Plastique Animée

Plastique animée is an art form that has been central to my work for many years. As the pinnacle of Jaques-Dalcroze Education, it is not for novices. Rather, it is an outgrowth of experiences in Jaques- Dalcroze Education and the skills developed in the process.

As a study, plastique animée enters the Dalcroze classroom as the culminating experience of a solfège or eurhythmics class. In this case, students study a piece of music that exemplifies the music concepts of the lesson. They work together to bring their physical understanding of music into a loosely organized, choreographic form.

As an art form, plastique animée is carried forward to the stage and performed in public. The theatrical performances may be enhanced using special lighting and stage design, carving space with blocks and levels to highlight certain aspects of the choreography in the style of Adolph Appia.

However, every effort is made to ensure that nothing overshadows the prominence of the human body or detracts from either the music or the movement, such as extraneous costumes, props, or sounds.

The Plastique Composer / Performer

This unique art form is its own discipline, requiring subtlety, maturity, and artistry that can only come with in-depth immersion in Jaques-Dalcroze Education.

The process by which choreographed movement evolves is the critical difference between plastique animeé and a dance choreographer’s “music visualization.” Plastique performers create the choreography itself. By analyzing compositions theoretically, artistically and through movement as their medium, the plasticians coordinate with the sound musician(s) to create a seamless whole, marrying the music’s structure with the movement’s form. In this sense, Plastique Animée functions as an artistic interface between music and movement and works to deepen the understanding of both.

Through the study of plastique, it becomes clear that the entire Dalcroze approach is rooted in music literature. Jaques-Dalcroze Education is essentially a study of music composition, interpretation and performance. In its final form, plastique animée presents the body as a musical instrument without qualification. In plastique, Dalcroze Education is more than a means to an end; it is an artistic end in itself.

The Plastician’s Education

Through Jaques-Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Solfège, and Improvisation, Dalcrozians experience the various parameters of music as physical sensations. Mind, body, and spirit merge to the point that the whole being becomes a finely tuned instrument capable of responding to musical nuance intelligently, artistically and instinctively. These sensations produce images in the brain that serve to chart the shape of any given piece of music. Once those images are refined and consciously labeled, they become the raw materials of plastique composition.

Plasticians become able to create movement while imagining music, and conversely can create music while envisioning movement. The unity of music and movement may be imagined visually as two correlated images. The first is a picture of music notation; the other is an image of a human being or group of human beings moving through space with time and energy. Both images and their corresponding sensations are brought together first for the analysis of the score and then for its physical performance. The final product takes a choreographic form that demonstrates its origins in and reliance on music. It must pass the two-question litmus test: “Can I watch the movement and hear the music?” and “Can I listen to the music and see the movement?”

The Jaques-Dalcroze educational process must align and balance the body in the horizontal and vertical planes, while regulating the body’s nervous system and developing the technical prowess to move with agility, poise, and resistance through space both in time and on time. Furthermore, this special education must train and refine the ear so that it may provide those images of musical notation and physical movement to the brain. Dalcrozians must be able to see what they hear and to hear what they see. Only after all of this is accomplished is the Dalcrozian ready to begin serious study of plastique animèe.

Part II

Plastique animée is a discipline through which one learns to apply the Jaques-Dalcroze principles, solfège subjects, eurhythmics subjects, and improvisation skills (both physical and musical) to the analytical study of music literature. The study is expressed not in theme papers, diagrams or charts, but rather through a human expression of an individual or a group of individuals moving through space. Learner becomes the performer, and analysis becomes art. Here, Jaques- Dalcroze Education ascends out of the learning experience toward the sophistication of an art form. This art form is unique among other forms of music and dance, having as its basis the marriage of movement and music.

The importance of the final choreography cannot be understated because the public at large sees it, and judges it. However, that product, that final plastique will not reflect the principals of movement and music nor the philosophy of the Jaques-Dalcroze Method without the authentic process. As stated earlier, the Jaques-Dalcrozian idea of movement is based on music. The process is born out of eurhythmics, solfège, and improvisation. These three principal branches work to prepare the student musically, physically, and mentally to create movement in space that depicts the form, function, and beauty of a piece of music. It is a preparation that leads to an effective choreography, one that stands alone.

