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Final Process Paper: University of North Texas
Final Process Paper: University of North Texas
Michael Ramirez
DANC 4700
8 May 2018
Ramirez 1
Michael Ramirez
DANC 4670
8 May 2018
I believe that this, my second collaboration with Keeley Dunnam, was quite successful.
We knew we both shared a passion for telling a story. Once we were paired up, we worked
vigilantly and were both in constant communication, eager to propel the project forward so that it
could be as effective to an audience as possible. We strove always to make the emotional journey
of the character clearer. In fact, we decided that the primary goal of creating this work was to
clearly communicate a story of a young woman facing a difficult set of obstacles head on and
eventually conquering them (i.e. achieving a major milestone). The setting and specific
circumstances of this story was an arena in which she would encounter four elements (air, water,
we both deemed successful, Keeley Dunnam and I set out on another collaboration. During our
first collaboration, we discussed several ideas. Though we decided to focus on water as our
central image for the first project, we had discussed possibly using a ball of light or energy that
she could manipulate in space. When it came time to propose what we wanted to create for our
final projects, Keeley gravitated toward the ball of light idea, while I proposed that I expand
upon a previous collaboration with Amy (separate composition site-specific assignment), which
involved manipulation of the elements. We were paired together because of how similar these
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concepts were (both involved manipulation of tangible, yet potentially volatile materials through
We met for the first time and discussed the basic element of what our project would
include. Keeley made it clear that it would be a work for one dancer and that she would be
performing it at the final showing. We found that our desired concepts were similar enough to
create something that pleased each of us artistically. We made a few compromises which
actually led to a more fully fleshed-out concept. In fact, this was a recurring theme I found
throughout the several weeks we worked on this project: the more we communicated and
discussed potential ideas (assuring each other that there were no “bad” or “wrong” ideas) and
explored them through trial and error, the closer we got to our mutual artistic vision by making
the work clearer, more emotionally precise, more visceral. We scrapped the idea of her
exploring, manipulating, and controlling the “ball of light” in favor of her doing the same with
four distinct “elements.” We knew we wanted there to be a clear narrative and character arc that
Unlike my previous collaboration with Amy, which featured a dancer manipulating three
elements (air, earth, and fire), we added a fourth element: water. I initially thought that this was a
clever and wise move on our parts since our collaboration featured water as a subject and image.
I thought that we could perhaps reuse previous musical and movement material from that project,
but Keeley wanted to convey a much different journey than that project. The previous piece,
after all, depicted the dancer as water itself (and inside a pitcher). This new piece required a
different relationship between dancer to water. While in the previous piece the water was being
controlled by outside forces (a person carrying the pitcher), this one involved a role reversal: the
dancer was to manipulate and control the water. I then figured that this would likely require an
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entirely new instrumentation and decided to put the old water ideas out of my mind and start
anew.
Our next step was to create a contract, or Commissioning Agreement. This is “a written
document that governs the payment of money for the creation of a new work” (Meet the
Composer, Inc. 2009). This document served as a legal record and an agreement between
composer and choreographer for the music-dance collaborative work we were to create. We
provided detailed terms which we both agreed upon, such as the duration of the work, the
instrumentation, deadlines, and rights of ownership for each party. We also decided that the work
would be entitled, Mastery and Manipulation. Once this was reviewed and signed, we were able
Since Keeley commissioned me as a composer, we decided that I would create the music
first and that she would then choreograph to my music. This is the “music first, dance second”
approach that the collaborators took with the first project. Though it was my responsibility to
create music for dance, I did have some inspiration from Keeley’s movement and graphics.
These gave me a more specific sense of the movement and mood my music was to encourage.
We decided that we would each create corresponding music and movement motives (as in the
motive assignment) early on so to encourage cohesiveness between the two mediums. In other
words, we sought to create a “synthesis between dance and accompaniment.” For the most part,
instead rely mostly upon “music visualization.” I drew inspiration from the videos of the
performances of Inspired by Bach and Appalachian Spring in that both were ideal examples of
clear music visualization. The inflections in the dance were directly inspired by the inflections
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and gestures in the music, and the dance relied on the music for emotional support. In other
Each element would have one or two instruments that represented them. We agreed that each set
of instruments should have a distinct timbre. I proposed that we keep some of the same musical
material from my collaboration with Amy since it seemed to match up tonally with the
movement motifs Keeley showed me as we discussed instrumentation. I later showed her the
music and she agreed that it was a good fit. That music actually became the second section of the
“air” portion. For the “air” section, we knew we wanted a high soprano instrument; we landed
on flute for its capacity to make airy, floating gestures through long tones (sustained and/or with
“flutter-tongue” technique). For the other three elements, I suggested saxophone, trombone, and
trumpet, respectively. Keeley, however, gravitated toward percussion instruments, both pitched
and unpitched. I made a compromise and decided to challenge myself to write expressive parts
for percussion instruments, which I was relatively inexperienced with. For water, we enjoyed the
drip-like sound of the tongue drum and the rain-like sound of the gourd. For earth, we wanted
deep drums, so we decided to use a pair of conga-like drums. For fire, I wanted both an
instrument that could produce “rumbling” sounds, and Keeley wanted an instrument that could
produce metallic “flicking” sounds. We compromised (and once again, ultimately came to a
solution that left us better off than before) and decided to use both timpani (for the “rumbling”
sounds) and hi-hat (for the “flicking” sounds). Our intent for each of these instruments was to
characterize each of the elements through logical sound cues that an audience would understand.
