Murphy 1 Separately Together A dance film connecting artists from across the country Nina Murphy Marsha Knight (Advisor) BFA: Dance Performance Theatre and Dance Honors College University of Wyoming Murphy 2 Table of Contents Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………...2 The Original Project……………………………………………………………………………….3 The Adapted Project……………………………………………………………………………....7 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………...10 Video Guidelines………………………………………………………………………………...11 Dancers and Their Locations…………………………………………………………………….12 “Rehearsals” aka Video Submission……………………………………………………………..13 Journal of Daily Events…………………………………………………………………………..14 Conceptual Document for Original Project……………………………………………………...17 Initial Inquiry Media Posts……………………………………………………………………….18 Project Promotion………………………………………………………………………………..19 Cowboy Coffee…………………………………………………………………………………..20 Project Presentation……………………………………………………………………………...21 Murphy 3 Abstract Life can change in an instant and great artists know that the best way to move forward is to adapt. The original direction for this project, Antrieb (German, translated as ‘drive’), was a 12- member cast consisting of four sections: a large group, a solo, a vertical duet, and the entire cast. The original project looked at the teachings of Laban and his category of Effort. The accompanying music was created by Andrew Murphy, brother of the choreographer, addressing similar personal reflections after experiencing a life-threatening accident. The change in lifestyle and precautions due to COVID-19 meant that the project could not be presented as envisioned. In response, the project’s title became Separately Together, reflecting our altered reality. Created as a dance film rather than a live performance. In the project’s revised form 34 dancers from across the country created small phrases inspired by movement conceived for the original project. Groups of five to six dancers were connected through movement by duplicating dancer’s phrases in a seamless transition from one dancer to the next. The revised project was then presented on The University of Wyoming Theatre and Dance Facebook page as a watch party with a following live stream discussion. This paper will include information collected during the preparation phase, explanation of the original project, the adaptation and logistics of the current project, and the marketing of the current project. Murphy 4 The Original Project This project had been in planning since April 2019 and was initially created to examine the concept of effort/human movement. This was to be done with a 12-member cast through four sections: a large group, a solo, a vertical duet, and the whole cast. But with the change brought forth by COVID-19, I was challenged to re-envision how to create and present this concept. The project became a reflection of our altered reality and then presented as a dance film rather than a live performance. In the project’s revised form, 34 dancers from across the country choreographed small phrases inspired by movement created for the original project. Inspiration Over my many years of dance training I have heard more than once from a teacher or choreographer “you need to make it look effortless” when the movement was quite the opposite. Concurrently, last spring, guest artist Rick Merrill with the Department of Theatre and Dance for a short residency emphasized how we do not need to muscle through all our movement in order to achieve our goals as dancers. The first idea is making the amount of effort presented look less than is required while the second idea is physically choosing to use less effort. I find these both to be true. There are certain times as dancers that using too much force or effort can actually hinder a dancer’s movement and there are times where great effort is required to fulfill an action. These were my first concepts for this project. During that summer I attended Dance West Fest in Salt Lake City, Utah where I began to further develop the premise of my project. I found the mannerisms and hand gestures of those in my dance composition class to be extremely interesting and, frankly, a dance in themselves. The final element that drove this initial project was the life-threatening accident of one of my three older brothers, Andrew, while on a family vacation. He dove too shallow into the ocean and broke his neck in three places. Though now healthy, he still feels the repercussions of the accident. This event greatly changed my view on how we function as humans and how those who are able bodied might take advantage of simple tasks that our bodies naturally do. When I was home towards the end of the summer, Andrew was playing a song on the piano and that is when I knew I wanted to use his music for my project. Murphy 5 Creating the movement I began creating the movement for the original project in November 2019 for my Beginning Composition class final project. Knowing that my entire piece would be approximately 12 minutes long I used only one of three songs for this abbreviated version. The movement was designed to challenge the dancers with quickness, strength, and clarity. I used repetition both in succession and returning to a whole phrase later in the piece for a multitude of reasons, one being that humans are creatures of habit and I wanted to represent this through the repetition. During the Christmas break and into the second semester of the year I studied the Laban/Bartenieff movement analysis, which was introduced to me