During the first week of classes, students were split into groups to learn sections of Clytemnestra as taught to them by members from the company. I had the fortunate experience to learn Electra’s name-calling, taught by principal dancer Blakeley White-McGuire. We learned about the character and how she was short-changed by her mother, instigating her to collaborate with her brother to seek revenge. The choreography is full of sharp angles, thrashing percussive movements, and tension. Surely, no one could watch it (or dance it) without needing to take a few calming breaths afterwards.
After my peers and I presented the variation to artistic director of the company Janet Eilber, she asked us questions about themes within the characters and how the storyline manifests itself in the types of movements each character makes. We realized that we spent a significant portion of time learning the individual steps, but also concentrating on the motivation and the emotions we were attempting to portray. We concluded that once we had a rough understanding of the steps and the storyline, the emotion came naturally.
But what about these physiological reactions? What about the tense muscles, the deep breaths, and the angry faces that we made without Blakeley’s prompting? The James-Lang theory states that physiological reactions produce emotions - a physiological reaction is the cause of emotion. Since the choreography is full of claw-like gestures, deep lunges that are animalistic and savage, and even an exit that includes spitting on Clytemnestra’s throne, are those actions causing us to feel angry, deceived, and cheated? Then again, there’s the Cannon-Bard theory, which states that emotions occur independent of physiological reactions (at the same time). Physiological reactions are not necessary for emotion to occur. So, could one dance Diversion of Angelsbut feel furious, lonely, and depressed? According to Cannon-Bard, it’s possible. Perhaps the most settling idea is Schachter and Singer’s Two-Factor Theory of Emotion, which explains that emotions have two ingredients: physiological arousal and cognition.
I think these theories present an interesting question to our teachers: Do you rely on the steps to cause physiological reactions within your students, or do you fuel them with back-story so that they dance the parts with the appropriate emotional counterpoint? In technique class, senior artistic associate Denise Vale demands that technique is not void of emotion. As we learn Panorama, it seems that both must go hand in hand. We spent the first few days learning steps, patterns and counts, but it was clear after today’s rehearsal that we make the most progress after we understand the emotional component of a dance. Simple walking steps morph into powerful strides toward activism and awareness. Jumps go higher and contractions get stronger. It is amazing to feel the complicated patterns we are tracing on the stage and to know that we successfully counting in time signatures (like 9-8, which is nine beats per measure and an eighth note gets the beat, which is just as awful to dance to as it is to count) that even the most seasoned musicians dread playing. As seen by the rapid progress in today’s rehearsal, the emotion MUST fuel the dance and dance MUST fuel emotion. Sorry James, Lang, Cannon, and Bard, I’m with Schachter and Singer on this one.
