Contemporary ballet performance analysis- University of Malta essay assignment

Looking into Ellen William’s 2015 “contemporary ballet” performance through the frameworks of Bartenieff’s ‘fundamentals’ and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s ‘body-mind centring’.

I shall be analysing this dance piece through two models from Bartenieff and Cohen. With Bartenieff focusing on experiencing the movement as she says to “come back to the inside, to feel yourself. Otherwise, it is simply an imitation” (Hackney. 2000: 35). To achieve this outlook the author of this essay will replicate the moments analysed of 0:42 onwards to focus on initiation points and where some of her fundamentals come into play.

Bartenieff’s theories came to light in 1978 when herself and Rudolph Laban opened up their own institute. After studying under Laban in 1965 they began working with one another (Geraldsclass. 2012), where Bartenieff took some initial theories and applied it to help rehabilitate polio patients. This is where the idea of rehabilitating and re-learning movement came in which has now formed the “Bartenieff fundamentals of movement” which can be applied to a vast scope of professional fields.

The Bartenieff framework can be broken down to a minimum of six principles; breath, core distal connectivity, head-tail connectivity, upper-lower connectivity, body half connectivity and cross lateral connectivity. (Hackney, 2000: 45). Each fundamental stems from a learning curve when growing up, according to Bartenieff, which is why some may be underdeveloped but possible to re-learn. One principle leads knowledge into the one after it, with the system all beginning with breath. For the purpose of this essay, it will focus on Breathe and Body-Half connectivity.

Breath not only essential for human life, is described as a “unity” which took place within and outside of the womb and puts us into our natural pattern (Hackney. 2000: 12). Bartenieff developed exercises to bring an awareness to our individual breathing pattern and how we can adjust to assist in movement.

Body-Half Connectivity is working with the right and left side of your body, either making a choice to work symmetrically or more advanced to be asymmetrical.

Watching breathe in Ellen Williams performance means looking for a clear outward usage. At 0:42 is arguably one of the first moments we see the performer reach for more air as she opens her mouth ever so slightly. At this time she has finished a bouree sequence to USL (upstage left) before turning to hold fifth en pointe. Bartenieff described breath as ‘the baseline of flow for Shape change-ever alternating, growing and shrinking. Every movement is either an opening or a closing, and Breath is support’ (Hackney: 43) With Breathe being Bartenieff’s first principle and a “unity”, here we can see it adjusting Ellen Williams to the shift in tempo and demand on the body to change directions and balance. On an internal level, breathe is being used throughout the whole performance to maintain fluidity, length and balance. Dance Advantage noting that ‘inhalation [is used] to emphasize growing movements, and exhalation to extend shrinking movements’. (Bradley, Chelsea. 2016). This can be seen at 0:43 (fg 1) where Ellen extends her arms out, growing in the horizontal plane to help her

balance in the vertical. This technique improves balance and allows for a suspension to compliment the music and make for a more dynamically exciting performance, where breath is vital to send the flow of energy out from the centre.

Body-Half connectivity is seen in the sequence from the arabesque. Ellen’s right side of her body and left work in independence to reach two separate shapes for her pique turn in passe (1:15 [fg 3.]). The ability to create an asymmetrical shape in movement, shows the maturity of development and the ability to control each half of the brain co-dependently.

Once en pointe, the arabesque position (0:45 [fg 2]) is maintained by Body-Half connectivity. The use of an open arabesque, means the arm of the arabesque leg is working to compliment the parallel of the leg, whilst the other side of the body is creating an opposite upwards pull. Here the body half connectivity, not only is showing an asymmetrical shape, but is also playing with the use of the planes in contrast (horizontal and vertical).

The second mode of analysis within this essay is Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s body-mind centring. With prior training in Bartenieff, this analysis begins to look away from the points of movement (muscles, bones) but into the natural cycles analysing through systems of the body. BMC (Body-Mind Centering) was designed to ““explore early developmental movement states and their relationship to the inner support and movement of the breath, organs and skeleton” (Caraker, Cathie.) Cohen stated “The mind is like the wind and the body like the sand: if you want to know how the wind is blowing, you can look at the sand” (Chesner, Anna. Zografou, Lia. 2014: 133) where she explains that the body and mind are connected as one, and so both must be considered in analysis. The Bartenieff analysis of this essay will focus in the “body” and so with Cohen’s structure, the author will focus on the ‘mind’.

Body Mind centering’s derived from one main principle “to perceive and to help people help themselves”, which stemmed from her work as a therapist training (Hartley, Linda YEAR: 14). It is based upon human body systems: cellular, intercellular, blood, lymph, cerebrospinal and synovial (Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge. 1993: 67). Each network is associated with a quality, relationship and movement. Cellular being XYZ based on XYZ, intercellular XYZ because of XYZ. Blood, representing grounding, Lymph which will be touched upon in this essay being about ‘clarity’ and ‘a fluid quality’ (Hartley. 175) as well as ‘delicate’ (Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge. 1993: 76-77). Cerebrospinal is described as being pump-like and from the head-tail connection due to the pathway and pressure of the fluid moving from the brain and down the spine, and the last system of synovial being in place (as it is in real life) but with a care free jiggling affect (Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge. 1993: 76-80). Cohen is known for adding the use of imagery, as a way to achieve a desired outcome. For instance, thinking of being an overflowing cup may give a cerebrospinal quality with ease.

