Tanztheather Theory – Online Class

Wednesday Jan 20th | Choreo, Impro and Theory

Something you remember from visiting a foreign country
(anything apart from an actual dance phrase)

Include the following into ONE phrase:
– Breath once heavily through the chest, then straight after with any other body part
– Reach for something followed by two heavy accents
– Tickle your foot or rips with something other than your fingers
– Defend your space from an imaginary giant monkey throwing bananas
– Hesitate to execute a big move, find the courage within and do it

  • The moment when the teacher asked me and I didn’t know the answer
  • When pain turns to change
  • Imagine you talk to your loved on through a thick wall of clouds
  • Something I wished my parents had taught me
  • Try to make a fish laughThree pigeons sat on a park bench and thought about life

Wednesday Jan 13th | Choreo, Impro and Theory

Nice to be back after the Christmas break.
Here is the video of today working on how hand gestures and face expression create more depth for a longer phrase:


Wednesday Dec 2nd | Choreo, Impro and Theory

This was the last Theory Wednesday class for this year so I want to thank everyone who has joined in. We learned and shared a lot and I am really grateful for that.
Here are the recordings from today:


Wednesday Nov 25th | Choreo, Impro and Theory

Here is the Virtual Background Choreography. Looks really nice:


Wednesday Nov 18th | Choreo, Impro and Theory

We started with The adventure of the magic pen
Tell an adventure story of a pen traveling through each participant’s screen. Make us feel for the pen.

And then we went to create a response to any of these photographs while we used the picture of choice as a virtual background for the phrase.

Here is the wonderful result of both tasks:


Wednesday Nov 11th | Choreo, Impro and Theory

We looked at some special places that we cherish and used that as a starting point for creativity.

In the end we tried to make a little ‚movie‘ by adding an order to the sequences.
Take a look here:


Wednesday Nov 4th | Choreo, Impro and Theory

After an initial exploration of joints and the little brain exercise of moving each joint precisely two times we went on to find 2 ways to :
Flow
Block
Glide
Implode

And finally we worked on individual phrases which we then combined to a little Zoom choreography.
Today’s phrases were:

Leaves are falling from the trees, autumn turns to winter

If you had to replace your family members with animals, who would they become?

Surprise yourself

When true beauty is discovered, not presented

Imagine a Triangle Sonata, now dance to it

What happens when you have truly evil thoughts while dancing a phrase about unity

Here is the video:


Wednesday Oct 28th | Choreo, Impro and Theory

Started off by playing the Opposition game: Clear a state | relationship to others | body motion – then other group guesses which of the above group one has chosen and then group two dances the exact opposite.

We then went on to make a little experiment, in which everyone chooses two dynamic and moves in only these two dynamics while having a conversation about one of these topics:
1) The joys of child birth
2) Remember when we strangled the armadillo in Tijuana?
3) The dilemma of the 2020 election
4) We took a picture of ourselves every day for a year and this is what we found out

And finally we looked at the Include XYZ into one phrase from the system for creation:

  • Place your fingertips on two different body parts and make both hands meet
  • Whenever you sit down your hands go up
  • Use at least 5 of the magic 10 chest positions
    Singles:
    1)Tilt
    2)Contraction
    3)High Release
    4)Rotation
    Doubles:
    5) Rotation + contraction
    6) Rotation + High release
    Triples
    7) Contraction + Rotation + Front Shoulder FRONT
    8) Contraction + Rotation + Front Shoulder UP
    9) High release + Rotation + Front Shoulder FRONT
    10 High release + Rotation + Front Shoulder UP
  • Brush off dust with your feet
  • Your left hand is attached to a thread that is controlled by someone else, the right hand tries to free you from it

Here is the video of the final task:


Wednesday Oct 21st | Choreo, Impro and theory

Today we started off with a group improvisation using:

1 body part
1 dynamic
1 Conclusion
Dynamics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/U2kbWYpNMVV8GJE49

The second group task was to create something together based on these Animal cards:https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wa1nZgqWziuG3kbd7

And finally we improvised on one of these tasks:

A tiny movement that gives you goosebumps
Imagine a very important sentence to tell someone but a flock of giant geese is blocking your way
The moment you can’t keep a secret any longer
Express disappointment without words
Share a secret that is not your own
How would it look like if the heart and the brain danced a duet together
I want you to like me but only if I can still be me
Find three ways to impress someone, in total darkness
Make a spaghetti phrase, from uncooked to cooked
Go crazy – first in your mind, then in your body
Catch someone’s attention by acting like a stubborn child

Here is the video of today’s session:


Wednesday Oct 14th | Choreo, Impro and theory

Great progress today working on how we can find the link between an idea into movements.
First we worked on gestures as a very lively tool to tell stories and secondly we talked about the idea of What is it made of?


Wednesday Oct 7th | Choreo, Impro and theory

We started with some general music improvisation as a warm up game. Many different types of genre and moods.

