Brianna Schunk
Writer. Dancer. Communicator.
Flawed Beauty
The original concept of the work was about examining movement, energy, and emotion within the body. The piece features both the internal and external struggles of dance and movement. As a person with a disability, I have had to make accommodations for myself throughout my training, and I hope to explore those experiences in my piece, as well as my experiences with sharing my disability with others. My emerging education in the arts of weight and resistance were the foundation of this piece's movement, layered with the use of gesture and focus to enable communication between the dancers and with the audience.
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The soul of this piece emerges from our expectations and adherence to beauty and aesthetics, stemming from my experiences with this in dance. Often, in my classical training, my examples of success were dancers with the "perfect body," who could execute technical movements beyond our formative master's expectations, and I struggled with immense cognitive dissonance when I could not meet those standards within myself. I sought to address this concern in young dancers - such frustration with the self in dance can often lead to harmful behaviors and thoughts that are often pushed aside for the value of the "perfect body" or performance.
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Due to COVID, this piece was not completed as expected. Below are some clips of the two finished movements, as well as a movement study for the third. I continue to promote my awareness of a holistic practice of dance as I move forward in my career.
Flawed Beauty
Presented May 7, 2020
Virtual Performance
Filmed at Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA
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Dancers: Maria Egidio, Bella Farina, Sayre Kurecian, Caroline Pitarra, Gwen Pockevich, Stella Rea, Sophia Snell, Paige Washko, Lauren Youngblood
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Music Credit: Platter of Discontent - "II. Roasting Petunia," "I. The Seduction of Brie," and "IV. Paranoid Cheese" by Marc Mellits & the Society for New Music
Movement I
We begin with a uniform cohort of dancers, underlying which is an internal distance fraught with tension. A leader emerges and breaks free from the uniformity, struggling with time to fit and match with the other dancers in the piece. Finally, a connection is made - she reveals herself as different within the circle, then breaks free and asks for acceptance. Instead, the group shuns her, disgusted by her request but also engaged by the possibility of breaking free.
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Movement II
We move into the mind of the leader, who ends the first movement hurt and angry with herself and the rejection of her vulnerability. The three dancers that emerge begin to channel that anger alongside the repetitive and rhythmic music. They can be seen stopping each other from being vulnerable, hitting themselves, covering their bodies with their hands, and dancing in a disjointed and chaotic way. At the end, they fall to the ground, arms open in another offering, the spirit having moved beyond the anger and desperate for comfort.
Movements III and IV
While the formal choreography ends here and the piece remains unfinished, I was able to bring some ideas to life through a movement study. In the third movement, we return to our leader after her anger has passed and she is working through sadness and self-acceptance. She rises, the focus inward on herself, exploring how her own body moves through the space. A guide then enters, her own limitations on full display through her movements, bringing an energy of acceptance to the stage. The interaction between the two sparks a connection, and they briefly share the burdens of their struggles together. In the end, the teacher disappears, leaving the main character to move forward in her journey of visibility and vulnerability. The split-screen movement study below is not meant to explicitly represent both characters - it's simply two takes of improvisational dance to the music with these themes in mind.
The fourth movement was meant to bring the original eight dancers back onstage, but with an air of community and acceptance rather than the distrust and intrigue they left the stage with in the first movement.