Lucia Mancha discussed the experience of choreographing a dance performance, The Night
Interview Summary
This participant shared their experience of choreographing a piece titled "The Night," inspired by a real-life event. Creating this choreography served as an emotional outlet for the participant as they worked through their feelings about the experience. It was significant to them because it marked their first venture into choreography. The process was described as objective and task-oriented, though there were moments of frustration when the dancers didn't interpret the piece as desired. Over time, the participant came to appreciate the beauty in the differences between performances.
Through this experience, the participant learned the limitations of trying to control others' performances and recognized the gap between choreographers and performers. While the feedback from others was positive, the participant felt that the audience may not have fully grasped the depth of the experience. Despite its performative nature, the participant acknowledged a spiritual aspect to the process, though they didn't consciously tap into spirituality during creation. They typically experience spirituality while dancing themselves.
The choreography was created when the participant was 19 and performed at age 20. During this time, they were in a new relationship with their boyfriend, who contributed to the emotional depth of the piece by creating the music for it.
Interview Transcript
Introduction
Interviewer: Okay, so we'd like you to think about in our work that you created. That's especially meaningful to you. I know they've already chosen one dance that you were involved in the creation of the choreography. So this work should be a meaningful to you and emotionally salient. it helps if your memories are vivid. but you it's okay. If you don't, remember everything, and it can be a are working that you created at any age. So what is the our work?
Description
Participant: About a year and a half ago I choreographed about a 3 min piece titled The Night, and a friend of mine created the music for it, so it was the original score of music as well, and the piece centered around a jarring experience that I had and how I progressed through said jarring experience. So it was based off of a real life interpretation of something that I had gone through.
Interviewer: Could you describe it for me?
Participant: yeah, of course the piece was about 3 min long. It involved chairs as props, red chairs and all the dancers were dressed in black and white. The tempo was very even, it was electronic mixed type music, and there were 2 groups of dancers, 6 in all, 3 and 3, and I designed it so that 3 of the dancers were legitimate real-life characters playing a persona that they themselves designed. And then 3 of the characters represented the thoughts or the emotions that seemed to follow them and plague them throughout the dance. So there was an indirect interplay between both groups, where one group was visibly distressed, and the other was the visible distressor. If that makes any sense. And it's a relatively short piece, and it's hard to say if it comes to a conclusion of any kind, because it does draw from a specific moment in time. There is really no resolution other than what I would describe as hopefulness going forward.
Why did you choose this one? (Specialness)
Interviewer: Great, thank you. And so why did you choose to talk about this choreography for this study.
Participant: I believe mostly because obviously it's a choreography of mine, and when someone choreographs movement onto your body, it's hard for you as a dancer to decide whether or not that art belongs to you. I've grown up in a studio setting and a pre professional company setting, which basically means I never did choreography of my own growing up. I always had other people instill their art upon me, and I would do my best to portray what the artists themselves wanted with the choreographor wanted. But I there were very few times, where I felt like the choreography of another person, fully resonated in myself
as my own artwork, because I was playing a persona for another person. And so this choreography I'm not actually in. I did not choreograph the dance for myself. I choreographed it for another group of dancers, so I, for the first time, got to. It sounds a little nasty when you put it this way, but instill my art onto another person and see my art come to life on a different group of people. And being able to ask them to portray specifically what I wanted and to embody an aesthetic that I I felt was useful for the end goal of my piece of art.
Process of Creating
What led up to its creation? What motivated you to create it?
Interviewer: Great. Thank you. now we'll talk a little bit about the process of creating this our work. So what led up to the creation? What motivated you to create this choreography?
Participant: It stemmed from, like, I said before, a real-life experience of mine, and at the time I didn't know how else to work through said experience, and it was the best means of expression that I could think to process my own thoughts on this experience. And the music actually came first because I, like I said, commissioned the music from a friend of mine, and we worked pretty closely in order to decide what sort of mood we were going to go for. And then taking that music, the choreography itself came very naturally due to the tempo of the music and thoughts that I had already designed in my own head.
