Music Dance and Expression

Hey all!

I have a short philosophical rant! And it's about music.  

So what is music? You know what, I don't even know. Some genius ape man back in the dinosaur and mammoth days probably started banging on some rocks and made weird noises with their voices. Maybe used some sticks, used their bodies.

The...ethereal quality of music....?

That ape man was genius. Like...I don't think life would be worth living without music. It'd be like living life in plain black and white (not even grayscale), vs color. Or living life blurry compared to HD.

Blurry and clear. Without and with music.
image from http://theonlywaytoeatanelephant.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/blurry.html

I guess the way I view music now is a form of expression. Whether it be creating it or experiencing it...it's expression of one's personal feelings and emotions that those plain black and white words we speak cannot achieve.

At the moment, I reckon there are 3 main ways of expressing yourself through music, with differing amounts of energy expenditure.

1. Writing/Singing
2. Instrumental
3. Dancing 

However, for me, the ability to express music is in that order in terms of expression magnitude. When you're singing, you're just involving your vocal chords and your ears, not much of your body is involved. When you express via and instrument, your fingers, and maybe lungs are involved. But for dance, everything is involved...and you can release your emotions in every fiber of your being. That for me, is my ultimate goal...would be an inexplicably...calming and amazing? To release that energy...and pass it on to people...

Ahhh there's so much to musicality though, and depending on what you emphasize or diminish, can also express your train of thought. Like choosing what lyrics, bringing out which melodies, which harmonies....choosing to amplify lyrics or the rhythm...choosing which.

I dunno.

As Dumbledore said,

"Ah Music! A magic far beyond what we do here."

xoxo

Oh Mothaah

I will prove you wrong. :3

General Update

Soooooo Haii guys! 

It's uni holidays and I've been having a blast xD. I don't think I've updated in awhile...because I was going through my old camera photos and the ones I haven't uploaded were back from swotvac.

So here we go xD

Well whale's birthday was around swotvac ish, so I thought I'd have a go at making a cake during the week where I had like..8 days to study for exams.

SO...I was going to try to make Lychee cake. Let's just say it didn't work out...I think the baking powder was like...too old or something. I didn't end up giving it cuz it was like...half the consistency of a cake and a cookie..but I tried? ^^"'

Bought lychees and everything =.=

Finished...result. LOL

Anyway. Yeah. xD

Hmm what else. So holidays started and I decided to finally throw myself out there and join our city's Kpop dance group. It was pretty awkward at first because I actually wasn't supposed to go to the rehearsal that I rocked up to...It was like for their private performance. But yolo. I was just so keen to dance that I pretty much didn't really care how much awkward I had to go through. xD

It was fun tho, we ended up learning Janus by Boyfriend. First 40 seconds of it anyway.

And yeah, so I guess I kinda fit in with my own quirkiness and ended up pretty much going for a week consecutively to all their dance rehearsals and classes. It was like kpop dance camp 10-4pm. So much fun. Like I didn't even want to eat during breaks because they'd play random music, and I'd be waiting for a song I know, cuz I reckon it's so much more fun when you dance with other people.

Although I think there's a bit of social hierarchy in the dance group, but I guess that's probably only to be expected. I'm just happy I get to dance and I feel really lucky. xD

--

What else... oh made paella with the whale.

Cooking outdoors

Derp

Finished!

It actually turned out a bit soggy, but oh well. It looked nice and I'm not picky with food so it was yummy. ^^

---

Fambam also went Melbourne! It was pretty interesting seeing the CBD. It was pretty much like a bigger, more evolved and mature version of our town. There were a lot of similar buildings and places and names.

It was also interesting the contrast between China town and the 'non-Asian' sides of town.

We also watched King Kong...which was okay? The main girl singer was pretty good, but I think King Kong kind of lacks in plot.

Gelato !

Flinders station..I think? 

A graffiti street with a montage of some pretty deep quotes

Fooood! This was 9 bucks :3

--

And lately I've been dancing even more on the side with a friend doing more specific hip hop stuffs. It's pretty cool and I feel pretty lucky. Some days it feels so surreal how one week I was pretty much just at home watching dance videos and maybe getting up to try a move or two in socks, to dancing most days of the week now. =)))

Anyway, my teacher this guy =D and he's pretty awesomee. (Y)

With dance...like I feel like I'm learning a language. Like with songs, I feel fragments of choreography and ideas sometimes...but I feel like I need to reach a higher level of fluency in my dance...i.e. more able to control my body,... in order to converse and express myself. I reckon it's kind of similar with music...i.e. piano. Except that piano is just with your fingers, and dance is with your whole body.

