Stimulus' and Structures

There are 5 different types of stimulus, which are visual, tactile, auditory, ideational and kinaesthetic. Examples of a visual stimulus are photos, videos or paintings - something you can see. A tactile stimulus is something you can feel, i.e. cotton wool, sandpaper. An auditory stimulus is something you can hear, this would typically be music or some sort of beat. Ideational stimulus is based on an idea/theme, like the Holocaust, 9/11. Finally, a kinaesthetic stimulus is through movement itself.

Key Word: Climax
^ Most dramatic point (highlight) in dance.

Next, we learnt about compositional structures, which is the way of forming art and giving a dance piece a structure. The structures we learnt about were binary, chance, narrative/episodic, rondo, ternary and theme and variation.

Binary (AB) - This is one of the more simplistic structures. It is like a verse and chorus of a song. A and B need a transition or link.

Chance - Movements are chosen randomly, or movement is randomly structured, creating a sequence.

Narrative/Episodic - This structure follows a story line. It helps the story unfold and each section acts as a further exposure of the ideas and story line. The choreographer will need to take into consideration how to link the sections together, i.e. what transitions?

Rondo (ABACADAE) - This structure is an extension of Binary (AB), where the idea/mofit of A keeps returning.

Ternary (ABA) - The beginning and end will be the same, whilst B (the middle) is a contrast to it, like chorus verse chorus.

Theme and Variation (A1, A2, A3, A4) - This is the structure where there's continuous variation on a motif. The motif doesn't become something completely new but choreographic devices like dynamics, mood, space are used to change it slightly.