by my professor, Cat Kamrath through our Advanced Modern class. Rudolf Laban (1879-1958) was a dancer, artist, choreographer, and movement analyst. He is considered one of the most influential figures in dance history and is most notably known for Labanotation, a way of documenting movement (Preston-Dunlop). I looked exclusively at Laban’s Effort Category to help guide my creative direction (for images see page 17). After weeks of studying the Effort category in the Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies book I grew to understand how poetic Laban’s work could be. The “Effort Category is about the energetic aspect of human movement, “the spice that gives movement flavor’”(Wahl). The idea of effort being the element that makes movement interesting sparked new inspiration for my work. I realized that I did not want to represent effort in a physical way but rather a conceptual way. The symbols Laban created to represent different Effort factors appealed to me because they were entirely unique and I had not seen like them before. There are four Effort factors => Flow (free or bound), Weight (light or strong), Time (sustained or quick), Space (indirect or direct). I used the symbols to generate floor and movement patterns. This imparted a significant influence on the opening section of the piece. I envisioned 9 dancers in this section; each dancer was ‘assigned’ an Effort factor and its placement in the Effort symbol. I asked my dancers to create a movement phrase by abstracting their own physical habits. In this portion I hoped to represent their individuality and human nature aspect of effort. I also created two large pieces of choreography, one piece from the previous semester, and a newer piece. These sections were designed to unify the dancers and were influenced by Effort symbols themselves. I then took one of these movement phrases and translated it to the Murphy 6 rope for my two vertical dancers to perform against a wall. I also challenged them to create their habit motifs for dancing on the ropes. In the end, however, the whole of this piece was never fully achieved due to the need to pivot to the adapted project discussed later. The Dancers I established a 12-member cast including myself. Rather than holding an audition I personally asked each dancer to participate. I chose dancers knowing their own personal movement style and the confidence that they would be able to interpret my choreography and blend it with their own qualities. Nine of my dancers would have been a part of the large group section, two of them were to dance in harnesses against the back wall in a vertical section, and I would dance a solo. I chose to have these different sections to show the concept of effort within different relationships. The Music The music was created by my brother, Andrew Murphy and was inspired by his personal experience with his swimming accident discussed earlier. When I asked him about the use of his original music, he inquired about the theme of my project and was excited to learn of the similarities between my idea and his music. There were initial discussions of my specific expectations but our work evolved into a strong collaborative effort between the two of us. A month or so after asking our initial discussions a draft of the first song was ready in three versions: piano, piano with drums, and electronic. After much consideration I decided to use the piano version for the excerpt created for my composition class. This piece was titled Respawn. When asked where the name came from, he said, “it's a videogame term.” By this he meant it “described a computer or human controlled character coming back to life after being killed” (Computer Hope) and that is how he felt after going through his injury and subsequent surgery. It was not until December of 2019 that a full-length outline of the music was created. Following my initial review, Andrew would create additional drafts for me, I would listen to it, then send back my notes. Between December and the final draft in March, there were 5 or 6 drafts created in order to settle many ideas. In the end I found that Andrew created a dynamic and stimulating array of intensity and tranquility in his score. Murphy 7 The Adapted Project Inspiration A month before I was to present my project in a two-night performance, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University announced all classes were to be delivered online for the rest of the semester and all activities were cancelled. This meant that I had to take my project in a new direction. At the time, I was taking a class from Keeley Song while at American College Dance Association (ACDA) about marketing yourself. She discussed the benefit and creativity of making dance films. At this point I was already preparing to adapt my project because of the extension of our spring break and she truly inspired me. Initially, I thought I would simply film myself dancing and ask my cast to help me by filming pieces wherever they were. My thoughts expanded to asking other dancers to help as well. This concept was solidified when my professors Margaret Wilson and Marsha Knight circulated a video, Exquisite Corps (42 choreographers, 1 dance) by Mitchell Rose Films. In this film, each choreographer began their own section by starting with what the choreographer before them finished, to create a seamless continuous movement phrase. I adapted this concept to create my own version, constrained by our current situation, to gather dancers together from across the