We then looked again at the Speed of thought idea and picked 5 different emotional states and created two movements for each state that should be accompanied with an actual and precise thought to enhance performance quality.

Lastly we worked on these impro tasks today:

Find 3 ways to :
Count something in your room without using your eyes
Be a giant for some small scale item in your room
Predict the future in a mildly questionable way

Here is the video:


Wednesday Sept 23rd | Choreo, Impro and theory

We started with a simple improvisation of finding 4 movements for any body part followed by giving a partner an order of six body parts which then got converted into a short phrase.

We then talked about the ‚Sandwich‘ in which we tried to relate two body parts with one another and move both in accordance to a dynamic. (We also used the special chest positions (see ‚The Might Chest‘ below)

Body part
Dynamic
Body part

And finally we worked one of the following tasks:

Impro Tasks:
If I was living on a star and people came to me and asked me: What are the rules of this star of yours? What would you answer?
Mix all the colours of the world and paint your soul. Now do the same with movements
Take the liberty of creating something entirely insignificant
Is a lake more grateful for the clouds or for the rain?
What is needed to balance out generosity?

Here is the video:


Wednesday Sept 16th | Choreo, Impro and theory

Great first class back from the summer break.

We started off with a fun online version of a children clapping game and then created three phrases with 5 dynamics each. One phrase only with the upper body, another with gestures only and the third with mostly arms.

And finally we created individual phrases based on some improvisation tasks.

Here is the video of the session:


Wednesday July 29th | Choreo, Impro and theory

Today we started by refining the specific chest movements that are unique to the Tanztheater aesthetic. 

Here is the video with a little demonstration and also the muscle anatomy of the movements involved in these special postitions:

Then I offered a helpful guideline to answer questions of the third column in our system for creation, the immaterial column. 

The doodle below examines the Triangle of Why, What and How.
Why being the initial question of interest (for your piece or scene or just an idea you want to explore and create with). 
Then go down the four levels of the filter and keep What you consider important or interesting. 
Once the essence is reached (essence = an essential answer to the initial question that answers all levels of the filter) you then bring the essence back to the surface (stage) so the How describes the way you choose to depict the drop of essence you get from going through the levels of the filter. 

 

And finally we went back to the exercise in which you gave a task of your liking to a partner that the partner then answers using anything we have covered in this online course. 


Wednesday July 22nd | Choreo, Impro and theory

Today we started with the ‚holy grail‘ of Tanztheater, a principle I call The Mighty Chest
The positions of the upper body are crucial to the flowing element of the Tanztheater aesthetic and the combination of something beautiful and unexpected. 

The positions are: 

  • Simple contraction
  • Simple high release
  • Simple tilt

While the above positions are used in many other dance styles, the following two are unique to Tanztheater:

  • DownRotationContraction (DRC)
  • UpRotationFrontHighRelease (URFHR)

I then asked to comine these elements into one phrase: 

  • Tilt simple plus kiss
  • Contraction while evil muhaha
  • DownTiltContraction (DTC) plus collecting water, flowers or feathers
  • Simple high release plus smiling sunrise
  • UpTiltFrontHighRelease (UTHR) plus stroking fur or beard
  • Something fun

Here is the video of this exercise: 


Wednesday July 15st | Choreo, Impro and theory

We started with the two stories in which one group tells a story with words and the other groups reacts through movement. 

We then went on to this task: 

  • Find 5 positions in your room
  • Connect all 5 positions with different emotional state and different speed of movement (not space)
  • Formulate an actual sentence for each transition (speed of thought)
    Ex: Puppet master please stop pulling your strings for muscle resistence

Here is the video: 


Wednesday July 8st | Choreo, Impro and theory

We started with the fun game of preparing two Why– Questions and two Because-Answers, which should be random and not linked. We then asked one question to anyone in the group and they answered with one of their prepared answers. This game is to see how many hidden connections exist that are usually not very evident from the beginning.

I then asked you to answer both of your original question. 

We continued by talking about how to use the space around us, which we then combined with two ‚elements‘ (literally anything of interest) from this webpage.
The important lesson here is the decision making process.

And lastly I gave you these five tasks to choose from:

  • The wisdom of trees
  • Something you do to rest your mind
  • Water, Ice and Vapour
  • Create friction in three different ways
  • Things I hide on a weekday

Here is a video (from one task only, sorry for not recording the whole class)


Wednesday July 1st | Choreo, Impro and theory

Wonderful session today. In loving memory of Pina’s death 11 years ago the session was really emotional and some wonderful material was generated.

After some general warm up we looked at these painting and chose one of them to create a sequence which we combined with the Principles.
https://www.brushwiz.com/most-famous-paintings/

We also looked at two examples from my work how a psychological or philosophical idea can initiate and drive a creation process.

And finally I gave a simple task to create whatever you wanted to create.
The task was: A gift to Pina!

