2015年7月6日 星期一

Floorcrafting & Choreographing- The art of Space Management

As a dance, you know when to move, step, gesture, turn and jump; moreover, you need to be sensible with you space. Floorcrafting is important for the couple as they need to move across the floor without bumping into the others. Floorcrafting is also important for performers, as they need to take care of the audience from every corner. All these finally be packaged into one thing and termed choreograph. This is particular important for formation dance or group dance because dancers need to know where they might go in relationship both to the other dancers and to the audience.

Simply speaking, a dancer's space is affected by the direction the movement takes, the two dimensional pattern created by the movement, the level of the movement and it's dimension or size. The space utilization of Latin formation dance is more like that of Jazz dance.

Direction- primary movement directions are forward, backward, sidewards, diagonal and circular, but they can also be expressed by conventional stage terminology.

Floor Pattern- the two dimensional path a dancer follows. The floor pattern is affected by the dance steps and the dancer's position in relation to other dancers on the stage and to the audience. The more dancers onstage, the more intricate the pattern can become. Primary floor patterns are the square, circle, rectangle, triangle, zigzag, and figure eight.


Level- level changes are determined by the positions the body assumes and by the height of the dancer in the space. Level changes creates variety within the individual dancer's movements. Primary movement levels are lying, sitting, kneeling, standing and jumping. Exciting level changes can occur with the use of varied jumps and falls.

Dimension- refers to the size of a dance movement and the space occupied by the body. the dimension of a movement can be altered in length, depth or breath. It is often affected by the other dancers occupying the space. When all dancers are performing the same movement, they must execute it with the same dimension or else they may find they have infringed on another's space.

Click here to see what is floorcrafting in ballroom dancing. 

*all figures adapted from Jump into Jazz. 


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