“Aesthetics in the Body” a reaction to The Renaissance
The prompt was to create a visual creative piece that highlights what I have learned from spending three weeks studying Renaissance art: paintings, theatre, fashion, and music. I immediately chose dance as my medium, still unsure of what I would do.
I looked up (with a google search) Reniassance music, found Josquin des Prez--clicked on the first version on iTunes, and voila! Upon hearing the song, an idea came to me:
1. Referencing Free Play and I used improvization: "The real story is about spontenous expression, and it is therefore a spiritual and a pyschololgical story rather than a story about technique" (Nachmanovitch 1990, 9). And how improvization can be used in union with formalized music from the Renaissance.
2. I focused on the female gaze as well as the role of women that we'd seen in Theatre and art (maidenhood, motherhood, passive, etc).
3. From that role of women came the questions of innocence and desired virginity, etc. The idea of nature (Venus), youth and gentleness (Ophelia) etc.
4. The cow was present and a result of the space I had at my disposal. It ended up part of my unconscious story-- your thoughts would interest me (comment!).
Basically-- I tried to use dance as if it were a paper for the course. I am not sure how well I succeeded, but I do know that everytime I practice my own dance, I remember why I study its people.
Works cited:
Nachmanovitch, Stephen. 2010. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art. New York: Tarcher/Putnam.
O Virgo virginum a 6 composed by Josquin des Prez in the 15th century and performed by Orlando Consort
