Motif development

 So far in our choreography we have five motif developments that have evolved from the beginning motif. We wanted to relate all our motifs back to the stimulus so that it would keep a meaning throughout the piece; Each motif is a COVID-19 stereotype or has been further developed from the beginning process. 


Our first motif is the action of coughing. Within our group, we discussed that due to one of the first symptoms of COVID-19 was having a dry cough that this action would reinterpret the topic of the piece. The idea started with you using your hand to cover your mouth as you did an upper back contraction. This was then developed further into coughing into your elbow whilst having the same contraction in the back due to the health advise to cough into your elbow. 

Our second motif is the motion of cleaning hands after you have been in contact with someone. This idea came from the stimulus because we discussed some of the health regulations during COVID-19 and washing your hands was majorly advised. The motion started with us washing our hands. This then progressed to start at your elbows, rotate the wrists to wash your hands and then you would slap your hands against the outer thigh to 'wipe away the germs'.

https://youtube.com/shorts/fGMKNqni8y8?feature=share

The third motif is the use of levels and what effect it has to the essence of the dance and to the audience. In our group choreography piece, three out of five people have the symptoms of COVID-19. We used levels to show the difference in ability that each person had. We commenced with the idea of the three people doing movements lower down/ on the floor and perhaps to do the movements in slower timing to show the audience the strain and fatigue that COVID-19 had on your body. We developed this into the three people with symptoms doing movements at a lower level to show the physical effects that the virus had on the body.

                                                                                                     

The fourth motif is the use of retrograde. The motif originated with us running backwards after sequence to show a disorientated direction of the body. We took this further by retrograding the previous sequence to show the difference of movement if it was backwards. 

https://youtu.be/8w4FKs2hYFk

Our final motif is tracing the floor pattern. We started doing this to organize each persons floor pathway to prevent collisions between people. When the final floor pattern had been drawn out we noticed that the pattern of where we each travel into our isolation sections looks like the union jack flag. Although this was unintentional we found it interesting how this had occurred.


I think that the reinterpretation from the motifs has kept the theme of the virus throughout the piece which helps keeps the audience engaged as they can understand what we are trying to portray.

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