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Performance quality applied to the Dance
Performance quality and the individual
Tutorial 3
The trained body with particular physiological strengths and limitations can apply technical strength to the performance of a choreographed dance.
The dance student who demonstrates high order performance skills understands that the body is an instrument for communication of an idea, emotion or character.
The dance student trains his or her body to apply technical strength to the performance of a choreographed dance. The quality of the performance is dependent upon the dancer’s understanding and application of physics and biomechanics to the execution of the movement set by the choreographer.
The dancer who understands the process of composition is better able to interpret the choreography and understands how the elements of dance are important to the realisation of the choreographic intent of the dance. They can adjust their performance quality accordingly, (adjust the extension of line, the clarity of a shape, the space required for a locomotor pattern and the control of weight in a fall to the floor).
The dancer who is able to give something of themselves to the choreography: a selflessness, an ability to overcome self consciousness, an ability to characterise, to suspend disbelief can achieve a theatrical experience for their audience.
Skills required to achieve high order performance quality are taught or nurtured by the teacher or choreographer.
The dancer is a human being that brings to the art of performance an inherited body type, intelligence and a range of experiences, emotions and skill. This is the palette from which the dancer must be taught how to dance.
Very few dancers start off with an ideal body for dance (long-limbed, legs aligned, strong metatarsal arch, applied strength, flexibility, endurance and an 180 degree turn out). Each body has a specific range of motion depending on the skeletal frame and the muscles and ligaments that support it. The way the muscles have been trained and developed also impacts on this range of motion possible.
The teacher or choreographer trains the dancer in a way that helps increase mobility but also develops muscle strength and flexibility that increases control. Training develops skill level and produces a movement vocabulary that supports the choreography and allows the dancer a freedom to explore aspects of a performance. The ability to control and vary the dynamic requires the dancer to apply the knowledge of biomechanics and physics to their dance performance.
Training should inform the dance
student in safe dance practice. The correct aesthetic is then achieved within
the range of movement that is safe to the dancers' limitations and capabilities
and body type. It is the ability to control the body that enables the
dancer to most effectively communicate the intent of the work as set by the
choreographer.
The dancer may work within their limitations and capabilities, i.e. be able to bend lower, contract the abdominals, release tension in the neck and/or apply temporal and dynamic variation to more effectively communicate an expression of an emotional quality.
Each dancer will interpret choreography in a variety of ways due to individual differences and skill level.
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