Evaluation of Overdrive:

My class did a re-creation of the Overdrive dance (Choreographed by Richard Alston) which is a contemporary dance that is based on simple yet challenging moves that involve angles and direction.

In general I'm quite happy about the performance since our group was quite good at timing in comparison to our rehearsals. We also added in loads of energy which made the performance look better.
One of my weaknesses was that I wasn't fully extending my moves which made it look like i wasn't bothered to do the dance. One example is when we do the butterfly, my head and spine didn't go as low as it should be like everyone Else's which made me look really odd. Another weakness is that sometimes I wouldn't be on time with everyone else so I'd do the moves either slower or quicker then my group mates. In addition I also got the choreography wrong when we were in my groups because I got distracted by something which made me lose my focus and do moves that weren't in the right order.

My main strength I think was that in the section 1 & 2 I had good focus since I knew what moves came along next and what I was doing. Furthermore, I can also see that i was focused since I got all my directions and most angles right which was really important in this piece since the dance is all about angles and planes.

Rehearsal skills:
In my opinion my approach to class is quite good as well as my discipline, since I always come prepared and ready to do whatever tasks I am set. In my opinion my best lesson was when I had to create my own section of overdrive since I enjoy creating my own dance sequences. I also enjoyed it because I got to perform it in the dance show when I was in a group of four. In class, I would need to improve on putting in more energy to everything I do, so when it comes to the show I'm ready to give in as much energy in as usual. Apart from the time that I am given in class, I should've rehearsed more outside of these classes so I would've been more confident in performing. Even though I only practised in the lessons that I was given, I think that my movement memory was quite good because I knew what I was doing. I think that the reason why I didn't rehearse outside of lessons is because I knew the movements.

Response to direction:
I think that I apply most of the feedback that I get from my teacher as well as my class mates. It really helps me since I get to see what I'm doing wrong and it helps me improve it so I do the dance/techniques correctly. In addition, I can also set targets for my self, after I get feedback from my teacher and my class mates which is a bit more personal so I would focus on doing the targets as well. The targets that I get or the ones that I set myself , I write them down in my notes so later on I can blog them. Next time to help my development I will definitely practise my dance routines outside of the given lessons. I will also write more about the work that I do in class and what I need to improve on in class which will help me with me developing my skills and improving the quality of my dance performance.

Use of technique:
One of the moments where I danced well was the Section 2: The very first phrase when we're facing the back. There was a part in my group where I had done some moves twice because I got distracted. Soon after I tried to get back into the original choreography and finished it off.

Use of physical skills:
The movements that I found easy were the section 2. I think this because I enjoyed that section the most out of the whole dance so I found it easier. For the rehearsals I had to go over my routine from the group section to make sure I know all the moves. I think that my alignment was quite good as well as my arms. The turn out weren't that good overall so that's one thing that I need to work on which is controlling my legs so they're in a turn out. The spacing of my little group was kind of good since we arranged where each one of us are going to travel and move around with so we found it easier. In my opinion I did the best as I could but not on some of the moves E.G the high kicks which I found hard since I'm not flexible enough.

Personal interpretation:
The music helped me with the counts since I used the beat of the music to move around when I needed to. I felt quite weird during the dance since it was more about the simple movement than emotions which was shown by the change in direction and sharp angles. In my opinion most of the most needed to be done sharp and properly and not relaxed. Specific phrases were for example, the bit where do a step-ball-change to the left and then turn around to run into a shape which would only look good if our moves were sharp and our arms extended.

Performing skills:
I think the dance was quite clear since it was simple and we had repetition of sections in it such as section 1 at the beginning and at the end. To make it more effective I could've made my moves more bold, so extend my legs and arms to the fullest. I think I did look confident in most of the performance apart from the little group section. I wanted to convey the idea of being really serious and collected because that's what the dance seems like.

Reflection:
Id probably advise myself not to worry so much about the dance and enjoy myself so that would also affect the audience.
3 Targets:
-Don't stress over the dance because you might perform it worse so just enjoy it.
-Rehearse the dance outside of given lessons.
-Put in more energy to the dance so it looks more fun and energetic.

Assignment brief - QCF BTEC

Give a presentation of research and analysis of the role/roles you have been assigned in "The best of British" showcase.

