(Ballet: 5 years, K-pop: 7 years, Street/ Hip-Hop: 2 years)
‘’ I think facial expression is one of the most direct and effective ways of communicating. Like all art forms, emotion is an essential element. It creates resonance to individual emotion, memories, and experiences. While the body movements enable audiences to experience a variety of possibilities that human bodies can achieve. An additional of facial expressions can enhance audiences’ understanding of the message underlying the dance piece.’
2. Ruohan Xu
‘’ I think facial expression is a very important part when it comes to performance. Because for example when you are dancing, depending on the style of dance or music even the mood of the dance, facial expressions help to enhance it and engage the audience more, allows the audience to understand what you trying to say through your movements.’’
Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person. In the arts, many things are commonly personified. These include numerous types of places, especially cities, countries, and continents, elements of the natural world such as the months or four seasons, four elements, four cardinal winds, five senses, and abstractions such as virtues, especially the four cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins, the nine Muses, or death.
Set of porcelain figures of personifications of the four continents, German, c. 1775, from left: Asia, Europe, Africa, and America. Of these, Africa has retained her classical attributes. Formerly James Hazen Hyde collection.Jean Goujon, The Four Seasons, reliefs on the Hôtel Carnavalet, Paris, c. 1550s. Personification in Art In fine arts, personification is used for a variety of purposes. From ancient times, artists evoked images to represent natural phenomena and abstract concepts in an attempt to help others as well as themselves understand these intangible ideas. The best examples of personification from this era would be that of gods and goddesses of various mythologies or religions, many of whom are still revered today. This remained the primary purpose of personification for a very long time, although experiments with other purposes were made throughout the development of human society. Personifications, often in sets, frequently appear in medieval art, often illustrating or following literary works. The virtues and vices were probably the most common, and the virtues appear in many large sculptural programmes, for example the exteriors of Chartres Cathedral and Amiens Cathedral. In painting, both virtues and vices are personified along the lowest zone of the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto (c. 1305), and are the main figures in Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Allegory of Good and Bad Government (1338–39) in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena. In the Allegory of Bad Government Tyranny is enthroned, with Avarice, Pride, and Vainglory above him. Beside him on the magistrate’s bench sit Cruelty, Deceit, Fraud, Fury, Division, and War, while Justice lies tightly bound below. The so-called Mantegna Tarocchi (c. 1465–75) are sets of fifty educational cards depicting personifications of social classes, the planets and heavenly bodies, and also social classes. A new pair, once common on the portals of large churches, are Ecclesia and Synagoga. Death envisaged as a skeleton, often with a scythe and hour-glass, is a late medieval innovation, that became very common after the Black Death. However, it is rarely seen in funerary art “before the Counter-Reformation”.When not illustrating literary texts, or following a classical model as Botticelli does, personifications in art tend to be relatively static, and found together in sets, whether of statues decorating buildings or paintings, prints or media such as porcelain figures. Sometimes one or more virtues take on and invariably conquer vices. Other paintings by Botticelli are exceptions to such simple compositions, in particular his Primavera and The Birth of Venus, in both of which several figures form complex allegories. An unusually powerful single personification figure is depicted in Melencolia I (1514) an engraving by Albrecht Dürer. Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (c. 1545) by Agnolo Bronzino has five personifications, apart from Venus and Cupid. In all these cases, the meaning of the work remains uncertain, despite intensive academic discussion, and even the identity of the figures continues to be argued over. The most basic use of personifying a concept is to give the perceiver a tangible figure that they can comprehend and connect to more easily. According to Dr. John G. Carlson, psychologist, people have a “tendency to automatically mimic and synchronise facial expressions, vocalisations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally” (1992, 153). Thus, by giving an abstract concept personification, writers or artists can indirectly influence the audience’s perception and guide them to a better understanding of the concept. Many professionals have taken advantage of this human instinct to achieve better results in their line of work. From the Renaissance period onward, personification began to appear in allegorical works as a way to express or question the ideals of the artists. Examples of this way of using the technique include The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity(1882) by Odilon Redon, and Death and the Masks(1897) by James Ensor.In the above artwork, there is a hot air balloon with an eye carrying a skull above a black swamp. The eye serves to indicate the direction the balloon is going, which is upwards. From this simple gesture, we can imagine that the balloon pulled the skull out of the swamp. If the eye was not there, it would have been much harder to interpret such a movement in the image.In James Ensor’s Death and the Masks, Death walks in the middle of a group of masked people. The people are seemingly not alerted to Death’s presence, possibly thinking of his visage as just another mask. This suggests the artist’s critical view of the ignorant side of contemporary society.
POP MART is a Chinese toy company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The company is known for selling collectable ‘designer’ toys, often sold in a ‘blind box’ format.
The Financial Times has described the company as having “elevated toy-buying to an act of trendy connoisseurship among China’s young affluent consumers”, and as having been ‘credited with creating the market for so-called designer toys’.
Around half of its sales are made at physical outlets, with the rest completed online. The company additionally operates a social media and toy-trading app as part of its marketing strategy. Its toys are known for selling to collectors on the second-hand market; venture capital firms have been known to invest in its second-hand products.
History of POP MART
The company was founded in China in 2010 by Wang Ning. The brand’s initial marketing strategy engaged with youth culture trends in China. Over time it grew to 288 outlets and 1800 vending machines in that country. Its success in the ‘blind box’ format drove a $676m USD listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020 giving it a market capitalisation of $7b at the time. However, its revenue growth slowed and its shares slid below offer price.
The company later expanded its growth strategy beyond mainland Chinese markets, with the Financial Times reporting on plans in 2022 to open between 40 and 50 overseas outlets. It first expanded to the US, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan, and the UK in 2022. In 2023 it expanded to Malaysia, and France. Some equity analysts have expressed scepticism at the company’s ability to expand into the West, while executives of the company have described developing that growth market as the company’s ‘most important development focus’; and argued that the company’s product offering is differentiated from existing western markets.
Chinese media has described the toy company’s products as ‘addictive’. In recent times, the company has been increasingly regulated; within China, the company has come under domestic regulatory pressure after regulators banned the sale of mystery boxes to children under eight years; and required guardian consent for older children. In Singapore, a S$100 prize limit on mystery boxes has been proposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The success of the company has spawned multiple imitating blind box toy companies in China.
In China, the toys are sold for typically between 59 and 69 RMB each, in a ‘blind box’ format credited with ‘driving repeated purchases from customers seeking to secure the rarest collectables’. Its customers in China are typically affluent teenagers and young adults.
The company works with designers and artists to develop characters. In 2021 it released a collection themed around the US artist Keith Haring, and has collaborated with Moncler. Other designers include Pucky, Ayan, and SKULLPANDA.
Unpacking the Story Behind Pop Mart’s Iconic Blind Box Collectibles
If you’ve never heard of POP MART, it’s time to get familiar with this Chinese lifestyle brand that has taken the world by storm in recent years. From its unique and innovative approach to design and marketing to its incredible success in the international market, Pop Mart is a company that is hard to ignore.
So, what is POP MART? Founded in 2010 by Wang Ning, a veteran in the toy industry, the company initially produced vinyl toys that were popular among collectors. However, it wasn’t until 2016 that Pop Mart began to gain mainstream attention with the launch of its first blind box toy series, Molly.
Blind box toys are collectibles that come in a sealed box, with the content unknown to the buyer until they open it. This element of surprise and anticipation has made blind box toys incredibly popular, and Pop Mart’s Molly series was no exception. The success of the Molly series allowed Pop Mart to expand its product line and venture into new markets.
According to a 2022 report by the BrandTrends Group, Pop Mart’s products are especially popular among young Chinese females aged 15 to 35 years old, making up around 65% of the brand’s customer base. The report also shows that the remaining 35% are mostly male customers within the same age range, although younger demographics also start picking it up.
The findings suggest that POP MART’s innovative designs, unique packaging, and emotional connection with customers have resonated strongly with the younger generation in China. The brand has successfully tapped into the youth market’s desire for collectibles and nostalgia, creating a unique lifestyle brand that has captured the hearts of many.
The demographic target is well thought-out: young employees are often exposed to stresses and heavy psychological burdens in the face of the fast pace of society and the pressure of daily work. When they stand in the office in front of boring documents or tables, toys/collectibles can fulfil the role of a mascot in the corner of their office. Unlike plants, figurines don’t need to be watered or cared for, and they don’t take up much space. In addition, blind boxes are also a great gift idea when young people can’t always afford luxury items but still want to give something chic and unique.
Today, POP MART has over 100 intellectual property rights and licenses, including collaborations with popular brands such as Disney and Sesame Street. POP MART’s success can be attributed to a combination of factors, including its unique approach to design and marketing, collaborations with established and emerging artists, and expansion into international markets.
POP MART’s marketing strategy has played a significant role in the brand’s success. The company focuses on creating an emotional connection with its customers. One way they do this is through the packaging of their products. Each blind box toy comes in a uniquely designed box, featuring colourful illustrations and characters. The packaging itself is designed to be a collectible item, adding to the overall value of the product.
POP MART also uses social media to its advantage, with its official Weibo account boasting over 20 million followers. The company regularly posts content featuring its latest releases, collaborations, and behind-the-scenes footage. This not only keeps its customers engaged but also helps to build a community around the brand.
Despite POP MART’s tremendous success, there has been some controversy around blind box toys. As they can incite children to spend more than the figurine’s actual value, parents have become wary of them. However, Pop Mart has managed to leverage this trend and create a strong brand identity with unique packaging and collaborations with popular brands and designers.
One of the brand’s most successful collaborations was with the Chinese designer and illustrator, Luo Li Rong. The partnership resulted in the creation of the popular blind box series, Pucky. In addition to collaborating with established brands and designers, POP MART has also worked with up-and-coming artists. This has helped to create a platform for emerging talent, as well as bringing fresh and unique designs to the market.
POP MART has expanded rapidly into international markets, with its products now available in over 50 countries worldwide. The company has opened stores in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, and has plans to expand further in Southeast Asia and Europe. Pop Mart’s focus on creating culturally relevant products has contributed to its success in the international market.
POP MART has built, by far, the competitive edge with its designers, retail channels and industrial chain. The company has recruited famous designers like Kenny, Pucky and Kasing Lung, and launched many fan favourites to secure a large number of loyal customers. Meanwhile, POP MART works with renowned global brands to create pop culture products based on classic characters that appeal to the young.
Moreover, POP MART attaches great importance to supporting the foundation of the designer toy market. To improve the training of homegrown talent, POP MART works with the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts to present seminars on designer toys and invites top designers to share their wisdom about the industry.
As POP MART continues to extend its reach, the company has also completed an industrial chain that consists of designers, factories, retail distribution and international toy shows. In that way, designers can focus on their work and the industry can truly prosper.
In October 2021, POP MART was officially launched in Australia, aiming to light up passion and bring joy to all Australians. Forging ahead, POP MART Australia will always strive to unlock tons of fun for Australians through diversified channels including Roboshops, physical and online stores.
In short, Pop Mart’s phenomenal success can be attributed to a combination of factors, including its unique approach to design and marketing, collaborations with established and emerging artists, and expansion into international markets. The brand’s ability to create emotional connections with its customers has helped to build a loyal following and establish it as a leader in the lifestyle industry. As Pop Mart continues to expand, we can expect new and innovative products to come from this company. With its creative vision and strategic approach to marketing, Pop Mart is here to stay.
I think by using the flip book method is the best way to produce a final piece with multiple drawings of a ballet dance from Swan Lake…
A flip book, flipbook, flicker book, or kineograph is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Often, flip books are illustrated books for children, but may also be geared toward adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books but may appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, frequently using the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books.
Functionality
Rather than “reading” left to right, a viewer simply stares at the same location of the images in the flip book as the pages turn. The booklet must be flipped through with enough speed for the illusion to work, so the standard way to “read” a flip book is to hold the booklet with one hand and flip through its pages with the thumb of the other hand. The German word for flip book—Daumenkino, which translates to “thumb cinema”—reflects this process, the photographic progression integral to film.
History and cultural uses
It has sometimes been assumed that the relatively simple flip book has been around since long before the invention of the more complicated nineteenth-century animation devices such as the phenakistiscope (1832) and the zoetrope (1866), but no conclusive evidence has been found.
There are some medieval illuminated books with sequential images, such as Sigenot (circa 1470). The illustrations in Sigenot are consistently framed and have short intervals between different phases of action, but the images cannot produce the illusion of a fluent motion. The necessary notion of instances smaller than a second would not really develop before the nineteenth century.
The oldest known documentation of the flip book appeared on 18 March 1868, when it was patented by John Barnes Linnett under the name Kineograph (“moving picture”). They were the first form of animation to employ a linear sequence of images rather than circular (as in the older phenakistoscope). The German film pioneer, Max Skladanowsky, first exhibited his serial photographic images in flip book form in 1894, as he and his brother Emil did not develop their own film projector until the following year. In 1894, Herman Casler invented a mechanized form of flip book called the Mutoscope, which mounted the pages on a central rotating cylinder rather than binding them in a book. The mutoscope remained a popular attraction through the mid-twentieth century, appearing as coin-operated machines in penny arcades and amusement parks. In 1897, the English filmmaker Henry William Short marketed his “Filoscope”, which was a flip book placed in a metal holder to facilitate flipping.
By 1948, an “automated multiple camera” for the production of “Pocket Movie flip book” portraits was marketed in the USA. This was a relatively early use of the term “flip book” that turned more common from the 1950s onward.
Now flipbooks are largely considered a toy or novelty for children and were once a common “prize” in cereal and Cracker Jack boxes. However, in addition to their role in the birth of cinema, they have also been an effective promotional tool since their creation for such decidedly adult products as automobiles and cigarettes. They continue to be used in marketing today, as well as in art and published photographic collections. Vintage flip books are popular among collectors, and especially rare ones from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century have been known to fetch thousands of dollars in sales and auctions.
A type of flip book figures prominently in the rise in fortunes of the fictional artist Tateh in Ragtime written by E. L. Doctorow and published in 1975 later included in the film and musical adaptations of the book.
Since 2007, Walt Disney Animation Studios has started its films with a production logo that initially evokes a flip book. It starts with a view of an empty page of paper, then as the pages start to turn, details are drawn in to reveal Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie.
The first international flip book festival was held in 2004, by the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Another international flip book festival was held in Linz, Austria in 2005.
In 2010, Hungary postal services released a flip book of stamps depicting a moving gömböc. The Israel Philatelic Federation released an “Israeli Animation Stamp Booklet” in November 2010 with 15 stamps designed by Mish to be animated when flipping the pages. It commemorated the 50th anniversary of ASIFA, the 25th anniversary of ASIFA Israel, and the “Flip Book 250th Anniversary”.
The Finnish passport design released in 2012 contains a flip book of a walking moose.
Funny Face is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and written by Leonard Gershe, containing assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Although having the same title as the 1927 Broadway musical Funny Face by the Gershwin brothers, and featuring the same male star (Fred Astaire), the plot is completely different and only four of the songs from the stage musical are included. Alongside Astaire, the film stars Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson.
Iconic Dance Scene
In the 1957 film Funny Face, the intellectual-turned-model Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn) challenges the antiquated views of cynical fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire). They’re sitting in a smokey Parisian beatnik bar, a très cool cave surrounded by a young avant-garde crowd… and Dick doesn’t think women should ever ask for a dance. Jo protests, and pops off into one of the most iconic dance scenes in cinematic history.
“Isn’t it time you realized that dancing is nothing more than a form of expression or release? There’s no need to be formal or cute about it. As a matter of fact, I rather feel like expressing myself now. And I could certainly use a release!”
Directed by Stanley Donen and choreographed by Eugene Loring, Hepburn’s counter culture expression is a bursting, joyful, and electric interpretive dance that matches the scene’s saturated colours. The jazzy music is titled Basal Metabolism (How Long Has This Been Going On).
Hepburn’s approach to fashion reflected her Funny Face character’s views about dance; it, too, was an expression and a release. And, fittingly, Hepburn’s style in turn relied on dance for inspiration.
While her collaboration with Hubert de Givenchy is legendary – in Hepburn, he found a muse for his cinched waists and full skirts – she is also remembered for the black Capri pants and Salvatore Ferragamo ballet flats made famous in Funny Face. These emphasised her dancer’s physique, and sent women the world over into a terpsichorean-style frenzy they still haven’t recovered from. (Just witness the enduring popularity of ballet flats.)
With her vivid style and incomparable elegance, Audrey Hepburn truly is the patron style saint of ballerinas.
A traditional silhouette portrait of the late 18th century
A silhouette is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouette is usually presented on a light background, usually white, or none. The silhouette differs from an outline, which depicts the edge of an object in a linear form, while a silhouette appears as a solid shape. Silhouette images may be created in any visual artistic medium but were first used to describe pieces of cut paper, which were then stuck to a backing in a contrasting colour, and often framed.
Cutting portraits, generally in profile, from black card became popular in the mid-18th century, though the term silhouette was seldom used until the early decades of the 19th century, and the tradition has continued under this name into the 21st century. They represented a cheap but effective alternative to the portrait miniature, and skilled specialist artists could cut a high-quality bust portrait, by far the most common style, in a matter of minutes, working purely by eye. Other artists, especially from about 1790, drew an outline on paper, then painted it in, which could be equally quick.
From its original graphic meaning, the term silhouette has been extended to describe the sight or representation of a person, object or scene that is backlit and appears dark against a lighter background. Anything that appears this way, for example, a figure standing backlit in a doorway, may be described as “in silhouette”. Because a silhouette emphasises the outline, the word has also been used in fields such as fashion, fitness, and concept art to describe the shape of a person’s body or the shape created by wearing clothing of a particular style or period.
Profile portraits
For the depiction of portraits, the profile image has marked advantage over a full-face image in many circumstances, because it depends strongly upon the proportions and relationship of the bony structures of the face (the forehead, nose and chin) making the image is clear and simple. For this reason, profile portraits have been employed on coinage since the Roman era. The early Renaissance period saw a fashion for painted profile portraits and people such as Federico da Montefeltro and Ludovico Sforza were depicted in profile portraits. The profile portrait is strongly linked to the silhouette.
Recent research at Stanford University indicates that where previous studies of face recognition have been based on frontal views, studies with silhouettes show humans are able to extract accurate information about gender and age from the silhouette alone. This is an important concept for artists who design characters for visual media because the silhouette is the most immediately recognisable and identifiable shape of the character.
Rise of popularity and development in the nineteenth century
The traditional method of making a silhouette portrait
A silhouette portrait can be painted or drawn. However, the traditional method of creating silhouette portraits is to cut them from lightweight black cardboard and mount them on a pale (usually white) background. This was the work of specialist artists, often working out of booths at fairs or markets, whose trade competed with that of the more expensive miniaturists patronised by the wealthy. A traditional silhouette portrait artist would cut the likeness of a person, freehand, within a few minutes. Some modern silhouette artists also make silhouette portraits from photographs of people taken in profile. These profile images are often head and shoulder length (bust) but can also be full length.
The work of the physiognomist Johann Caspar Lavater, who used silhouettes to analyse facial types, is thought to have promoted the art. The 18th century silhouette artist August Edouart cut thousands of portraits in duplicate. His subjects included French and British nobility and US presidents. Much of his personal collection was lost in a shipwreck. In England, the best known silhouette artist, a painter not a cutter, was John Miers, who travelled and worked in different cities, but had a studio on the Strand in London. He advertised “three minute sittings”, and the cost might be as low as half a crown around 1800. Miers’ superior products could be in grisaille, with delicate highlights added in gold or yellow, and some examples might be painted on various backings, including gesso, glass or ivory. The size was normally small, with many designed to fit into a locket, but otherwise a bust some 3 to 5 inches high was typical, with half- or full-length portraits proportionately larger.
In America, silhouettes were highly popular from about 1790 to 1840.
The physionotrace apparatus invented by Frenchman Gilles-Louis Chrétien in 1783-84 facilitated the production of silhouette portraits by deploying the mechanics of the pantograph to transmit the tracing (via an eyepiece) of the subject’s profile silhouette to a needle moving on an engraving plate, from which multiple portrait copies could be printed. The invention of photography signalled the end of the silhouette as a widespread form of portraiture.
Drawing a Silhouette by Johann Rudolph Schellenberg (1740–1806)Derby porcelain cabinet cup, with family portraits, c. 1810
LEGS can slice like scissors; hips can sway alluringly; and arms can float like clouds. But the face of a dancer speaks volumes. Like a novel’s first paragraph, facial expressions give clues to the world taking shape on stage. Just as the eyes are the window to the soul, a face is the window into the dancer — and the dance.