I'm also very linear choreographer. So I start at the beginning, and then I choreograph all the way through to the end. So it seemed natural the way that everything progressed, and then, once I had designed the dance. I went out to find my dancers, so I didn't design the dance specifically on those bodies. I designed the dance first, and then went to a group of friends of mine and said, Would you perform this for me? And then the piece ended up being performed about like 2 to 3 months later in a small showcase, and then it was performed again about 7 or 8 months later, on a larger, more traditional proscenium stage.
When and where did the work happen? Who was involved besides you (if anyone)?
Interviewer: Nice and then so could you talk a little bit about when and where the work happened on the choreography, and if anybody else was involved in it. Besides, you
Participant: sure no one else was involved in the choreography itself. I designed all the choreography on my own. However, there is. There does come a time when you're working with specific dancers, you might have a design or a thought in mind, and then you look at the movement on the bodies of the girls themselves. And then you realize that doesn't look right or doesn't work with their specific movement quality. And so there are always tweaks and changes that you make along the way as you see the movement in person, because obviously things in your head don't always look the same when you actually see it done, especially when not everyone dances the same way. So I might do something in a different way than somebody else might. And since I choreographed it with my own body in mind. Seeing the movement on another person did lead me to change some things for the better aesthetics of the piece. I as far as when it was choreographed, and when it was performed… it was first performed in January of 2021, I think. And then… Oh, no! It was February, February 2021, and then it was performed second time in August of 2021
What were you thinking and feeling at different times throughout the process of creating the artwork?
Interviewer: great, thank you, and then could you talk a little bit about what you were thinking and feeling at different times throughout the process of creating this choreography?
Participant: Sure, I think the initial choreographic process where I did all the choreography on my own was the most emotionally engaged portion. When it came to actually putting the art and putting the choreography on another set of bodies, I was very objective about it because I didn't tell them the specific experience that spurred this choreography of mine. I talked mostly about the anxiety that came with it, the feelings that they themselves should be tapping into for their own emotions, but I never fully was honest with them about where the choreography came from or why it was named The Night or any of those things.
So I think that once I came to the part of actually putting dance on other people, it was a very objective, a very task oriented process, rather than an emotional process for me, I think the most emotional relationship that I ever had with the choreography was designing the music, designing the choreography myself, and then, seeing it performed on stage after the process of putting it on other people.
Can you describe any high points, low points or challenges, or turning points along the way?
Interviewer: Then can you describe any high points, low points, or challenges, or turning points along the way that while you were creating the choreography.
Participant: I think finally seeing the choreography on other people and having to come to the realization that I can't carbon copy myself onto other bodies was both a frustrating, I guess you could call it a low point, and a realization for me, because I also have to realize that, as you take on choreography, as a dancer who has taken on a lot of other people's choreography. You can never truly embody what the choreographer themselves has designed in their head. Because obviously you cannot. You cannot see what goes on in another person's mind, and you cannot see their vision. They can only do their best to describe to you what they want and what they look for. So I saw it both from their perspective and from my perspective. As we got to a point where I was like, I want it done this way. And I want you to embody this. But each person embodied and worked differently, and I could not get them to do what I myself would have done with the choreography had I myself been performing it. But I also have to come to the realization that that's really what makes choreography beautiful, and that's what makes choreography unique, because everybody is different and everybody is unique.
Let's talk about the impact of the artwork on yourself and others.
What did you learn from the process of creating this artwork? Did you learn anything about yourself?
Interviewer: Great. Thank you. So let's talk a little bit about the impact of the artwork on yourself and others. So you've talked about this already as some. What what did you learn from the process of creating the artwork? Did you learn anything about yourself?
Participant: I would say. I mostly learned how I work as a choreographer rather than how I work as a performer, because obviously those 2 things are very different, because I myself, like I said wasn't in the piece. I had to learn how to properly articulate what I wanted, because unlike painting, and unlike drawing. I can't just sketch it out and say, this is what I want, and I can't. I can't just show them a video and say, this is what I want. I can show them on my own body that this is what they should imitate. But regardless of whether or not they do everything I ask for, it's still going to look different. So I did. I did grow in myself learning that I can't, I can only do my best to articulate what I want, but I cannot make them be me when they perform. And then I came to the realization that their interpretation of of the dance of the choreography is just as valid and just as worthy as my own design that I created in my head
How did others receive the artwork? For example, what were their reactions? Did you intend the work to affect others or the world in any particular ways?