For the role/roles that we had to research, I chose Matilda because in my opinion It's the most interesting role out of the showcase.Matilda is a musical as-well as a Film which was produced in 1996 by Danny DeVito. Matilda the Musical is based on a 5 year old girl which is really smart and deals with trouble easily, that she has at home and at school. She attends to a school where the Headmistress is Miss Trunchbull which is the schools most scariest and most strict teacher. She makes kids like Bruce (which is a slightly older boy that is overweight) eat a really huge chocolate cake in front of the whole school because he stole a bit of her cake before that. Another example of what Miss Trunchbull did is that she threw a little girl called Amanda over a fence because she had pigtails. That  kind of stuff was normal at Matildas school.

Here's a trailer of a Matilda Musical which was presented at the tony awards show. I chose this clip because it really stands out from the other musical performances since the kids are really energetic and look really focused on the acting.

However Matilda was different. She was a smart girl who used to go to the local library to read books whenever she wasn't at school. Her home life was as bad as her school. Her parents were always mean to her and didn't really care about her. Even though she was really intelligent they always ignored her. So whenever her parents behaved badly, she decided to pull pranks on them. She pulls three pranks: she glues her dads hat to his head, she disguised her neighbor's parrot as a ghost and dyed her dad's hair blonde. This show's that wasn't really scared of her parent's that much.

In school matilda is really humble. She always does the best she can in class and does her homework. She also tell her friends at school what kind of a horrible teacher Miss Trunchbull really is and decides with her friends to create a revolution against Miss Trunchbull. Since Matilda is humble and fair towards everyone, her friends agree with her and try to go against Miss Trunchbull by pulling pranks on her.




First of all, I'd adapt this character (matilda which is a school girl) by dressing up in the same clothes as her which are a checkered skirt,white shirt and a tie which would symbolise a typical school girl. Id probably wear my hair down just like hers. Furthermore since matilda is a really calm and collected girl, I'd have to try to work on being a bit more serious and act not like a nerd but act like a little girl that is focused on all her work and does everything perfectly. I would do this by maybe looking at primary nerd kids to see how they behave and act like towards everyone else. Along with that, i would also have to act a bit cheeky because in the musical even though matilda is a really good girl, she pulls some tricks which would make me feel a bit better at acting it out since that would make my role a bit more fun and relaxed.

sources:  http://www.shmoop.com/matilda-dahl/summary.html
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMatilda_the_Musical&h=0&w=0&tbnid=Cm9cfhiN60Wk2M&zoom=1&tbnh=267&tbnw=189&docid=NAilnvwjHpxyKM&tbm=isch&ei=gT1yVPD3Fsb9iAKUioGQCQ&ved=0CAQQsCUoAA
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=what+is+matilda+like&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=sTpyVLrJGMfdaqfVgpgL&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#tbm=isch&q=matilda&spell=1&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=YUd9MjNP8eDf2M%253A%3ByV83t96pKhwLXM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fia.media-imdb.com%252Fimages%252FM%252FMV5BNTYxNDEyMDQ1MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODcxMDYyMQ%2540%2540._V1_SY317_CR6%252C0%252C214%252C317_AL_.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.imdb.com%252Ftitle%252Ftt0117008%252F%3B214%3B317

Rooster vs. Cabaret:

Let’s start with the basics. ‘Rooster’ dance which was created by Christopher Bruce and ‘Cabaret’ which was created by Bob fosse are two similar dances. First of all, let’s talk about Cabaret: the dance style was created by Bob fosse which was an American choreographer. He was famous for his hunched back moves and musicals such as ‘Chicago’.

Cabaret was once famous during the Nazis time. It was set in berlin, in Germany. Many Nazi’s people found Cabaret as an entertainment and comedy. The dancers are really charismatic, and you can see this because all of the girls ( Men aswell ) are dressed in tight clothing that is quite provocative, heavy make-up that looks like it’s been overdone and fancy accessories such as hats. The moves come as really sexual and kind of slow. The main moves that Bob Fosse uses are gestures such as the spiral of the wrist where the girls click their fingers, The hunched back, slow cross legged walk and chair moves, where the girls dance on the chairs.

Source of the photo: http://www.southbaymt.com/other/rentals_chicago.html

The rooster is a representation of the animals rooster. It consists of dominant males and sometimes dominant females. It uses natural Rooster characteristics such as head bopping and wing movements with the arms. Christopher Bruce also uses moves such as the hip movement rotation which shows the sexual side of being the dominant rooster.  In the dance there’s a difference between the male and the female. You can see this by the way they get ready, for example, the male rooster would fix his tie and gel his hair whereas the girl would fix her hair or her clothes. This also

relates to the way the Roosters behave in the natural world.

