ASSIGNMENT: Movement Description
This short writing assignment (300 – 500 words) requires you to describe an excerpt of dance (approximately 20 – 40 seconds). This excerpt can come from a movie, music video, TikTok, live performance, social dance event, battle, competition dance, protest march, etc. Ideally, you will choose an excerpt from a performance you want to write about for your final paper, but it’s not required.
Describe the choreography/movements/gestures of the dance. Here are some questions to help you get started. You don’t need to answer all of the questions; they are just questions to get you thinking.
Where is the dancing happening (stage, screen, street, etc.)? What is the space like and how does the dance move in it?
Who is dancing? How many dancers? How do they interact with each other, if at all?
What are they doing? What body parts are used most in the choreography/dance? What is the quality of the dancers’ movements?
Include specific and vivid action words (verbs): turn, run, squat, swing, rotate, prance, slither, saunter
The quality of the movement would include adjectives or adverbs: slow/slowly; frantic/frantically; heavy/heavily; light/lightly
How is the choreography put together? Do movements repeat? If so, in what way? Are they symmetrical? Are they synchronized/in unison? Do the movements vary? If so, how? Is the sequence of movements random or illogical? Or do the movements follow a recognizable order or pattern? Are there big contrasts in speed or quality? Or do the movements flow together?
What recurring movement motifs, gestures, or patterns do you see?
What else do you see besides movement? What about the lighting, set, props, costumes? What’s their relationship to the choreography/movement? Do they go with the movement or contrast against them?
Be creative with your descriptions. Try to paint a picture for the reader (rather than giving the reader a blow-by-blow account). Use language and syntax that captures the quality and feel of the movements, not just the mechanics. You should include at least three descriptive writing techniques:
imaginative word choice (e.g., caress instead of touch, prance instead of walk)
use of analogies such as similes or metaphors (e.g., “they sprinted across the stage as if they were being chased” or “their arms waved gently like blades of grass in the wind”)
identification of movement motifs and patterns (e.g., waving, staring at the sky, wing-like arms)
Please note: This movement description assignment will NOT include your interpretation of what the dance means (that will occur in your final paper). Be mindful about the difference between description and interpretation.
Interpretation would be: the dance conveys a sense of community and a reverence for nature
Description would be: Moving in unison and wearing matching costumes, twelve women of all generations stand facing the ocean. With eyes cast downward, they kneel down onto one knee, gently touch the sand, and then touch their chests with a similar tender quality. After standing again, the dancers slowly walk in different directions to form a wide circle facing each other. Still in unison and standing in place, they lightly stomp onto the sand with alternating feet while their arms float upward like floating feathers. The dancers’ gazes follow the undulating movements of their own hands, eventually looking past them toward the large blue sky.
For this assignment, we are just focusing on the 1. “D” in D.I.C.E. for this assignment.
= Description
= Interpretation
= Contextualization
= Evaluation
Final note about description:
Avoid conveying vague adjectives (i.e. beautiful, cultural) or descriptors of essentialism or objectification (i.e. feminine, ancient, exotic, sexy). You may, however, use these descriptors if you are highlighting the fact that the dance is either intentionally portrayed or constructed to be so. In other words, a dance performance may attempt to convey a sense or feeling of ancientness or exotic or sexy or a certain type of femininity through the use of costume, stage props, music, and brochure notes. Yet, descriptors like beautiful, feminine, exotic, or sexy are subjective and are not universal across all times and places. Salsa dance may be sexy for some people, while it may not be considered to be “sexy” in the same way by the grandfather and his granddaughter who dance the salsa together in their cultural context.
Assignment Requirements:
Descriptions should be 300 – 500 words
Write in present tense
Include the video link to the performance you are describing
Include your full name and discussion section number in your document
Name your document with this format: Last name – Assignment name, Ex. Akbarzadeh_MovementDescription.docx
DUE: Monday, April 22, 2024 by 11:59pm. Late papers will be penalized one full letter grade per day
Submit document onto Dance 7 Canvas in Assignments – Movement Description
Rubric
This paper is worth 10 points
9 – 10 points = A
8 – 9 points = B
7 – 8 points = C
6 – 7 points = D
A paper: meets word requirement; paints a cohesive picture of the movement in the video, and addresses who, what, how, where; uses vivid and concrete words that convey the quality and feel of the movement; uses an analogy and/or metaphor to describe movement
B paper: meets word requirement; paints a somewhat cohesive picture of the movement in the video, addresses mostly who, what, how, where; mostly uses vivid and concrete words that convey the quality and feel of the movement; uses an analogy and/or metaphor to describe movement
C paper: does not meet word requirement; paints only a partial picture of the movement in the video, does not fully address who, what, how, where; does not use vivid and concrete words that convey the quality and feel of the movement; does not use an analogy and/or metaphor to describe movement
D paper: does not meet above requirements