Induction Project

Warm-Up 

The Importance of a Good Warm-Up 

Warm-Ups are crucial before completing any physical activity as they prepare the body’s joints and muscles for dancing by increasing the body’s core temperature. If the warm-Up is effective, it can improve both physical and psychological performance. 

During a thorough warm-up the dancers heart rate and breathing rate should increase. As this happens, the dancer will breathe in more oxygen which will fuel the muscles and joints. It is also important to make sure that the body doesn’t cool down after this process. 

What makes a Good Warm-Up? 

A smart warm up usually consists of four key parts: “a gentle pulse raising section, a joint mobilization, section, a muscle lengthening section and a strength/balance building section”.  

• Gently Raise Your Pulse  

“As your body’s temperature increases, your tissues become more pliable and elastic”. To do this you need to begin with continuous movements, such as star jumps, then gradually change the pace to something such as light jogging. Doing these will increase your heart rate and your breathing rate if you do these for over a minute.  

• Mobilize Your Joints  

“Gently open up the ankle joints, hip joints, shoulder joints and your spine during your warm-up so that once you're dancing, they're prepared to move through more extreme ranges of motion”. An example of this would be rolling your shoulders and arms in circular motions and to repeat in both directions. 

• Lengthen Your Muscles  

After completing the other 2 exercises, it’s sensible to do brief stretches that can be held for 15 seconds. Lengthening your muscles will help “activate” them before performing as it will not have a negative impact. For example, holding deep lunges on each leg for up to 10-15 seconds can activate the glutes. 

• Build Strength and Balance  

To complete the warm-up, you can complete strengthening exercises and balance training. Exercises such as holding the plank is a good example of this as it strengthens your core and tests how long you can hold it for.  

^Information from The Dance Magazine and International Association for Dance Medicine & Science 

Example Warm-Ups: 

Contemporary warm up exercise (Italia Conti) – Focuses on lengthening muscles, balance, building strength 

Dance Warm Up (Danielle Peazer)  – Focuses on pulse-raising elements, mobilizing joints, is more up-beat 

Mentally Prepare 

Dance requires a lot concentration and mental preparation so it's important to be in a stable mental state when dancing. This mental preparation can happen whilst warming up before any dancing activities or meditating as it can prepare the mind to focus.  

 

Cool down 

What is a cool down? 

A cool down is an exercise that is taken place after a large amount of physical activity and helps the body reach resting state - a cool down should do the opposite of a warm-up. Cool downs should decrease the heart rate and relax the body’s muscles. An effective cool down should restore the body to its original state prior to the physical activity and help reduce muscle soreness. 

Stretching  

Stretching allows the muscles to extend or flex and get them more pliable. 

The best time for dancers to stretch is after a cool down because slow and static stretches (if held for around 30 seconds) can help cool down the body and improve flexibility. 

  

Analysing Dance 

Key Themes: 

Relationships, Actions, Dynamic qualities, use of space, Genre and style, Staging and setting  

  

Cry Me A River - choreographed by Andrew Winghart  

Relationships  

• It’s a Social Dance  

• The female dancers perform as a unit whereas the main dancer is his own entity 

• The lead dancer has control over the other dancers. For example, he demonstrates movement phases which the rest of the dancers repeat and develop their own versions. 

Actions  

• The dancer's facial expressions are all neutral which allow their actions to speak for themselves 

• The dancers represent the ‘river’ of the song and flow in and out of synchronization a river would 

Dynamic Qualities  

• Soft  

• Staccato – disconnected notes/movements 

• Smooth  

• ACTIONS AND DYNAMIC QUALITIES 

Use of space  

• The dancers don’t fill the space of the room, but their formations alternate between tight and compact to spaced out from each other 

• The performance took place in an empty warehouse  

Genre and Style  

• The dancers are ballet trained and are mainly using ballet techniques  

• Fuses with contemporary, ballet, and some street influences 

Staging and setting  

• The performance was in an empty warehouse – maybe suggesting how empty you could feel after a relationship? 

• Mixed perspective of camera angles  

• USE OF SPACE, STAGING AND SETTING 

 

Fallin – choreographed by Carlo Atienza  

Relationships 

•        There are 6 dancers – 3 boys and 3 girls 

• They all interact with each other and with the camera individually  

• They lean and push against each other  

Actions 

• Alternate between medium and low levels  

• The video starts with the dancers folding and leaning over each other to then walking into their formation where they are breaking up their poses in time with the snare in the music 

• Emotional facial expressions throughout  

Dynamic Qualities  

•  Textured 

•  Smooth

Genre and Style 

• Lyrical performance  

Use of space  

• Only a small part of the pavement is used  

• Close formations 

Staging and setting  

• Performed on a pavement at night  

• There is only one perspective of the dance as it was all filmed in one shot with no editing 

• All dancers wore grey  

 

Comparing and contrasting Cry Me A River and Fallin 

SIMULARITIES  

• Both have quite dull settings  

• Both performances have used songs that associate with heart break 

DIFFERENCES  

• CMAR has two main roles: the lead male dancer and the group of female dancers whereas in Fallin, there are 6 dancers who have their own individual roles within the choreography 

• CMAR dancers have neutral facial expressions throughout whereas Fallin dancers show more emotions with their faces and their bodies 

• Fallin performance has a small setting in comparison to CMAR 

• CMAR dancers are ballet trained whereas the Fallin dancers have more contemporary influences  

 

The performance “Cry Me A River” by Justin Timberlake, choreographed by Andrew Winghart, is a social dance that showcases a unit of female dancers and a lead male dancer, which are all ballet trained and have fused this with contemporary and street influences for this performance. This contrasts to Carlo Atienza’s choreography to “Fallin” by Alicia Keys, which is more lyrical and modern based.

 

These two performances differ in many topics such as relationships as “Cry Me A River” consists of two main roles throughout; the lead male dancer and the group of dancers that follow. This is quite significant within this piece because the female dancers mainly perform together as a unit whereas the lead dancer has his own entity and separates himself from the other dancers. The relationships can be seen as quite separate when all the dancers are performing together, the lead dancer doesn’t fit into the formations with the other dancers and finds his own positions in between or in front of the other dancers, breaking the formations. Winghart has put in some binary choreography in this piece, meaning it has two distinct self-contained sections that share a similarity which is the style of dance and the music. Although the dancers have two separate roles within the performance, the ‘binary’ choreography phases in and out of the performance as their actions also cross over at times. For example, the lead dancer joins in with the female dancers' choreography at times, but he also has some solo parts away from the group.  

Relationships in “Fallin” however, are conveyed with more emotions and are more personal. In this piece of choreography each dancer has individual parts on screen. This differentiates from ‘Cry me a River’ because there are more than two key roles that participate, and all interact with each other. The six dancers individually tell a story in each verse creating a relationship with the audience which further engages them. Throughout the whole performance, there is no ‘main’ dancer like there is in “Cry Me a River” suggesting that their relationship is more equal. 

The dancers in ‘Cry Me A River’ have neutral facial expressions throughout the performance suggesting their actions are more serious and showing little of their relationship with one another. This contrasts with the ‘Fallin’ performance because all six dancers have conveyed sad and sympathetic emotions and illustrate how their actions can engage the audience.  

Winghart’s performance took place in a large empty warehouse. The dancers did not fill the space of the room but remained tight within their formations (excluding the main dancer) but could have taken more advantage of the space they had. This differs from “Fallin” as their performance took place on a pavement which they used as much space on it as they could as well as leaning and pushing against each other. 

After watching both performances multiple times, the two differ in many key areas such as relationships, actions and use of space. They both convey these topics well in their own ways but do not compare.