Conference Agenda

Yao Chen’s Lotus Aloft (2014) is a unique staged solo work for the Chinese plucked zither, the zheng, integrating choreographed symbolic movements that visually emulate the rounded shape of a lotus blossom. The lotus, an essential Buddhist symbol of purity, clarity, and wisdom, emerges untainted from murky waters, embodying the struggle to maintain inner tranquility amid worldly distractions. In Lotus Aloft, Yao translates this spiritual imagery into physical motion, choreographing airborne and circular gestures that transcend traditional instrumental technique. These movements, independent of sound production, enhance the work’s narrative of personal transformation, mirroring the journey toward enlightenment as the lotus blooms in the air.

This paper explores Yao’s choreographed symbolic movements as integral compositional material, proposing total lotus energy (TLE) as a metric for analyzing each lotus-shaped gesture. TLE is derived from three interdependent parameters—circle size, palm pressure, and elevation—that quantify the physical effort required for each movement. Consulting with zheng expert Wang Yu-Chen, I establish a systematic framework for measuring and interpreting these gestural components. Through a detailed transcription of each movement into its <S, P> (size and pressure) and {S, E} (size and elevation) values, I track the energy flow across different formal sections of the piece.

By tracing the trajectories of TLE’s intensification and decline, I illustrate how the performer’s embodied energy shapes the expressive meaning of Lotus Aloft. Stage 1 introduces a cyclic looping pattern that visually outlines the rounded shape of a lotus flower, symbolizing its gradual ascent. Stage 2 complicates this motion with interruptions from plucked chords, reflecting an internal struggle between maintaining purity and yielding to worldly desires. Finally, Stage 3 represents transcendence, with the recurring rising lotus motif and sustained gestures evoking lingering fragrance. This analysis demonstrates how embodied movement in Lotus Aloft conveys a rich narrative through choreographed performance.

Set to Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements (1942–45), choreographer George Balanchine’s eponymous ballet (1972) is often regarded as one of his most complex. A vivid case in point is an explosive, layered passage whose music (R7+1–R12+4) is notable for its irregular accents and unexpected grouping lengths. Balanchine’s choreography sees this musical complexity and raises it, resulting in a choreomusical whole distinguished by an extraordinarily elaborate texture and a heightened formal trajectory.

In the representative passage, the music forges a path of rising, then prolonged, intensity through expanding instrumentation and fluctuating emphases. Meanwhile, Balanchine’s choreography creates a visual crescendo and a corporeal analog to the music’s layers. Because musical and choreographic accents increase in frequency and unpredictability but coincide only erratically, together they produce an almost overwhelming intricacy. Nonetheless, the dancers offer the audience a way into the music as their physical movements embody its motoric quarter-note pulse and visualize its form, creating a dynamic choreomusical experience.

Our music analysis offers a close reading that emphasizes pertinent features in this seldom-analyzed composition by Stravinsky. Our choreographic analysis, which benefits from rare access to videos and to interviews with a Balanchine Trust repetiteur, uses annotated video clips and choreomusical transcriptions to examine the mechanics of the choreography and its combined effect with the music. Focusing on a choreographic work created without Stravinsky’s involvement, our study of Symphony in Three Movements fills a void in the Balanchine-Stravinsky literature that has heretofore focused on collaborations between the two artists (Alm 1989, Stilwell 1994, Jordan 2002, Randel 2004, Fitzpatrick 2020) and history or criticism (Joseph 2002, 2011; Jordan 2007).

The hierarchical framework present within dance often depends on the stratification of musical beats, since one cannot classify a particular step or motion as being choreographically stronger or weaker than another. This poses an analytical problem when comparing the various rhythmic streams since the music and choreography often do not align. Existing analytical processes often depend upon repeating choreographic ostinati to determine the choreographic pulse, however clear choreographic ostinati often do not appear (e.g., Leaman 2021). Analyses also tend to focus on the weight-bearing limbs and overlook the segmentation of the choreography into two different kinetic streams as the choreographic rhythm of the dancer’s upper body may differ from that of their lower body (e.g., Leaman 2022).

This paper seeks to circumvent these issues by applying concepts from Hasty (1997) to dance. Using a choreopictographic notation system derived from both Zorn Notation (1887) and Saint-Léon’s Sténochoréographie (1852), I adapt Hasty’s projective arrows to depict what I call projective symmetry: instances in which a choreographically symmetrical step is used to perpetuate a rhythmic formula (see Table 1). The ensuing choreographic rhythm may be either metrically dissonant or consonant to the rhythm of the music. This presents hermeneutic implications considering how in ballet, the art of gesture possesses a narrative function that realizes plot and adds to on-stage drama.

I illustrate this by analyzing the choreomusical relationships apparent between the prima ballerina, the corps de ballet, and the orchestral score within Yury Grigorovich’s modernist choreography (Marinsky Theater, 22 April 1957) from Sergei Prokofiev’s final ballet, The Stone Flower (12 February 1954). I will focus upon both the ending and the Waltz from Act II, scene IV. The ending, for instance, illustrates the narrative importance of choreography as Danila initially mirrors the Mistress of the Copper Mountain’s dance steps whilst he is bewitched. He later gradually begins to mirror his fiancée Katerina’s steps as the power of the spell wains. This ultimately culminates in a moment of stasis as the enchantress collapses at Danila’s feet and he solely imitates Katerina’s choreography as the curse is broken.