Hey HSC dance bods!
This was my response for my trial for dance for the Rooster section..
I got 15/15 for it so hopefully it could be of some help to anyone doing dance...
There is no dance section in the resources part of the website so i thought i'd post it here for ppl to take a look at it!!
Enjoy!!!
em
Christopher Bruce’s work Rooster* depends upon the music of The Rolling Stones through the musical qualities of the pieces and the lyrics.* Rooster* is a work that incorporates many styles of dance and through these modes of movement a piece is created dealing with many different issues that were prevalent within the 1960’s.* Within Bruce’s Rooster* the movement throughout the piece can be linked to the music and lyrics of The Rolling Stones.** In conjunction with these two aspects we can again add to the meaning and movement of the work through the rhythmical cues, and the socio cultural context behind Bruce’s works.
Throughout the 1960’s the rock ‘n’ roll band The Rolling Stones was a very prevalent and influential group.* The changes and social issues that were of that era were communicated through their music with excellence.* To look at in detail the lyrics of the certain pieces chosen by Bruce for his work we see that through the use of characterisation, costume, colour and mood, and literal movement throughout the certain sections in Rooster* convey the meaning of the lyrics.* In the beginning of Rooster* we hear the words “I am the little red rooster..” the male dancer aptly takes on the role of the “little red rooster” he applies the characteristics of a rooster and turns them into movement. An example of this maybe while holding onto his tie he creates a jolting head movement backward and forward putting emphasis on the forward jolts.* The holding of the tie is also apart of this rooster character taking on the preening aspects of a rooster adding small movements to heighten the characterisation.* To further this ongoing use of characterisation we can refer to the piece entitled “Lady Jane”.* The female characters in this piece are placed as one of each of the characters within the song for example “Lady Jane”, “My dear Lady Anne”, “Oh my sweet Corine”.* We see the characterisation here through the partner work between the male dancer and the three female dancers.* This characterisation is emphasised when the male dancer refers to another female dancer, they then begin to dance with him but again as he pledges himself to Lady Jane he must return to her as she returns to him.
In Bruce’s work the use of costume, colour and mood run together to create another building block of the piece.* Throughout the lyrics the use of colour and relation to colour emphasises the movement and meaning behind it.* The most prevalent colour that we see throughout the whole piece as a work is red.* There are many reasons behind this firstly because the colour can be related to many emotions for example love, anger, hate, passion and lust.* Secondly when dealing with the 1960’s the issues and social behaviour at the time really are reflected in the use of red as it was a time of passion, free love and allot of hate and anger towards the government concerning the war and other events.* To look more closely at a specific piece for example “Paint It Black” “I see a red dawn and I want it painted black” two very symbolic colours red symbolising a love perhaps, a love that is perhaps lost which is portrayed by the use of black.* The male dancer having the central role in this piece is at the front of the stage in a bright red shirt the three female dancers contrasting completely, all wearing black.* Mood is a very important part of the piece without the mood the meaning is lost within the movement.* The musical tone within the voice of the vocalist helps to create this feeling along with how the movement is made through the use of dynamic qualities making it fast, slow, sharp, soft etc.* This portrayal of mood can be seen in “Lady Jane” as the movements are slow and smooth creating this sense of loving between each character allowing the audience to feel what they are feeling.
Literal movement is prevalent throughout Christopher Bruce’s Rooster.* These movements help create the characters and moods on stage giving you real belief that the dancer actually is a rooster.* Again moving back to the section entitled “Little Red Rooster” this literal movement is seen through the head jolting explained before, the preening which has also been mentioned and also through the “showing off” to attract attention from the females.* As the male “rooster” dancer enters he then proceeds to start to create his own individual dance to alert the females of his appearance being made.* An example from this section that encapsulates the meaning of this “mating dance” would be when the dancer is in a lunge position, he then makes a large arm movement that goes down to the ground then circulates up, bends at his elbow to allow his hand to run through the side of his hair as his back extends backwards until his back is 90 degrees from the ground.* This movement shows the “cockiness” of the male rooster and again emphasises the preening which is another form of a mating ritual.
