"Adorn" by Miguel Jontel

I uploaded my very first hip hop dance video onto youtube yesterday and thought I'd share it on here.

To learn more about my video and the reason behind doing it, read below.

I created a music video centered around the psychological science of love. I based this project off of a project I did in my AP Composition class last year. The project I did last year had to do with the Odyssey. We were to make creative responses to the story of the Odyssey, and I chose to base my project off of the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope. I half-choreographed, half-improvised a dance about their love and ache for each other. I performed the dance in front of my class and the project was deemed successful, though I didn’t get the chance to archive it in film.

            The project I did for J-Term, “The Science of Love,” is a music video because I wanted to be able to choreograph a dance to a love song and be able to document it in film. I wanted to combine theatre, dance, and film because those are art forms that I am interested in.

            The research I conducted about love was about how it affected people physically, mentally and emotionally. There are three distinct phases to falling in love: “Lust,” “Attraction,” and, “Attachment”. Each phase produces different hormones and chemicals. In the “Lust,” phase, the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen are released. Dopamine and norepinephrine, or adrenaline, are released in the, “Attraction,” phase. Finally, in the, “Attachment,” phase, oxytocin and vasopressin are released.

            The project reflects these three phases through the dance. In the dance, there are several factors I included in the choreography to show the different effects of each chemical that is released in the phases of love. The body rolls and waves represent the sex hormones in the, “Lust,” phase. The quick, popping movements represent the chemicals dopamine and adrenaline in the, “Attraction,” phase. The slow movements, improvisational moves, and breaks from dancing represent the oxytocin and vasopressin in the “Attachment” phase.

            To create the project, I interpreted the words from the song, “Adorn” by Miguel Jontel, and the effects of love into hip hop dance. I then filmed myself dancing in the cafeteria, capturing myself multiple times in three different areas of the cafeteria. While editing, I put together the dances in the different areas of the cafeteria together to look like there are three of me dancing.