SB1: Research (Myka's Choreography Notations)

As I am doing the actual dance myself, I asked the person (Myka) who is leading the team as to how she plans the choreography and her way of taking down the choreography. 

She showed me her notes and how she has done it. As the dance that we are doing is already an existing choreography (Vixx - Shangri-la) it was easier as she already had a 'template' of what it would look like. Although the original was for 6 people, she needed to change it for 8 people, so that was the challenging part too. In addition, the song was also shortened from 5 mins to 3 mins and she said that she needed to change the choreography in  order to make the dance flow better so she had to take that into account as well. 

Myka uses lines and symbols for recording the choreography as it's easier and simpler for her when she looks back on it. It's also more convenient as they're small and direct as she mostly focuses on the formations rather than the body movements. She also mentioned marks the centre positions with a different colour and uses the member's name initials (e.g. B for Brylle or M for Myka) in order for her to know who is where and how they can get their next position on time. She also separates parts of the choreography based on how important they are and key points that she needs to remember like "Ken's bit" (name of the person that is centre in that bit of the song) or "runaway" (what formation the dancers have to be in/do). Overall, she is very simple and concise with her choreography notations as she uses simple circles and lines. This is reflective of the fact that dancers nowadays don't need to be literate to the 'formal' dance notations as they have their own way of learning and understanding dances depending on how it works for them or to the people that they are choreographing for. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

I think it's really good how Myka uses simple shapes in order to make her choreography as for someone like me who isn't familiar with making choreography formations, I understood it quite easily, which may be indicating that she also took into account other people who will look at the choreography e.g. her other teammates and team leader's of other teams - her audience. Taking this into account makes it easier for her to talk about it to other people and that the choreography will speak for itself rather than her explaining it. Reflecting this back to my own research/design I think that CLARITY FOR AUDIENCE is very important so I have to take into account who my design is for and how literate they are of dance notations or if they know anything about dancing. I may also use the same or similar shapes to make sure they understand.