Dance - 17/04/12

Today in our dance lesson, we watched a few clips of performances and we had to guess which ones were physical theatre or not. Whilst watching the clips I thought I got the hang of it, and thought I had the right answers down, but when we went over them I had got 2 wrong. I feel I should research more about physical theatre however I did learn quite a bit from that lesson.

Company                          Choreographer                     Physical Theatre?
Foose                                   Rob Foose                                     No

Phoenix Dance Street           Darshan singh bhullir                        Yes

Royal Danish theatre               Glen Tetley                                    No

Cirque Du Soleil                     Andrew Watson                            Yes

Tanz Theatre                            Pina Bausch                                 Yes


In our next lesson, we sat in a circle and was handed a piece of paper each. We each had to write down any occupation, fold the paper over and pass it along, then we had to write a location anywhere in the UK, fold the paper over and pass it along. Then we had to write down a title of any song and do the same, then we had to write down a saying or a phrase, also fold the paper then pass it along. Once we had done this we got into groups, and read the list of things that we had on our paper. We then got given a large piece of paper and had to write down a connection from one character to another. This will help us with our introduction of physical theatre.

Whilst working in our group we wrote down what types of things we could include into our introduction, we added dynamics and changing from one character to another. After a short while and frustration we came up with a short introduction piece that involves, a book, head phones and 2 helmets. These are the props from our characters. An Italian Teacher, Builder, Police Officer and a song writer.

We found coming up with the introductory piece quite hard to come up with at first, we didn't know how to start or finish; no clue at all. The purpose of the lesson before was to help inspire us for our physical theatre piece, but at the time we didn't think of using what we watched. I think to overcome a total loss of what we are doing, we just need to stop what were doing and think about what we have learnt in previous lessons that could help build a piece.

Singing - 17/04/12

Today we started our 4 week rehearsal until we have to perform at an old people's home in Banstead. Before the half term the whole class altogether learnt 3 songs for our performance, but may still have around 6 or 7 more to learn before the deadline. We have already learnt Micheal Buble's Sway, Duke Ellington's if it aint got that swing, July Garland's Cant help loving that man of mine. These songs are based very much around the 40's and 50's. This is the sort of music the people at the homes will enjoy. I'm not a strong singer at all and I find singing infront of people daunting, however knowing its for a good purpose and others will get enjoyment out of it plus it will help boost my confidence massively. The other only weakness I have is singing these songs the way they were sung, the music has changed dramatically over the years and I'm used to modern music, whereas this is more jazz and swing based. I may see this is as weakness but it can also be made into a strength; learning to listen and sing along to different types of music. I also feel I can co operate the charlston dance into one of these songs during an instrumental, which will also help my dance skills. I've always wanted to try and learn the charlston and I feel this is a great opportunity to do so.

Abu Hassain

I felt this story was sometimes a bit messy however I feel it sort of worked, because the story was so funny and played brilliantly by Abu Hassain (Bradley) it didn't need much choreography. I feel as though I could have tried to control myself and didn't laugh at times, so on my next production if there is a funny part I will have to control it, because it looks a bit silly when the people acting find the story funny as well.

The Story Without An Ending

I don't really have any bad comments about the last story, I think it was full of energy and chemistry. Sharazad and Sharayer spoke gently and so effortless but it made a huge impact. I feel like I could learn something from these two characters and also the people who played them. They may have tried hard but it didn't show, their lines flowed naturally, and everyone saw the connection between them.

The Envious Sisters

This story was about 3 sisters who wished to marry; the baker, the cook and the King and when their wishes came true the two eldest sisters felt hatred and jealousy towards their younger sister who married the wealthy king and they tricked their sister and the king into beliving she gave birth to a dead dog, cat and a mole. I played the younger sister, at first I didn't know how to approach this character. I didn;t know whether to make her timid or an outgoing young woman who only wants the best for everyone. I decided to go with the second option, this character was different from any of the other characters I had played in the previous stories, she was more laid back and airy and earthy. The two envious sisters we're caught out and punished and the 3 children the younger sister had actually given birth to but raised by the King's steward were reunited with the King and their mother.

This is quite a long story and it needed consistancy, sometimes I felt it lacked it. I also could have helped secure the consistancy, by keeping my character upbeat and to always say my lines with a bit of 'umph'. I will take this self feedback and bring it into our next production and make sure I'm constantly aware of my cues.