#Lyrical dance tricks how to#
#Lyrical dance tricks series#

Imagine how many ways you could perform a simple movement, like clapping your hands if you ran it through the different concepts listed above.

#Lyrical dance tricks how to#

The list above helps us understand how to think about movement through space.

Relationships: How are the dancers positioned in space in relationship to one another? Are they close together or far apart? Are they in front of, beside, behind, over, under, alone, or connected to one another?.

Size: Does the movement take up a small, narrow space, or a big, wide space?.

Pathway: Is the path through space made by the dancers curved, straight, or zigzagged? Or is it random?.

Orientation: Which way are the dancers facing?.

Place: Is the movement done on the spot (personal space) or does it move through space (general space, downstage, upstage)?.

Direction: Does the movement go forward, backward, sideways, right, left, or on a diagonal?.

Level: Is the movement on the floor or reaching upward? Are they performed high, medium, or low?.

To better explain, here are some ways a choreographer or dancer thinks about space:

Dance moves through space in an endless variety of ways. We’re not talking about the final frontier here! We’re talking about where the action of dance takes place. Space: Where Does the Dancer Move? Through Space! Mark Morris: L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato | Three Excerpts Watch the Mark Morris Dance Company perform L’Allegro il Penseroso ed il Moderato. The action of the dance includes slaps and claps, falls, prances, jumps in place, as well as turns from side to side. When the action has been “set,” or finalized, the dancers must memorize their movement sequences in order to be able to perform them. “Action” is also considered the movement executed as the pauses or stillness between movements.ĭancers work together with a choreographer to practice and refine the action of the dance. Locomotor movement: Any movement that travels through space including a run, jump, walk, slide, hop, skip, somersault, leap, crawl, gallop, and roll.Īction includes small movements like facial expressions or gestures, as well as larger movements like lifts, carries, or catches done with a partner or in a group.Non-locomotor or axial movement: Any movement that occurs in one spot including a bend, stretch, swing, rise, fall, shake, turn, rock, tip, suspend, and twist.Movement can be divided into two general categories: What do dancers do? They move-this is the action they perform. George Balanchine's Apollo (Pacific Northwest Ballet)Īction is any human movement involved in the act of dancing. The three ballerinas touch their toes to the male dancer’s hand, and then link their arms through his. In this excerpt from George Balanchine’s Apollo, you can see how the dancers use individual body parts to create a beautiful effect in space. Dance can communicate this internal world, or it can be abstract, focusing on shapes and patterns.

#Lyrical dance tricks series#

Pay extra attention to how dancers use their breath when working through a dance phrase, or series of movements.ĭancers use their bodies to take internal ideas, emotions, and intentions and express them in an outward manner, sharing them with others. They have worked hard to train their bodies (essentially their instrument of expression) to achieve superior balance, strength, and agility. Just as some colors in a painting may be more vibrant than others, you may notice dancers who have exceptional body control. Is it symmetrical, with the right and left sides doing the same thing, or not? What shape is the body making? Are the shapes sharp and angular, or soft and rounded? Is the body curved, twisted, or straight? When you watch dance, try to notice the position of the body. A dancer can use the whole body, or emphasize individual body parts, when moving. Sometimes the body is still other times, it may be in motion. The human body is what others see when they look at dance. it springs from the very breath of life.”

Dance, then, is the most personal of all the arts. It is born in our body, exists in our body and dies in our body. Sounds simple, right? Dance critic Walter Terry put it best this way: “No paints nor brushes, marbles nor chisels, pianos or violins are needed to make this art, for we are the stuff that dance is made of. Imagine a body moving with rhythmic purpose and motions, usually performing to music.