cats Review and research

 A few weeks before we were told about the audition we went in pairs and rehearsed to perform our interpretation of a dance piece called rush. For the research for Rush I looked at what choreography is and it all starts with a stimulus which can be auditory , textual or visual. To start my solo audition I used images as my stimulus because getting going was something I found very difficult. In lesson we were taught some jazz techniques some of which I kept and included in my solo after playing around with the speed from which we were taught to make sure my audition was unique just in case someone in the class used the same dance move as me in their choreography. During rehearsals I struggled a bit to focus and get on with my work because there were other students in the room and some seemed to have made a lot more progress than I had therefore that put me down a bit however I used most of that time doing research into street jazz which I thought was my strong point. For some time I had a solid 1 minute street jazz piece which I was proud of because I was playing to my strengths and not trying out new things. The images below are the ones that caught my attention during research.

Even though I had a minute worth of choreography I was a bit unhappy with my finished product because I didn't input enough of the research into my choreography. I remembered that you can have different types of stimulus therefore I decided to try out using the music from cats as my stimulus. After the improvisation I found myself creating still images that I had found in my research about cats. I then included some dynamics to link the still images that i created for example in the rush piece I used cartwheels to get from point at to b therefore i decided to build up on that because the rush workshops were the foundation of developing choreography.


REVIEW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr7Uxllaxwc

I think that the performance went well because I found myself struggling to come up with a start to the piece when we first started. In my choreography I explored a lot of choreographic devices to try and improve and extend the quality and quantity of my audition. To begin with I put together the movements I liked from the jazz lessons we had because the performance had to be jazz related. I then linked this project to my previous dance projects and went through the process of playing around with choreographic devices like reputation and fragmentation. I also played around with the pace at which I was performing and though of different levels because cats are always moving around and creating different freeze frames. This allowed me to have a minute and a half worth of material , I then decided to develop my piece focusing on street jazz because street dance is on my strengths in contrast to the cats dance style. adding in some street moves allowed me to have a full audition which I was happy about at first then I thought that I hadn't challenged myself enough therefore I started watching some clips from the musical. I enjoyed what I saw therefore I started to try out a few for example I practised the leaps which I showed to my friends. They liked what I was putting on display and one of them suggested that I do some floor work to contrast the leaps. I then played around with some floor work , some of it I was taught by the teacher in lesson and some of it I found in some videos related to the play. At this point my new piece was starting to come together therefore I decide to stay behind and use the dance studio after college. Listening to the music over and over again I started to improvise and ended up with some moves that we see in the final piece like the cartwheels which allowed me to travel from A to B which including concern for the space I had to perform. Trying out the new moves was paying off and I decided to include some street moves from the previous choreography because I didn't want to put all that effort to waste plus the street moves added to making my performance unique to the rest because we were all taught the same things in class and were likely to have similar final performances which is something I wanted to avoid.

wagwan

in todays lesson we discussed political issues that affect our lives and how we hear about them. the tree i picked were addiction , teenage pregnancy and increase in transport fees because they have affected my daily life. after the discussion we got to choose a character out of a policeman, celebrity , MP and baraster then create another character that has an opposing point of view to get us to write a persuasive piece.  i chose the celebrity and decided to adda reporter who was going to oppose the celebrity.

Check list

Magic Sibanda

 

1. Make sure you are doing all work in posts and linking the posts correctly to their Unit (See Ashley or Katie for help if needed)

Costume

1. Upload pictures of each page in your Costume Portfolio, you should have;
   1. Character and text analysis
   2. Costume research – Period and social status
   3. Costume plot for THREE characters
   4. Written work about how no. 1 has contributed to no. 2
   5. Colours, fabric swatches and measurements
   6. Initial designs - Based on established period and social status
   7. Established designs with written work about practicalities, character portrayal, portrayal of mood/emotion

Drama

1. Make sure all PAB work is uploaded to blog including slides, notes & presentation recordings
2. Evaluate your Faustus Performance
3. Reflect on blocking and the rehearsal process for Electra
4. Look at each show of Electra and how well you are doing identify strengths/ weaknesses and what you could do to improve for the next one.
5. Include a review of Electra Performance at Old Vic

Dance                                                                                                                     

1. Upload Rush Review
2. Reflect on your Into the Woods Rap
3. Reflect on how your CATS solo is progressing

electra rehearsal logs and audtion

Electra audition was the first of four that we went through for this unit. Building up to the audition i was slightly nervous because as I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out. We were then told that it was going to be a workshop audition which had less pressure in contrast to other auditions an actor may come across with. Having less pressure came at a cost of showing group setting qualities like working in a team and complimenting each other during the audition process.