Interviewer: Great. And then so how did other people receive the artwork, for example, what were their reactions? And then did you intend it to affect others or the world in any particular ways?
Participant: Sure. I didn't really design it to instill anything on other people other than myself and other than
the performers themselves. I would say that I went into it with them with a minorly selfish perspective because I intended to put it on stage as a beautiful aesthetic piece of artwork but not necessarily to portray a specific storyline, or to say something specific about myself or the dancers. The piece itself was very abstract. There's not a lot of movement or work that insists upon a storyline. There are definitely pieces in there that suggests anxiety, or that suggests specific emotions. But it was just a raw emotion rather than a step by step process of bringing the audience through my experience and bringing the audience through my story. It was a very quick snapshot of what I was feeling, and that was it. SoI did get a lot of positive feedback. “Wow! That was beautiful. Wow that was such a good piece.” But I don't think anyone who watched the dance fully felt what I myself felt when I saw the piece.
Did your experience affect your understanding of others or “the world?”
Interviewer: Thank you. And then did your experience affect your understanding of other people or the world?
Participant: I think so, I think, because the dancers and I myself was working with were all friends of mine, or at least people that I was acquainted with, and they were all a lot younger than I was, people that I had danced with previously, but that I had graduated from years before, and they were all like siblings of friends of mine, younger siblings. So they were all people that I was familiar with, and people that I knew, but all of a very much younger age, and I could see myself as them trying to embody this choreography, but not yet having the life experience to fully understand what it meant, because the experience that I had that spurred me to create this choreography was a very maturing experience for me, and I feel like within that year I grew up exponentially.
And so to go back and to try to emulate that that feeling on people who themselves haven't yet had an experience like that, don't fully know what it means to be in a position like that, who themselves are, not as a negative connotation, just immature because of age because they were all young teenagers. It really brought to light how much I myself had grown in order to create this piece and that I had grown a lot, and that there was just a little bit of a separation between who was performing it, and who created it.
When some people think about themselves, they see some parts of themselves as deeply true, real, or authentic.
If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about your true nature during the process? Did you have any insights about your own authentic (or inauthentic) self?
Interviewer: Great. Thank you. so this prompt is a little bit longer. so when some people think about themselves. They see some parts of themselves as deeply true, real, or authentic. If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about your true nature during the process? Did you have any insights about your own authentic (or inauthentic) self?
Participant: Okay. I don't know if authentic is a word that I would necessarily use to describe myself. I think, as dancers, We're trained so often to perform that you forget what it means to be authentic sometimes. I would consider myself a very straightforward, a very blunt person often. But I don't know if I've ever been fully honest with people, especially in this process, is such a good example, because although I created the choreography from a very authentic, a very raw place, I never told them where it came from, so I don't know if I could fully say that I was ever authentic, because at the end of the day it is still performance. The movement was designed to be beautiful and to emit an emotion. If I wanted to be fully authentic, I think that standing on stage and screaming would have been a better interpretation of an authentic emotion, and that itself, depending on your definition of what dance should be, and what art should be, post-modernists would just call dance, which is called art, sitting on stage and screaming, would have been definitely considered art and would have been considered dance. So I don't think, because I designed it to be performative, I could truly consider this piece, or any piece that I've designed, because I have choreographed before and after to be fully authentic
Some people believe in ultimate meaning. This is defined as deep, underlying meaning that transcends subjective, personal meaning. It is about the nature of existence and identity, and it may include ideas about the significance of suffering, as well as spirituality.
If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about ultimate meaning during the process?
Great. Thank you. so this prompt is again a little longer. Some people believe in ultimate meaning. This is defined as deep underlying meaning that transcends subjective personal meaning. It is about the nature of existence and identity. It may include ideas about the significance of suffering as well as spirituality. If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about ultimate meaning during the process?
