Links between the art forms

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AS Performance Studies

Using examples from your own practical work, discuss the links between the art forms

All three art forms are very similar, music, drama and dance. Between these three art forms there are many links; the similarities being uses of canon, motifs, unison, rhythm, dynamics, space and dialogue. However there are differences between the art forms but they work together to enhance the theatrical and musical effect; these being the use of tension, pace and dynamics. This essay will be referring to my own practical work.

The first drama lesson was focused on Greek Chorus. The way a group works together to become one body to narrate a story is very important, so we took a passage from the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles and physicalised phrases within the text in small groups.

“Then we beheld the woman hanging there,
A running noose entwined about her neck.
But when he saw her, with a maddened roar
He loosed the cord; and when her wretched corpse
Lay stretched on earth, what followed—O 'twas dread!

We stood in a semi-circle and the person speaking stood in the centre of the formation and spoke one line whilst the outer people acted out parts of the line, e.g. on the line Then we beheld the woman hanging there, the outside formation pretended to be dead and hanging by letting their head flop backwards while the rest of their body was loose and floppy. After practising a few times we added sound effects from a spring drum to add tension and make the scene more dramatic.

The links between this piece of work and the other art forms are that the words of the passage were spoken in a rhythmic way almost like a spoken song. The actions performed by the outer formation of the semi-circle were all in unison, choreographed like a dance piece. The way that the rhythm and pace worked with the physicality of movements and sound created an enhanced effect.

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Ghost Dances was a piece created and choreographed by Christopher Bruce in 1981. The piece was created based on the people who were threatened by General Pinochet a man who overthrew the Chilean Government and ran an oppressive regime in 1973. People who opposed Pinochet were murdered; according to various reports and investigations, between 1200 to 3200 people were killed, up to 80,000 were interned, and up to 30,000 were tortured by his regime including women and children.

We learnt two motifs that were very common in Ghost Dances, the squat motif and the line motif. We then looked at ...

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