    Thanks Rachel, I’ve updated the post with the reference included. Love your work by the way!

  7. jacqueline vaane on June 24, 2008 2:12 am

    hey rachel
    thanks for this adres en info about the 16 ways i,ve learned yesterday.i am going to practice.love your style

    jacqueline

  8. Elektra on June 25, 2008 6:23 am

    i got so inspired by the workshop Rachel gave last weekend, that i actually just ordered the 2 books by Lynne Anne Blom & L. Tarin Chaplin.

    thanks!

  9. Kyria on June 26, 2008 6:37 pm

    it’s an interesting theory, I’ve ordered the book to investigate it further.

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