 During this audition we were introduced to masks which already had emotional expressions on them. Having the masks forced me to use more body expressions because the mask covered my face. I also felt like I had to match my body posture to the emotion my mask had. 

In Greek theatre they would have used masks to help the audience seating far see how the characters were feeling. All their body language movements would have exaggerated for the same purpose. I think that this is what influenced the over the top Shakespearean acting that those who don't relate to theatre think theatre is.  

I think that this audition worked well because there was no pressure which enabled people to express themselves. We also performed improvised pieces that I later on realized were plots from the play. The director wanted to se how we would react to the scenarios to help determine who we could play. In another audition we could have walked in alone and given the scenario and the word go which is much tougher because you have nothing to react to in contrast to having another person you can feed off.

For the purposes of the play I think that this type of audition worked. Some modern films require the actor to act by themselves and react to a fictional character that wont be physically be there on set but is later on added on the computers.

04/11/14

This was the first lesson which we had without the script however this didn’t go well because I didn’t know all my lines by heart and even when I was getting prompted I still struggled. The objective for next lesson is to be off script and I think to achieve this will need to go through my lines plenty of times and maybe ask a friend to help me go through the line because doing them by myself hasn’t got me very far. Remembering the blocking of what we had so far was a positive because it allowed the rehearsals to run smoother because we didn’t have to keep stopping to remember what we had already blocked.

What is costume?

what is costumewhat is costume What is costume?

Costume is a specific type of clothing that tells you about one's :

-social status
-geographical location
-time period
-occupation
-weather
-ethnicity
-age

-personality


Where is costume used ?

There are four main categories where costume is used which are theatrical ,holiday or festival ,national costume and cosplay. Theatrical theatre involves children's theatre , film costume designing and theatre costume design for plays, musicals and dance costume designs. Holiday and festival costumes can tell us what time of the year it is for example Christmas and Halloween clothing , when you on holiday in exotic places you often get performances by the locals and they may be dressed in a certain way while performing. National theatre costume tell us what geographical location one is from for example the Scottish men wear kilts, this also represents a nations pride and it found all over the world for example Nigerians dress in a certain way. Cosplay is short for costume play from the Japanese , it is when people dress up in certain characters and interact with others ,this has been adapted by fancy dress for example children dress up as superheroes and treat each other as those heroes they are dressed as.

artistic policy assignment 3

dv8

dv8 artistic policy

What is choreography

Choreography





choreography is a mixture of sequence and movement in dance. it is divided into four main categories which are MOVEMENT ;STIMULI ;MOTIF and CHOREOGRAPHIC DEVICES. These four categories help performers express their emotions and tell a story for example in the first dance lesson we watched a piece called rush by Arkadamkhan.

At first I thought that rush was about people who were locked up then set free and were happy to be out in open space. The teacher then explained that it was expressing the different emotions you get when you jump off a plane and open your parachute. MOTIF is made up of four categories these include :
 - actions for example jumping and turning are the bases of any performance because without them the performers would be static therefore there would be not much of a performance. Actions work alongside the use of space,dynamics and relationships to form a performance. They can be often repeated to form a motif which can re enforce a point in the story or message the performer is trying to put across for example in rush the performers used a lot of rolls to express the feeling of letting go when jumping out of a plane. When you roll on the ground you let go of yourself and depend on the ground. I think that in rush the choreographer uses the floor as a metaphor of  air because when you jump out of a plane and open that parachute you are dependant to the air.

