WHEN BEAU HANCOCK CAME TO TOWN...
"Iam not surprised at the level of energy coming out of these dancers, Africa is home to unbeatable rhythms. We just need to manipulate these movements into new steps.” That was Beau Hancock speaking on the first day of a workshop organised recently by the Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria (also called SPAN) for dancers in Lagos. The workshop, dubbed “Art of Choreography”, held at SPAN’s community centre in Lagos Island and was designed to help dancers to grow and hone their skills.
Hancock, the workshop’s facilitator, is an American dance instructor and choreographer, who has indeed earned his stripes in the international dance community. Besides holding an MFAin dance from Temple University, where he was a university fellow and Rose Vernick Choreographic Achievement Award recipient, he also holds a Bachelor's in Arts degree from the University of Kansas. In addition, he was a founding member of the Bowerey Dancers, a Lawrence, Kansas-based movement collective.
As a dancer, Hannock has choreographed with many world renowned dancers. His work has also featured in several institutes including the Philadelphia International Festival of Arts.
The five-day workshop lasted for four hours each day. Two hours were devoted to advanced choreographic classes while the other two hours of intermediate/beginner classes.
There was no doubt that for many Lagosbased dancers, the workshop was a platform for deepening their creativity, thus aim for their artistic development as well as for building confidence and being willing to take risks necessary to put their ideas into action.
Hence, the Head of Dance Performance at SPAN Ukalina Opuwari, said the workshop was organised to develop the skill of choreography in dancers and aspiring choreographers, to also build the body of the dancers through the body conditioning exercises which were done before each class.
Afirst-hand experience review of the workshop segments attested to the fact that it was expansive, insightful and educative. The basics of creativity necessary to spawn a choreography of unique texture and quality particular to a choreographer were without a doubt uncloaked and made easy for everyone present to understand. It was a highly engaging week.
Among the insights on understanding choreographic creativity outlined at the workshop were: -Design concepts in dancers' use of space. -Manipulating movements to make them into new steps. -Turning everyday gestures to dance phrases. -How tableaus are made. Tableaus are using body parts to spell words and then manipulating them into dance phrases. In this class, dancers were made to spell their names with body parts, exploring movement with the torso, chin, elbow, nose, toes and head.
These movements as described above definitely felt like nothing could be more awkward until the movements were being restructured by making them bigger or smaller, higher or lower(that is either by jumping or crawling or something in between), directions around the space in which the dancer stood. Dancers also got to slow down or hasten movement phrases within a given time frame.
These manipulations are movements which may feel awkward when they're first explored, but awkward is always the best locus to begin. It allows your body find and display physicality that may have never been seen (or even felt) before and this prevents a dancer from feeling stuck when creating a choreography. Transitions should be used to make the movements more seamless and aesthetically pleasing. The different dance vocabularies in the phrase created may now be edited or manipulated using direction, different body parts and others to refine the choreography. There should also be a balance of the internal and external; the internal being the level of commitment and intention the dancer moves with, giving every move a meaning and the external being shapes, structures and movements.
Dance creators should be brave enough to accept the created structures which seems grotesque in order shape them into beautiful pieces. It is a choreographer's duty to present original, appealing dance pieces that are captivating and galvanise an audience. Every member of an audience wants to leave an event or production ruminating over a choreography and knowing that they got the worth of money and time spent. Whether abstract or narrative, a choreography should leave it's audience with a certain feeling in it's wake and that should most likely be a positive effect. Anniebet Emmanuel, a dancer who attended the workshop, said, "My experience at the workshop was very intriguing. I signed up for the workshop basically to know the practical sides of 'the art of choreography' and I wasn't disappointed. Beau Hancock broke down the workings of the body. The conditioning, the contracting, the extensions and also balance. I learnt and understood 'tableaus', ways of putting together actions into choreographies and also being able to talk through the choreography for better understanding and relating it to a layman who doesn't know dance practically."
Remi Shitta, also a dance trainee at SPAN, disclosed her experience was one she couldn’t express in words. "Every moment, pain, steps, smiles was worth it,” she recalled. “If I had the power, I would keep going back in time just to have them again. Alot was learnt and for me, it was very personal. Even to the words he shared, everything was like a priceless jewel. He said something but I'll summarise in my own words, that I would like everyone to relate with. He said 'Stay committed to whatever dance moment you're in, either in a class, rehearsal, performance etc, till the very end, don't stop halfway or loose interest. Feel, relax, enjoy and listen to the communication between you, your mind and your movements, also your surroundings and audience lastly'."
As dance continues to command more professional respect locally, workshops of this kind are delightful as they ensure that this art being performed intentionally and with absolute commitment in order to communicate with and elicit the desired emotion from an audience.