Participant: I definitely think that this is something that resonates with me mostly because art and specifically dance if it doesn't have a storyline attached to it is so interpretable, and you cannot discount the fact that maybe there was somebody in the audience who saw my piece, and had it resonate with them, or had it resonate with a broader understanding of the universe. That was not in the way that I intended, or it was not the way that I initially designed, and I also myself definitely went through a spiritual process designing this piece and creating this piece and putting it on other people. So I would not discount the fact that that is definitely something valid that I had to consider when I was especially encouraging them to perform on stage.
Some people believe or perceive a reality beyond the physical or material world. This may include religious beliefs/experiences (such as perceived interactions with God) but also may include mystical or transcendent experiences, or interaction with spirits.
Did you have any of these kinds of experiences during the creation of the artwork?
Interviewer: Yeah, so that last part of your response segues a little bit into this next prompt. Some people believe or perceive a reality beyond the physical or material world. This may include religious beliefs and experiences, such as perceived interactions with God, but may also include mystical or transcendence experiences or interaction with spirits. Did you have any of these kinds of experiences during your creation of the choreography?
Participant: I'm a religious person. I'm Catholic, and I am a practicing Catholic. I've always had very compartmentalized relationship to religion when it comes to other aspects of my life, even when it comes to dance, and the most often when I feel a spiritual connection or religious connection comes when I myself am performing. And so because I designed this piece for other people, I never tapped into that side, necessarily, of what I would consider to be normally part of my process, or a little bit of insight on myself. I've never gone on stage without saying at least one hail mary for every piece that I do, because not necessarily because I believe that my religion is emulated within my dance, but it brings me solace, and it brings me comfort, and it calms me before I go on stage, so that I can't perform the way that I need to perform.
I think that at one point I did probably pray about how I should go about designing this piece, prayed for inspiration, that sort of thing, but I never had any sort of transcendent experience designing it. Might it have been different had I performed it, Possibly. But I didn't perform it so.
How old were you?
Interviewer: great. Thank you. I just have a few quick follow up questions so. How old were you when you created the choreography?
Participant: I believe? 19. I think I was 19. I saw it performed when I was 20, and I saw it performed the second time when I was also 20. So yeah.
How do you perceive the quality?
Interviewer: And then how do you perceive the quality of the choreography?
Participant: I think the quality of the choreography is probably mid range from my own, From my own experience I didn't start taking choreography classes until I was in college, so I was all self taught at that point. Any choreography that I had created beforehand was also in a different style. So this was the first time that I had ever choreographed within this specific style of dance. So it's hard for me to compare it necessarily to anything else that I've done so. I've not. I have not choreographed in that specific style before or since, but I would say that i'm definitely proud of what I did regardless of whether or not it's short and brief, and regardless of whether or not I think that the dancers themselves embodied fully what I wanted.
I'm proud of what I designed and what I created, and I would definitely, encourage it to be performed again. If I found another group of people, I thought could embody it in the way that I wanted
What was going on in your life around this time?
Interviewer: Great. Thank you. and then I know you talked about this a little bit already, but I wondered if you wanted to say any more about what was going on in your life around the time that you created the choreography.
Participant: Sure. I mean a little a little more background on the piece itself. My boyfriend is actually the one who designed the music, and who created the music, and he was actually with me at the time of this experience that encouraged me to create this piece. So he himself had seen me at this low point, and then also could in that way put his own emotions into the music. So it created another layer of I guess you could say emotional authenticity. That spurred the original music and the original choreography.
And another interesting part about that is the fact that we were also very new into our relationship, and we've now been dating for 2 years, so we consider ourselves be very close at this point in our relationship. But at that point we were very new to each other and having only been dating under a month at that point. This was a growing experience for us as well to go through this experience together that it admitted a lot of anxiety, and then to create art together in order to work our way through it. It was also my first semester of college. So I was going through a lot of other experiences and doing a lot of rapid growth at the same time as well. There were definitely experiences throughout that semester that also lended itself to creating this emotion that I could put into this piece. I don't think I can fully say that the piece was initially designed to portray a specific time in a specific day, a specific moment where I felt a specific way. But throughout that process, I also pulled from other experiences that I had that cluster that emitted a similar feeling. So it was mostly just a huge time of growth and exploration and learning how to process all these rapid growth and explorations. Yeah.
261
00:26:45.490 --> 00:26:48.060
Interviewer: yeah, that was great. Thank you so much.
