May O Donnell Dance Analysis

Gertrude Shurr, a close friend and partner of May O’Donnell, once said about May that “she goes beyond stop and go, she flows”. This statement clearly dictates the quality of movement that May O’Donnell’s choreography and technique is meant to embody. In class we often talk about how to find continuous flow in our movement so it keeps growing even if the initial articulation of the movement is sharp, fast and dynamic. When watching the CBS special on May O’Donnell’s work, I was able to see that quality of movement articulated by all her dancers. However, I was initially surprised by many aspects in the video. Before watching the video it was hard for me to visualize how O’Donnell technique would translate in a performance setting. I viewed it more as a training method than a choreographic style. I’ve been so used to the repetition and structure of the same exercises in our class, that I did not expect the content of the video to differ so much from our class. I expected the pieces we watched to be like Dance Energies, because it seemed to be like most modern dance pieces from that era. So, I most certainly did not expect such a …show more content…
I found it interesting that the choreography seemed so unconnected to the music. It is apparent from the exercises we practice in class that May is a very rhythmic choreographer; many of her dancers also described her as a “musical choreographer”. Yet, I did not see a direct correlation between the rhythm and tempo of the music and the rhythm and tempo of the choreography. Instead, the choreography had its own underlying rhythmic impulse that steadily drove the piece in spite of the music. I found this surprising because in class Damien plays in way that embodies the rhythm and quality of the movement, so it was interesting to see something the opposite of what I was used