country. Through these challenges and inspirations, I created Separately Together. Logistics It required nearly a week to fully develop the plan for my new project and the details that went with it. I created a poster to post to my social media account asking dancers to participate in creating a dance film that connects them from afar in a cohesive body of work (documentation found on page 18). A majority of the dancers contacted me about participating within a few days of posting. However, I also incorporated dancers that contacted me as late as a week before my presentation (for full list of dancers see page 12). I wanted all dancers to have similar movement and I wanted to use the phrases I had already created. To accomplish this, I filmed myself performing the movement phrase created for the original project and uploaded the videos to a Google drive folder that I shared with all participants. I asked them to watch these videos and use my movement as inspiration or a baseline for creating their own movement. In giving minimal direction to each dancer, I was Murphy 8 hoping to create collaboration between me and the dancers rather than presenting too much guidance. I desired this approach because I knew so many artists were struggling at the time for opportunities to perform. I wanted them to have some creative liberties. Once I had recruited dancers, I created an order in which they would appear. To ease the coordination of 30 dancers, I created six groups of five dancers to be connected through movement (for group list see page 13). In addition, creating small groups allowed more time and greater opportunity for each dancer to process my material and create their phrase. As a result, I had six dancers creating phrases at any one time. Once a dancer finished their video, they uploaded it straight to a Google drive location I created specifically for these videos. As each of the six dancers finished and posted their work, I directed the connecting dancer to the drive to watch the earlier dancer's video. Once all video segments were created, I combined them into a full-length video in iMovie. I used this platform because it was free and accessible. Because of my earlier directions to each dancer, required editing to combine movements was typically minimal, consisting of cutting the end off extra video, and cutting to make one video flow into the next. I also cropped a few videos to combine portrait orientations with the desired landscape orientation. Finally, I created opening and closing material, some finishing editing and uploaded the video to YouTube. The Presentation The week leading to the Saturday April 25, 2020 presentation was focused on promotion of my project by myself, professors, the Department of Theatre and Dance, and the University's Institutional Marketing (for documentation see pages 19-21). I was also granted access to the University of Wyoming Theatre and Dance Facebook page in order to facilitate the production of a Facebook watch party. I made several posts on their behalf, as well as on my own social media accounts. I have a personal connection to University of Wyoming Institutional Marketing and was asked by Hannah Ellis to create a video for the Cowboy Coffee segments they produce every day. This latter opportunity was extremely exciting for me because it reaches a broader audience than the other venues. On the day of the watch party there were a few hiccups. First, the amount of time required for the video to upload to Facebook was longer than expected. This meant that I was Murphy 9 late starting the watch party. Second, when beginning the watch party, I accidentally started it on my own Facebook page rather than the Theatre and Dance page. Despite these setbacks, I was able to redirect and proceed with the watch party in the correct location. It was very encouraging to see people watching the project with me. Immediately following, I began a Facebook Live video to discuss my project as a replacement for the “talk back” planned after one of my two original shows. In the Facebook Live event I discussed the important elements of my project and then took questions. Conclusion I learned as much or more from this project than most other assignments over my four years pursuing my BFA. It warmed my heart to see how encouraging and supportive the dance community can be in this collaborative effort. I gained great experience in virtual communication, which is an important skill to have for the current situation in which we are living in. I also learned that I was not as clear in my instruction to the dancers as I intended. All participants fulfilled what I asked, but it became apparent there were details they did not address due to my unclear instructions. When communicating through written word, one needs to be more concise and extremely clear. I also confirmed through this project that extra preparation pays off. In hindsight, for instance, I should have practiced creating a trial Facebook live video and starting a watch party in order to generate a more seamless experience in practice. If this pandemic had not escalated and had the University not canceled all in-person events, I would never have considered creating a dance film. As a result, my project became something entirely unique to my situation. Had I tried to create a film while life was “normal,” many of these 34 dancers would not have had the time to participate. It likely would have been far less successful. After building this project I have found artistry in the virtual world and I see myself continuing down this road in the near and long term to help fulfill my creative desires. Finally, and most importantly, I learned that nothing can stop artists from “gathering” together to create art. Murphy 10 Works Cited Computer Hope. “What Is Respawn?” Computer Hope, 26 Apr. 2017, www.computerhope.com/jargon/r/respawn.htm. Preston-Dunlop, Valerie. “Rudolf Laban.” Rudolf Laban | Trinity Laban, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/about-us/our- history/rudolf-laban. Wahl, Collen. Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies: Contemporary Applications. Human Kinetics Publishers, 2019 Murphy 11 Video Guidelines Thank you for participating in my senior project! Because of COVID-19 I am unable to have my project in a theatre like I had planned but I am very excited by this new direction that my project has taken me. Please tell anyone you think that would be interested in participating and helping a college dancer out! Here is what I’d like you to do: ● Use the videos that I included (excuse the quality, my face, it was bright :), and the location), I purposely didn’t “teach” you the movement because I want this to be a jumping off point for you. Please take this and manipulate it however you wish. ● Please create between 10 and 30 seconds of choreography ● I will send you a video of someone else and I would like you to “continue” their movement to start your (use this link as an example of what I mean, also this is just a great video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLZuRCtNBxg&t=83s) ● Please wear a monochromatic outfit (ex. All purple, all green, etc. try if possible to wear a “fun” color but black or white is great too. If there are more than one dancer you do not need to be in the same color) ● When you send the video back to me please include the full names of any dancers in the video how you would like to be recognized and where you are (i.e. Laramie, Wyoming or London, England, etc.) ● Choose a location that interests you while still following all “rules” in place by governments. Stay in your home or go to an outside location as long as you are being safe. ● There is not a limitation to one dancer per video but again please be safe! ● When filming please do so in the landscape orientation and use whatever device that has the best quality (smartphones are great!) Again, you are amazing for doing this! This project would not be able to happen without you. Murphy 12 Dancers and Their locations Seth Bertagnole---Laramie, Wyoming Julynn Wildman---Helena, Montana Olivia Boley--- Laramie, Wyoming Grace Wilkins---Laramie, Wyoming Tanya W. Call---Helena, Montana Daye Waldner---Laramie, Wyoming Caleb Daly---Cheyenne, Wyoming Angelle Wise--- Newport News, Virginia Cailtin DeCastro---Albuquerque, New Mexico Steph Young---Eugene, Oregon Delilah Dixon---Laramie, Wyoming Madison Drab---Sedalia, Colorado Hannah Ellis---Laramie, Wyoming Maritess Escueta---Madison, Wisconsin Hope Frey---Laramie, Wyoming Dan Higgins---Salt Lake City, Utah Jordan Himelrick---Laramie, Wyoming Erika Hripko---Chicago, Illinois Pamela Kirschman---Logan, Utah Karolina Klatka---Rock Springs, Wyoming Avery Lux---St. Louis, Missouri Alie Martin---Rapid City, South Dakota Keara Martin---Gillette, Wyoming Madison Martin---Ann Arbor, Michigan Mariah and Ellie Mercer---Helena, Montana Amber Moon---Helena, Montana Rachel Mulholland---Cleveland, Ohio Haley and Kelsey Nigro---Brighton, Colorado Sionna Stevens---Eugene, Oregon Walter Taylor---Salt Lake City, Utah Anastazia Vanisko---Cleveland, Ohio Amanda Vinson---Vail, Colorado Murphy 13 “Rehearsals” aka Video Submission GROUP DAY VIDEO WAS DAY VIDEO WAS EXPECTED RECEIVED ONE: Monday April 6th Julynn-April 4th Julynn Wildman, Amber Amber-April 7th Moon, Walter Taylor, Erika Walter-April 7th Hripko, Dan Higgins, Pamela Erika-April 3rd Kirschman Dan-April 6th Pamela-April 5th TWO: Friday April 10th Caitlin-April 6th Cailtin DeCastro, Keara Keara-April 10th Martin, Maritess Escueta, Maritess-April 14th Haley and Kelsey Nigro, Haley/Kelsey-April 7th Tanya Call, Grace Wilkins Tanya-April 6th Grace-April 11th THREE: Monday April 13th Olivia-April 9th Olivia Boley, Hannah Ellis, Hannah-April 13th Delilah Dixon, Rachel Delilah-April 14th Mulholland, Steph Young, Rachel-April 16th Madison Drab Steph-April 10th Madison- April 8th FOUR: Friday April 17th Angelle-April 12th Angelle Wise, Anastazia Anastazia- April 17th Vanisko, Mariah and Ellie Mariah/Ellie-April 16th Mercer, Madison Martin, Madison-April 17th Amanda Vinson, Karolina Amanda-April 14th Klatka Karolina-April 12th FIVE: Monday April 20th Caleb-April 15th Caleb Daly, Alie Martin, Alie-April 19th Avery Lux, Daye Waldner, Avery-April 17th Hope Frey Daye-April 16th Hope-April 15th SIX: Friday April 24th Jordan-April 17th Jordan Himelrick, Seth Seth-April 18th Bertagnole, Sionna Stevens Sionna-April 17th Murphy 14 Journal of Daily Events Tuesday March 31st, 2020: I sent emails for the first five dancers to create their videos without having to connect to other dancers. Friday April 3rd, 2020: Erika Hripko uploaded her video. I sent Maritess Escueta an email asking her to create her video. Saturday April 4th, 2020: I emailed Walter to check in about my project. He hadn’t received me emails but we figured it out and now he has the information he needs. Julynn Wildman uploaded her video Sunday April 5th, 2020: I checked in with Caitlin DeCastro, Dan Higgins, and Haley Eakin. Caitlin and Dan will be uploading videos tomorrow. Rachel Mulholland, Pamela