Wigman's Technique

 

I 

Warm up

II

Stretching

III

Video

 INFLUENCES

 

Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter

IV

Analysis

Students discuss among themselves Mary Wigman's ideas about dance. Using the question below as a prompt, they write about it and post their reflection on Discussion Board.

Question 1

Based on this video, what is expressionism?

V

Video

 

Arnold Schönberg

Analysis

Students discuss among themselves Schönberg's ideas about music. Using the question below as a prompt, they write about it and post their reflection on Discussion Board.

Question 2

 After watching Bernstein's presentation on Schönberg's music, what aspect of Schonberg's music could have influenced Wigman's ideas about dance?

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VI

LINKS: Reading

Expressivity Schools

Check the link and scroll down to page 110.

VII

Analysis

Students discuss among themselves Mary Wigman's ideas about expression, using the question below as a prompt, they write about it and post their reflection on Discussion Board.

Question 3

After reading the article on "Schools of Bodily Expressivity: Mary Wigman," what was the main difference between Laban and Wigman in terms of dance?

VIII

Wigman’s Technique

 

Mary Wigman worked upon a technique based on contrasts of movement; expansion and contraction, pulling and pushing.

 

 Her technique is structured in five main groups:

1 - Striding and sliding

2 - Springs, vibrations and bouncing

3 - Momentum and oscillations

4 - Falling and dropping (floor technique)

5 - Tensions: relaxed, sustained and motor tensions

 

IX

Students review their solo and ensemble  phrases and move to a piece composed by Schönberg.

X

Students' Work

1. What is expressionism?

expression allowed to break from tradition and explain avante-garde art. It also allowed it to override impressionism.

2. What aspect of Schonberg's music could have influenced Wigman's ideas about dance?

Schonberg’s music could have influenced Wigman’s ideas about dance because it gave moments of pause for breath and allowed to create movement that allows to explore choreography that can tell a story. Every sound seemed to have reflect a time of emotion which would have been tied to a dance movement which would reflect the tone of the music.

  Vocabulary

Impressionism: 

It describes a style of painting developed in France during the mid-to-late 19th century; characterizations of the style include small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.

Tonality: 

 Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is called the tonic.

Atonality:   

Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality, in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a single, central triad is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale function independently of one another.

Chromatic Scale:

(Or twelve-tone scale) is a set of twelve pitches used in tonal music.