Shrek!

On Monday 30th April I went to see the musical of 'Shrek' at the royal theatre in Drury Lane. This was very exciting as I had wanted to see this theatre performance for months but only was able to see it on this date. It was defiantly worth the wait however! I loved this musical and through it was very funny. Kimberly Walsh out of girls aloud was playing princess Fiona, she was good however her singing could have been slightly better to suit her part. My two favourite characters were donkey and Farquad (who as played by Neil McDermott a characters from eastenders), he was hilarious!
I had heard a lot of mixed commented about this performance before I had even gone to see it, some people didn't enjoy it and say that they wouldn't go and see it again however others said it was very enjoyable who I agreed with, I loved the staging and almost every bit of the singing. It was a entertaining musical to watch and I would 100% go and see this play again if I had the chance!

Here is a picture of the stage that the musical was performed on, our seats were great too!

End of year performance

The 27th of April was the day we chose to put a show together which would show off our skills that we have learn over the past two years of the btec Performing Arts course. We put our all into this performance and enjoyed every bit of it. We included many techniques that we had learnt over the past couple of years. It was a great evening.

Throughout some of February and April we planned, prepared, choreographed and rehearsed for this show. We all wanted and needed it to look brilliant and have a good vibe for the audience. We chose the theme of dreams and aspirations and pulled together ideas of songs and dances that we could do such as Maybe and Hard Knock Life from Annie, Somebody to love and Dont stop me now from We will Rock You, Chicago and also included just a singing number which was Use Somebody by Pixie Lott.
In preparation for the show, we held a few lunch time rehearsals as well as an after school rehearsal too.

Although we had done many performances as a class in the past, this was defiantly the most nerve racking as it was everything we have done over two years as well as it being our very last variety performance as a whole group. It was a very emotional time for everyone involved in this course including the teachers.

We were also being assessed on our performances as well the backstage and planning side of it. We had to chose the layout of how we wanted the audience which we decided they would be sat on tables with nibbles and the theme of purple and silver so we bought balloons to match the theme, glitter for the tables, purple table cloths and purple programmes and flowers. we stayed on the day after school to get it all ready and sort out the refreshments for them. We made sure that all the other extra acts knew what they were doing and when they would be going on stage, so we wrote up a running order and put copies of it backstage so they could see as well as the runners could see too.

The show was so much fun and ran smoothly all night which was great. The audience and teachers that came to watch all left us with lovely comments. Everyone as well as ourselves were all very proud of every performance that we done and we kept it all very professional. I really enjoyed our last song of Use Somebody which we used to end the show and had Jack Dent playing the guitar for us so we could sing it acoustic so our voices would be focused on. This song sounded great and people said that it was amazingly performed. I dont think there was anything that we could have improved on, we all tried our hardest and were very proud of ourselves and everyone else in the group!  

 The picture above is us all singing our last song with Jack Dent on guitar.

   

Cabaret performance- Chicago Evaluation

On the 15th of March, our BTEC Performing Arts group performed a dance in Cabaret to 'All that jazz' from Chicago which we had been rehearsing for a while now.
I really enjoyed this piece, it was fun to dance as well as it looking very effective. Although most of the movements were generally small movements such as all turning your heads in the same direction as the exact same time, they were however very hard to get right. The dance may look easy and slow but its defiantly not, each tiny movement counts as a lot and if just one person at the back does something wrong, they will be noticed straight away.

I thought our performance was very strong all the way through, especially parts such as the line that we were all in at the beginning of the dance, we included a cannon which was performed to the right timings, we turned our heads and moved our legs at the same time we were supposed to which looked very effective and well practised. Also I think that the tap dancing with Kelly, Myriam, Shannon and Alice was a major strength in the dance, it looked great whilst we were all round the edge, it showed the audience that we do lots of different styles of dance and adds something unique into the piece. To add to the strengths, I think that the use of a prop (a chair each) was a great idea, its gives the audience more to look at as well as building up to a big finish.

During the performance there were a few minor weaknesses that could be worked and improved on if we were to do the variety show again. During the middle of the dance we all got into a diagonal line and then placed our legs on the persons hips in front of us and went round to the music, our legs could have been much stronger on this and could have improved our postures much better, some of our legs were not in time either so we need to work on the timing for this specific part. As a group we also need to make sure that we keep focused on where our heads are looking as its hard to forget towards to end of the dance.