Kirschman, and Tanya Call uploaded their videos. I sent an email to Tanya Call to connect to Pamela’s video. I emailed Madison Drab with the video she is to follow. Monday April 6th, 2020: I received videos from Dan Higgins, Tanya Call, and Caitlin DeCastro. I emailed Olivia Boley and Haley Niger with the videos they will be following. Tuesday April 7th, 2020: Maritess Escueta sent in her video. I emailed Sarah Mulholland with the video she will be following. I checked in with Walter Taylor because he is past the day and asked him to turn in his video. I still haven’t heard anything from Haley and I think I will skip her so I can keep people going. I emailed Amber Moon to create a video so that I can keep moving forward with her group since Haley Eakin hasn’t not responded to me. Wednesday April 8th, 2020: Amber Moon and Walter Taylor uploaded their videos. Haley Niger uploaded her video, she did it with her sister which is awesome! I emailed Keara Martin, Grace Wilkins, and Hannah Ellis with the videos they will need to follow. Also, emailed Steph Young with their video to follow. I sent an email to everyone that was in my original cast because most of them hadn’t said they would do this new version and I wanted to check. Hope Frey emailed back and said she’d love to do it. I emailed Peta Compton with information to pass on to other young dancers. Allanah Martin and Seth Bertagnole contacted me to say they will participate. Madi Drab uploaded her video. I emailed Karolina Klatka with the video she needs to follow. Murphy 15 Thursday April 9th, 2020: Olivia Boley uploaded her video. I emailed Angelle Wise with the videos she needs to follow. Friday April 10th, 2020: Keara Martin uploaded her video. I emailed Delilah Dixon with the video she needs to follow. Saturday April 11th, 2020: Steph Young uploaded their video. I emailed Amanda Vinson with the video she needs to follow. Steph Young gave me the email of a former dance partner of theirs who was interested and I have emailed them with the details. I will add them to whichever group gets done first because there are not enough people to make another group. Sunday April 12th, 2020: Angelle Wise uploaded her video. I emailed Caleb Daly with the video he will be following. I did some editing with the video and had to crop some of the videos because they were filmed the wrong way. Karolina Klatka uploaded her video. Monday April 13th, 2020: I emailed Hope Frey with the video she will be following. I checked in with Caleb Daly. Hannah Ellis uploaded her video. I did some editing. Tuesday April 14th, 2020: Amanda Vinson uploaded her video. I emailed Anastazia Vanisko, Rachel Mulholland, and Daye Waldner with the videos they need to follow. Delilah Dixon is a day late; I will contact her mom to check in. Delilah Dixon has uploaded her video. I emailed Mariah and Ellie Mercer with the video they need to follow. Wednesday April 15th, 2020: I checked in with Daye Waldner. I emailed Madison Martin with the video she needs to follow. I don’t know if Rachel Mulholland is going to re-film or not. Jordan Himlerick expressed interest today. Caleb Daly uploaded his video. I emailed Sionna Stevens with the video they will need to follow. Hope Frey uploaded her video. I emailed Seth Bertagnole with the video he needs to follow. Thursday April 16th, 2020: Daye Waldner and the Mercer sisters uploaded their videos. I emailed Avery Lux and Jordan Himlerick with the videos that they will be following. Rachel Mulholland uploaded her video. I did some editing work. Murphy 16 Friday April 17th, 2020: Anastazia Vanisko and Madison Martin uploaded their videos. I emailed Alie Martin with the video she needs to follow. Jordan Himelrick uploaded her video. I did some editing work. Saturday April 18th, 2020: Seth Bertagnole uploaded his video. Haley Ekrin emailed me back and is unable to participate. I edited the order of dancers and began adding names. I might need to add just a few seconds of music. Sunday April 19th, 2020: Alie Martin uploaded her video. I filmed my two sections. I did some editing work. I talked with my brother about adding 9 seconds of music. Tuesday April 21st, 2020: I have been thinking about how I want to present my project and I think what I am going to do is upload it to YouTube and then post the link to my social media and have Margaret send out an email. This way people can watch whenever they want. I think that I am going to ask people to leave comments on the YouTube video so that I can then either create another video talking about my project and answer those or I might do a Facebook live video. I could also do a watch party, end that then do a live video after since I can’t figure out how to just start a live video on the watch party. I did a lot of editing today. Wednesday April 22nd, 2020: I had a bit of a panic when I went to do some editing and half of my videos were black. I didn’t know what happened and after freaking out a bit and googling solutions and trying different things I eventually restarted my computer and all the videos were back to normal. I finished editing and saved the video to my computer. I emailed Marsha Knight and Kathy Kirkaldie about presenting my project on the UW Theatre and Dance Facebook page and I got permission. Thursday April 23rd, 2020: I posted about my project on the University of Wyoming Facebook page. Murphy 17 Original Project Conceptual Document Murphy 18 Initial Inquiry Media Posts Murphy 19 Project Promotion Murphy 20 Cowboy Coffee Murphy 21 Project Presentation