23/09/16 - Dance

In this lesson we were focusing on creating material based on a piece of text in which we had chosen based on any aspect within the Media. We also carried on with material we had previously learnt and developed it.

We started doing a a contemporary warm up, I think that it was effective us doing this as it will help all us with both units we are focusing on within dance this year. To add to this warm up is an essential with dance otherwise can lead to injury if not warmed up properly. I enjoyed doing the warm up as I really like doing contemporary, whenever assessed i was told that my travelling was good which i was happy with as for a person with small legs i have been working on that a lot, I also got told mt timing was good and that I just need to work on my height when jumping and not to overside in my roll which I will work on in coming lessons.

After this we started to work on creating material using a stimulus of our choice as long as t was a piece of text based on the media. I chose an article called Gendered Media: The influence of Media on Views of Gender by Julia T. Wood. I read the whole article and then chose a section to really focus on by still using themes within the article the section i focused on was:

I used this to create a piece about the contrast of the two stereotypes of women but to then show that women can be both gentle and strong and not have to worry about how they are visualised as within the media. I chose to do movements for each category so for the "angels" side i did smooth and fluid movements using a lot of control such as still positions like deep plies in second just moving my arms  and contractions; for the more strong side I used more rough and tenacious moves like jumps, kicks and drops. Using a range of dynamics within these moves to really highlight the disparity between both sides.

When thinking about music I practised it to Really Low Motion - Mercury Rises on youtube as it has really diverse music sections with dynamics, tempo and volume. I decided as it has three sections the slow lighter one at the beginning, then the bold centre piece of music for the strong and then it combines both to create a strong emotional climax at the end so i felt i should combine both sections to show that women can be who they want and be be both whether it may be strong or gentle, they shouldn't feel like they have to be categorised to only one.

         

30/09/16 - Dance

In this lesson I was injured as I had pulled my hamstring the previous day. However in the lesson we had to set targets that were going to try and achieve throughout the lesson, obviously mine wouldn't be achieved by the end of the lesson so I created target i could accomplish over a longer time period.

My Target was to improve my strength and flexibility in my body and core so that as a result i able to control my movement more and with more ease. This would also help with my dynamics and stamina  as a consequence.

The ways in which i can do this are:

1. Knee fold Tuck - This is when you sit up right with a football sized ball between your knees you lift your knees holding the ball so they're parallel to the floor and then continue to raiser your knees towards your chest and back to the balance and repeating in a set of 15-20.

2. Side Balance Crunch - Starting in the position within the diagram below, you then pull your right knee and arm inward towards your body and then extend back out repeat this in a set of also 15-20.


These would really work on the core strength for overall body strength such exercises could be:

1. Working with resistance bands:



2. Push ups, sit ups, squats and pull ups:



and lastly for flexibility:

1. Butterfly stretch: This helps to lengthen the muscles within the inner thigh and groin.


2. toe touch and hold : This allows a dancer to stretch their back, legs, sides and arms giving an overall good stretch.


3. split leg hold : this lets the dancer use resistance pulling their leg down whilst pushing their leg against them before relaxing and pulling their leg further repeating.

Getting Ready For... We Will Rock You

We will rock you - grf

Talia murphy

Summary of wwry:

In a world 300 years into the future, controlled with lies and manipulation of the past, the Iplanet is ran by the Globalsoft Corporation. Iplanet is a place where Rock music is forgotten and if you don’t like, think, feel or do the same things as the Gaga kids you are automatically an outcast creating a world of discrimination to those who rebel. Bohemians Galileo and Scaramouche team together after both being arrested, they escape and go on a journey in the hope to bring back freedom, love and music by fulfilling a prophecy which says that ‘The return of musical instruments are in the place of the living rock and will be shown by a bright star’. 

Themes: Discrimination, freedom, love, Music, dictatorship

Character Analysis:

Killer Queen:

The Killer Queen is the cutthroat ruler of Global Soft. Her role throughout WWRY is as the villain of the story as her journey within the show is to ultimately bring down the bohemians and heroes of the story. Killer Queen has a huge contribution to the plot, because without her Global Soft wouldn’t be a thing therefore their world wouldn’t have turned into this bland, clone and simple world that it has become, she is the root to all of what has occurred in the past 300 years that it is set in.

Her relationship with others varies, for example her relationship with Khashoggi, when I watch these two together in scenes there level of their relationship changes, there are moments in which they act like a bickering couple just before another one bites the dust but then they also work in tandem in scenes such as it’s a kind of magic, however I believe that she is just being nice towards it the majority of the time because then he will do as she asks until he starts to slack in which she then gets aggressive eventually brain draining him.

Another relationship she has is with the yuppies, these are like her minions/back up dancers. Killer Queen uses them as a tool throughout the show for her own personal needs, not much is said about the yuppies within the show although I had the thought that could  be Gaga kids that have earned it or the bohemians that have previously been brained drained into praising the Killer Queen.

