How to Use
The Pillars of Choreography
How do I use the Pillars of Choreography?
The Pillars are a tool to help you build new dances.
They accelerate your choreographic enquiry and make this massive job
of making a dance a much more manageable beast.
Below I have some suggestions for ways to use the cards.
That being said, there are no wrong ways to use the Pillars.
You can use any card, from any category, at any time.
The world’s your oyster.
But…
Sometimes having too many choices is overwhelming.
So here’s how you should start:
First Time:
Start by sorting your deck into three categories: Process, Tool, and Idea.
Next take a card from the process category. Look at the card you’ve chosen.
Processes are like a recipe for making a dance, follow the steps and there’s a good chance you’ll have a dance at the end. Some processes are harder or easier for different people. If you’re struggling, look through the process category and find either The Onion or The Grocery List; Both of these cards are good starting places.
Do what the card says. Work for 5mins then polish the dance you’ve made. Remember it.
Take a card from the Tool Category.
Tools make choreography better! More interesting. More dramatic. More (Hand Gesturing)…. They manipulate or change a movement of phrase of movements.
Add this card into the choreography you just made. Maybe it sits at the beginning or in the middle of the choreography. Maybe the end. Think about the most effective place to use it!
Add 2 more tools into the dance.
Lastly pick a card from the Idea category.
Idea’s are what the dance is about, its intention. What you are trying to communicate to the audience.
Add this intention to your dance. This may change things, thats okay great even!
Try to connect the Tools you have in the dance with the Idea card;
how can they help you communicate the idea?
Practice it.
It’s ready, you’ve done it!
Let’s perform.
Classroom Experiments
Once you have mastered using the cards to create choreography, try these more advanced experiments.
Experiment 1
Start with a Process card and create a choreography. The teacher then chooses two (or more) Tool cards. Ask you students to put these tools somewhere into the choreography they have just created. As we watch the performance search for the Tools and after the performance point out where you think the student put the tools.
WHY? Tools are always visible to an audience who is watching a choreography. Often times a student will use a tool but in a way that is very subtle or surface level. Tools stick out. They help us make meaning. This exercise helps students make visible the tools they are using in the dance.
Experiment 2
Start with a Process card and create a choreography. The teacher then chooses two (or more) Idea cards. Each student will choose one idea from the selection without telling the teacher or anyone else. Students then will manipulate the choreography they just created to now show the idea they chose. The teacher will guess which Idea card they think the student/s chose.
WHY? This game is a great way to get students thinking about ways that choreography shows intention. As we get more advanced in this experiment you can draw students attention to The Tools category and how using the tools may help the student to better show intention.
