Designing Dance

Since living in Davis, CA I have been exposed with hip hop dancing. Personally, I can't dance like a pro but I still try. Having friends who are in various of dance teams on campus, Sacramento, and the Bay Area, I have become fairly familiar with the dance life. I constantly watch live performances and live performances on Youtube.

I would like to share Choreo Cookie's piece of "The Climb" performed at 2009 Culutre Shock. You might not consider this as design, but choreography utilizes design elements. This piece offers symmetry, asymmetry, balance, one point perspective, ease of movement, comfort, aesthetics, and many more.

Throughout the dance, people are dancing in different levels. Some are higher than others, others and lower. Some aren't moving while others are moving around them. Some are mirroring each other which creates an illusion of symmetry. Other's are moving at different times which creates an illusion of asymtry. The two distinct features make the dance strong and offers different persepctive.

While the dance offer different perceptive, there is a one point perspective. Example is in the beginning, the boy and the girl. With the help of one point perspective as well as the multi perspective, it tells the story and that is the concept.

Without the concept behind the moves and ease of movement, the concept would not make sense. There needed to be layout and change as the choreography developed. Criticism and "playing" is helpful. The moves had to be safe and easy to do because if it was difficult, no one could produce the movements. Everything would look sloppy.

The overall Gestalt look alludes to the overall aesthetic look. The whole concept with different elements make the piece strong. Every dancer needed to invest their part to make the piece look "pretty". Every move was well thought out and if they were not on time with the moves, it would look messy. Different levelings made it performance strong and the emotion invested in each dancer was evident.