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Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in Dialogue 1961-2001
Lesson Plan:
Performance of routine movements
OBJECTIVES:
1. To carefully observe how we move.
2. To creatively transform everyday gestures into choreography.
3. To develop improvisational skills.
4. To learn how to critique and evaluate work.
BACKGROUND DISCUSSION
When one performs a series of movements while dancing, with
no rehearsal, it is called improvisation. A talented and experienced
performer can often improvise beautifully and in a manner that
is coherent to the viewer. A less experienced dancer’s
improvisational movements often seem random and have no clear
progression.
Trisha Brown choreographs group and solo performances based
upon improvisational movements. These movements often originate
from personal history, everyday activities, and contemporary
culture. One of her dances was based upon memories of fishing
in the Pacific northwest, another was inspired by industrial
machines, another took place on a rooftop.
Very
few choreographers before Trisha Brown made dance autobiographical
and fewer still allowed improvisation. Her innovative thinking,
which expanded the possibilities of dance, is a primary reason
that Trisha Brown is considered a performance artist as well
as a dancer.
DISCUSSION
Many people whose daily routine does not require manual labor
think that their days have little movement or action. Despite
the fact that more and more people spend their days in a chair
and looking at a screen, we still in fact, move a great deal.
If we isolate certain movements and conjoin then in a new order,
simple gestures can begin to look quite interesting. If we
observe the motions of a getting out of bed, walking the dog,
and making breakfast and combine them into a non-linear order,
the result may seem out of the ordinary.
ACTIVITY
Have the students break into small groups. Have each group
discuss a theme that relates to a specific place at a specific
time of day. (Some examples: the kitchen at dinnertime, school
between first and second period, art class, etc.) Next, have
them write down a list of activities and movements that correspond
to those activities. The final step is to dissect and rearrange
the movements of several activities together in a new order
so that the result is a dance in which the body flows from
one gesture to another, rather than a pantomime of every day
activities. For example, if the time and place chosen was home
on a weekday morning, two activities might be tying one’s
shoes and brushing one’s hair.
The act of tying a shoelace could be broken into the following
steps:
A) Look at your foot.
B) Kneel down.
C) Move both hands toward your foot.
D) Move the hands together in rhythm above the foot.
E) Stand up.
The act of combing your hair could be broken up like this:
F) Reach forward to sink level for a comb.
G) Look forward, as if looking into a mirror.
H) Bring up one hand over head.
I) Run hand through hair.
These could then be rearranged in the following order, so that
the result would no longer resemble tying a shoe or brushing
hair.
E) Stand up.
B) Kneel down.
A) Look at your foot.
G) Look forward, as if looking into a mirror.
A) Look at your foot.
G) Look forward, as if looking into a mirror.
H) Bring up one hand over head.
D) Move the hands together in rhythm.
E) Stand up.
F) Reach forward to sink level (for a comb).
D) Move the hands together in rhythm.
C) Move both hands toward your foot.
A) Look at your foot.
I) Run hand through hair.
ADVANCED ACTIVITY (Optional)
 Students
may wish to make costumes or props to go with the dance. Trisha
Brown has a long rich history of collaborating
with other visual artists who design and costumes and for her
performances. She creates dances with the artist’s set
or costumes in mind.
CLOSURE
After each dance have the students talk about which movements
worked best together. This is critical— an essential
element of collaboration is discussion and evaluation. Inform
the students that this discussion is just as important as the
dancing, and that they need to think about what they saw and
be able to comment on it. Were the initial themes and activities
visually articulated? After review, let each group try another’s
theme, using the original theme and movements as a starting
point.
Check back soon for a complete
list of available resource kits from previous exhibitions.
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