Source of the photo: http://www.macleans.ca/culture/the-reign-of-kain/

One thing that’s similar to Cabaret in The rooster, is the hunched back moves which both Christopher Bruce and Bob fosse use in their dances. Bob fosses hunched back was because he originally had back problems which he used in his dance. On the other hand Christopher bruce used the hunched back moves because he wanted to get into the character of a rooster. Another similarity that the dances have is the overdone moves which are both done in two dances. You have to really get into the character of a Rooster in order for the dance to look effective as well as the characters in ‘Cabaret’ which are really bold and over dramatic.

The difference in the dances is that in ‘The rooster’ there’s a leader which is the dominant one in the group, whereas in the Cabaret, everyone dances together in sync so every move is done perfectly the same as each other. Another difference is that in ‘Cabaret’ they use props such as the chairs. In addition in Cabaret there’s a bit more dancers than is rooster, since in rooster its around4 and cabaret has at least 8 dancers. 

In todays lesson we started off with a Ballet warm up which i found quite challenging since im not a ballet dancer and I dont have a good balance which is quite important in ballet. Our warm up included Pliès and tondues. Then later on we looked at basic footwork of a male and a female in waltz: I found it hard at the beginning but then once i practised, I got better and understood the moves. Further more, we learned how to do a simple box step with a partner which I didnt find that hard since my partner was Rafa and it was quite easy to dance with him. In my opinion it was easier because he's a boy so its better than dancing with another girl. Then we did turning on our bodies and turing of the head whilst we were dancing which i found easy. Lastly, we put all the moves together and created a waltz sequence. I was quite happy with it since i practiced enough to get the moves right.

4th Tuesday Dominique lesson:

Today we started a new dance which is called 'Voguing' but at the beginning we started of with our core muscle exercises to improve on our strength since we need a good core balance and strength for voguing.
Definition of Voguing: Most of the moves look like random selection of poses which are combined together to create a really sassy dance routine.
We're going to be using this dance as an influence for one of our songs from the showcase which is 'Masquerade'.

Evaluation: Acting performance. 

Since September, our task was to learn a script that we were given and act it out. We had to specifically focus on the character that we were given and learn their lines. We needed to rehears the lines in a group in order to remember the play and to act it out as well as just saying the lines. For this task i needed to be focused on the character and try to learn everything about them so it'd be easier for me to play the character. At the beginning, my group was given a script from 'Stags and hens.' , the bathroom scene where all the girls are getting ready for the party. I don't think that the play was well suited to our group since we had people that were at different levels which was noticeable when we acted out the scene.
Since the scripted play didn't work well for our group, after learning the script and acting it out, we were divided into pairs and given another scripts that would suit our level. It was kind of a problem because we changed it after all our rehearsals, into a whole new script that we had to learn. In my opinion it was a good idea because the duo logs worked better with us and we got to engage with the new characters a bit more. After we got our new script, we rehearsed quite a lot, so we got used to the new script and forgot about the old one. Even though i didn't have a problem with remembering the script, i struggled on emphasizing the way i talked and making my voice louder and clearer. I think this is because I need to work on my confidence a bit more, so when i act I'm out there acting and really feel like I'm the character and not just reading my lines.
One of the issues that i faced when i went up on the stage is that my hands were shaking and they wouldn't stop which made me even more nervous. I also had a problem with fidgeting: If it wouldn't be my turn to speak, id fiddle with my hair or shake my legs which were really distracting for me as well as the audience, because it wouldn't seem as if I'm in the character. Before i went up on the stage, i was worried that i would forget my lines, hence in the performance i was saying my lines too fast and overlapping my partners lines because I felt like remembering my lines was the most important thing. I think that my performance was okay but if i could i would re-act it because i know that i didn't act like the actual character would. That was the most challenging thing; that i had to act like the character and not myself. There was a scene where me and my partner nearly kiss which was kind of hard to act out as well because i had to play a lesbian which i wasn't so i wouldn't know how exactly I'd have to show her emotions. I also think that i didn't use enough space on the stage when i was acting.
One of the positives was that we had a scene where we nearly kissed which I think the audience was most interested in because it seemed different in comparison to other plays. Another positive is that I had a good outfit which suited the 'School girl' character that I had to play. In the future, I will try to engage in my character more so I don't act as if its me, I will act and do the same things as the character would.