-dynamics include how sharp or smooth the movements are done ,if they are done fast or slow. These are very important in a choreographed piece because they help the audience understand how the performer is feeling and also allows the performer to give the audience the wow factor when the contrast of dynamics are put together. Rush is an example of the effect of contrasting dynamics because they had a point were they moved very slow almost as if they were about to end the piece then all of a sudden had very sharp explosive movements that got my attention and made me want to know what was coming next.

-use of SPACE this includes formations (where performers are placed in the stage) . This also determines if performers are upstage or downstage and  levels because if everything was done in one level the performance can be boring therefore choreographers play around with levels to make the performance that little bit more eye catching. Diversity are one of the most successful street dance crews and they are the perfect example of how much playing around with levels can change a performance for example they may be doing the same movement but some of them would be on their knees while others are standing up which makes the performance that extra bit special.

Relationships help the audience understand the storyline or message the performers are trying to put across. They are enforced by the use of space for example if it was a duet and the two performers were always close to each other or expressed the interest of wanting to be close to each other it can imply that they love each other. Relationships also work alongside the use of actions and dynamics to help the audience come to a conclusion about the storyline. Sometimes relationships can be between a performer and a prop for example someone may have a teddy bear and how they act around that teddy bear can help the audience come to a conclusion of the relationship that person has with the teddy bear. Relationships with pros can also help the audience know more about the characters for example if the performer had a teddy bear it helps let the audience know about that person's age. If the character has a teddy bear and they are 40 years of age it lets the audience know that the person may be lonely or don't easily let go because they may have had that teddy from a young age or maybe it was given to them by someone special to them which can also imply that they don't easily let go of things. The fourth wall was broken years ago therefore characters can have relationships with the audience for example in some physical theatre productions the audience may be involved in the performance. The relationship with the audience can just be simply how audience react to a character for example audience normally like the hero not the villain for example in classic theatre the audience would hate the character of Richard in shake spear's Richard IIV because of his actions in the play . In Greek theatre they are formed through the chorus because they comment on the character's actions and sometimes foreshadow what is going to happen. the chorus observe and comment which help the audience relate more to the performance because both the audience and the chorus are watching what is going on in the stage however the chorus can comment on the performance while it is happening which the audience can not do.

i was paired with John and Natalie to perform our interpretation of rush after we watched and ran though the whole choreography as a class. this was not an easy task because everyone in the group wanted us to perform the piece in their way therefore we had to find a way to put together everyone's ideas in the final product. half an hour later we had to perform what we had put together in front of the rest of the class, however we were not ready because we were having trouble with the rolls therefore we spent a lot of time trying to make sure that we got them right. one of the members of our group came out of character during the performance because all the other groups kept going longer than us therefore we noted this down to make sure that it doesn't happen in our assessed piece. Natalie was missing for the next lesson and rehearsal and she missed a lot therefore myself and John perform a duet of rush. during this lesson we had to write movements and dynamics from which we randomly selected six to use. we were asked to create three still images that express falling, initial ideas we heard were being upside down in different positions. some of the positions were kept however some we had to leave out for our safety after trying them a few times. the six actions and movements we selected were then used as transitions for our piece which allowed us to increase our time length performing our interpretation which was a problem in our last draft as it led to Natalie coming out of character. we recorded our progress and met up to rehearse after one of our lessons to make sure we do well in the assessment because we only have one lesson a week of an hour duration. our final piece went well considering the contrast of it to our first draft which was only three rehearsals ago, away from the room we both researched choreography to help us make decisions on how to alter the original rush piece and make it ours. we played around with different speeds ,John wanted our piece to start on high tempo so that our audience are engaged from the first second however I thought that it would be better if we started slower and gradually build it up because the set of movements we put together looked more effective slower. everything was going great up until the last few seconds as I dropped John onto the floor, in the future we would find another way of safely putting John on the floor from the last still image. the main reason i think this happened was because we didn't have a lot of rehearsal time because we rehearsed once outside the lesson and we were still worried we would forget some movements going into the final performance of our interpretation of rush.