For a choreography to stand alone, it must entice and excite the eye and reinforce the ear. It must be cohesive and free of distraction in its rendering. Therefore, the set design, props, lighting, and costuming must work as one unit to focus on the human body and how it depicts the musical score. But above all, the choreography must be artistic, sensual, passionate, and yet natural in its expression of human emotion and human movement. All of this is why it is so important that students have sufficient experience in Dalcroze Education before endeavoring to build choreography suitable for public scrutiny.

It is not to say that less experienced students should not work on plastique animèe. On the contrary, the process of creating the choreography is the most valuable and rewarding experience within the entire Jaques-Dalcroze approach. How else is the student to learn the process except through the experience? The process invites inquiry, experimentation, invention, cooperation, creativity, imagination, and coordination among peers. However, the compositions should always be chosen based on the student’s physical level and the student’s musical and intellectual ability to anatomize musical works.

The first task in any plastique project is to find musicians who are capable and willing to rehearse and perform live in public. The sound musicians are valuable partners in the creative process. Their opinions and ideas carry the same significance as those of the movement musicians, or plasticians. There is no substitution for sound musicians who perform live at every rehearsal and every performance; the intimate involvement and spontaneity provided by the live musicians is priceless. It helps to train the plastician to remain mindful and present, to remain ready to adjust to any subtle change in tempo or dynamic nuance, and it strengthens their concentration to remain consistent throughout the performance. The involvement of the sound musicians also provides valuable feedback on structure and form, dynamics, agogic nuance, and emotional impact.

However, no one lives in a perfect world. Concessions are always necessary no matter what the situation or circumstance. The live musicians can record the piece or pieces of music. The recording is useful for rehearsals where the sound musicians cannot be present. In any case working with larger ensembles like a choir or orchestra always presents problems with rehearsal and collaboration. The conductor is happier when making all the musical decisions, and therefore, a recording produced by the ensemble is often the only workable solution. This solution can also work when the live musicians or large ensemble cannot be present while on tour. In this case, it is best if an updated recording can be made prior to the tour.

Using professional recordings is an alternative to using live music for rehearsal and performance. Of course, this option prohibits any discussion or exchange of ideas between the sound musicians and the movement musicians. Because this approach uses music “set in stone,” it dictates the interpretation from the outset scuttling any opportunity for discovery or experiment. Using “canned music”—where every crescendo, every diminuendo, every rubato is identical at every performance and every rehearsal—desensitizes the plastician. When doing one activity for any length of time, it is easy to become complacent, to stop listening, and go mindlessly through the motions, which can greatly diminish the emotional impact on the plastician and the audience.

At both the college, high school, and professional level, the approach to the choreography is the same. The journey begins with several eurhythmics lessons that lead to the learning of the composition. The eurhythmics and even solfège lesson exposes the musical parameters of the piece and allows the students first to explore and study them in and out of the context of the composition. It also means that the students have a clear understanding of the tonality and tonality shifts, which implies harmonic structure. Furthermore having had solfège and eurythmics lessons based on the composition assures that the students understand most of the vital components.

There is a current trend where teachers use plastique animée with children who have not necessarily had a background in Jaques-Dalcroze Education or have studied the piece through eurhythmics and solfége prior to placing it into space. The process begins by first teaching a completed choreography to a specific piece of music. Often, the pieces are short, and usually they are recorded. The theory behind this approach espouses that the children will learn about the music by learning the pre-choreographed dance. The approach may be valid as a Jaques-Dalcroze experience; however, it is not plastique animée. This is an example of the historical thread of plastique animée discussed earlier.

M. Jaques created many dances to many of his short piano pieces. These sketches are very similar to what many music and dance teachers call folk dances, square dances, circle dances, or country dances. These dances of the people provide an excellent way to discover meter and learn to step rhythm in time and through space. These popular dance types can expose students to the experience of musical form and symmetry, coordination and cooperation among peers, and physical balance and poise, and they are fun. However, the philosophy behind plastique animée is to have the entire group work together on developing a choreography that best demonstrates what they have already experienced, studied, and learned. The plastique rendering is a vision of what has already been experienced and absorbed. This way the movement comes out of and services the music rather than the other way around.

