Technique Guide: Spacial Awareness - Pt. 1
This Technique Guide helps you to develop a foundation for excellent movement on the field and visual clarity for the performers in their execution of their work. The benefit of the following techniques give you, the instructional team, and students the ability to be intentional with their movements with a system of clear angles, positions, and placement instructions that can be used again and again as your develop the visual package of your show.
Managing the Body in Your Space
One of the things that every program has to deal with is getting all of the members to move together cohesively and consistently. Your veteran members may have figured out how to “make it work”, and your rookie members can be overwhelmed with everything else that they have to learn in order to be successful. Setting up a system like what we have below is a way for the instructors and performers to be more comfortable and clearer with instructions about body movement and spatial awareness.
“Body awareness emerges over time as the body and brain get to ‘know’ each other through everyday life experiences. This is important for one simple, obvious reason. You can’t control what you don’t know you have. Body awareness is a precursor to deliberate muscle control.”
Modified Dance Concept for Marching Band
Concept: Laban’s Cube
It is important to be aware of all the dimensions of space when participating in a visual performance activity. All marchers need to be aware of a concept called Laban’s Cube. This concept has been adapted in several areas of dance to meet the needs of specific styles. We've revamped the concept into a rudimentary version that helps each performer be aware of how much space they take and create precision in performance.
Dance Techniques for Marching?
The framework of Laban’s Cube can easily be applied for the musicians on the field when it comes to body movement in drill, horn facings in relation to body movement, and general effect body work.
Starting From the Ground Up
Imagine that there is a phone dial pad:
For the purposes of our activity, this is Layer 1. We will use it to help identify the 4 primary and 4 secondary directions of travel surrounding our body.
All marchers should envision themselves standing on the number 5 of the dial pad. The numbers surrounding them serve as a guideline for exact directions that should be travelled through.
Position into Motion
For example, the primary directions of travel for any marcher would be Forward, Backward, Left, or Right. In Cube terminology, this would be in the direction of numbers 2, 8, 4, or 6.
To travel at a 45 degree angle, an oblique, or diagonally, which would normally be referred to as forward left 45 degree angle, forward right 45 degree angle, etc… can now be simplified to 1, 3, 7, or 9.
In using these visual aids, we gain the power of clarity when cleaning drill.
“Make sure you are traveling in the path straight to your dot; you are drifting in your backwards slide toward the angle at 9 instead of going straight across to 6.”