Here is what you have created (some wonderful material by the way)


Wednesday June 24th | Choreo, Impro and theory

Today we shortly talked about the use of Music, Props and Text/ Speech in the Tanztheater approach.

 

And then we spent a good amount of time to create based on these tasks:

Here is the video:

 


 

Wednesday June 17th | Choreo, Impro and theory

After repeating all Principles and Dynamics again in depth, we looked at the system of creation as a whole again and are now looking more and more at how to use the system to create.

First, we looked at a general guideline of which part of the system can be helpful according to your desired outcome:

We then continued to look at each column and how it relates to the three important factors of Technical skill, Control and Authenticity.
(Control refers to the control you have as the creator, not the performer)
Usually, the less you control the elements of your  creation but allow the philosophical idea of ‚The most honest answer on the deepest level possible‚ to guide the process the more authentic your finding will be.
We also search for a good balance though in any creation so it might be helpful to use an approach to create that balance even if it is not your preferred approach.

And finally we had a glimpse of what I want to do next week which is for you to create something of your own using the system:

In case it is easier, here are the same tasks right next to the system for cross reference:


 


Wednesday June 10th | Choreo, Impro and theory

In today’s the session we covered the Aesthetics of Tanztheater and the Bigger Picture with a special look at the the areas of Psychology, Philosophy and Social Science and finally we looked at the Legacy of Tanztheater.

We started off though by looking at the last element of the System for Creation: The expression of a state.

For that we used the following Medicine cards and tried to connect the physical state of the animal with the emotional state generated by the poetic words.
Take a look here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wa1nZgqWziuG3kbd7

    

If you have taken all classes so far, you have now dived into every element of the System for Creation. From next week we will take that step further and not just understand it but also start to use it properly.

 

But before we use the system to create material I thought it was helpful to put Tanztheater into the bigger context so let’s look at these elements:

Now we should have a much better understanding of all the different elements Tanztheater uses in order to be able to create something that is bigger and deeper than just the dance itself.


Wednesday June 3rd | Choreo, Impro and theory

Today we talked about Hands and Gestures.
Especially the Rotation of the fingers is really useful to generate bigger movements that start from the the little finger or thumbs.
(See improvisation and short gesture phrase in the video below)

Then we continued by diving into the important XYZ phrase which enables you to create versatile and exciting sequences.
For today’s session I asked you to include all elements into one phrase:

And finally we talked about the last column of the system for creation, which is the immaterial Question Improvisation.
First, we talked about how we can create the best questions that help us create individual and exciting elements we can stage. The questions or statements should include some sort of friction or contradiction and should be open to various interpretations to let the dancers create whatever they feel is the most honest answer they can give.
We use the Theme, State, Example and Task|Question|Statement as such:

This is a strong tool to get really authentic answers, which can be given in the way of an actual dance phrase or using speech and song or by doing an action, all inspired by the emotional state that the question or task evokes.

Today we used these questions, tasks or statements:

And here is the video recording of the session:


Wednesday May 27th | Choreo, Impro and theory

We started with the ‚Emotion Generator‘ using Letters A-F for an emotional state and numbers 1-6 for an action.
You choose three letter-number combinations (Example: 5B, 2F, 6C) and then connect action and state.

Here are the elements of actions:
1) Wash or swipe hands
2) Take a sip
3) Sit down
4) Open window
5) Hoover or clean
6) read

And here the way of how to do it:
A) aggressively
B) hesitantly
C) totally confused
D) overexcited
E) hyperactive
F) lethargically

Then we continued to explore the middle column of our System for Creation. We looked at the way to create material by searching on precise tasks and by finding different ways to solve the same task.
We usually say to find 3-5 different ways to depict something.
Some examples are below:

Here is the video of the session:


Wednesday May 20th | Choreo, Impro and theory

Despite the poor internet connection we worked on the fascinating principle of ‚Speed of Thought‘

Unfortunately I couldn’t film the responses to the task, but we will do that again next Wednesday.

Below is the idea of this principle.

Note:
Remember the more precise the thought the better the performance quality and authenticity.
Example: Happiness
Don’t just try to think about the big theme (I feel happy) while you move but rather think about a precise moment:
I feel happy when the sun is softly touching my face.
Big emotions are too abstract to physically depict in a clear way.


Wednesday May 13th | Choreo, Impro and theory

If you missed our first session, here are the main things we worked on:

We talked a little bit about the History of Tanztheater and ‚Ausdruckstanz‘ mentioning:
(Click on link for more information)

Then we looked at the general System for creation highlighting the three different ways to reach an element you can show on stage.

  • Using Principles and Dynamics to create fixed choreography
  • Giving body improvisation tasks
  • Giving immaterial improvisation tasks (Question-Answering approach)

We then continued to learn the following phrase:

The task was then to figure out  which dynamics and principles were used for each movement of the short phrase.

Here is the same video with the list of dynamics (white) and principles (red)

And lastly you were asked to create your own phrase using the following Principles and Dynamics:

And here is the video of those attended: