Latest Performing Arts Lessons

Throughout the past few weeks we have all been focusing on jazz workshops, some as a whole group and some as split up groups.

As a class we all learnt a dance to song 'All that jazz', this was fun and interesting. We each had a line to sing solo whilst dancing. This dance was a Fossy style dance which had different paces as some bits were fairly slow and others were quite up to beat and fast. This dance was all about the little movements such as the hands and fingers. Although they are fairly small parts you had to make sure the movements were perfect as this fits into the style of Fossy. We filmed this dance as well to keep a record evidence that we done it and also could watch it back to see how we done and if it needed any improvements.

Another task for this whole Jazz assignment was for us to teach a dance to the rest of the group. We were split up into three groups and three dance categories to chose from, the styles were either, Rock 'n' Roll, Street or Lyrical. I was in the group of rock 'n' roll. As a group we all worked together to choreograph a dance to the song Candy man. After we had learnt this and made sure we were confident with the moves we then were ready to teach it to the two other groups. The first group that taught us their dance was the Lyrical jazz group, I found parts of this dance quite challenging and other movements fairly easy. Overall this dance was a good dance. My group was the second group to teach; before we started we went through the dance to show the rest of the group the rhythm of the music and how it looks. I taught the first section to the dance and as a group we taught some of the basic steps and alternative steps that they could chose from of what they thought they found easier. I made sure that for some people that weren’t quite grasping a move that I would go over to them and help them until they got it. I also faced them now and again to show them from front on. Lastly was the street dance turn, personally I found that the people teaching this dance were very good as i understood the moves quicker and was able to perform this without forgetting and finding it hard. When we were teaching our dances, we made sure that it was all being filmed for evidence.

I found these workshops very enjoyable however parts of it challenging. I liked the all that jazz dance and found this fairly easy to remember. I also enjoyed the teaching part of it too. I think I could have improved my teaching part of the dance by being more confident when it was being filmed.

MSH's Got Talent

Over the past few weeks we have all been working on a dance for a talent contest. Everyone of us have been putting all our effort into it and enjoying each rehearsal. I have missed a few of the lessons due to a injury on my leg therefore it took me slightly longer to learn parts of the dance however i managed in the end. On the 2nd of october 2011 all of our performing arts group went to watersmeet theatre to perform in a talent contest, this was for charity to raise money for Mount Vernon Hospital. We all got there in the afternoon to arrive for rehearsals, this heleped us decide our positionings on the stage and how we would all fit. The song we were dancing and singing to was very upbeat, it was a number from the musical hairspray called 'You cant stop the beat'. There were five main singers who sung solo parts, this was chloe stockman, kelly rolfe, alice norris, katie burrows and laura-anne, all of these got given very expensive head mic's each. The rest were all dancers including myself.

After running through the performance a couple of times, as a group we all went out for lunch to a Chinese buffet. Afterwards we walked back to the theatre and watched some of the other performers that were practising for that night as well. After a couple of hours we all went down through the corridors to our dressing room so we could have plenty of time to prepare ourselves for the show. Before starting my hair and make up I got changed into my costume which was a brightly coloured orange top and a high-wasted white skirt, with skin coloured tights and white plimsolls. A little while later we all started to do out hair and make up. I done my face make up myself and then Miss Dolan done my eye make and added some glitter and eye shadow. Once I had finished this, I started to do my hair by plaiting the fringe in a french plait and then curling the rest of my hair to fit in with the theme hairspray which is what our dance music is from.

Once we were all ready we then got called up to go backstage and wait for our turn. Whilst waiting we were able watch some of the other performances that were before us and they were all very good. It then got to our turn and we all waited nervously but excited off set, the music then started and the three singers began. We all went on to stage and performed. I feel that i could have done slightly better however it was a fun experience and we all got a lot of claps at the end from the audience. We then got feedback from the judges and there were mixed opinions, some loved it and others gave some negative comments that were not very nice and quite personal therefore we complained because we were performing for charity and was meant to be a fun and creative event to show of out skills and fun side of performing arts. But as an overall experience i thought it was something to learn from and a fun and eventful day.
Below are some pictures that were taken from the performance day:





          

Musical Theatre Unit!

Since we started our musical theatre, individually, we have been given some great tasks to work on. Our main focuses at the moment are dancing singing and acting to the song 'All That Jazz'. Each of us has a line or two to sing from this song and have all choreographed dance moves to add to the singing. We have just finished choreographing the end of the dance; where part of it we use a chair as an object to make it more interesting and entertaining.
Other than this, Miss Dolan has also chosen solos, pairs or groups of three to perform a song from a piece of musical theatre, she put me, Chloe Stockman and Louise Baker in a group and set us the task to sing 'Somebody to love' from the performance 'We Will Rock You'. Chloe is the main singer who is called 'Scaramouche' and me and Louise are the Ga Ga girls which is a fun character to play. I am still quite nervous about singing in front of people as it’s not my strong point but hopefully once I have done it, I won’t be as nervous, just like the first time when I danced in front of people. My group chose to add in a bit of acting before the singing starts and bit in the middle, just to make it more audience evolving and entertaining, this will also help me get in my character more before I start singing. Throughout the singing, we have choreographed small dance moves as well.

On Friday 1st July, we all will be performing to an audience in the school hall, which im looking forward to however quite nervous as well. We will all be showing our 'All that Jazz' dance and some of us may be performing our grouped musical theatre performances depending on how far we have got.
 Costume Construction has also been very involved with 'We Will Rock You'. We have now all come to an end of the unit, so i have finally finished my Bodice and Skirt; I have also added some decoration to the costume to make it more effective. Last week we all done a mini photo shoot in our costumes, with make up and back combed hair to get the full look of the 'We Will Rock You' characters. It was a lot of fun once we had all got into it.

Here are pictures of my skirt and boidce finished:

Costume Construction

In costume contruction these oast few months, i have been finishing off my skirt and working on my bodice.

Thr bodice will match my skirt for the theme We Will Rock You,

Nearly all of my Bodice will be made out of the material denim.

I have laid my paper pattern onto my denim and cut round the shape of the paper pattern. I then repeated this with each of the other seven patters. So I should have ended up with eight pieces of denim.

Once I had cut all of the denim pieces out, I then pinned each of them together in the way that mu corset will be made oncee sewed. Once they had been pinned together and I had made sure that they were all in the right order, I then lightly hand tacked each piece of denim were I had put the pins in, as I was tacking I slowly and carefully took the pins out. The reason why I had to tack was because when I went to sew on the sewing machine, it would be a guideline for where I would sew as well as keeping it in place when

sewing on the machine. This saves plenty of time and using the machine will be easier.

Once I had sewed my corset together I will then add a rim around the top and the bottom of my corset which will make it look better and be more secure.

Once I had done that I will get some elastic which I will add to the back of my bodice to make it more secure and flexible.   

 

I am looking forward to seeing how my costume will look when its finished.

 

 

Xfactor tour!

On the Saturday 5th March, me and a friend went to see the xfactor tour at Wembley arena! It is where most of the xfactor finalists that were on the live shows perform to many parts of England. The finalists that made it to the tour were One Direction, Matt Cardle, Aiden Grimshaw, Paige Richardson, Wagner, Rebecca Ferguson, Cher Lloyd, Katie Waissel and Mary Byrne. I was impressed with every one of them when they performed. I would say that my favourite was probably Cher Lloyd. When i watched her on television I thought she was a good singer but not amazing but when she performed live I thought she was by far the best. Her voice sounded unique and strong. My other favourite was obviously One Direction. As well as them being great entertainers, all five of them were also great singers. My favourite out of the band is Harry Styles; I think that he has the most powerful voice out of the band however i think that Zayn has the most unique voice in the band. Either way though, they are all very good! At the end Matt Cardle sand some of his best songs that were sung in the live shows like Bruno Mars: Just the way you are, Katy Perry: Firework and The Moody Blues: Nights in White satin. The last song he performed was his winner’s single which became Number 1 on the Christmas charts. I think Matt Cardle has a beautiful voice.