Those of us who love dance are sometimes haunted by the memory of a particular face on stage. What force is it that, without close-ups to simulate intimacy or words to aid communication, imprints the dancers’ personalities into our consciousness? Do the thousands of hours of sweat and self-criticism that mold the dancer’s body also mold the face? Or is there an essential presence that is inborn? One thing sure is that the charismatic dance face is not achieved through a deliberate effort but mysteriously springs from some deep connection between mind and body.
Famous faces of the past include Maya Plisetskaya, whose jutting chin signalled a fiery determination, and Gelsey Kirkland, whose sad but brave visage could break your heart in one arabesque. José Limón’s face had a heroic resolve and at the same time a yearning quality that gave his choreography a suspended feeling. Katherine Dunham, the first American to incorporate African-based movement on the concert stage, possessed a sensual and glamorous face that helped popularize her culturally groundbreaking work.
We follow the dancers’ faces as we would a guide into foreign territory. And each guide invites us into his or her world in a different way. The wide-eyed Angel Corella, a Spaniard in American Ballet Theatre, dances with a celebratory air. He looks pumped, as though he were saying, ”I’m giving you a big show.” You’re ready and waiting for the pyrotechnics. The New York City Ballet principal Damian Woetzel has a sly poker face. In ”Stars and Stripes” he finishes his pirouettes with wildly virtuosic flourishes that leave the audience gasping, partly because his face never gave it away. Darci Kistler, also of City Ballet, brings a breezy momentum to Balanchine ballets. Her face impassioned, lips parted as though ready to swoon for the sheer love of dancing, she performs his choreography as an adventure rather than as a sequence of steps.
Russian dancers, like Russian novelists, tend to wrap themselves in suffering. The Ballet Theatre principal Vladimir Malakhov looks sensitive and troubled, which heightens the drama in ballets like ”Le Spectre de la Rose” but dims the luster of ”Sleeping Beauty.” Nina Ananiashvili, who dances with the Bolshoi Ballet and Ballet Theatre, carries the weight of the ages on her face, stirring us deeply in ”The Dying Swan.” But her tragic look detracts from the crystal-clear movement in Balanchine’s ”Symphony in C.”
Another Ballet Theater principal, Maxim Belotserkovsky, has a greater range. While he displays exuberance in ”Don Quixote,” he can be thrillingly solemn as the bereft Albrecht in ”Giselle.” In the second act, he crosses the stage to look for the grave — or the spirit — of his beloved. As he scans the audience, one sees the search for truth in his eyes, reminding us what Romanticism is all about.
Two faces that are emblematic of an era are Martha Graham’s and Merce Cunningham’s. Graham’s artistic aim was the stylization of human emotion. Her face, with angles and planes framing her all-knowing eyes, seemed to embody modernism. Mr. Cunningham, dismissing modernist drama and ushering in postmodernism, looked keenly alert when he danced. He could be listening to the song of distant birds or watching subsiding ripples in a lake.
In the 1960’s dancers associated with Judson Dance Theatre favoured a ”neutral” demeanour. The idea was to let the movement speak for itself and not depend on facial expression to endow the dancing with meaning. The Judson dancers focused on specific tasks rather than the larger-than-life mythologizing that made modern dance seem portentous.
But the wish for neutrality belied strong feelings. Yvonne Rainer’s deadpan did not conceal that, just below the surface, extreme emotions raged. When Trisha Brown dances, her relish for the movement makes her face radiant. Simone Forti brings a keenly focused concentration to her work that pulls the audience along for the ride. In the face of Lucinda Childs one sees a hint of agitation, a clue to her highly patterned, almost obsessive dances. Steve Paxton’s face is quizzical, stolid, existentially alone.
Current downtown artists are opening up after the supposed neutrality of earlier years and are allowing the face to become part of the act. The dancer and choreographer Vicky Shick’s face is voluptuous, enigmatic, with a touch of old-world sadness (she was born in Hungary), providing a contrast to her spare movement. The improviser DD Dorvillier, with her self-interrupting impulses, seems to travel to the edge of sanity, but the fierce clarity in her eyes reassures you that she won’t go over the edge. The dancer and choreographer Maia Claire Garrison’s face has a gritty defiance that seems to erupt into the fusion of hip-hop and modern and West African dance that is her signature.
