Stimulus for dance

Teacher dance resource developed by The Arts Unit

Stimulus

Stimulus inspires or encourages you to develop or create something. A stimulus is defined as the starting point or incentive for creative movement.

Stimuli can be categorised into 5 groups:

visual – what we see
auditory – what we hear
tactile – what we touch
ideational – ideas or concepts that come to us
kinaesthetic – movement or improvisation

Visual Stimulus

A stimulus that you can look at or see for inspiration. You might reflect the shapes, patterns, structure or colours you can see.

Examples could include:

paintings
landscapes
pattern s
television shows or movies
photographs
objects
architecture

Auditory

A stimulus that you listen to that provides inspiration.

You might explore the mood, tone, or perhaps the source of the sound (for example: the instrument, or animal that made the sound).

Other auditory stimuli include:

percussive instrument sounds
human voices
words
poems
any other noise

Tactile

A stimulus that you physically feel to give you inspiration.

This refers to anything you touch or feel, and how this can inspire you to generate an idea and create movement.

Examples could include:

sand
plush carpet
spiked surface
feathers

Ideational

A stimulus derived from a concept, feeling, or narrative.

You could explore:

myths/legends
dreamtime stories
being late for the bus
historical news/stories
climate
life cycle of flora/fauna

Kinaesthetic

A stimulus that is derived from movement.

Examples include:

standing/sitting
a slinky going down stairs
swinging
wind in the trees

Art as a catalyst

By using art as a stimulus, you are linking learning areas of the K-6 Creative Arts Syllabus which will allow students to study the artist, the artwork, audience and how the world is interpreted. Choreographically, your work can be enriched further through investigation of form, subject matter represented, techniques and tools used, and qualities.

Below is an example of a process followed when teaching and choreographing on Kindergarten to Year 6 students. Please note that this procedure can be adapted to each learning stage by adjusting the degree of difficulty for each practical task given.

Introduce the art work and present the initial choreographic intent to the class. From here, you may wish to consult with students when deciding on the type of dance and mode of presentation for engagement and attainment purposes. Ultimately, your decision will be influenced by the stimulus and the students' experience and ability to successfully present an interpretation of the choreographic idea.

Using the art stimulus and any necessary background information, improvise in order to select and refine movement and the motif to support the idea. Once this process is completed, demonstrate and teach this phrase to students. Depending on the age and stage of your class, it may be possible for students to work with you during this improvisation phase. For example, encourage students to assist by finding ways to manipulate the motif, or by experimenting with various effort actions when interpreting the taught movement phrase. You may opt to have students work as individuals, partners or as a members of a small group for this task. Once complete, invite students to perform their work to the class and for the work to be discussed. Generally speaking, children produce interesting organic movement that has not been influenced by technique or a style of dance - observe and be inspired by their work!

When creating the work, verbalise how a dance is organised into movement, phrases, sequences and sections. When forming the dance, encourage students to work with you to explore various ways to manipulate the elements of dance and use choreographic devices such as repetition, and variation and contrast. This will help clarify the choreographic idea and assist your students' interpretation of the work in performance.

The beginnings of choreography

A motif is: a shape or movement that is repeated and varied (for example, performed with a different dynamic) throughout a dance in order to communicate the intent.

A phrase is: A structuring device in dance repeated and varied to contribute to the unity of the dance.

Phrases can contain motifs.
Phrase lengths can vary.
Phrases can become 'motifs' if they are repeated and varied.

Planning and overall structure:

sequencing
transition
repetition
variation and contrast
formal structures
unity
appraisal and evaluation.

Choreographic devices are ways for developing (enriching and extending) movement.

16 ways to manipulate a motif

Explore the examples in this dropdown box as an excellent way to springboard your motif into phrases of movement.

Repetition: repeat exactly the same
Retrograde: perform it backward, start at the end and follow it back through space-like a movie run backward.
Inversion: upside-down ( v become ^) or lateral ( / becomes \ ). For upside-down inversion, you may have to lie onthe floor or stand on your head. (This can be tricky and often impossible but don’t dismiss it on those grounds)
Size: Condense/expand. Take the motif and do it as small as you can. Try even smaller. Now take the movement and make it bigger, as big as you can.
Tempo: for example: fast, slow, stop. Take the motif and do it as fast as possible. Try again, even faster. Be careful not to let it get smaller. Do it as slowly as you can. Remember to keep the space constant, the same size it was originally. Find places for stillness in it.
Rhythm: vary the rhythm but not the tempo. The variety and pattern of the beats should be altered, not the speed or the length of time it takes to accomplish. If, for example, the original rhythm was I I try doing it I I I I.
Quality: vary the movement quality. For examply try the same movement quivery, drifting, with erratic tension.
Instrumentation: perform the movement with a different body part; try several different parts of the body. Let another performer do it. Have a whole group do it.
Force: vary the amount of force you use in producing the movement. Do it with a great deal of strength, from beginning to end. Now repeat it again, with very little force, gently, weakly. Carefully try to keep the change in the force only.
Background: change the design of the rest of the body from its original position and repeat the motif. Let the rest of the body be doing something while the motif is going on. Sit instead of stand. Try perhaps twisting all the rest of you into a knot while still performing the regular motif. Add another person (maybe have them wrap around you). Add to or change the set or lighting.
Staging: perform it at a different place on the stage and/or with a different facing to the audience, sideways or in a diagonal.
Embellishment (ornamentation): the movement itself can have embellishment (for example, little loops or zig zagsoccurring along the path of the movement), or a part of the body can be embellished as it is involved in the movement (as the arm moves, wiggle the fingers or make a fist). Try to embellish both the body and the path of movement at the same time.
Change of planes/levels: change the motif to a different plane: the horizontal, the vertical, the sagittal plane, or any other slice of space. do it on a different level. Trace the path of the gesture and use it as a floor pattern. Move along that.
Addictive/incorporative: additive: While doing the original motif, simultaneously execute any kind of jump, turn, or locomotor pattern (triplet, run, slide). Incorporative: Make the original motif into a jump, turn or locomotor pattern. Although this can be tough or impossible with some motifs, approach it with a sense of 'how can x (original motif) be jumped, turned, moved from place to place?' A series of chassés would be an example of the way an arc could be realised as a locomotor pattern.
Fragmentation: use only a part of the motif, any part. Use it as an entity on itself. Use it to attend to a detail, a part worth isolating that might otherwise be overlooked. Or use several parts of it, but not the while things-such as the beginning third, a tiny piece of halfway through, and the very, very end.
Combination: Combine any of the above so that they happen at the same time. This lets you combine affinities (faster with smaller) or antagonists (faster with larger) for choreographic interest and technical challenge. Fragmentation is particularly effective when combined with others. You may combine 3 or 4 manipulations at the same time (fragmentation, inversion and embellishment, or inversion,retrograde, slower and different background). Variety and complexity grows as you combine more and more manipulations.

Adapted from: Blom, L. &. (1982). Sixteen Ways to Manipulate a Motif. In L. &. Blom, The Intimate Act of Choreography (pp. 102-104). University of Pittsberg Press.