Initial Idea/Stimulus

  When encountering my final stimulus idea, I knew I wanted to follow a narratives perspective to keep the audience attentive and to help carry me through the creative process. Looking back at last years practice – our group choreography- I remember how much a narrative helped create emotion and exposure between us as dancers and the audience to helped provoke the message in which we were aiming to portray… this is something I want to bring into this year’s performance. 

 

The novel “They Both Dire at the End” by Adam Silvera takes the reader on a highly emotional journey, from sympathy to cheerfulness to heartbreak which is what captivated and inspired my final stimulus idea. Death-cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to unsympathetically tell the 18-year-olds something metamorphic: they are going to die today… The two meets through social media in which they spend their last day together adventuring and living ‘a lifetime in one single day’.  “They Both Die at the End was inspired by this panicking anxiety of not knowing when we’re going to die, and wondering how differently out final day would look if we knew when that day was” (Silvera, 2017)

 

10 minutes is the set duration of our choreography. I saw this as a great opportunity to link this time limit to an adapted/inspired idea of Adam Silvera’s novel to create my final idea: the title of my choreography being – ‘Concluded Life'. I am going to use the set duration time as a countdown throughout my choreography to build that “panicking anxiety” (Silvera, 2017) in which Silvera builds through the story. From here I investigated many religions and their beliefs on death and how I could use these different beliefs within my choreography:

 

Atheism- views in which include spiritual beliefs. Some atheists don’t believe in any sort of life after death, but others believe in the existence of spirits, afterlife, or reincarnation. (Goldade,. J. 2017) 

 

Christianity- Some Christians believe in afterlife, but most believe in the resurrection of Jesus, the moral choices you make on earth affect whether you go to Heaven or Hell. 

Purgatory is a place where the dead need to purify their sins to locate Heaven, this is believed by Catholic Christians. (Goldade,. J. 2017)

 

Buddhism – Buddhists believe in reincarnation and taking on another body in their lifetime. However, the reincarnation cycle is seen as a suffering experience and the goal is to escape this cycle by reaching a heavenly paradise Nirvana. (Goldade,. J. 2017)

 

 

Throughout my choreographic journey, I’m going to look more in-depth into afterlife and the different beliefs to expand my knowledge and choreographic stimulus and to while also still create the panicked and anxious feeling to the audience. By doing this I’m hoping to present the message ‘don’t take anything for granted and to live your life to the fullest as you never know when it can be taken from you’ to leave the audience feeling inspired and motivated

 

 

 References:

 

Levin, H., 2017. Interviews, Adam Silvera, How would you spend your last day?, BookPage [online], available at: https://bookpage.com/interviews/21772-adam-silvera-lgbtq-fiction#.YWQLWS1Q0_U [Accessed on 11 October 2021]

 

Goldade., J, 2017. Is there an afterlife? Different religions views on death. Frazer Consultants [online], available at : https://www.frazerconsultants.com/2017/03/is-there-an-afterlife-different-religious-views-on-death/ [ accessed on 11 October 2021]