This participant shared their experience of choreographing a piece titled "The Night," inspired by a real-life event. Creating this choreography served as an emotional outlet for the participant as they worked through their feelings about the experience. It was significant to them because it marked their first venture into choreography. The process was described as objective and task-oriented, though there were moments of frustration when the dancers didn't interpret the piece as desired. Over time, the participant came to appreciate the beauty in the differences between performances.
Through this experience, the participant learned the limitations of trying to control others' performances and recognized the gap between choreographers and performers. While the feedback from others was positive, the participant felt that the audience may not have fully grasped the depth of the experience. Despite its performative nature, the participant acknowledged a spiritual aspect to the process, though they didn't consciously tap into spirituality during creation. They typically experience spirituality while dancing themselves.
The choreography was created when the participant was 19 and performed at age 20. During this time, they were in a new relationship with their boyfriend, who contributed to the emotional depth of the piece by creating the music for it.
Interview Transcript
Introduction
Interviewer: Okay, so we'd like you to think about in our work that you created. That's especially meaningful to you. I know they've already chosen one dance that you were involved in the creation of the choreography. So this work should be a meaningful to you and emotionally salient. it helps if your memories are vivid. but you it's okay. If you don't, remember everything, and it can be a are working that you created at any age. So what is the our work?
Description
Participant: About a year and a half ago I choreographed about a 3 min piece titled The Night, and a friend of mine created the music for it, so it was the original score of music as well, and the piece centered around a jarring experience that I had and how I progressed through said jarring experience. So it was based off of a real life interpretation of something that I had gone through.
Interviewer: Could you describe it for me?
Participant: yeah, of course the piece was about 3 min long. It involved chairs as props, red chairs and all the dancers were dressed in black and white. The tempo was very even, it was electronic mixed type music, and there were 2 groups of dancers, 6 in all, 3 and 3, and I designed it so that 3 of the dancers were legitimate real-life characters playing a persona that they themselves designed. And then 3 of the characters represented the thoughts or the emotions that seemed to follow them and plague them throughout the dance. So there was an indirect interplay between both groups, where one group was visibly distressed, and the other was the visible distressor. If that makes any sense. And it's a relatively short piece, and it's hard to say if it comes to a conclusion of any kind, because it does draw from a specific moment in time. There is really no resolution other than what I would describe as hopefulness going forward.
Why did you choose this one? (Specialness)
Interviewer: Great, thank you. And so why did you choose to talk about this choreography for this study.
Participant: I believe mostly because obviously it's a choreography of mine, and when someone choreographs movement onto your body, it's hard for you as a dancer to decide whether or not that art belongs to you. I've grown up in a studio setting and a pre professional company setting, which basically means I never did choreography of my own growing up. I always had other people instill their art upon me, and I would do my best to portray what the artists themselves wanted with the choreographor wanted. But I there were very few times, where I felt like the choreography of another person, fully resonated in myself
as my own artwork, because I was playing a persona for another person. And so this choreography I'm not actually in. I did not choreograph the dance for myself. I choreographed it for another group of dancers, so I, for the first time, got to. It sounds a little nasty when you put it this way, but instill my art onto another person and see my art come to life on a different group of people. And being able to ask them to portray specifically what I wanted and to embody an aesthetic that I I felt was useful for the end goal of my piece of art.
Process of Creating
What led up to its creation? What motivated you to create it?
Interviewer: Great. Thank you. now we'll talk a little bit about the process of creating this our work. So what led up to the creation? What motivated you to create this choreography?
Participant: It stemmed from, like, I said before, a real-life experience of mine, and at the time I didn't know how else to work through said experience, and it was the best means of expression that I could think to process my own thoughts on this experience. And the music actually came first because I, like I said, commissioned the music from a friend of mine, and we worked pretty closely in order to decide what sort of mood we were going to go for. And then taking that music, the choreography itself came very naturally due to the tempo of the music and thoughts that I had already designed in my own head.