Commander Khashoggi:

Khashoggi is primarily the head of the Gaga Police but is also the Killer Queens factotum. His journey throughout the show is doing the killer queens dirty work involving the bohemians and the prophecy, this being said he also has a significant contribution to the plot. I think he has one of the biggest changes of character within the show mainly due to the fact he gets brain drained but is still a dynamic transformation for the character.

Within relationships, very similar to what I said in relation to the Killer Queen but I think from his perspective at the beginning he really idolizes her before eventually he starts to tire of her attitude and being but simultaneously still be intimated by her power. Their relationship is a big play on status in the show.

His other relationships are all reflected through his actions controlled by the Queen, what I mean by this because he is trained to believe that they (the bohemians) are all dirt he treats them like so therefore creating a negative relationship between him and characters such as Galileo, Brit and Meat.

What makes a successful ensemble - S Club 7 - Rachel Stevens

In our groups we have to create a play based on a music band to show their history and why they were so successful and what they did to become it.

Our chosen band was S Club 7 because there are 7 we each got a member each, I got Rachel Stevens, being a huge fan of the band made me quite excited to get her as she is my favourite.

S Club 7 -

S Club 7 are a pop group whose members are Paul Cattermole, Rachel Stevens, Tina Barrett, Jo O'Meara, Bradley Macintosh, Hannah Spearritt and Jon Lee. This British pop band were assembled in 1998 and started receiving their fame through their own tv show Miami 7 in which the played themselves. After it finished they then continued as a band for another 5 years.

Within the five years they had a very successful career as a band including 4 UK number one singles as well as a number 1 uk album and sold over 10 million albums worldwide.

However in 2002 Paul Cattermole decided that he needed to move on from S Club 7 as he wanted to return to his original style of music which was rock rejoining a group he was a part of in 1992, Suka.

Even After he left they went on to create  film named after their album Seeing Double whilst filming this rumours of the group disbanding were around but were denied by the band until just after the premiering and their reunion tour, they announced within a show that they were splitting up.

Here is some information about Rachel Stevens within S Club 7:

Within the Band Rachel was the only one who did not or have to audition for the band, she was contacted by two producers that got her to record a demo for Simon Fuller the creator of the band.

Rachel Stevens was born on the 9th of April 1978 in Southgate, London. Her parents are Linda and Michael Stevens as well as two brothers Leigh and Jason. Rachel's first big hit in life was when she won a modelling contest sponsored by Just 17 magazine after this she then went into fashion and business studying at the London College of Fashion, she pursued other options such as public relations before getting bored and finally went into singing eventually leading in S Club 7.

She was apart of the group until the official split in 2003, she then went on to have a solo career signing a 1.5 million four album deal with Polypro Records as well as re signing with Simon Fuller. Releasing songs such as Sweet Dreams my LA Ex and Funky Dory.

Rachel said at one point once they has split that it was hard to try and create a solo career after as each member were perceived as their bands personas such as the singer, the dancer or the ditzy one and as they never really had a say in the bands image it was going to be hard to break that appearance in which they held in S Club 7.

20/09/16

In this lesson we were looking at our working as an ensemble unit, therefore we were looking at things such as teamwork and so on creating a mind map with what we felt created a good/successful  atmosphere and ensemble:




we then spoke about two we found we were bad at last year within our shows and two we were good at I chose that my two bad ones were :

Patience - I chose this because I have a very small patience and I like to get things done because I'm someone who likes to work so when people were messing around or hadn't learnt their lines I feel I lost it quite a bit.

Tolerance - this was my second and kind od links to my first choice because I have no patience my tolerance for people became very short very quickly and I had to keep my calm a lot because we didn't have time for anything other than rehearsal.

I feel these I can improve by helping those that need help and just keep doing what I'm doing if people aren't focusing on the tasks at hand.

My two I felt I was good at last year were:

Commitment - I feel (and I'm not saying this in a cocky way) that I put a lot into the show last year and I was at college a lot whether it was with production roles or people with their dance numbers or songs, because I feel you only get out what you put in and I wanted this to be the best it could be so I wasn't going to give only ten percent.

Determination - This was a very personal one but also in the group, as I was determined to be the best I could be so that the show could be the best it could be as I didn't want to let the others down, so I worked very hard on my dance number and my songs a lot so that I could nail them when the show came and I feel I did, hopefully everyone else does too.

After doing this we did some improvisation exercises as a group, I'm not a big fan of improvisation as I am a perfectionist when it comes to things like performing so I cringe at myself if I embarrass myself, I have been working on it a lot, I get told its probably a no self confidence thing however I do believe in myself I just cant seem to get 100 percent into improvisation. Although I did really enjoy doing the exercises with Sax.

Overall I think it was a good lesson, I think that my strengths were my input in discussions, my weaknesses would be anxiety and improvisation, to improve these I really need to get over the first to do the second to do this I will try and involve myself more with improve so that I become used to it.

What to do at an Audition? - PAB

Within our lesson we spoke about auditioning and what to do in an audition in preparation for our upcoming audition for WeWill Rock You.

