Our tribe, Joined at the Hip, is really working on getting clear about how to change lead, rotate the group and what kind of group formations to use. Sight lines are very important as well as everyone having a clear shot about being viewed from the front.
What does everyone do if they are working in a group? What is the maximum number that will fit in a group? How does it move, rotate, etc? How does the new lead show clear intention for taking the lead? Where is everyone? Duet, triad, quad, quintet... etc.
(A problem I've encountered with this particular thread in the past is the subject matter is difficult to talk about because it's so visual. So a sub-question might be how do you discuss this with any sort of clarity whatsoever? Perhaps sketches can be posted in the photos area? )
Looking forward to some creative juicy posts!
Andrea. :)
What does everyone do if they are working in a group? What is the maximum number that will fit in a group? How does it move, rotate, etc? How does the new lead show clear intention for taking the lead? Where is everyone? Duet, triad, quad, quintet... etc.
(A problem I've encountered with this particular thread in the past is the subject matter is difficult to talk about because it's so visual. So a sub-question might be how do you discuss this with any sort of clarity whatsoever? Perhaps sketches can be posted in the photos area? )
Looking forward to some creative juicy posts!
Andrea. :)
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Austin
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Re: How do you change lead, rotate the group, group formations?
Thu, October 4, 2007 - 7:40 AMWhen we do elaborate, planned formations, they usually come out of my head & onto a piece of paper as a drawing first. Then we actually practice them without dance or music, just standing there & walking to the next place, several times. Often what looked cool on paper is just a mess standing up. So we change it as we're standing there.
Usually we come up with our own language to describe/evoke what we're talking about as we're moving, and then we can write down notes using those words. That's what we use later as our "set list". That set could include planned music changes cued by a dancer/musician interaction, specific places where each dancer or musician is supposed to be in response to some decided cue. Our Great Big Sets vary pretty wildly in the level to which we choreograph them (the floor patterns, I mean - the dancing is almost always improv, except for occasional transitions & endings) & plan the music.
We generally do some variant of ATS formations and transitions - for one, we do leader on the left always, and then we use coming to chorus lead from a solo/duet, turning to face the group & travelling in a circle, or fades as our most common improv lead changes. Normally we plan in advance which changes we'll make (for instance "April will take the lead & then we'll do a fade, but fade back into a chorus so Rica can do that solot thing"), but they come whenever they come.
If we're totally jamming, with no advance planning, we decide on the next formation while we dance - if we change from a staggered group to a small chorus, for instance, the leader might start a circle and actually even say "chorus" very quietly. Or someone might step out of a staggered group into a solo or duet, leaving the other 2-3 dancers to be a chorus. We usually dance with 4-5 people, which gives us a just right # of dancers for staggers, circles, really close choruses - but still enough that we can have a chorus with duet, solo or trio. -
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Re: How do you change lead, rotate the group, group formations?
Thu, October 4, 2007 - 9:57 AMWow, April! This is a *really* helpful post! So much to digest.
We're just getting into it, so I know of what you speak and I think I see some serious "short cuts" due to you sharing your experience and expertise.
1) Come up with formations on paper.
2) Walk through them and adjust as needed.
3) Have an overall theme (whether that's practical or artistic or both)
4) Set List: planned music changes, specific dancer locations and/or formations
5) Choreography can vary depending on whether the dancing is improv or choreo
6) Amount of choreography for formations can vary widely depending on music, mood, and need
7) Plan in advance any big lead changes or solo, duet, or triad fun with an understanding of being in the moment
We do pretty much the same:
1) Leader on the left (moves on the diagonal) or center (frontal moves like shimmies & basic Egyptian variations)
2) We're just now experimenting with Fades (very exciting stuff!)
3) Turning in towards the center of the circle and moving in a circle
We haven't done a lot of chorus work because we're just figuring out formations and fades and changing the direction of the dancers attention from front to center.
We are really working with figuring out sight lines. The mirror is not our friend here. We definitely are finding that turning away from the mirror is key to picking up subtle cues and nuances now that all of us have the basic moves in our body memory. We are finding that a 30 degree angle is key to seeing cues for moves in the Arabic and Hip Bump families. We have found that we can do facing-front moves from the Basic Egyptian and Shimmy families without the 30 degree angle if we are in an inverted V format. The dancers in back can cue no problem if the lead is in front center. Fades work great for us this way.
I love your method for stepping out of a stagger to do a solo/duet with the others automatically forming a chorus. Very cool. I assume the lead of the chorus is stage-right with the chorus facing out?
I'll save the comments and questions about chorus for the other thread I started. :)
You really gave me food for thought!
Thanks April!
Andrea.
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Re: How do you change lead, rotate the group, group formations?
Thu, October 4, 2007 - 4:44 PMWheeeew, okay, um - I'm going to give a disclaimer: Hot Pot ITS has some moves that allow for a random-ish changing of the lead. But that's Hot Pot vocab, and I don't think they'd pull that on anyone who didn't obviously know what was coming. All directions here are from the stage (stage left, stage right).
So! In a stagger, we always move through in a left to right pattern. The person on the front left is leading. Same for duos and trios - front left person or left-hand partner.
In a circle, the circle moves left to right, again, and there's a spot just sort of frontmost on the lefthand side that is leader. Sometimes it can be hard to tell, but if the leader projects confidence from that spot, you tend to pick up on who it is.
In a chorus line, the person on the left end.
We also do a Turkish fade-back, where the two lines of the stagger walk between each other, so the back left person becomes the front left person and thus the lead. I think that's a move that is common to other people, as well?
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Re: How do you change lead, rotate the group, group formations?
Sat, October 6, 2007 - 9:36 AMWe (Zahra Zahia) use all of the normal FCBD formations, but we also lead from the left. That is so say, we change so that the leader is in the front right corner of the formation leading with the left foot/hip. I know this is forbidden in the FC world and it is one of the very few deviations from strict FC style that we do. It just seems more interesting to me visually AND more balanced physically to dance from both sides.
So we have different cues for passing the lead from R to L depending on whether they are slow moves or rhythmic/fast moves. It's a little easier with slow, we basically just turn to the right with any move (except the moves which are already turns like the corkscrew, propeller, reverse, etc.) and in that way we are cueing a change of lead. If we are in a duo, the leader begins a turn to the R and when the sight lines allow for the dancers to see each other from the corners of their eyes, the "new" leader begins to move forward and the "old" leader moves back. If it's a trio, the same thing happens and the third person just stays put. If it's a quartet, it's a bit more complicated because the formation has to shift front-to-back AND side-to-side, so the "new" leader moves forward and to her right, the old leader moves back and to her right, and the back row shifts forward or back as necessary AND to their left. Am I making sense.
If we are dancing rhythmic/fast moves, the formation shifts are the same but the cueing is different. Because the rhythmic moves are more right-foot-on-the-one oriented, we have two or three specific moves which cue the change of lead AND shift the weight so that we can then dance with the left foot on the one. It's been much more difficult for us to learn to dance the rhythmic moves on the left foot and classes and rehearsals often break down into a fit of giggles as we try to shift from one side to the other.