However not only did we get to watch the finalists perform live, an hour before the show actually started I knew someone that works with the production team that was able to get me and my friend meet and greet passes! When I got told this, I was even more excited, it was such a bonus to the night. So instead of having to be at the place at half seven we had to get there at quarter to six. We went in to get out tickets and then queued outside for about 10 minutes. We then all went inside and got a backstage stamp on our hands and went up these stairs and waited in a line in the corridor for 5 minutes. At just gone 6pm it was time when we all went into a big room and stood around the edge in an oval shape. It was good because I thought there would be able 150 people in there but there were only about 30 people. After waiting for a while, they bought out Matt Cardle first and then after he went to a few people they let Rebecca Ferguson in and so on. When Matt got to us, he seemed so nice, i have met him before in Covent gardens but he wasn’t in much of a rush as he was when i first saw him. I had a joint picture with Cher and Katie and they were both lovely too. When Aiden came, me and my friend were on either side of him and after he had the picture he told me that he loved my hair which made me happy! When Wagner came to us, he said we were both beautiful girls which was cute. The last act to come out was one direction! They were most of the reason why I was so excited. I really wanted to meet them, especially Harry Styles. When they came over, I unexpectedly felt quite calm which was good. We spoke for a bit and then got a picture, as I was about to take one for my friend the body guard told me to get in the picture so it was quicker but I said i didn’t know where to go and Harry told me to stand next to him and then put him arm around me. It was so cute! Below is a picture of me and my friend with one direction and a few of the other acts.

This is a picture of me and Aiden Grimshaw!













                 


                                                                                          

Here is me with Rebecca Ferguson who was lovely. I think she has a strange singing voice but in a good way. It is different and memorable.

This is a picture of Cher performing her first song live to the Wembley audience. She was an amazing entertainer as well as singer and I certainly think that she has the x factor and will be one of the artists that become very big in later life.

Here is a photo of Wagner dancing and singing to the audience. He was very entertaining and great fun for everyone to watch.

The whole experience of the xfactor Wembley arena tour was amazing! As well as each act being a great singer they were also brilliant entertainers. If I had the chance I would love to go again and will defiantly be looking into when any of them are doing gigs.

Cabaret!

On Friday 18th March was the evening of Cabaret. This was the night where we would be performing out Bhangra dances to an audience. I was looking forward to the whole evening of it as well as having a little bit of nerves. During the week we had been practicing our dances over and over, we even stayed in at lunch time for the extra rehearsal time. All of us wanted our dance to come across to the audience as fun but also quite professional and from the reviews we got back afterwards, we achieved just what we wanted which was great! A couple of days before the performance, A English teacher, Miss Butt, came into our lesson to watch our dance and give us feedback as she grew up knowing plenty about Bhangra dance because she is part of that culture. She said that she was very impressed with what we had choreographed and it looked very effective however we just needed to neaten it up a bit and make our hand movements stand out some more, which we did work on in the time that we had left. She also was very kind to lend us some Bhangra scarf’s which we could wear to perform in. As well as that she also helped us with some of our hair and make up on the night which looked great! The performance worked and fitted together great as we had all worked as a team over the past few weeks and studied plenty about the types of moves outside and inside school time. I had to make sure that I done it as well as I could because Miss Dolan was videoing us throughout the performance so she was able to assess us individually. I got some feedback from family and friends saying that it was a fun performance to watch, that we all looked very professional in our costumes and that it looked like we understood the theme of Bhangra dancing overall. The whole unit was great, I loved having to choreograph our own Bhangra dance and it was great that we were able to put our own style to it. The picture above and the picture below is a photo of the Performing Arts Class just before going on stage to perform.

Over all evaluation of the Bhangra Unit.

Over the past few weeks in class time we have been working on a Bhangra dance which we choreographed ourselves. We were spilt in to two groups of six and worked in them groups from then on.  In my group it was me, Kelly, Chloe stockman, Chloe green, Katie Burrows and Laura-Anne. The other group was with Alice, Myriam, Shauna, Shannon, Louise and Danielle. Both groups had to choose a story for our dance, both chose ‘Forbidden Love’ as that is one of the main themes in Bhangra dancing as well as themes like Disproval, Religions and Families. Over the first few days of working on our Bhangra dance we got told that we would be performing one of our dances in cabaret, so seen as we had been doing a lot of work on Bhangra in lessons time we all decided that we would perform that dance. Every day in our lessons from then on we had been working hard on our dances. Both groups had the idea of some western/street dancers and some more contemporary dancers however we still made sure to keep the Bhangra style to it. We chose the music ourselves and then Miss Dolan would Mix it all together for us. A couple of the songs we chose were called J’ai ho, Bhangra Nights and Challiya Challiya. My entire group dance was 2 and a half minutes. I thought that out dance was well choreographed and thought that we used up plenty of different well known and not so well known Bhangra moves/steps.

