The Owl (Mar 2012)
There is No Rose:Contemporary Choreography Meets the Anglican Choral Tradition
Abstract
My choreographic research project contains three phases. In phase one, I choreographed a solo work of contemporary dance for the choral piece “There Is No Rose,” arranged by Randall Stroope. My primary objective in this phase was to design a new approach to the movement development process by exploring academic sources and translating them into choreography. In phase two, I performed my work with live accompaniment by the Oakland Girls Choir of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in multiple Anglican churches in the U.S. and in England. I adapted the work I’d developed in a large space with recorded music to small spaces with live music. In phase three, I obtained feedback from twelve audience members through personal interviews. This phase contains two main objectives: to examine the audience’s perceptions of my choreography, and to analyze the relationship between dance and the Anglican Church. My main research findings occurred during phase three. The interviews revealed ways in which individuals see the same movement differently, identified qualities that distinguish sacred dance from concert dance, and led to a set of guidelines that may facilitate contemporary dance into the tradition of Anglican worship.
