Laban defined 27 seven main directions towards which we can move within the kinesphere:ģ, 4, and 5: To the left going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards (some call it low level, middle level and high level).Ħ, 7, and 8: To the right going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards.ĩ, 10, and 11: Backward going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards.ġ2, 13, and 14: Forward going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards.ġ5, 16, and 17: To the left diagonal backward going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards.ġ8, 19, and 20: To the right diagonal backward going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards.Ģ1, 22, and 23: To the left diagonal forward going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards.Ģ4, 25, and 26: To the right diagonal forward going downwards, maintaining the level or going upwards.Ģ7: To the center of the kinesphere (as the center of the body coincide with the center of the kinesphere, it can not move towards it but parts of the body or its extremities can).Ģ. Kinespheric pieces for a dance composition puzzle are considered as movements in place (not travelling more than changing weight from one support to another). We can also move parts of the body within this space without involving the center.
To dance with the whole body considering the kinespheric space it is necessary to move the center of the body. Kinespheric space: it surrounds the body until the limits that our extremities can reach and travel with us across the scenic space. SPACE: there are two possible different ways to think about space.ġ. We can improvise to create them, exploring the three main categories mentioned above:īODY: movements of the joints (example: knees, hips, elbows…), movements of the six main segments of the body (legs, arms, trunk, head), movements of parts of those main segments (example: forearms, feet, hands…), movements of the whole body (the center of the body has to be involved), movements that involve the contact of body surfaces between them or with something else (a partner, an object, the floor…), movements that involve supporting the weight of the body on other parts than the feet (on the shoulders, on the back, on the forearms…), and other possibilities concerning movements of the body that you create… Different kinds of pieces are used and put together to create a whole organic unity. Now, to improvise this way in the search for movement, imagine that composing dance is like assembling a puzzle. This is from an abstract perspective, without the need of subjects, images or external inspirational themes. Since the beginning of the XX century and thanks to Rudolph Laban, modern and contemporary dance use some conceptual tools that allow us to generate movement by the exploration of some of its own basic components: BODY, SPACE and TIME. If you know another great composing method, we’ll all be glad to hear about it. The following text is the description of a possible way of composing choreography. Every choreographer has her/his own goals and interests and every project usually demands its own methodology. There’s really no better method or composing strategy. Now, there are as many ways to compose, as choreographers (or even projects!) exist. Improvisation before composing usually leans on ideas, music or any kind of associations referred to the piece that is being created.
Click here if you want to read an article about Improvisation as an independent art form on stage). I’m only talking about improvisation as a part of dance composition, because this last one is the subject of this page.
(Dance improvisation on stage has a different purpose and is another big independent topic.
We use it with the intention of developing innovative movement ideas and generally as the first step in the dance composition process. In contemporary dance, one of the most common methods for producing that first content of choreography is the practice of improvisation. To do that, we need first to have some choreographic fragments to work with. When we talk about dance composition, we mean that we choose a choreographic material, we arrange it according to an aesthetic idea or project and we fix it.