Choreography Notes from Understanding Animation

Choreography
- the prominence of the dynamics of movement as a narrative principle

- for McLaren, every animated film echoed dance 'because the most important thing in film is motion, movement. No matter what it is you're moving, whether it's people or objects or drawings; and in what way it's done,  it's a form of dance.' (Bendazzi, 1994)

- 'Understanding movements and their functions can therefore be a means of understanding people. If they move to satisfy a need to express, then by observing and analysing movement one can discern the need and also the aims and intentions of the movement' (Hodgeson and Preston-Dunlop, 1990)

- 'narrative often played out purely through the movement of the body as it is represented in the animated film.'

- 'The 'body' here might be understood as an obvious representation of the human/animal form, an abstracted version of human/animal form, or purely abstracted shape that finds correspondence with the dynamics of movements available to the physical form.'

- Rudolf Laban's modern dance theory:
  16 basic movement themes (construction of movements):

(on weight, space, time and flow)

1. Awareness of body
2. Awareness if the body's resistance to weight and time
3. Awareness of space
4. A recognition of the flow of the weight of the body in time and space
5. The need to adapt to the movement of others
6. A recognition of the instrumental (functional) use of limbs
7. An increased awareness of isolated actions
8. An understanding of occupational rhythms (work-related movements) 

-'it (the animated forms) can only give the impression of 'space' and 'weight''
'It may be argued, though, that animation is liberating because it can manipulate the illusion of space and needs no recognition of weight unless it wishes to draw attention to the implications of a figure or an object actually being light or heavy.'
'the weight that the animators wishes to imply'
'relies on the viewer's understanding of the actual weight of figures and objects in the 'real world''


(on rhythm and function of movement)

  9. The ability to create different shapes of movement
10. The deployment of the 8 basic effort actions
       Wringing
       Pressing
       Gliding
       Floating
       Flicking
       Slashing
       Punching
       Dabbing
11. Orientating the body in space, playing out the following key tensions:
       Firm          <--->   Light
       Sustained  <--->   Sudden
       Direct       <--->   Flexible
       Bound      <--->   Free
12. Relating shape of movement to effort of action
13. The ability to elevate the body from the ground
14. To create group feeling through the expression of movement
15. To create group formation through movement (e.g. circles, rows, etc.)
16. To determine action moods through the expressive qualities of movement

'especially useful in the detailed address of choreographic movement in animation because the elements successfully focuses upon the specific vocabulary of any one movement. This helps to distinguish the source of the movement, and the impulses from which it arises; the direction of the movement and its purpose; and the final outcome of the movement, either as it completes its own process, or informs the following cycle of movement.'

Paul Wells on Richard William's view of the whale scene in Pinocchio:
- focuses on the flow of the weight of the body in time and space, articulating the effort action

- Using Laban movement thematic to explain the process from 'floating' effort action to a 'punching' effort action:
Action moods 'from passivity to anger' triggered by heat and smoke -> 'bound' state -'free' state tension, stillness till the sneeze 'freeing' the body to move (sustained-sudden) -> changes the space orientation.

Juxtaposition of rhythms and functions that occurs between the whale and the fleeing characters:
(movement and counter-movement) instrumental use of limbs by Geppetto and Pinocchio; 'slashing' in contrast to whale's 'punching'. -> climax: whale's failure -> final outcome: stillness and quiet

'By addressing the different and conflicting modes of movement in any one sequence, it is possible to reveal the inherent qualities of the animation itself in the determination of time, space, weight and flow.'

'The formalist approach engages with the implicit meanings of movement and serves to add another dimension to the understanding of animation as a medium over and above its capacity to capture the thrill of the chase or a moral and ideological conflict'


Case Study

(Feet of Song, 1988. by Erica Russell)

- abstracted human figures engaging in a number of dance oriented movements correspondent to a soundtrack of calypso music.

Analysis using movement thematics
Awareness of body - opening image which prioritise symmetry and balance in upright form
Awareness of space - circular turn pivoting in one leg
Adaptation to partners - multiple figures abstractly linked together and are compressed to indicate the center of the body as the key instigator of movement.
Instrumental - redetermined pushing movement as expressive rather than functional
'gliding' and then 'slashing'

The 'body'
- Abstract and highly-stylised design - calls attention to the illustrative and choreographic elements of both animation and dance, essentially defining their intrinsic relationship.
-fusion of different shapes and forms
-narrated through the vocabulary of dance and the expressive design schemata of the animated form.

'Russell has not subjected her bodies to the demands of realistic movement and 'a story', but used her bodies to narrate the inarticulable abstraction and satisfaction of rhythm and movement. Laban's movement thematics enable the viewer to penetrate this language and define the mood and meaning of physical expression.