Plastique Animée

As time passes in the eurhythmics classroom, pupils discover their ability to create spontaneous movement while concurrently hearing music from within their imaginations, and in turn, discover their ability to create spontaneous music (vocally and/or instrumentally) while simultaneously envisioning movement. These pupils have in fact let go of their “physical and mental restraints” and have consummated the marriage between music and movement, proving the ancient axiom that “music and movement are one and the same.” These pupils are now ready to begin working in the area of plastique animée; the Jaques-Dalcroze applied art of choreography.

The Process

Plastique Animée is a discipline that has a performance medium inseparable from a learning experience, and a learning experience inseparable from a performance medium. In other words, plastique animée is a process through which one applies all of the Jaques-Dalcroze principles, solfege subjects, eurhythmics studies, and improvisation skills to the analytical study of music literature. The student becomes performer, and the analysis becomes interpretation. The entire Jaques-Dalcroze experience matures into an art form—an art form unique unto itself having as its basis the fusion of movement, music, and now drama.

The expression of the analysis is not in words, diagrams, or charts, but rather through movement in space or choreography. In the classical sense, the choreography is not dance, nor is the performer a dancer. The choreography is the actual visualization of the musical score in space, every pitch, rhythm, dynamic and agogic nuance, phrase and articulation. The music dictates the movement completely. The performers are plasticians; musicians who draw the music with their bodies in space and time and are completely connected to the music.

The Choreographer

A choreographer does not present the choreography to the ensemble or soloist. Instead, theperformers first sit quietly and simply listen to the entire score, perhaps several times. Eventually the “director” invites them to allow their bodies to follow exactly what they hear in the music and improvise movement following only their instincts, not their intellect.

Out of this improvisation, and with the help of a skilled director, the ensemble begins to recognize intellectually the various components of the composition. First the style, then the form, followed by the harmonic and melodic structure, etc. At a given point, they open the score together, continue it dissection section-by-section and note-by-note until the entire score resides deep in their bodies, and clear in their minds.

Throughout the entire process the director, who watches carefully, helps select certain movement ideas that have emerged from the analysis, and helps knit those ideas into a full-blown choreography one note at a time. They then fix the result in time and space. Finally, they rehearse and polish it for a live performance, which always has live music. With live music both the movement musician and the sound musician must be linked and always ready (toujours prêt) to adjust to those sometime subtle and other time not so subtle modifications that always arise in a live performance.

The Conclusion

This art form became a powerful influence in the world of dance but especially “modern dance" from the Russian Ballet, across Europe and across the entire United States. Monica Dale, a highly skilled eurhythmician and dancer has done extensive research in this area. Click here to read one of the many articles she has written on the subject.