Personally, I think that I need to improve on making my movements bigger and stronger as at the moment they are quite small, so next time I will need to make sure my arms are big and the same with my legs when we do kicks.

When we first starting choreographing this dance we were originally going to sing it as well as dance it however in the variety show we decided that we would just dance it so we could be marked on our dancing mainly. I don't think this has effected the performance majorly however if we did sing it may have been slightly more interesting for the audience to watch. As well as this it would have showed of much more of our ability of what we can do as a performing arts group. On the other hand we got lots of great feedback from the audience about what a great performance it was and how they loved it.

Here is a picture from the night of the performance:



There is also a video of the performance piece on  http://klsperformingarts.blogspot.co.uk/

Recent Performing Arts lessons

The last few weeks in performing arts we had been practising constantly for our cabaret performance which we were asked to perform in by the music department. As a group we all thought that performing a different style of dance other than disco street and contemporary would be a great idea, therefore we decided that we would dance to the song 'All that jazz' from Chicago. This would also be our piece of evidence for all of our jazz assignments. As we did not have enough time to create a whole dance from scratch before the performance, we decided that we would use our dance that we had choreographed a while back for our assignment, the only change we made is that we took the singing out and focused all on the dancing as this is what we would be marked on! As soon as we started playing the music we remembered almost most of the dance apart from the odd bit which we changed anyway to make it more dance based. As a group we could not forget the fact that we had to keep the Chicago style and small effective fosse movements. At the beginning of the dance we all walk on in character into a straight line behind one anther facing to the side, we then all move in sync as this looks very effective and fits in well with the style as there's a lot of group work included.
Towards the end of the dance the music became very strong and rather fast therefore we decided this was a great time to use a prop so we went and got a chair which we danced around as well as stood up on top of it and carried on dancing. Once again we made sure that this was all kept in the style of fosse such as using small yet effective hand and feet movements, strong walks and big kicks.
I found this dance very entertaining and fun to learn. I felt as if I got into the beat. Although to the people watching it may not look very hard, it in fact is a hard dance to perform as you have to make sure that every little move you do is in time and done correctly otherwise you will stand out straight away and will not look effective like it should do.
Personally I enjoyed using the chairs as props the most but also I liked the part of it where we all formed a diagonal line and done our kicks at the same time as well as some strange fosse movements that I had never seen or performed before. 

Description of Characters and their costumes

Fairy costume designs.

Titania’s costume
The costume has plenty of decoration added with a range of colours such as pink, lilac purple and yellow satin pieces. The materials used for the multi-coloured pieces have been ripped in long thing strips which are separate; these have each been tacked loosely onto the netting of the skirt around the waist lines. There are lots of individual different coloured roses which have each been attached to the neckline which helps add detail to the costume. Each of the leaves are different shades of green such as olive colours; these add more colour and detail to help compliment the different colours on the shirt, also there will be coloured jewels which will be put on the bodice to match the head dress. After this, the bodice may be sprayed one it has had more progress. The head dress will be made so it’s very decorated and pretty. She will be wearing some simple ballet shoes and tights which will be dyed to match the shades on the skirt part of the costume. The make up for Titania will be designed by the make-up team and it will fit to the colour scheme on the costume. The costume will be made sure that it will be sewn securely so the wearer of the costume is confident in it on stage. 

Pease Blossom
This costume will be decorated with leaves around the neckline and roses the colours of purples and lilac. There will also be a larger rose in the middle of all the rest of them. The costume will be made sure it will be sewn very tightly together so the person wearing it will feel comfortable and safe in it. Pease Blossom will also have coloured tights so match some of the roses on her costume. The make-up will be sparkly and pretty which will be designed by the team. The shirt of the costume is made from netting which flares out from the waist.

Mustard Seed
For this costume there will be a particular colour scheme of Gold, Mustard and Lemon; these will all be seen by looking at the roses. The idea of having this scheme of colours is that it fits to the name and idea of the fairy ‘Mustard Seed’. She will be wearing gold tights to go with the rose colours and will wear some ballet shoes when performing to add to the costume and the fairy idea. The makeup for this fairy with also be gold and glittery which will stand out just like the costume.

Cobweb
Her costume will be dark colours so it fits with the name ‘Cobweb’ and the idea of spiders. The base of the costume will be the colour white and there are black, white and silver strands on the netting bit of the skirt. The neckline of the bodice will have small bits of black netting from one end to the other. The fairy will wear black tights with Gothic makeup which will be designed by the makeup team; she will also wear black ballet shoes. The whole idea of this fairies costume is to be dark and gloomy.

Pictures will be added of each costume!

Step to step on how to construct a leaf!

At first I used a template to help me with the shape. I then used the leave shape that I drew to cut out each shape separately by using the material scissors. I made sure that I did not use these when cutting out my paper shape as this would make them blunt for when I needed to cut the materials out. Next I had started to sew around each leaf shape whilst making sure that I had left a gap so I would be able to turn it inside out for my next step of constructing. Once I had done this, I then hand sewn the gap together at the top of each leaf to make it much more secure and give the leaf its look of completion. 

Step to step on how to construct a rose!

Firstly, by using the material scissors, I cut out a long strip of fabric of either the colour of yellow, pink or purple. I then folded this in half, length ways, and then started to hand sew a running stich all the way along the bottom edge of the strip of material. Once I had done this, I then step by step folded a small bit of material and then sewn at the bottom of this a few times to hold it in place. I kept doing this slowly and carefully until the material had all been folded right up to the end. The finish product should look like a well-made rose and should be obvious that when someone looks at it that they know what it’s supposed to be.

Pictures will be added!

Costume Construction Evaluation

Throughout a number of weeks we have all been working on a costume of our own to be used in the production of Midsummer Nights Dream. These costumes will be worn in a specific scene in our schools Rock Challenge which is showing in February as well as June or July. The costumes that we are making are for the little fairies that dance and act however there are also four main fairies called Titania, Mustardseed, Peaseblossom and Cobweb, the costumes for these are in process of making.


I got given a netted skirt with elastic around the waste line and was the colour of pink. However I added another skirt underneath to make it look more plumpy, eye catching and attractive. I then chose three different coloured materials of Light pink, Hot pink and Pale yellow.Once I had chosen the colours I then cut little snips into the edge and ripped downwards in a thin straight line. This causes a more ragged and fairy effect to the skirt. To attach these pieces I folded a couple of them in half, each a different colour, and sewed over and over a few times onto the elastic waistband until I was certain that all pieces were sewn on tightly and securely. I repeated this all the way around the skirt. I then got given a Green leotard and purple tights which contrast as well as match with the colours on my skirt. For extra decoration I added some leaves and a couple of roses onto the edge of the skirt which helped for the skirt to stand out more. For a finished effect to my skirt, on every piece of thin material, I cut the bottom edges onto a pointed smooth shape so its more fairy like. 
My next step was to add a bit of decoration on to my leotard so I gathered a few dark green and light green leaves and sewed them onto the top of the leotard and also added a purple rose on top of the leaves so this matched my skirt nicely. 
When making the costumes, we had to be sure that they wouldn't be as eye catching as the other four main fairies, especially Titania's costume. 
Here is a picture of my finished skirt...more are going to be added soon! 

The Christmas Concert

In the evening on the 7th of December our performing arts class performed a dance at the Christmas concert. We didn't have much time to rehearse for the concert as it was quite short notice that we were told we would be performing therefore we chose to do the same dance and singing piece that we performed at the MSH charity talent event. We decided to do this because we knew it very well as hadn't been long since we last performed it, also it is a very upbeat dance therefore it will be very enjoyable for the audience to watch. Kelly, Chloe and Katie and Laura-Anne were the four singers, Laura-Anne sang in the middle of the song whilst dancing and the rest all sang at the very beginning before everyone else came on stage dancing. Some of the dancers found it harder to move around the stage as it was smaller than the one that we performed on originally however we did manage.


The rehearsals for this didn't take too long as we did not have to choreograph because we knew it already so when it finally got the the evening of the concert we felt very confident with it all. Each of us all arrived at the school about half an hour before the show started and went to the drama studio to have a quick run through of the performance and to get us ready for the performance. We didn't have to worry about doing our hair and make-up there as we had already done this at home so it gave us more time to practice the dance and for the singers to go through their lyrics. It eventually came to our turn on stage as we were the last group on before the interval where all the audience could get their refreshments and stand up for a while, this was good for us as we had enough time to prepare ourselves before hand. As we all went behind the curtains on the stage, we could hear us being introduced and i felt very nervous however it was quite exciting too. The singers then started singing and we all came on all jumpy and upbeat, each of us had to make sure that we had very high energy levels and were smiling throughout. When it came to the end we all the bowed to the audience and ran of stage very pleased with ourselves. Personally I think that I performed the dance better this time rather than the first time at the talent concert.