I'm also very linear choreographer. So I start at the beginning, and then I choreograph all the way through to the end. So it seemed natural the way that everything progressed, and then, once I had designed the dance. I went out to find my dancers, so I didn't design the dance specifically on those bodies. I designed the dance first, and then went to a group of friends of mine and said, Would you perform this for me? And then the piece ended up being performed about like 2 to 3 months later in a small showcase, and then it was performed again about 7 or 8 months later, on a larger, more traditional proscenium stage.
When and where did the work happen? Who was involved besides you (if anyone)?
Interviewer: Nice and then so could you talk a little bit about when and where the work happened on the choreography, and if anybody else was involved in it. Besides, you
Participant: sure no one else was involved in the choreography itself. I designed all the choreography on my own. However, there is. There does come a time when you're working with specific dancers, you might have a design or a thought in mind, and then you look at the movement on the bodies of the girls themselves. And then you realize that doesn't look right or doesn't work with their specific movement quality. And so there are always tweaks and changes that you make along the way as you see the movement in person, because obviously things in your head don't always look the same when you actually see it done, especially when not everyone dances the same way. So I might do something in a different way than somebody else might. And since I choreographed it with my own body in mind. Seeing the movement on another person did lead me to change some things for the better aesthetics of the piece. I as far as when it was choreographed, and when it was performed… it was first performed in January of 2021, I think. And then… Oh, no! It was February, February 2021, and then it was performed second time in August of 2021
What were you thinking and feeling at different times throughout the process of creating the artwork?
Interviewer: great, thank you, and then could you talk a little bit about what you were thinking and feeling at different times throughout the process of creating this choreography?
Participant: Sure, I think the initial choreographic process where I did all the choreography on my own was the most emotionally engaged portion. When it came to actually putting the art and putting the choreography on another set of bodies, I was very objective about it because I didn't tell them the specific experience that spurred this choreography of mine. I talked mostly about the anxiety that came with it, the feelings that they themselves should be tapping into for their own emotions, but I never fully was honest with them about where the choreography came from or why it was named The Night or any of those things.
So I think that once I came to the part of actually putting dance on other people, it was a very objective, a very task oriented process, rather than an emotional process for me, I think the most emotional relationship that I ever had with the choreography was designing the music, designing the choreography myself, and then, seeing it performed on stage after the process of putting it on other people.
Can you describe any high points, low points or challenges, or turning points along the way?
Interviewer: Then can you describe any high points, low points, or challenges, or turning points along the way that while you were creating the choreography.
Participant: I think finally seeing the choreography on other people and having to come to the realization that I can't carbon copy myself onto other bodies was both a frustrating, I guess you could call it a low point, and a realization for me, because I also have to realize that, as you take on choreography, as a dancer who has taken on a lot of other people's choreography. You can never truly embody what the choreographer themselves has designed in their head. Because obviously you cannot. You cannot see what goes on in another person's mind, and you cannot see their vision. They can only do their best to describe to you what they want and what they look for. So I saw it both from their perspective and from my perspective. As we got to a point where I was like, I want it done this way. And I want you to embody this. But each person embodied and worked differently, and I could not get them to do what I myself would have done with the choreography had I myself been performing it. But I also have to come to the realization that that's really what makes choreography beautiful, and that's what makes choreography unique, because everybody is different and everybody is unique.
Let's talk about the impact of the artwork on yourself and others.
What did you learn from the process of creating this artwork? Did you learn anything about yourself?
Interviewer: Great. Thank you. So let's talk a little bit about the impact of the artwork on yourself and others. So you've talked about this already as some. What what did you learn from the process of creating the artwork? Did you learn anything about yourself?
Participant: I would say. I mostly learned how I work as a choreographer rather than how I work as a performer, because obviously those 2 things are very different, because I myself, like I said wasn't in the piece. I had to learn how to properly articulate what I wanted, because unlike painting, and unlike drawing. I can't just sketch it out and say, this is what I want, and I can't. I can't just show them a video and say, this is what I want. I can show them on my own body that this is what they should imitate. But regardless of whether or not they do everything I ask for, it's still going to look different. So I did. I did grow in myself learning that I can't, I can only do my best to articulate what I want, but I cannot make them be me when they perform. And then I came to the realization that their interpretation of of the dance of the choreography is just as valid and just as worthy as my own design that I created in my head
How did others receive the artwork? For example, what were their reactions? Did you intend the work to affect others or the world in any particular ways?