One pair of dancers with faces worth taking note of are David Dorfman and Dan Froot. Mr. Dorfman is the kind of guy who is always saying that everything is going to turn out O.K.; his face is relaxed, assured. Mr. Froot is excitable; he’s pretty sure things won’t turn out O.K. In their sometimes hilarious skitlike duets, they play off each other’s faces the way more technical dancers play off each other’s virtuosity. (They give their final two performances in the Altogether Different series today at the Joyce Theatre in Manhattan.)
Outstanding dancers can illuminate the intention of a choreographer, thus helping all the pieces of a puzzle fall into place. Regina Advento in ”Masurca Fogo” (1998) epitomizes Pina Bausch’s surreal choreography and fantastical dreamlike vision. The opposing elements of irony and pleasure meet in Ms. Advento’s Cheshire cat grin.
Greg Zuccolo in Tere O’Connor’s ”Choke” (2000) carries his flickering mood into every movement. His mouth drops opens like a child’s, his eyes shift mischievously, his nose wrinkles. The constant sense of commotion on his face borders on a kind of sublime brattiness, which matches the dance.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre dancer Bahiyah Sayyed-Gaines’s face in ”Sweet Bitter Love” (2000) is tender, full of emotion. When she looks directly at the audience and then allows her large sloe eyes to close, you can feel the sweet sorrow on her eyelids. Her face recalls the sensuality, the profound womanliness of Carmen de Lavallade, who choreographed the piece.
Even when the face is barely in evidence, it has its effect. The tap dancer Savion Glover hunkers down, hiding his face, much like Gregory Hines before him. In doing so, he resists the baggage of early tap dance, which often expected black dancers to perform amiably for white audiences. Head down and dreadlocks flying, Mr. Glover sends out more rhythmic sparks than most tap dancers who perform ”for” us.
Kei Takei often holds her face skyward, so we hardly see it. And when her face becomes visible, it looks as impenetrable as a mask. But the intensity of that mask commands rapt attention.
For dancers, no less than actors, faces are part of the expressive equipment. But dancers rarely receive formal lessons in acting. Rather, their faces reflect what the whole body is feeling and doing. This kind of total involvement is what Ms. Forti calls ”the dance state.” The dance state is energetic, emotional or spiritual, depending on what zone the dancer has an affinity for. Once a dancer crosses over into that state, her or his face naturally takes on a new vitality. Each dancer enters a distinctive world of nonliteral meaning. For spectators, the face is a key to that meaning.
Dancers express their feelings and a full range of human emotions through a series of carefully crated movements.
Gestures and facial expressions play a massive role in the dance performance. (especially to music in which there are words)try to feel, and not just memorize individual words and show them not just with your body but also on your face.
Don’t fake it
You cannot memorize all facial expressions. Just be natural. Don’t ever copy “someone else’s” facial expressions. It would be best if you were yourself to show the audience your emotions and feelings: sadness, happiness, passion, anger, etc.; your main task is to learn how to navigate them.
Practice in front of a mirror. Turn on different music and use your face according to it. We all know how to smile, be surprised, scared, that is, to express our feelings, but we do it on a reflex level.
Memorize how different songs or videos made you feel. What did your face look like? Tape yourself to see it from the side.
The goal is to be able to hold each expression for a long time. And to be able to express it on your face regardless of how you feel at that specific moment.
And remember, stay in character up until you leave the stage. You want the audience to have an after-taste and to believe you. If you get out of your character as soon as your music stops, It will instantly kill your image.
THE POLE DANCING MOVES ENCYCLOPEDIA <#ME> is the comic art book by Little Thunder of 2018. The production of this pure watercolour collection lasted for over a year. It documents the portraits and stories of 44 unique girls. You can take a peek at their little secrets. Maybe you are seeing a reflection of yourselves. Pole dance is a kind of dance. While some people think of pole dancing as a kind of fitness training, others think of it as something only strippers do. But what people think doesn’t matter. Pole dancing is a means of discovering yourself. Your pole dance can display your energy and power. Your pole dance can also showcase your femininity and sexiness. It’s only a choice of style. You can choose whatever form to express yourself.
