Dance Techniques 2010

48 Understanding the Body / Movement
Danielson says that rhythm changes have a big impact,
in all respects, simply because changing the rhythm means
changing the energy of the movement. To help us understand,
Danielson outlines different types of rhythms. First
and foremost, there is the inner rhythm, namely the breath.
In Humphrey / Limón Technique, one tries to separate this
inner rhythm from the outer rhythm. The exterior rhythm,
a fixed beat, can be present, but it is not essential. Regardless
of whether there is an outer rhythm (beat / meter)
for a movement phrase or not, the inner rhythm (breathing)
is the key as it launches and shapes a dancer’s movements.
By interacting sensitively with the breath, dancers
can perform movement in the required time and quality,
and using the appropriate energy and speed. Only when a
dancer has learned to work with the inner rhythm will she
or he move in time (the final link in this complex chain, so
to speak), and simultaneously be full of energy and able to
express and articulate time with awareness and precision.
In a discussion with Annette Lopez Leal and Alan
Danielson, we attempted to work out the meaning of
the term ‘breath’ in the Humphrey / Limón tradition. We
agreed that the term is used in three different ways. First,
‘breath’ means simply in- and exhaling. Second, he uses
the breath every now and again as an image when he says,
for example, “breathe into your arms,” or, “let the breath
flow under your armpits.” Danielson hopes this image will
focus awareness on relevant body parts and help achieve
volume, presence, and flow. A third meaning emerges
when Danielson uses a breath sequence as a rhythmic unit
for execution of a particular movement: “With the next
inhale, lift your heads and straighten yourselves up.”
Rhythm—understood as a musical component—helps
Danielson structure movement in respect to time. Time,
energy, and space are, for him, three key elements that
play an equal role in defining movement; they are intertwined
and mutually define each other. In his classes, Danielson
articulates the rhythm for a particular movement
sequence either through melodic or percussive music,
through vocal sounds, clapping or snapping the fingers, or
using the breath.
Danielson’s goal is to move the body through a full
rhythmic spectrum during a single technique class—although
most important for him is not speed but phrasing,
as it is phrasing that truly defines movement. Thus
Humphrey / Limón Technique is not only about exact
movements and positions to a specified beat—an overriding
arc exists for individual movement sequences, a sense
of something longer and whole. Dancers are trained to
understand the dynamic arc, which is highly demanding.
Danielson highlights the foot–work he used in the sessions
with Palucca Schule students to provide an example: 14
“This foot articulation work is not just a sequence of five
actions, but I see the arc of one, single overriding phrase.”
Finally, a look at the principles and types of movement
found and used in Alan Danielson’s interpretation of the
Humphrey / Limón Technique. In her study of the Humphrey
/ Limón Technique, the dancer and dance educator
Maria Nitsche separates the movement principles from the
Anatomical Movement Elements
Curve
Curve from a neutral
position to the front.
Initiation
Breath
Weight
Opposition & Succession
Fall
Space
Curve from a neutral
position to the side.
14 See DVD 1, Phase 5, “Feet / Leg gestures 2.”
15 See Nitsche 2010, pp. 11 / 12. Nitsche
learned Humphrey / Limón principles at the
teacher–training program at the Limón Institute,
and learned the anatomical and dynamic
elements from Limón personally.
Sketches © Maria Nitsche