Week #4 - Creating Movement from Stillness

This weekend I decided it was necessary to take a break from school and go to Disneyland, even if it was only for an hour. When I first walked into the park, one of the first things that caught my eye was a window at one of the shops. I stood in line for popcorn right next to it and realized that the window changed scenes every 30 seconds or so. While I watched this happen, I realized that the only reason it was a successful change was because of the lights. There were LED lights all around the perimeter of the window's ceiling that lit different parts of the window. The contrast between the deep, saturated blue in one scene and the bright, open pink and ambers in the other created the image of an almost animated scene rather than a still picture inside a box. While I was in the park I just took the pictures thinking it was a cool effect and that Disney is so clever and then moved on with my night. But, as I was looking back at these pictures to make this post I realized that observing this window helped me see that lighting can make movement. Maybe not literally, but light can make something look alive when it is actually still. When you apply this to choreography, it makes lighting so important to a dance piece because not only does light highlight the movement, it adds to it.