Monolouge (Modern):

http://freedrama.net/demons.html

Shakespeare:

http://www.stageagent.com/Shows/MonologuesView/1100

Cabaret:

Cabaret is a movie that is based in Berlin, Germany. The dance routines were choreographed by Bob fosse which was a jazz dance choreographer. The dances are performed really dramatically and over exaggerated to make it a real huge show so the audience enjoys it. It's almost as if they are mocking the moves and that they're actually having a lot of fun instead of being serious and doing all the techniques right.

• The dancers use heavy make up including fake eyelashes and glitter.
• You can tell the difference between the girls which are really sensual, and the man which is the dominant one. He uses confident moves E.G touches up the dancers and makes it look like its a comedy.
• The dance performances are all jazz dance. You can tell because the dancers use typical jazz dance techniques such as jazz hands, leg kicks and sharp movements. 

Musical Theatre : Dominique - Tuesday / Thursday

Improvements: I need to focus on extending my moves and finish them off so they look neat.
More dynamic movements: Push yourself!
Thursdays lesson:
Action: I was more precise with my moves since they were slower this time which gave me the time to make my moves more accurate and extend my arms and legs.
Dynamics: My dance had good range of dynamics since my group included sharp moves like arm pointing and then we went off to do soft moves like pirouettes.
Space: My groups moves were controlled because we used the space well by travelling (Doing Leaps and running.)
Relationships: Our connections worked when all of our members of the dance group looked at each other and made contact which was quite clear and noticeable.
Remember: Head up all the time - good posture - energy - synchronization (Timing) .
What went well: This lesson was better since we rehearsed longer which gave us time to edit moves and make them more accurate. We also had a good timing since our moves were all in sync. 

Lyrical Dance.

In Jo's lesson I had to look at one jazz dance style so i decided that i will look at lyrical dance.
Lyrical dance is a fusion of ballet with jazz and contemporary dance. It involves use of ballet technique with more graceful and expressive movements.
The most known and popular movements of lyrical dance are : Pirouettes, arabesques, falls to the floor and leaps. It has quite emotive movements which means that theres loads of feelings involved. Musically, the choreography flows and corresponds with the songs lyrics and the music.

Known lyrical dance choreographers:
Suzi Taylor
Tracie stanfield
Travis wall.

Dominique lesson : Friday 19th sep.
Key terms:
-Subject matter
-Historical context
-Political context
-Social context
-Themes and ideas
-Consistuent features of dance: number of dancers; roles; body actions; style; use of space; dynamics; timing; costume; lighting; accompaniment
Choerographic process/structure

ASDR: action space dynamics relationship

Constituent features of dance includes-
Number of dancers
Roles
ASDR
Style
Physical setting
Aural setting

Context: context is the "setting" for an event that occurs, and it will have an impact on the eelevance of the event.

Context: the setting of sexual revolution.
How is the context of the work seen in the film? Setting of the lights;the way they changed to red when the women came on stage.
Subject matter: the sexual connection.
How can it be seen in the film? Fixing his hair & checking his tie.

Differences :
Martha graham: Her dance moves are all about contract and release (see night journey).
Merce cunningham: Merce cunningham was a dancer for over 50 years. He was a teacher who tought students how to use the space well (Travelling) while dancing. Another techniques that he uses are isolation and planes.
Avin aley : Avin Aley was best known for his low dance moves on the floor. He was also known for his flowy moves and stretchy (Extended arms) arms.
Katherine Dunham was an American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. She is best known for her Caribbean and African mixed moves that were included in her modern dance sequences. She has movements that include a flexible torso and isolation movements.

Quick easy Jazz definition: Jazz dance originated from African American dance. It was fully introduced in the early 50's also known as the Modern jazz dance style. One of the big choreographers that choreograpged jazz dance is Bob Fosse. His jazz dance movements were inspired by Fred Astaire and the burlesque.

Joanne 8th sep.

Things we did:
We warmed up using different physical moves from each person in the class.

We developed our motif movements by adding different levels and contrast movements.

We also had to combine our sequence with another person, in pairs.

My strengths: I can comunicate and work well with other people.

Dominique lesson Friday 5th:

Today in our class we did an exercise  which involved a lot of connection between the students since we had to merge the movements that our pair created with another pair. We also did an exercise where we had to speak and do movement at the same time.
I learnt how to combine the vocal part with the movement which would help me in my musical theatre lessons.
What was difficult? Combining the moves together with another pair to fit it in especially where we only had one person to join me.
Target: I'm going to practise the sequence at home so i dont forget the moves and the vocal part together.