Week 2 - Surprising Sunset

I captured this picture from the parking structure by the dance department. I was going home after a rehearsal and wasn't looking for a good picture to post on the blog, but as I looked around to remember where I had parked that morning my eye caught this sunset. There was something special about this light--on any other day I might not have been quite as compelled to use a picture of a sunset for this blog. I stood for a minute to appreciate this view and thought about how light has the unique ability to make you look at something in a different way just by being there. During the day, when the sun is shining bright, I would have looked at this scene and thought it was an ugly industrial view with nothing special going on. With the sun quickly going down I felt an urgency to appreciate the silhouettes and contrasting colors in the sky before they were enveloped in black. It's hard to see in this picture but the sun was a bright orange that slightly illuminated the sky so that it was still blue. I don't think I've ever seen a sunset quite like this, and I thought that it brought a very calming sense to a scene that usually represents work and stress. I think that's why I've always thought lighting is so important to consider when doing choreography because it can completely change or enhance your intent depending on how you use it. Something I hope to gain from this class is the ability to know how to use lights to always reinforce what I want to say with my choreography.