British museum “I Object” project:
At the beginning of November we were introduced to the project and visited the exhibit the piece was being based off. We began by brainstorming ideas for our own personal protest and creating our slogans, some examples are ‘gay is okay’ and ‘animals have rights too’. My protest is about people always judging a person by their academic scores, my slogan became ‘academically smart isn’t equal to being smart’. Then creating a series of 4 actions that are representing your protest, which we then merged into to pairs and then into groups and then finally we added the two groups to make one main group. We then one at a time shout out our slogans but while a person is shouting everyone else is moving in and out of each other, I think this was good as it shows how chaotic a protest can be and how you never know what to expect.we then moved on to adding duets or solos. I choreographed my movements to show weight and resistance as my protest is about being weighed down in society about grades and how people who aren’t as academically smart are trying to prove that they are worth more than our exam results. Then we all gather and go in and out of each other once again and we go to shout the opposite of our original slogan so mine turned into ‘ grades, they prove your worth’ and then after every one says their reversed shout, we start to whisper ‘I object’ and get gradually louder and louder until we are screaming it and someone comes in with a yellow umbrella. At the visit to the exhibit everyone was inspired from the yellow umbrella movement which made us use a yellow umbrella.
Evaluation:
The performances shown in the theatre and the museum were a lot different as the museum performance was more successful.
The differences in environment is one of the main factors of why the museum performance was successful as in the theatre we only had half of the stage to work with as it was being set up for A Christmas Carol. This made everything and everyone seem cramped and we couldn’t use the space effectively to create a strong performance. However, in the museum we had a lot more space and was really open, allowing us to exaggerate our movements.
Mock audition:
I created a lyrical contemporary solo to the song ‘King’ by Lauren Aquilina, the song is about overcoming something which became the stimulus for my choreography. To create this solo, I started off by listening to the song closely to understand the emotion behind the song and to listen to the dynamics. When in the studio I began to improvise to the music with the thought of to overcome to inspire my movement. In the final choreography the beginning symbolises the action of wanting something, for something to change, this is shown by the arms reaching out and all the sudden change in direction. As the song and choreography progresses, I start to use the space more to show that the person is starting to change and make their life different. Then there’s a moment in the song where the person is realising that the change is good and that they are benefiting from it which I show using turns and gallops.
Real auditions:
Creating a new solo piece:
I wanted to create a new solo piece as I felt that the ‘king’ solo was lacking something but I didn’t know what. So I began to improvise to the song ‘recovery’ by James Arthur, I decided to stick with this song as it shows a lot of emotion. I recorded one of my improvisations as a base to develop from(video below labelled “improv base”) I base my choreography off of improvisation because of the emotion that comes through when I’m feeling the song as I let my body move. When I improvise my mind goes blank and I can’t recreate what I do unless I record it or someone tells me what I did, this is because I fully connect with the song to feel the choreography making me so focused on moving than on remembering.
I continue to develop the choreography adding dynamic and adding on to finish it. I wanted to show in my choreography that you can break through and grow. This is shown by the use of space and bigger and more exciting movements. ( videos below)
University of Bedfordshire:
I was introduced to what the course will hold and what some alumni of the university have done. Then I watched in on a contemporary lesson for the year 2’s this was cool as I know what to expect from a contemporary class. Then as part of the audition we had two dance classes that contrasted on styles, the first was commercial jazz and the second was a creative contemporary class. In the commercial jazz we did an intense warm up which I slightly struggled with as I’m not the fittest then moving on to learning a routine to the song wasabi by Little Mix. As this wasn’t my style of choice I struggled partly with picking up but I felt by the time to perform it I had it. Then in the creative contemporary we did a warmup exercise with swings and weighted falls. We were then taught a small combination which we were then told to develop it in our own way to create a small solo piece. I enjoyed this part a lot as I love adapting and creating movements. Then we got put into pairs to further develop the solos into duets however there was a twist we weren’t allowed to just teach each other our solo parts we had to use coincidences that occurred to make sure it was interesting. Then the final part of the day was the group interview where I was asked “what inspired me?” “ why pick me?” I did not have to perform a solo dance.
Kingston University:
We started off with an intense warm up which was hard but I pulled through. Moving on we did some plies which had twists and curve of the spine included into it. This was interesting cause it was something I wasn’t used to. Then we had a tendu exercise where the accent was on the and count and had a lot of direction change. Then moving on to a jumps exercise we did jumps in first second and changement in third or fifth I was going strong until the last set where my calves and feet were beginning to cramp up. I need to work on strengthening and endurance for my jumps. We then did across the room activities such as 4 changement jumps then 4 spring step; after a couple of times it got developed to turning changement and then half turns then full turns. Next we took part in a Bollywood style of dance I struggled a lot with this part as I couldn’t see the teacher do the movements and could only go off what I saw the other auditionees were doing, this is because I’m a visual learner so I need to see a person do the choreography to help me learn it. Finally the last section was a creative movement section, we began with an improvisational task which we did in pairs, the task was about contact and how you work with other people. we were given the words ‘over over under under’ using that phrase we had to base our movements. After, we were given a bunch of words as a stimulus to create a short solo piece which we then showed travelling across the room. I didn’t have to perform my solo.
Newcastle College:
We began with a ballet barre class, it contained plies, tendus and fondus, however the exercises were more advanced than what I’m used to, such as a lot of direction change and the use of the inside leg using the shift in weight, despite that I pulled through and was complemented and told that I had passed the barre later on during the interview part. The next section was a contemporary class, we did a swing exercise to get started which got more advanced as we went along. Then we began to learn a small routine which resembles the Graham technique, this was shown in small groups with a live percussionist, repeating the routine twice. Next we finished off with a travelling exercise with included gallops and circular springs ending with a split leap. The third section was a jazz technique part and jazz funk part. The first halve we learned a combination that included pas de bourrées, pirouettes, gallops, circular springs, switch leap, high kick and a straddle leap. The second halve was a routine to the song ‘nothing breaks like a heart’ which had more gestural movements. At the end of the classes I had the interview part which went well but I was told that they might only offer me the first year of the course.
Roehampton university:
After the discussion of what the university is offering and how Roehampton is a great university for dance and dance research we had been put in small groups with some quotes to analyse and discuss dance and culture how the two meet and had dance changed culture or has culture influenced dance. Next we was taught a contemporary class using limon technique, along with short routines, travelling across the floor and then we were put into groups of three for a contact improvisation task. I liked that the audition had included a section about analysis of dance culture. I also like the fact how they are contemporary based training which I’m looking for in a course.
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