I dunno. <3 Pretty happy tho...doing something I love, meeting amazing people on the way, keeping healthy.

What more can I ask?

Uni soon. Hopefully I'll manage aye.

I wonder how big of a part of my life dance will end up becoming. Like they say now even if you have a uni degree, you're not guaranteed a job. I wouldn't mind reaching a teaching level either.

I look forward to how much dance might be in my future, and I'm going to cherish every moment. <3. I feel like I'm actually living my life now, not just sitting behind my computer waiting for something happen.

Anyway it's late. Sleep well lovelies. <3


~AP

Current Appreciation~

Favorite song atm: Baby Don't Go-EXO M

Favorite aesthetics...Baekhyun's smile ! He's so cute. :3

If only I had the power to make everyone smile like him all the time....mmm. I wouldn't ask anymore from life. xD

One of the reasons I love Baekhyun is because of his smile. <3 It's like he's the happiest boy

=D

^^

EXO's Wolf MV/ Dance Choreo Appreciation Post

Hiiiiiiaarruuuu~!

So today girls and boys, I have decided to give my two cents to the appreciation of EXO's new song, WOLF.

Wolf by EXO (both K and M)

Korean Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAal8xHfV0c
Chinese Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dVvdVpPIok

Why? Bandwagon? No not really.

What bothers me is that people aren't appreciating the quality and art of EXO's comeback to the full. As a person of a diverse range of random interests, I come with an art student/aspriring dancer/kpop fan/Asian music background interpretation of the song and choreography. In all honesty, when I first heard the song, I was like...what the fuak is going on? The heavy rap and melodies are all over the place, and the dance is weird, and what is up with Kai's cornrows and...in summary: what the heck.

Then I watched it again, a few times, and let the concept sink in.

Thus I reckon from beginning to end, this piece has a lot of artistic merit.

Opening tree of the MV...forest setting/ Womping Willow anyone?

First of all, credit to the choreographer Tony Testa. His past works include Sherlock choreo by SHINee, as well as Michael Jackson's This Is It. Thus having worked with a few names and with a portfolio, you can expect that there is reason why his choreography work was chosen for EXO's comeback.

Personally, I find Testa's choreography's strength is that it relates to the song to a certain level. For a lot of kpop choreo, a lot of the movements are pretty shallow or random, or involve a lot of butt shaking and actually have no relation to the song and its' meaning. (i.e. just matching individual words occasionally). Some songs that come to mind first (not saying they're bad or I don't like them, they're just on the top of my mind right now for nice but not that meaningful choreographyxD) , are BoA's Only One, or Boyfriend's Janus, or Girl's Generation I Got a Boy. The songs are catchy, the choreography is nice and memorable, and almost all Kpop fans who see part of the choreography can recognize the song (especially the more popular songs), but the choreo doesn't actually relate to the song. It's purely aesthetic.

So what do I see as more meaningful choreo? Well Sherlock is one...I personally also like Tarzan by the Wonder Boyz. For Tarzan, I don't like the idea of using such a famous and recognizable Disney character as the concept, but the dance itself captures the concept quite powerfully, with the ape-monkey dance choreo, and the melody is also quite nice and catchy. As for Sherlock, there's choreo reflecting the detective notion of the song, such as the static poses, or the 'photography' of the chorus.

Shinee's detective chorus choreography

Aesthetically appealing ape dance =D 

I guess what I see in a good choreo is that it looks good, but also has a layer of meaning and representation to the audience. 

--

So back to Wolf. I originally was going to find GIFs for all the parts that I wanted to discuss, but alas, I don't think that's going to happen, so I'm going to refer to times (i.e. 0.24) into the MV and discuss the main points that I reckon should be acknowledged. I guess the best part to read the following would be to open the Korean Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAal8xHfV0c MV, and watch it whilst you read the comments =D. 

So from 0:00-0:13

We have the iconic tree stance. I love how the dark silhouette of the tree not only is setting the scene for the 'wolf' as the night-time forest, but it also describes the dark serenity, balance and sturdiness of nature, and the Asian oriental music kind of sets the cultural acknowledgement/ respect for Korean/ Asian pop? It's like a willow swaying in the wind; strong but study. It also touches on the solidity and power of EXO as a pack themself; strong, and dependent on each other (i.e. they can be seen using each other's weight to stay stable and strong.) 