Next, we discussed in which order the dancer would explore and master the elements.
Kelley decided that the order should be in order of what the dancer finds least challenging to
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manipulate to most challenging. Air is the lightest, so it would be first. Water is fluid and
malleable, so it would be second, Earth is dense and harder to break through and mold, so it
would be third. Last would come fire since it is fickle, violent, and unpredictable. The dancer
was to explore her relationship with each of the elements, initially experiencing difficulty with
manipulating with each element. She was to persist and become fluent in the physical language
required to master them. We wanted the piece to portray a rite of passage in which the dancer
overcame adversity and conquered obstacles in order to ultimately achieve a major milestone.
I then set out to create music to support and ultimately motivate movement for the
dancer. I sought to create “a cohesive piece of music based on an underlying thematic principle,”
one without a predictable “technical structure.” (Joio 1963). The elements we were to depict
were somewhat unpredictable, to varying degrees, and I sought to honor their capricious
character. Once I had created sketches for all four elements, we concluded that in order to
portray a true mastery of the elements, there would need to be a final section in which they were
all referenced simultaneously. During this section, the intensity would grow to an overall climax,
suggesting a mastery of each of the elements. Another important element of the work was that
each section should sound very different. We observed videos of dancers improvising to music.
Each time the mood or texture of the music would change, so would the movement vocabulary
or energy of the dancers. I sought to do the same with my music, so that from section to section
so the music would very apparently be distinct from the previous section (and the dancer’s
About two weeks after we began creating the work, Keeley decided upon a new way of
portraying a sense of growth and mastery in each of the sections. She would begin by holding
and moving a piece fabric, each of a different color, shape, or material (blue strands for air, a
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blue sheet for water, a brown sheet for earth, and red strands for fire), to represent the element
and provide a tangible visual cue. The music would then reach a climax and she would release
the fabric and the element would then manifest in a projection, which Keeley would create. She
would then move as if she was controlling the projection, signaling that she grown in her skill of
After our preview performance, at which we presented the first two sections of the piece
(air and water) with the corresponding media, Professor Queen noted that there needed to be a
clear climax in each section. She also recommended that we change the gourd to another
instrument with more reverb; that is, the gourd sounded too dry in contrast with the very resonant
tongue drum. We incorporated these changes: I changed the gourd to a shaker, which was less
harsh and crisp in its attacks, and I created more clear moments of climax in each section.
That week, we made our final changes to the music. Keeley wanted the earth section to
be shorter and to have a lower end; I condensed the section by eliminating a few measures,
careful to maintain the sense of growth from the beginning to end, and I wrote a part for bass
drum to give the part an additional layer of depth. I also created the final section so that each of
The performance at the final showcase was very well-executed and effective. The final
section was especially poignant. It was apparent that the young woman in our narrative had
developed and mastered the language of each element. This was reflected both in the way the
music interacted through counterpoint and in the intensity of Keeley’s movements. I felt as
though it achieved what Doris Humphrey believes is one of the “aims of the theater:” to “arouse
emotion” (Humphrey 2011) The music moved the dancer emotionally and also provided the
audience with the emotional context through which to experience the piece. On the subject of
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music, I made a discovery only once I saw it performed on the night of the final showcase. For
the first time, I realized the how bare and empty the space felt when there was only one
accompanying instrument per section. At first it was shocking, especially in contrast with the
other projects, which incorporated polyphonic textures in larger proportions. However, I quickly
appreciated the vulnerability it allowed the dancer to portray (I felt vulnerable while watching it
too, since it was my music being performed in such an exposed way), and I knew that it was
of my background in musical theatre, I had come to expect that just about every dance movement
should correspond to a figure in the music (“Mickey Mousing”). I learned that this is not the
case. What I had become used to was “music visualization.” “Dramatic contrast,” however,
could also be used to create an intentional distinct contrast between the music and dance. I
realize that some of the most renowned musicals employ a good deal of both of these techniques,
though I had only been aware of recognizing the former, the more obvious one.
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References
Horst, Louis. “Composer/Choreographer: A Symposium.” Dance Perspectives, vol. 16, 1963, pp.
138–140.
Humphrey, Doris. “The Race of Life: My Side of the Story. The Relationship of Music and
Meet The Composer, Inc. (2009). “Meet The Composer. Music for Dance: Composer-
Choreographer Collaboration.”