Interviewer: Great. And then so how did other people receive the artwork, for example, what were their reactions? And then did you intend it to affect others or the world in any particular ways?
Participant: Sure. I didn't really design it to instill anything on other people other than myself and other than
the performers themselves. I would say that I went into it with them with a minorly selfish perspective because I intended to put it on stage as a beautiful aesthetic piece of artwork but not necessarily to portray a specific storyline, or to say something specific about myself or the dancers. The piece itself was very abstract. There's not a lot of movement or work that insists upon a storyline. There are definitely pieces in there that suggests anxiety, or that suggests specific emotions. But it was just a raw emotion rather than a step by step process of bringing the audience through my experience and bringing the audience through my story. It was a very quick snapshot of what I was feeling, and that was it. SoI did get a lot of positive feedback. “Wow! That was beautiful. Wow that was such a good piece.” But I don't think anyone who watched the dance fully felt what I myself felt when I saw the piece.
Did your experience affect your understanding of others or “the world?”
Interviewer: Thank you. And then did your experience affect your understanding of other people or the world?
Participant: I think so, I think, because the dancers and I myself was working with were all friends of mine, or at least people that I was acquainted with, and they were all a lot younger than I was, people that I had danced with previously, but that I had graduated from years before, and they were all like siblings of friends of mine, younger siblings. So they were all people that I was familiar with, and people that I knew, but all of a very much younger age, and I could see myself as them trying to embody this choreography, but not yet having the life experience to fully understand what it meant, because the experience that I had that spurred me to create this choreography was a very maturing experience for me, and I feel like within that year I grew up exponentially.
And so to go back and to try to emulate that that feeling on people who themselves haven't yet had an experience like that, don't fully know what it means to be in a position like that, who themselves are, not as a negative connotation, just immature because of age because they were all young teenagers. It really brought to light how much I myself had grown in order to create this piece and that I had grown a lot, and that there was just a little bit of a separation between who was performing it, and who created it.
When some people think about themselves, they see some parts of themselves as deeply true, real, or authentic.
If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about your true nature during the process? Did you have any insights about your own authentic (or inauthentic) self?
Interviewer: Great. Thank you. so this prompt is a little bit longer. so when some people think about themselves. They see some parts of themselves as deeply true, real, or authentic. If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about your true nature during the process? Did you have any insights about your own authentic (or inauthentic) self?
Participant: Okay. I don't know if authentic is a word that I would necessarily use to describe myself. I think, as dancers, We're trained so often to perform that you forget what it means to be authentic sometimes. I would consider myself a very straightforward, a very blunt person often. But I don't know if I've ever been fully honest with people, especially in this process, is such a good example, because although I created the choreography from a very authentic, a very raw place, I never told them where it came from, so I don't know if I could fully say that I was ever authentic, because at the end of the day it is still performance. The movement was designed to be beautiful and to emit an emotion. If I wanted to be fully authentic, I think that standing on stage and screaming would have been a better interpretation of an authentic emotion, and that itself, depending on your definition of what dance should be, and what art should be, post-modernists would just call dance, which is called art, sitting on stage and screaming, would have been definitely considered art and would have been considered dance. So I don't think, because I designed it to be performative, I could truly consider this piece, or any piece that I've designed, because I have choreographed before and after to be fully authentic
Some people believe in ultimate meaning. This is defined as deep, underlying meaning that transcends subjective, personal meaning. It is about the nature of existence and identity, and it may include ideas about the significance of suffering, as well as spirituality.
If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about ultimate meaning during the process?
Great. Thank you. so this prompt is again a little longer. Some people believe in ultimate meaning. This is defined as deep underlying meaning that transcends subjective personal meaning. It is about the nature of existence and identity. It may include ideas about the significance of suffering as well as spirituality. If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about ultimate meaning during the process?
Participant: I definitely think that this is something that resonates with me mostly because art and specifically dance if it doesn't have a storyline attached to it is so interpretable, and you cannot discount the fact that maybe there was somebody in the audience who saw my piece, and had it resonate with them, or had it resonate with a broader understanding of the universe. That was not in the way that I intended, or it was not the way that I initially designed, and I also myself definitely went through a spiritual process designing this piece and creating this piece and putting it on other people. So I would not discount the fact that that is definitely something valid that I had to consider when I was especially encouraging them to perform on stage.