From 0:14

The music changes, and the background drums give an almost foreboding tribal sense that the song and performance is going to begin. The the wolf's claws come out, and it reveals its' stalking nature into the forest.
From 0:22

The wolf/wolves show their voices in their...'human form'. And the love story narration begins.


Btw, I reckon my favorite wolves would have to be Tao (red eye makeup) and Xiumin (looks like a seedy chinese boy), followed by Luhan(first chorus, jumps up and makes the ground shudder) and Chanyoel (first appearance and has the deepest, masculine voice). They just portray different wolf-like personalities.

Tangent: I read this book called Gray Wolf when I was little, it was pretty much a documentary wolf book, and I loved how each wolf had a different role and personality in the pack. There were the leaders, the young alphas in training, the lead alpha, the betas, carers of the pups etc. So I guess what I really like about EXO portraying this wolf concept is that each member sort of has their own wolf concept. Like Tao is the fierce protector wolf, Kris (second to rap/sing) is the alpha, Luhan is the cute middle member wolf, Xiumin also gives off the energetic middle member wolf, Kai (cornrows) gives off the hunter sort of wolf...etc. 
From 0:39

It was unsettling at first, how the rap progressed to a weird dis-chord-like harmony, but I love it now because it gives that sort of judgmental and eerie pack feel. Like in a forest full of eyes and laughing wolves...judging you for falling in love with a human girl. Silly wolf. Just eat her.

And how the rap intersects with the harmony, is like the lovestruck wolf arguing his case and defending himself.

From 0:49
The wolf-like choreo begins to shine. I love the big aggressive and brass claw-like movements; exerting the fierce brute power that the wolf pack has.



At 0:54, it's like wolf clawing.

Wolves on the ground clawing

At 1:04, it's the trademark wolf ears and howling

Naegae oulf!

At 1:06, the brute and animalistic feelings the wolf must have for this hypothetical girl...makes it/him want to claw at his heart to make it stop. (This is Luhan btw! He was the first wolf character that I grew fond of (before I saw Tao in live performances. I also love Luhan's hair in this, and how it's like ruffled and fur-like)

Luhan! ;3

From 1:15

The wolf seems to show its' distress with its' feelings at this point. The choreo is still amazing in showing the attributes of animal-like brutality and power. Lots of claw hands and powerful moves, with some slightly faster moves that amplify the grace of the lupus.

The hand movement at around 1:25 kind of seems to give off a sort of...indecisive vibe, like weighing decisions.

From 1:32

I love the wolf-like jumping and movements incorporated in the transitions. (Go watch a live if you want to see it even better). For transitions, there are wolves doing quick leaps, wolves doing scouting movements, wolves sliding around on the ground.

Jumping wolves

From 1:35

I love the wolf cave as well. How the wolf comes out of its' den, and how the den's creation is in sync with the music and the cave watches the wolf to emphasize the performance and eerie, sort of foresty feel; how there's always hunters watching you and you could be their prey.

Cave

1:45 is more wolf-like running with low in sync claw movements.


From 1:50

Demonstrates the agility of the wolf more-so with this choreo. Instead of powerful movements it shows the wolves bearing their claws and maneuvering in sync and discord at the same time, to emphasize that although a pack may look kind of sloppy when its' executing a hunt, it actually is very well planned and on the same frequency.

From 2:02 

It looks funny at first, but I reckon this little detail move emphasizes the wolf feel as if the wolf was shaking its' fur. :3

Fur shaking

Repeat chorus...Tao's awesome clawing jump is pretty self explanatory.

Tao's Jump

The trees reappear. I love how the trees gracefully spread out though.

Tree

 Lots more wolf-like leaping and clawing.


There's the odd gangster headbob led by Kai around 3:29.It kind of brings a more human element to the performance...followed by an even more wolf-like follow up with the arms and fingers imitating a wolfs jaw around 3:32

Head bob

Claw

And the performance ends with dual caves...and an awesome ending pose...which I presume to supposedly be the shape of a wolf's face.

Wolf Face?

Anyway. I think this song and choreo has a lot of merit, as well as the full album. It's pretty much a fantasy album with references to peter pan, the black pearl, love, wolves, and some other songs in there that make it a well balanced album. I highly recommend it ! :3

Ahh and learning the dance is pretty fun. The choreo isnt that hard, and it's powerful.

Aneeta Ouuuuuurrrrrrrt!