When developing a plastique rendering, there are many choreographers, but only one director. Each member of the ensemble including the sound musician(s) contributes to developing the choreography. The process begins with movement improvisation to one section or one phrase of the piece at a time. After listening and improvising, the group examines the score to compare what they experienced with their minds and bodies with the score. They return to improvising with the aim of finding a specific movement or set of movements that in their opinion best suits what the music is formulating structurally and aesthetically.

Now it is the director’s turn to filter through the ensemble’s work and then envision which movement idea would best suit the overall structure of the choreography. Often, the sound musicians can be helpful with this task since they are also intimately linked to the music. Once the ensemble decides on the movement, it may be necessary for a member of the movement ensemble to teach the others an exact movement or collaborate with others on a specific set of movements. The director must also carefully monitor the plasticians’ quality of movement with a discerning eye and work with the ensemble members to refine and develop the movement technique. Often a specific movement technique is accomplished by creating special exercises (always executed with improvised music) that build the strength, and skill for specific movement ideas. Some of these ideas may include contractions, spirals, jumps, skips, walks, and any other locomotor movements. Sometimes the emphasis is placed on the breath, and the use of the body’s core or skeletal alignment, and joint articulation. Other times emphasis is on resistance and release, or ease of muscular tension and the use of gravity and momentum to facilitate a specific movement artistically. This part is demanding of the director because sometimes the movement must be altered in some way so that everyone can perform it. Another option would be to decide who can do certain movements or movement sections based on their technical ability at that point in time. Once having completed the first musical section, move on to the next and then the merge the two sections together. Then render section three and merge it with sections one and two. Repeat this process until the piece is completed. Merging the various sections together places additional responsibilities on the director. It is the director who can see the movement from the audience’s point of view and simultaneously experience the movement sympathetically to verify if it matches the music and produces the desired aesthetic effect the audience will appreciate.

This phrase-by-phrase, or section-by-section or even measure-by-measure method is effective when working on homophonic music. However, when working on polyphonic music, the method must change. The first requirement is to set the movement for the various melodies, themes, and motifs and set them so that they can remain consistent throughout the composition. These various components often change key; they appear in various sequential passages, they may be inverted or even travel in retrograde. These aspects are crucial to the choreography. Alterations in the music necessitate altering the movement.

The rehearsal technique will also change depending on the depth of understanding the ensemble has of the piece. However, one thing is certain: never does the director handle the choreography alone or come to the rehearsal with ideas already set and ready to teach by rote. The director is not a choreographer. The director guides, and most importantly, corrects the technique so that the ensemble better portrays through movement what the music is saying.

It is undeniable that body alignment, control, and balance are essential to the plastician just as scales, arpeggios, and slurring are essential to the pianist. Although artists may disagree on specific techniques, there are correct ways to move just as there are correct ways to play the piano. Learning correct ways to move should result in a more natural form of movement, one that convinces the viewer that the movement is both artistic and authentically human. It is a good idea is to keep in mind the three principles of movement developed by Francois Delsarte: First, be sure to maintain the body in a balanced and natural posture; second, be sure to use opposed movement; and third, always move from the pelvis.

A Jaques-Dalcroze Educator must wear two hats, one hat labeled music and the other hat labeled movement. A complete Jaques-Dalcroze educator knows as much about movement as music and as much about music as movement. It is true that some Dalcrozians are better in some areas than others. Some have a special gift for improvisation, some for pedagogy, some for solfège, and others for movement. However, every Dalcrozian should have a clear understanding that music and movement are one and the same art form, and the use of movement will always lead to a better intellectual, aesthetic, and physical understanding of music. These principles are unique to Jaques-Dalcroze Education and they differentiate the Dalcroze approach from all other forms of dance and music education. Plastique animée is the perfect art form to demonstrate those principles.