My opinion on the initial view of rush was mixed because I didn't understand what was going on and everything kind of happened too quick. the performers were all wearing plain black clothing which implied that they were all equal. I thought that was a weakness in the performance because it did not compliment or contrast the light blue wash provided by the lighting. Performing the piece and being involved in the choreography was different from my initial thoughts about the piece because watching it for the first time I didn't like it. the reasons i didn't like it were that they used too many basic movements which made them lack that wow factor. If i was the choreographer I would have included some lifts and falls because it visually looks better and it would have made it clearer for the audience what the piece was about. this is something we improved in our piece to the audience engaged. the use of the floor was their main strength because they included a lot of rolls and quickly getting up then back to the rolls which made the piece a bit exciting to watch. their movements were sharp which i think is something the choreographer took sometime making sure was spot on.


Costume that we wore in our duo did not reflect or represent anything. I

University of Sussex

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/ug/2014/1559/30158

the university of Sussex is not far from home therefore if I wanted to stay close to home this would be ideal. the university is ranked the 10th institution recommended for drama and dance which leads me to think that it should have very high standards which puts me at an advantage as a student because it would help bring the best out of me. the course I have chosen to study is a BA (hons) in drama,theatre and performance which deals with issues and questions linked to theatre ,i think that this course would be best for me because it would not only improve my communication skills but also develop my thinking as a creative practitioner. Sussex university also offers their drama and dance students to perform at the Brighton international festival.

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/drama/drama-theatre.aspx

Birmingham university is currently ranked 1st by the guardian university guide out of hundred other universities. this university is a bit distant from home but that can be an advantage and a disadvange because it is miles away from home which enables me to deal with situations that come my way individually. The distance would mean that i would have to move out of home which means i have to provide myself accommodation and those funds used for accommodation could make a difference in paying back my student loan after my three years of study.

http://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/alumni/alumni-profiles?tag=1864

the trinity laban conservatoire of music and dance is in the top five gurdain university guide. this university specialises in music and dance therefore studying dance at trinity would ensure i get high intense training. this is enforced by their very impressive alumni producing some great choreographers.

Performance CV

Height: 5'9

Skin colour: black

Eye colour: brown

Build: athletic

Contact: 07445427078

Training

Performing arts (acting diploma)
Musical theatre diploma


Skills:

Multilingual

Roller blading

Athletic (semi pro football, ex county representative in 1500m )

Ice skating

Public speaking


accents: South African, Jamaican, Nigerian, Southern English, RP

character range: 14 - 24

Experience:

2010 : Performed 'Blood brothers' as the role of mickey at Worthing Connaught theatre
2011: performed 'Antigone' as creon as the role of creon at Chichester festival theatre
2012: performed 'Freedom selling speech' for connections at the Capital theatre as the role of Sheriff
2014: Performed 'Our country’s good' at the riverside theatre as the role of Ketch freeman and the Aborigine

Pre deign research

for this projected we had to design costume for children which meant that there were a few factors that were key to having this a successful project. The things I thought were key for the assignment were making sure that the costume was appropriate for CHILDRENS theatre. When you go and watch a performance for children's theatre you would find that they are a lot of bright colours because that is what children respond to. If you have dull colours that don't  contrast children tend to get bored and switch off therefore as a designer I have to make sure that I engage the character with the audience through my costume design.


 Social status is also very important because it has to be reflected through the character's costume for example you wouldn't get someone of a high class wearing torn clothing. The social status also gives the audience some ideas of what kind of personality the character has. Costume helps influence how the audience feel about the character therefore I need to make up my mind when making costume about how I want the audience to react to the character. I think that social status would be a key factor because if the character is of a lower class the children would be more likely to empathise for them.

actors measurements need to be precise unless there is a valid reason of having them bigger for example if you wanted to reflect social status you would have the actor wear clothing that is too big for them. This would help imply to the audience that they can't afford clothes their own size. Having clothing that is too big would also affect how the character walks because the clothes are dragging them down to earth.

For the context we would need to make sure we have  suitable material and fabrics because in most children's productions characters are moving around a lot. As a designer I need to be aware of what material the character can and can't have on their costume to make sure that they perform well without having to worry about how they are affected by the costume. The material also tells the audience what period the play is set in because fashion is always evolving as technology is advancing.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWwYt3O-MAo      this is an example of children's theatre