Weaver

Jacob Weaver
UWRIT 1101
Malcolm Campbell
November 2, 2014
Preparing For the M.O.V.E. Fall Showcase

For my mini-ethnography, I will be observing a dance group preparing to

preform at a dance showcase. This dance group is composed of students at the

University of North Carolina at Charlotte. They are self-choreographed, and I will be
talking about how this group of girls can come together to put a dance piece
together without any formal teaching. I observed this group in Robinson Hall on the
campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The only connection I have
to this group is that I went to high school with one of the dancers.

On October 28, 2014, I observed a dance group at University of North
Carolina at Charlotte. The dance group didnt have a particular name, but the name
of their dance number was Letting Go. It was a contemporary style dance to the
song Hanging On by Ellie Goulding. Contemporary dance style is expressive. The
dancers strive to connect the mind with the body through fluid movement. They
were preparing this dance number for the M.O.V.E Dance Alliance Fall Showcase
held on Saturday, November 1, 2014.

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The rehearsal session began at approximately 7:30 pm and lasted until 9:30
pm. Some members showed up late without any penalty. There were eight girls, all
dance majors, but there was no structure to the practice, and no formal teacher. Two
of the dancers in the group were the main choreographers. The room was way
smaller than what I expected; there wasnt much space at all. It was around 40 feet
in length and 30 feet in width. It had three rows of fold up chairs like an auditorium,
or movie theatre. There were mirrors on just one side of the room, but they didnt
face them when they rehearsed. They stretched before they started; that way they
wouldnt pull any muscles while they danced. The dancers wore clothing like tights,
short shorts, and things like that. They wore tight clothing so their clothes wouldnt
be loose and get caught on other dancers. This was safer and it prevented injury.
They all wore their hair up in practice, to prevent any restrictions of their eyesight.

When they discussed parts of the routine, they would just converse in a
circle. When they would discuss, some members would goof off with each other, and
not really pay attention. This was usually the ones who were comfortable with the
dance. The girls that were actually discussing the routine had a problem with all
talking at once. They were overly nice to each other, and nobody took charge. I
believe it was because they were afraid of making each other mad. They practiced in
socks or bare feet; no shoes were allowed on the floor of the room they were
dancing on. It was a delicate surface, and shoes would just scuff it up and ruin it.

During practice, the dancers used a prop during the dance. It was two vertical
bars about 4 feet tall, with a horizontal metal bar spanned between them about 12
feet long. It looked like an H. It was used as the end of the stage. That way, they
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could visually tell how much room they would have during the actual performance.
The room they were practicing in wasnt the same place where they were going to
perform, so this prop was essential to their rehearsal.

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During their practice, they were using words like down, up, hit, melt, and
turn. These words were just to describe the movement they were going through.
Then, there were more technical terms that they would use, Grand jete for
example. This is a dance move where the dancer jumps into the air and does a split.
That is why it is more formally called a split jump. They were all supposed to
dance in sync, but some of the dancers struggled to keep up. In one part of the
dance, four of the dancers had to spin seven times on one leg, all in unison. This was
the part they struggled with the most because two of the dancers were considerably
slower with their spins than the other two.

In the interview I had with one of the leading choreographers, I asked the
question, Why did you choose to perform to the song Letting Go by Ellie
Goulding? Her response was that all the dancers felt like they could connect
emotionally to the song. That was an important factor to them because their
contemporary style of dance connects their minds with their bodies. I also asked the

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question, How did you form this group of dancers? She told me that she personally
had to audition to be a choreographer, and then she paired up with another

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choreographing student. Together, they held auditions for their group, and picked
which dancers they liked best.

Some of them were friends outside of the group, and others only

communicated with each other when they were in the rehearsal. I sat down with a
few of them at dinner one night, and they seemed to be friends. They laughed and
joked around with each other, and knew about each others personal life, so you
could say that they were good friends.

I went and watched the actual performance in the Fall Showcase. I observed

them four days before the performance, so I knew what to expect. During the
performance, they wore long sleeved, button down, flannel shirts with tight, black
shorts. The lights changed all different colors throughout the performance, colors
like light blue, orange, and yellow. The colors matched their dancing. Blue is usually
described as a sad color, and when they danced in the blue light, the movements
were noticeably slower, almost like they were dancing sadly. Likewise, when the
color shifted to warm colors, like red and orange, their moves sped up. It was an
interesting aspect to the performance that drew me in closer. They had improved
dramatically since I had last seen them. During the time that I observed them, they

really struggled with dancing in sync, but during the performance, they were in
perfect unison.

I believe as students, they did an amazing job coming together to learn a

dance without any formal authority figure, nonetheless, any sort of certified
choreographer. I have seen performances on television where groups had a formal
certified choreographer, and they dance very well. But, for this dance group to be
composed of nothing but students, they did a great job of coming together to
produce a well-choreographed performance.