Even though we had been doing plenty of practical in lesson time, we also had been set a presentation/essay on Bhangra dancing and artists. I chose to write up an essay on in and when i handed in my first draft I received a Merit. When she gave them back to us to improve on i had to write a bit more about why I chose some of the artists/influences of Bhangra and add a case study of Hithrik who is a famous Bollywood actor, dancer and singer.

Now we have come to an end of our Bhangra unit and I really enjoyed it. I had a great interest in all the different moves there were. It wasn’t really about how had the moves were, it was about how effective you made them look. The dancing is all about emotions in the face and a important part is women’s hips when dancing. Hand movements are also a major part in Bhangra dance.

Costume Construction

In this costume construction we all had to hand in out evaluations, boards and everything else in the unit that we had been told to finish. Some people needed to take there folders home to finish of a few things. i just took mine home to finish of a bit of annotation. And it was all worth it in the end, I got a distinction in this unit which i was very happy about! Hopefully the same will happen in the next unit.

The next unit that we are doing soon is all about we will rock you. We have already started 

Bhangra - week one/two

We have now moved on to our second unit of dance which is Bhangra. Bhangra is a type of dance which is slightly similar to Bollywood dancing. When Miss Dolan told us that we would be starting Bhangra dancing after Christmas I was very excited. I had never actually heard about the style of dance until Miss mentioned it to us therefore i was looking forward to trying out a new type of dancing that is very different to what we have and will be doing.
Our first week back after Christmas was spent with theory work. This is good because we had a chance get all our folders neat and filled up ready to hand in.
The second week back was our first practical lesson doing Bhangra. It was also i double lesson which was very handy and helped us get a good start to the unit. To warm up Miss Dolan showed us all some certain movements that are included in Bhangra dancing. An example would be where we spin around on the spot using our hands, we remember this movement by saying 'Screw the light bulb and pat the dog' or 'Pat the dog and put it on the oven'. Using your hands is a very important part of Bhangra dancing, its all about moving small parts of your body at a time, one reason why they like to do this is because it creates more of an effective look. We then got put into groups of three or four. In our small groups we came up with a little dance to give us an idea of how we choreograph Bhangra as well as actually dancing. In the dance we had to include a list of things that Miss Dolan had written up on the board for us:
Hands and Gestures,
Isolations,
Story telling,
Dance in unison,
Lots of facing each other,
Circles,
Coming away from each other and then coming back together.
We also used some oft eh moves that Miss had showed us at the beginning of the lesson. After we all had finished out short group dances we all decided that it will look good if we come together as a class and add a Western style to it. I enjoyed doing this street however i found the small moves and quickness of the moves hard to remember and catch up with as i don't usually do street dance.
At the end of the double lesson Miss Dolan filmed for us what we had achieved so far. It looked very good for 2 hours of work.
The lesson after we carried on with the dance we had been working on. During this lesson we added a few more street elements to the dance to create more of a western flare. As a group we used a lot of patterns and dynamic movements. I think its a great idea that we all come in unison as it shoes us all working together and making the dance look even more effective than it already is.

Sleeping beauty

On December the 4^th, me and Kelly went to watch a Ballet performance of sleeping beauty at the Alban Arena. It was great! There were a lot of people there watching it. We had quite good seats as well so it was very clear to see. There weren’t loads of people in the performance playing characters, most of them multi-rolled. Every performer in the play was amazing at Ballet! They could manage to do nearly every move you could think of which is associated with ballet and all had a solo each to show of what exactly they were best at. It lasted for two hours but time flew by.

During the performance we both decided that it would be a good idea if we took some notes down based on Action, Space, Dynamic and Relationship. We decided to work as a team so I wrote down action and space and Kelly wrote down dynamic and relationship.