soda lake wc Flashcards
background/overview
Soda Lake was a collaborative piece by Richard Alston based on the sculpture Soda Lake by Nigel Hall who was inspired by the lake in the Mojave Desert in Nevada. The sculpture features in the piece whilst the solo dancer performs with an accompaniment of silence.
sculpture
Nigel Hall’s sculpture “Soda Lake” is an abstract sculpture designed to reflect his interpretation of the Soda Lake in the Mojave Desert. The sculpture features an angles thin pole that is in contact with the floor that has an ellipse at the top of the pole creating empty space hanging over the floor. The other element of the piece is a black, thicker and vertical pole that does not come into contact with the floor as it hovers in the space. The use of the different elements of the sculpture is evident in the work as Hall’s use of vast amounts of space in the sculpture, the size of the ellipse and the space in between both poles, could have been used to illustrate Nigel’s interpretation of the Soda Lake as it conveys the vast open space of the Mojave Desert. Even the ellipse element of the structure is symbolic of this open space as it allows for a continuation of this space throughout the sculpture.
movement content
The piece features 4 sections called Awakening, Tracing the Shape, Major Section and Epilogue with the first (Awakening) being floor bound that establishes the importance of the space and emphasises the idea of sudden changes in dynamics with ’flurries of movement’. The second section (Tracing the Shape) reflects the spatial elements of the sculpture and focuses on echoing shapes of the sculpture through the movement. This section has specific abstract movement features that includes the sentinel position which the dancer is on both knees with their chest lifted off the floor as one arm reaches forward with the other keeping the dancer balanced on their knees. The third section is the biggest section relates to the starting point of the sculpture and its formal properties which links them with the dancer’s use of space and shape. The characterisation of the section is through its series of rapid sequences of movement which contrasts with the first section. The sentinel position appears again in section 3 as well as other sequences from sections 1 and 2. The fourth and final section is the slowest section that serves as an epilogue and repeats positions and motifs from the first 3 sections. The sentinel appears again in section 4 almost immediately along with the swan position where the dancer is in an arabesque with the standing leg bent and the arms are above their head. The movement content has been used by Alston to reflect his interpretations of both the sculpture and the Mojave Desert. As the dancer moves around the sculpture in section 2, replicating the shape of the sculpture, this highlights Alston’s intention of conveying a relationship between the dancer and the sculpture specifically as the dancer traces the shape of the ellipse with their arm in order to highlight the line and shape of the sculpture. The sentinel position specifically reflects animalistic qualities that could be used to reflect the animal movements that may appear in the desert atmosphere which further highlights the link between the movement content and the influence for the work.
aural setting
The aural setting in Soda Lake is silence and the only other accompaniment is the sound of the dancer’s breath and their movement across the space. This has been chosen so that all the audience has to focus on is the movement content. This is a significant element to the work because it alludes to the consistent theme of the Soda Lake in the Mojave Desert and the silence of the expansive space. The use of silence also could link to the idea of space created by the sculpture as this allows for the silence to travel throughout more of the space even including the small area of space beneath the thicker pole, amplifying the quietness in the space.
references to Alstons style
Alston’s style features arches, tilts, curves and elements of ballet technique which are all evident in Soda Lake as the work takes on a range of these elements with the contrast between linear movement and curved movement. For example, Alston’s tilted style can be seen as the dancer is standing on one leg with the other in retire and the arms are in a jazz fourth as the dancer tilts away from the leg in retire. This motif follows from the dancer replicating the ellipse shape of the structure in which the upper body is contracted, and the arms are curved in a wide second to replicate the idea of the ellipse hovering over the space and highlighting Alston’s style of curves. The feature of Alston’s style in this work has been used to amplify the intention of the Soda Lake sculpture and the Desert which is significant because this intention is demonstrated effectively because of tilts, curves, arches and contractions. These contractions and high releases could have also been featured in Soda Lake to demonstrate how his training in Graham technique has influenced the development of his own unique style.