Bruce chose to look at the 1960’s and in doing so chose to create his piece through the exertion of certain Rolling Stones musical pieces.* In these pieces are certain rhythmical cues which are one of the aids in the movement of Rooster .* “Not Fade Away” has an excellent example of a rhythmical cue.* In the transition between “Lady Jane” and “Not Fade Away” the dancers all circle around one female dancer who is ‘Lady Jane’.* ‘Jane’ then on the cue of the music claps to it to transcend into the next piece.* Another example within the work is through “Little Red Rooster”.* As the male dancer enters sliding forward step by step on a lunge with arms placed hanging in front of the dancer whilst the head creates the before mentioned head jolting movement the guitar cues in and the dancer then falls back onto the foot behind him dragging his arm up his body extending further back creating a controlled layout.* Through the use of rhythmical cues throughout Rooster* the movement can then be directly related to the music.
In the 1960’s many issues and events occurred.* Such as the impact of war and the large protests that sprung from the involvement in it.* It also sparked the sexual revolution and things such as equality between the two sexes.* The Rolling Stones were apart of this period and their music was greatly affected by the events of their time and it was also affected by their influences at the time of each of their musical pieces.* This can be referred to as the socio cultural context.* The sexual revolution gave people the freedom to express themselves physically and this is conveyed through the movement within “Don’t Play with Fire”.** Not only do we see in this movement the sexual freedom but also gender roles changing slightly allowing the female to have a little more control in the game.* The male dancer is dancing* the style of jive dance and he dances by himself but also with the female each of them complementing each others movement.* The female seems to be as though she is following the male but we then see that she draws him back to her she then has the power.* Costume and colour work brilliantly to fuse this cultural context with the movement as we see the use of mini skirts in “Paint It Black”.* “Paint It Black” also gives us a beautiful representation of movement relating to the 1960’s with the use of ‘The monkey’ and ‘The Mashed Potato’ very distinguishing movements of that time.* The Rolling Stones however went through a period of a fascination of the Renaissance period.* The wearing of ruffled shirts and the use of the harpsicord within their music really accents this Renaissance period.* Bruce tried to portray this through the song “Lady Jane” with traditional ballet movements and the bowing towards the ladies even the use of partners at all times created this real sense of the renaissance period.
Bruce’s Rooster* related to the music of the Rolling Stones through the lyrics, rhythmical cues and the socio cultural context.* It is through these three points that we discover Rooster* to be much more than the title leads on to be.* It is a work that pulls from the past and future to create a fusion between the two allowing for original and creative movement to be discovered.
This was my response for my trial for dance for the Rooster section..
I got 15/15 for it so hopefully it could be of some help to anyone doing dance...
There is no dance section in the resources part of the website so i thought i'd post it here for ppl to take a look at it!!
Enjoy!!!
em
Christopher Bruce’s work Rooster* depends upon the music of The Rolling Stones through the musical qualities of the pieces and the lyrics.* Rooster* is a work that incorporates many styles of dance and through these modes of movement a piece is created dealing with many different issues that were prevalent within the 1960’s.* Within Bruce’s Rooster* the movement throughout the piece can be linked to the music and lyrics of The Rolling Stones.** In conjunction with these two aspects we can again add to the meaning and movement of the work through the rhythmical cues, and the socio cultural context behind Bruce’s works.
Throughout the 1960’s the rock ‘n’ roll band The Rolling Stones was a very prevalent and influential group.* The changes and social issues that were of that era were communicated through their music with excellence.* To look at in detail the lyrics of the certain pieces chosen by Bruce for his work we see that through the use of characterisation, costume, colour and mood, and literal movement throughout the certain sections in Rooster* convey the meaning of the lyrics.* In the beginning of Rooster* we hear the words “I am the little red rooster..” the male dancer aptly takes on the role of the “little red rooster” he applies the characteristics of a rooster and turns them into movement. An example of this maybe while holding onto his tie he creates a jolting head movement backward and forward putting emphasis on the forward jolts.* The holding of the tie is also apart of this rooster character taking on the preening aspects of a rooster adding small movements to heighten the characterisation.* To further this ongoing use of characterisation we can refer to the piece entitled “Lady Jane”.* The female characters in this piece are placed as one of each of the characters within the song for example “Lady Jane”, “My dear Lady Anne”, “Oh my sweet Corine”.* We see the characterisation here through the partner work between the male dancer and the three female dancers.* This characterisation is emphasised when the male dancer refers to another female dancer, they then begin to dance with him but again as he pledges himself to Lady Jane he must return to her as she returns to him.
