Creating a "present" Choreography.

In this modern world, most of the dance creators primarily in the contemporary area specifically, are constantly searching for something new to be showcased to or viewed by the public. Yet, it is not as easy as it is expected to be. In producing an excellent dance piece in the contemporary area does not necessarily need to see who in the audience are coming to watch the show or for who the performance is being showcased to. When we have that kind of thinking, indirectly the control of external element will begin to shroud the mind and creativity of a choreographer. Why do we produce a choreography? Why do we have the desire to produce it? This question seems to be as easy as A B C, yet it is formidable and intricate like answering a million dollar question. In producing a piece needs a very long time, it even requires a high level of concentration. Nonetheless not all choreographers need all of that, there are some choreographers who are fortunate enough to produce a piece within a short time and procure excellent outcome. These are all probabilities and we as choreographers cannot sit and wait for that probability as hope in producing a magnificent choreography.

What is an outstanding choreography? This question becomes a booby trap for every choreographer because it can possibly consume the role of the choreographer itself in producing a choreography. Choreography is also used to arrange ice skating, cheerleading, synchronized swimming, and a variety of other performance arts. Someone who composes choreographed pieces is known as a choreographer; typically, a choreographer works as a performer before becoming a composer, so that he or she will have a deeper understanding of the art. The practice of choreography is ancient; the word itself comes from the Ancient Greek, and it literally means “dance writing,” a reference to the notation used to record choreography. Over time, people came to use the word “dance notation” to describe the specific style of language used to create a written record of a choreographed composition, and “choreography” to describe the process of developing and directing that composition in performance.

I took an example from Sacred Monsters by Akram Khan. Monstres Sacres. The term was used for the first time in France in the 19th century as a nickname for the big stars of the theatre, such as Sarah Bernhardt. It marks the birth of contemporary stardom in which the icons of the arts and sports world are given divine status by their audience and the media. Sacred Monsters is first and foremost the meeting and exchange of two such 'stars' of the present day dance world: Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan, but there is also a flip side to stardom. Having to live up to the expectations of your audience to be perfect, positive, good (at), … There is no more room for failure, imperfection, to express one's real feelings and emotions. The divine status becomes inhuman, monstrous.

If we look at Akram Khan who uses a lot of approach and conducts numerous research towards his choreography. This choreography was presented in 2006 and took a long time for it to be completed. What attracted me to write about the product of the choreography according to evolution of time is because many Generation ”Y” choreographers often adopt to produce a specific choreography. Making YouTube as reference is an atrocious preference and that choice I can say is a dead end’s meet. A lot of the recommendations that we hear amongst the senior choreographers is by watching other performances and make that as reference. Yes, it is perhaps appropriate and I cannot say that it is not precise or impossible. Yet it also encourages me to applaud the same thing to other choreographers. Back to watching YouTube as reference. It is not a good commendation as watching 2 dimensional performances has several limitations which is space. The difference in watching a form of 3 dimensional performance and a 2 dimensional one is highly significant whereby the 2 dimension is more towards viewing from the frontal angle whereas 3 dimensional is more towards various different perspectives.

Choreographer supposedly should produce a piece that can make it become everlasting in conversation or permanently ingrained in another person’s mind for a durable time. Therefore, the choreographer can make the past choreographer as reference but producing a present choreography as a reference for the future. By producing current choreography there exist dance and multimedia, pilobulous, dance for camera and others. What I meant is that choreographers Y have to be more alert towards the present time so that the current society that watches does not feel that they are left behind nor does the choreographer himself.

Most of the choreographers from the old generation produce avan-gard creation, has it ever occurred to us the reason we whom are born and exist at this present time are not capable of producing such choreography. Comprehensively, choreographers ought to be more vigilant in producing a choreography so that it does not falter. Make the past as the reference for the present and producing a present choreography for future reference. Perhaps my thinking is not as precise but this is my observation and citation which I recently ordained.