Difficulty of assessing quality of choreograph

By assessing my students work, I have faced the complication of assessment.

The reasons were;

1, Personal preference effect on evaluation.

2, Lacking of technique interrupt the ability of choreograph.

3, Solo, Duet or Ensemble, they are all very different type of work.

The reason one; Personal preference effect on evaluation

As choreography is a piece of art, every single person would have different opinions about it.
For example, I liked one of the pieces which contained JIVE and CAN CAN.
Not necessarily technical, but it was fun and a joy to watch, and character and story came across clear as the whole concept was simple.

And, there were also a very serious piece  about a relationship.
Fusion of contemporary and ballet.
It looked very challenging and technical.
It was a decent piece and much harder to dance compared to the jive and can can piece.
However, my mark to this serious piece was not as high as can can, jive piece.
I have had words with other teachers and some of them loved the serious piece. Their evaluation of the piece was much higher than mine.

The reason two;  Lacking of technique limited their ability to choreograph.

I had to asses purely on their work of choreograph. However, I have noticed also dancers presentation do have an impact on out come of their work. And, that made it complicated for me to evaluate their work.


For example, William Forsythe, who is a well known choreographer.
There is no doubt about his talent and intelligence as a choreographer.
However, even some one like him would struggle to visualise his potential with out decent dancers.
He was already well known since the early eighties. However, he became world wide since he created a piece called  "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated" in 1987. The piece was revolutionary, and shocked the dance world.
He choreographed the piece for Paris Opera Ballet, where some of the best dancers in the world are employed.
His award records clearly shows that he became really successful since then.

Awards

Forsythe has been chosen as Choreographer Of The Year several times by international critics’ surveys.^{[citation needed]} Forsythe’s choreography and his companies’ performances have won:

• The Bessies (1988, 1998, 2004, 2007)
• Laurence Olivier Award (1992, 1999)
• Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (1999)
• Federal Cross of Merit First Class (1997)
• Prix Benois de la Danse (2002)
• the Wexner Prize (2002)
• Nijinsky Award (2002)
• Dance Magazine Award (2003)
• Nijinsky Award in the category Best Play for "Decreation" (2004)
• German Theater Prize (Faust-Theaterpreis: Best Choreography for "Yes we can’t") (2008)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Forsythe_(dancer)

It proves an important fact; Choreography do look as good as dancers can make.
It is sad and unfair. However, it is true.
The quality of the choreograph some times does not matter so much, as long as if choreographer have great dancers.
I have seen so many ordinary boring choreography which looked decent because of the dancers.
It was clear that their weak technique effected on their performance. And, limited their freedom of creation.
I had to assess their quality of choreographic work. However, for this reason, most of their work did not come across as well as they expected to be. Students had images and nice ideas, however, an ability of how to visualise them with some compliments was out of their experience.

The reason three; Understanding of difference of work in choreograph.

From my point of view, students were not aware of the difference of work in solo and duet.

1, Solo
2, Duet
3, Ensemble

These three are very different type of work. And, they individually require different skills and talent, and point of view.

1, Solo work; choreographing solo piece for them selves can be the easiest way out for assessment.
As choreographer can avoid compromise and communicating with the others.
Therefore, performer/choreographer can use the steps they like or they are good at.
Same as choreographing for others. End of the choreographer and performers compliment can be much smaller compare to other type of works. And, if performers do not feel comfortable with the work, they can change the choreography, which is not acceptable and dis respectable. However, it won't effect others except the work. Also, this work does not require much of social skill.

2, Duet work; it requires an ability to communicate with dancers. Also to compromise and change the choreograph for dancers to make the best out from it.
This type of work can be very difficult with out a good social skill, as choreographer and dancers need to communicate on the process of creating a piece.
Also, dancers should not be allow to change the choreograph with communicating with the partner and choreographer, as it creates a confusion and can be very dangerous.

For example, a famous choreographer Kenneth MacMllan.
He had a great talent of creating beautiful duets. However, he was never good at ensemble work, as he admit he had lack of social skill and he was very nervous when he had to work with a ot of people; Ensemble..
So, ensemble usually did not given much dance steps in his work. He asked ensemble to act as normal people on stage. Also, lacking of ensemble dance made duet work look great. Because of the contrast.
However, every one knew he was great in creating duet work, including him self, so no one expected  great ensemble work from him. He knew what he was good at.













          Duet                                                                                    Ensemble

3, Ensemble work; it requires very mathematical brain. However, do not require much of social skill, as every thing is based on pattern. This type of work does not required amazing dancers either. It requires precise, clean, exact work for the dancers. And, usually choreographers do not need to compromise their work with dancers.
However, I have ever choreographed ensemble, also it was out of the category on my assessment, therefore, that is all I can explain, unfortunately.

                                                   Ensemble from Swan lake

Over all, it was my first time assessing students.
I have noticed and learned a lot from it. I hope so did my students.......

Assessment!?

I have been working at a college as a guest lecturer of performing arts department.
Yesterday, my students had an assessment and I evaluated their performance.

I sat on a chair with all the paper work and a pen ready to assess my students.

Then, I felt a bit dizzy by the realisation of the responsibility of my position, and I also felt surreal, as it reminded me of the judges from the tv program of The X Factor and Britain's got talent or some thing.

I asked my self how did I put my self in that position and the situation? Also, what have I done to be there to assess my students? Do I know enough about my profession? Have I experienced enough to assess them?
I have ever wished or thought to be a teacher, and I have never even dreamed of putting my self in a position to judge or assess other people.
All of my life I have been on the other side; as a student I was there to be assessed. As a professional dancer I was there to be judged.
However, the situation has flipped and I was on the other side, assessing people.

I have assessed students choreography, which categorised by a minute and half of solo piece or over three minute of duet piece, and the students must contain two different type of dance style in their choreograph.
Solo or duet, and choice of dance style is up to students.
Students piece were assessed by three different aspects;
1, The level of understanding of the meaning of choreograph and type of dance.
2, Clarity of two different type of dance.
3, Concept and the theme of the choreography, and the quality of piece.

Some students provided nice concepts and themes through their pieces.
However, it looked like their ideas and concept did not appear as well as they planned be.
To me,  they seemed struggled to translate their ideas, theme, and concept by pure dance movements, and costumes.

There are few reasons I can think of why they struggled to present their full potential, that  was to do with  lacking of knowledge and experience in performing arts.
And, especially lacking of steady technique held back their performance and limited their choreography.
If, painter did not have enough paint to draw, it is hard to paint a decent picture.
Same in choreograph. If, choreographer does not have decent dancer to visualise one's idea, it is hard to present their potential as a choreographer.

As I teach and support them, it was a shame to see some of them did not present them selves as well as they did at rehearsal.

I am wishing that students learned some thing from it . And, through this assessment I have noticed few things as a teacher.
I am going to share with my students about what I thought of the assessment, how they looked from my point of view. And, how they felt about the assessment.