Some people believe or perceive a reality beyond the physical or material world. This may include religious beliefs/experiences (such as perceived interactions with God) but also may include mystical or transcendent experiences, or interaction with spirits.
Did you have any of these kinds of experiences during the creation of the artwork?
Interviewer: Yeah, so that last part of your response segues a little bit into this next prompt. Some people believe or perceive a reality beyond the physical or material world. This may include religious beliefs and experiences, such as perceived interactions with God, but may also include mystical or transcendence experiences or interaction with spirits. Did you have any of these kinds of experiences during your creation of the choreography?
Participant: I'm a religious person. I'm Catholic, and I am a practicing Catholic. I've always had very compartmentalized relationship to religion when it comes to other aspects of my life, even when it comes to dance, and the most often when I feel a spiritual connection or religious connection comes when I myself am performing. And so because I designed this piece for other people, I never tapped into that side, necessarily, of what I would consider to be normally part of my process, or a little bit of insight on myself. I've never gone on stage without saying at least one hail mary for every piece that I do, because not necessarily because I believe that my religion is emulated within my dance, but it brings me solace, and it brings me comfort, and it calms me before I go on stage, so that I can't perform the way that I need to perform.
I think that at one point I did probably pray about how I should go about designing this piece, prayed for inspiration, that sort of thing, but I never had any sort of transcendent experience designing it. Might it have been different had I performed it, Possibly. But I didn't perform it so.
How old were you?
Interviewer: great. Thank you. I just have a few quick follow up questions so. How old were you when you created the choreography?
Participant: I believe? 19. I think I was 19. I saw it performed when I was 20, and I saw it performed the second time when I was also 20. So yeah.
How do you perceive the quality?
Interviewer: And then how do you perceive the quality of the choreography?
Participant: I think the quality of the choreography is probably mid range from my own, From my own experience I didn't start taking choreography classes until I was in college, so I was all self taught at that point. Any choreography that I had created beforehand was also in a different style. So this was the first time that I had ever choreographed within this specific style of dance. So it's hard for me to compare it necessarily to anything else that I've done so. I've not. I have not choreographed in that specific style before or since, but I would say that i'm definitely proud of what I did regardless of whether or not it's short and brief, and regardless of whether or not I think that the dancers themselves embodied fully what I wanted.
I'm proud of what I designed and what I created, and I would definitely, encourage it to be performed again. If I found another group of people, I thought could embody it in the way that I wanted
What was going on in your life around this time?
Interviewer: Great. Thank you. and then I know you talked about this a little bit already, but I wondered if you wanted to say any more about what was going on in your life around the time that you created the choreography.
Participant: Sure. I mean a little a little more background on the piece itself. My boyfriend is actually the one who designed the music, and who created the music, and he was actually with me at the time of this experience that encouraged me to create this piece. So he himself had seen me at this low point, and then also could in that way put his own emotions into the music. So it created another layer of I guess you could say emotional authenticity. That spurred the original music and the original choreography.
And another interesting part about that is the fact that we were also very new into our relationship, and we've now been dating for 2 years, so we consider ourselves be very close at this point in our relationship. But at that point we were very new to each other and having only been dating under a month at that point. This was a growing experience for us as well to go through this experience together that it admitted a lot of anxiety, and then to create art together in order to work our way through it. It was also my first semester of college. So I was going through a lot of other experiences and doing a lot of rapid growth at the same time as well. There were definitely experiences throughout that semester that also lended itself to creating this emotion that I could put into this piece. I don't think I can fully say that the piece was initially designed to portray a specific time in a specific day, a specific moment where I felt a specific way. But throughout that process, I also pulled from other experiences that I had that cluster that emitted a similar feeling. So it was mostly just a huge time of growth and exploration and learning how to process all these rapid growth and explorations. Yeah.
261
00:26:45.490 --> 00:26:48.060
Interviewer: yeah, that was great. Thank you so much.
Proudly powered by Weebly