Art & Dance Come Together at Pinewood!
November 22, 2015
This year Ms. Pagidou from the Department of Dance and Ms. Kapanidou from the Department of Art developed a cross-curricular program for Grade 10 students as a pre-IB course. Students were introduced to the Elements of Dance and Art and experimented with the use of space, time, body, action and dynamics for Dance, and lines, shapes, textures and color, for Art. The aim of this project was to compose a choreography which would include a number of the Dance Elements whilst taking under consideration the type of visual imprint these movements would leave on the dancing surface, in this case a piece of paper.
In Dance they explored weekly each Element of Dance while also a variety of stimuli for sourcing movement to develop an improvisational dance. Then they analyzed the process and the relationships between these elements. Students also discussed different choreographic devices such as mirroring, shadowing and canon that can support their dance project while also embodied technical skills such as weight shifts, balance and coordination.
In Art students experimented with a variety of art materials such as charcoal, soft pastels, oil pastels, watercolors and acrylics in high and low viscosity, and inspired by Abstract Expressionism, they made informed decisions on the materials they would use. They were subsequently introduced to methods of analyzing pre-existing Art & Dance videos in terms of paint application and then considered the body parts which they would use in their choreography in order to dispense paint with.
As a result, Grade 10 students worked in pairs, composed and performed a choreography of minimum 1 minute length, based on the Cello song, composed by Bach and performed by The Piano Guys. They used different ways of “applying” paint on the paper such as water balloons, water guns, ink pots, brushes, string, gloves and socks, which were combined and integrated into the specifics of their performance.
The results were diverse, positively dynamic, original and inspiring.
Ms. Christina Pagidou, Dance Instructor
Ms. Konstantina Kapanidou, Visual Arts Instructor