Within pairs we spoke about the question and created a mind map:

A lot of what we spoke about was to do with practicality what i mean  by this is, appropriate clothing,back up CDs or backing tracks, made sure you've done your research.

An obvious thing we spoke about was to be enthusiastic, even if the odds are against you to still keep it up because it is professional and never give up. I have always been taught that if you go to audition to be polite but to always stay on guard and never be intimidated, for an example you may get called to an audition or just go for a part thats a tall skinny blonde, but your short,curvy and brunette don't get put down, still give 110% because you may not get that part but there may be another part your perfect for or they have another project they may want you for. If you give up before you've already started there was no point in going take the experience and use it.

Appropriate clothing, this is always key depending on the specifics of the audition in which you are going to for example if it is a dance based audition you want to make sure your in moveable clothing thats suitable and still looks professional.

Confidence is a huge aspect within auditions, you will always feel nerves that is to be expected but you can always push it down to smaller amount by being prepared. Doing research into the project and your part, so you know exactly what you are doing and that it is correct so if they ask questions you are set. Another thing to help is making sure you have everything, portfolios if needed, two of everything never hurts so if something does go wrong you can get back up and keep going. Lastly making sure you know any script work in advance or movement that is required so you don't doubt yourself and find confidence within yourself much more easily.


We then got given question we may be asked within our audition and to create some answers and then film a practice run so that we got used to it.

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What is Professionalism? - PAB

What is Professionalism?

                                             

In pairs we came up with what we thought professionalism was and created a mind map.

this says : 

• Verbal Communication
• Leadership
• Sense of Personality
• Self Awareness
• Creativity
• Enthusiasm
• Stress tolerance
• Well groomed
• Commercial awareness
• appropriate attire and apparel
• Teamwork
• Maturity 
• Problem Solving
• Flexibility
• Independence 
• Individuality

These were the elements that we thought you needed to acquire. This is the official definition of the word.

                                  

Fixating on the word 'Expected', we know that all these elements should be second nature for someone within their specific industry.

However a lot of the skills which we have described above may not be immediately attained and may require the individual to develop these over time as they gain experience within the theatre industry.

This is where the fine line comes between being professional and being a Professional. These attributes combined supposedly define and identify a Professional. 

16/9/16 Dance

In this lesson we started by discussing our plan for the year in dance and what our units were going to be. They were:

Unit 45 : Developing Contemporary dance technique
Unit 33: Applying Physical Theatre

I really like these units as I enjoy both contemporary dance and physical theatre, Also doing contemporary will be good as it will require more technique and dance element then the just physical theatre based unit we did last year in dance.

This term we are creating a piece for the dance show based on the media and their stories and exaggeration, and how they censor certain things and why. Here is our mind we came up with:

From doing the mind map we came up with a lot of different ideas/thoughts about the theme. Mind maps are I think always a good way to start something because all you can do it develop your ideas from that point as it gets everyone thinking. Saying that we eventually came up with this idea to make it about secrets, and like a Chinese whisper. What I mean by this is how the news take information change it and exaggerate it just like Chinese whispers and it will eventually build up and escalate.

We then through creating material developed even more to that the secret was an object/orb/force ultimately it grows and then buts symbolising that it is no longer a secret. I like this idea as it is quite abstract therefore we can make it really effective for both units incorporating contemporary moves that could epitomize the secret itself and then use the physical theatre to act as the transferring on information and changing of the secret.

Kat then taught us a motif which we then had to develop in pairs using fragmentation and repetition. Fragmentation in short is when you re-order the movements so I came up with the idea to start with the middle section because it gave us a lot of ways to keep the routine going. I like creating choreography and I have done it for a little while now so its fun to get different themes to create with.

Then put into different groups of four we created material with the using the force idea/ the secret. In our group I thought about thinking of the secret as an energy that runs through us, that keeps us going much like how the media and news is what a lot of people depend on in life as their normal routines. So to embody this we thought about pulsing and canon to show a fluidity through our movement.

In this lesson I think that my strengths were developing ideas, creating material and using dynamics within the dances. My weaknesses were our timing in our group piece as well as travelling we very much stuck in the same place so we need to become more aware of our spatial awareness and maybe use more of a variety of sizes to our movements to make it explore the performance space more.

15/9/16

In this lesson we started with some warm up games and then a mini devising exercise so that we could get to know the new year twelves, I think this was a good idea as ice breakers make it all a lot easier in the future when we have to work as a team for our musicals. We then split into our two classes. I found it quite strange when we first started as I'm not used to this as a class it felt like an extra curriculum event but by the end of the lesson it all seemed to fit together.

Talking to Kim we all decided that over the year we wanted to challenge ourselves, improve on our singing techniques like naturally finding harmonies and going further into character development, I liked our outcomes as I think character development is something I'm not strongest at therefore I want a challenge to help me improve it.

After this we did singing, we sang, I want to break free, Crazy little thing called love and Radio Gaga; I love the show We Will Rock You and have seen it numerous times so I already knew the songs but it was fun to sing them through with everyone as we could experiment with harmonies and such.

Overall I think it was a successful lesson and a positive start to the year.