A Summary of What I Learned in Composition II.

Above is a video of my final project for the Composition II course offered at The Ohio State University. The assignment instructions were to "do whatever you want for three minutes." I decided to choreograph a solo to "Rapture" by Antony and The Johnsons. My focus for this project was to play with creating choreography that went with and against the music. At the beginning of this semester I never believed I would be able to create something like this. I had an amazing experience with Composition II this semester and grew in ways I never expected. One assignment from this course was to write an essay about our strengths. I have decided to copy it below because I believe it is a true summary of what I have learned and grown into throughout this semester.

Discovering My Strengths

This course certainly has brought some challenges into my creative thinking process as a student. However, this course has also enabled me to discover two strengths I obtain as a mover and maker of movement. The first of these strengths is my ability to generate material that meets the guidelines of each assignment. The second of these strengths is my aptitude to not only hear corrections or suggestions from my peers and my instructors, by to actually apply them to my work.

The first two assignments from this course were completely opposite of each other. Yet, I was still able to meet the guidelines for both of them. Even though I struggled more with the slow threes, I consistently kept the tempo, accented the one of each measure, and included a range of subdivisions through my material for both assignments. I believe that because I was able to understand and complete each task, I could then give myself room to dive in and explore each assignment through my body after I established sufficient material. It was at this point where I discovered my second strength.

After showing my material for each assignment for the first time, I received some feedback from Susan, April, and my peers. I received the most feedback on the slow three assignment from Susan specifically. She noted that I had difficulty with fully immersing myself into the fluid and full quality of movement required by the assignment. This was because I was not utilizing my plié as deeply as I could. Three weeks after the first draft of this assignment, I performed a different assignment that combined the slow threes, fast fives, thirty seconds of slow movement unmetered, and fifteen seconds of fast movement unmetered. While performing this I thought about physically committing myself to it and focusing on my plié. As a result, my threes were much stronger and overall the assignment felt great in my body. Without these two strengths, I do not think I would get as much out of this course that I have so far, and I believe that they will help me succeed throughout the remainder of this semester.