In Bruce’s work the use of costume, colour and mood run together to create another building block of the piece.* Throughout the lyrics the use of colour and relation to colour emphasises the movement and meaning behind it.* The most prevalent colour that we see throughout the whole piece as a work is red.* There are many reasons behind this firstly because the colour can be related to many emotions for example love, anger, hate, passion and lust.* Secondly when dealing with the 1960’s the issues and social behaviour at the time really are reflected in the use of red as it was a time of passion, free love and allot of hate and anger towards the government concerning the war and other events.* To look more closely at a specific piece for example “Paint It Black” “I see a red dawn and I want it painted black” two very symbolic colours red symbolising a love perhaps, a love that is perhaps lost which is portrayed by the use of black.* The male dancer having the central role in this piece is at the front of the stage in a bright red shirt the three female dancers contrasting completely, all wearing black.* Mood is a very important part of the piece without the mood the meaning is lost within the movement.* The musical tone within the voice of the vocalist helps to create this feeling along with how the movement is made through the use of dynamic qualities making it fast, slow, sharp, soft etc.* This portrayal of mood can be seen in “Lady Jane” as the movements are slow and smooth creating this sense of loving between each character allowing the audience to feel what they are feeling.
Literal movement is prevalent throughout Christopher Bruce’s Rooster.* These movements help create the characters and moods on stage giving you real belief that the dancer actually is a rooster.* Again moving back to the section entitled “Little Red Rooster” this literal movement is seen through the head jolting explained before, the preening which has also been mentioned and also through the “showing off” to attract attention from the females.* As the male “rooster” dancer enters he then proceeds to start to create his own individual dance to alert the females of his appearance being made.* An example from this section that encapsulates the meaning of this “mating dance” would be when the dancer is in a lunge position, he then makes a large arm movement that goes down to the ground then circulates up, bends at his elbow to allow his hand to run through the side of his hair as his back extends backwards until his back is 90 degrees from the ground.* This movement shows the “cockiness” of the male rooster and again emphasises the preening which is another form of a mating ritual.
Bruce chose to look at the 1960’s and in doing so chose to create his piece through the exertion of certain Rolling Stones musical pieces.* In these pieces are certain rhythmical cues which are one of the aids in the movement of Rooster .* “Not Fade Away” has an excellent example of a rhythmical cue.* In the transition between “Lady Jane” and “Not Fade Away” the dancers all circle around one female dancer who is ‘Lady Jane’.* ‘Jane’ then on the cue of the music claps to it to transcend into the next piece.* Another example within the work is through “Little Red Rooster”.* As the male dancer enters sliding forward step by step on a lunge with arms placed hanging in front of the dancer whilst the head creates the before mentioned head jolting movement the guitar cues in and the dancer then falls back onto the foot behind him dragging his arm up his body extending further back creating a controlled layout.* Through the use of rhythmical cues throughout Rooster* the movement can then be directly related to the music.
In the 1960’s many issues and events occurred.* Such as the impact of war and the large protests that sprung from the involvement in it.* It also sparked the sexual revolution and things such as equality between the two sexes.* The Rolling Stones were apart of this period and their music was greatly affected by the events of their time and it was also affected by their influences at the time of each of their musical pieces.* This can be referred to as the socio cultural context.* The sexual revolution gave people the freedom to express themselves physically and this is conveyed through the movement within “Don’t Play with Fire”.** Not only do we see in this movement the sexual freedom but also gender roles changing slightly allowing the female to have a little more control in the game.* The male dancer is dancing* the style of jive dance and he dances by himself but also with the female each of them complementing each others movement.* The female seems to be as though she is following the male but we then see that she draws him back to her she then has the power.* Costume and colour work brilliantly to fuse this cultural context with the movement as we see the use of mini skirts in “Paint It Black”.* “Paint It Black” also gives us a beautiful representation of movement relating to the 1960’s with the use of ‘The monkey’ and ‘The Mashed Potato’ very distinguishing movements of that time.* The Rolling Stones however went through a period of a fascination of the Renaissance period.* The wearing of ruffled shirts and the use of the harpsicord within their music really accents this Renaissance period.* Bruce tried to portray this through the song “Lady Jane” with traditional ballet movements and the bowing towards the ladies even the use of partners at all times created this real sense of the renaissance period.
Bruce’s Rooster* related to the music of the Rolling Stones through the lyrics, rhythmical cues and the socio cultural context.* It is through these three points that we discover Rooster* to be much more than the title leads on to be.* It is a work that pulls from the past and future to create a fusion between the two allowing for original and creative movement to be discovered.