Focusing on the lymph system, the movement of the analysis can be described as ‘against gravity’, ‘direct’ and ‘continuous’ (Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge. 1993: 67) which parallels with Williams performance at 1:15 (fg 3). Williams moves from a balance in 5th position, to develope her right leg a la seconde and move through a wide 4th lunge. This short sequence falls into a lymphatic motion with the lift provided internally to maintain each position. To move up into the 5th position, Williams is pushing her energy against the floor and uses the resistance to maintain an arched foot and upright body. This surge of resistance is ‘against gravity’ by moving the same direction as the lymph

system, from the extremities of the foot relationship with the ground to ripple and effect the rest of her body from the bottom upwards. The develope follows this same concept, with the relationship starting again, now from one foot on the ground to realign the body around this new balance platform. Although the lunge at 1:20 has a lower centre of gravity, the movement is still moving against the pull of gravity with an outreached arm pulling the body away from being low. We can see the ‘directness’ of the lymphatic characteristic with the clear arm positions, moving into a strong diagonal, and seeing Williams chest and projection lifted to the USL (upstage left) top corner. Here is a clear moment of the body moving away from being grounded to maintain a lymphatic phrase.

0:46 displays Cohen’s cerebrospinal system of analysis. At this moment, Williams is executing from an arabesque position into a pique turn, repeated twice, and in doing so is utilising the ‘pump-like’ aspect of this description. The initial surge to go up en pointe into the balance is the ‘pump’ of energy that is then sustained to turn or maintain a balance, before being surged again for the next one. The suspension allows this essay to class this moment as cerebrospinal as it is a delicate transition from pump to flow instead of being more sticato.

In conclusion, whether following Bartenieff or Cohen’s mode of analysis we can see that Williams is using many skills learnt to adapt her body to change of direction, balance, speed and stability. Her pulse of energy can be described as cerebrospinal but with a lymphatic quality to assist in many lifting moments of movement quality and application. Cohen allows a way to described space, effort and quality to a system we can observe and Bartenieff allows us to see exactly how it is being executed. Williams uses breath and natural pulls, taught in ballet, to maintain a strong foundation to rise from en pointe. Many of these traits, Williams will do without putting it to a theory yet their combination begins to touch upon how this solo is physically do-able and a step into the idea of imagery to create dynamics.

Bibliography

· Bradley, Chelsea (2016) Teaching Students to Use Breath to Enhance their Dancing.

http://www.danceadvantage.net/teaching-breath-coordination/ last accessed: 13/01/2018

· Caraker, Cathie. Body-Mind Centering® as a somatic approach to dance education. >http://caraker.com/articles/body-mind-centering-as-a-somatic-approach-to-dance-education/< last accessed: 14/01/2018

· Chesner, Anna. Zografou, Lia. (2014) Creative supervision across modalities: theory and application for therapists, counsellors and other helping professionals. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. London. 110-120. >https://books.google.com.mt/books?id=Aj1cAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA133&lpg=PA133&dq=The+mind+is+like+the+wind+and+the+body+like+the+sand:+if+you+want+to+know+how+the+wind+is+blowing+,+you+can+look+at+the+sand&source=bl&ots=HaPak1k6Qy&sig=prnH2hkStMrmrVB5WizvZWjA4MI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCr-70nNLYAhUMthQKHYFzA78Q6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=The%20mind%20is%20like%20the%20wind%20and%20the%20body%20like%20the%20sand%3A%20if%20you%20want%20to%20know%20how%20the%20wind%20is%20blowing%20%2C%20you%20can%20look%20at%20the%20sand&f=false< last accessed 12/01/2018

· Cohen, Bonnie Bainbridge. (1993) Sensing, Feeling and Action. The Experiential Anatomy of Body-Mind Centring: the dynamics of flow. The fluid systems of the body. Contact Editions, Northampton. 60-70

· Fernandes, Ciane. (2014). The Moving Researcher: Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis in Performing Arts Education and Creative Arts Therapies. Jessica Kingsley Publisher. London. 0-30

· Hackney, Peggy (2000) Making connections- total body integration through Bartenieff fundamentals. Taylor and Francais. 12-37. 219-239.

· Hartley, Linda. Wisdom of the body moving. 1989. North Atlantic Books. California: 0-32

· GERALDSCLASS (2012) Week One: Bartenieff Fundamental >https://geraldsclass.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/week-1-bartenieff-fundamentals/< last accessed 11/01/2018

· Williams, Emma. (2015). Ellen Williams- Contemporary ballet. Available at >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D62LexEwjdI< last accessed: