Unit 1 - Skills development in performing arts (development plan)

Voice production techniques

During lectures I have been introduced to a few voice production exercises such as the intercostal diaphragmatic exercise. At the start of the term I was really struggling to carry out the exercise but now that I have had lots of practice, I am now able to carry this out at a moderate level of difficulty.

Target - Next term I will be focusing on extending the breathing technique so I can hold long notes for longer and improve phrasing in spoken word passages. I will also need to continue practicing the diction exercises as I still find ‘thah, vah, zah’ a challenge.

Expression in performing arts

I am working towards developing a character in my duologue ‘Split Down the Middle’. I have applied diction techniques in my poem ‘Blessing’. Learning correct breathing techniques has impacted on my ability to deliver a song.

Target – I need to continue practicing intercostal diaphragmatic breathing to improve the quality of my delivery both in song and in spoken word.

Clarity of delivery in all areas of acting, singing and dance

On a Thursday we have been mostly concentrating on singing skills. We have been able to record 2 songs in the studio. When I first started the performing arts course I was a very shy singer and sang very quietly. Now that we have recorded in the studio twice, I am more confident with singing in front of my peers. Whilst in the studio it was made clear to me that despite having a microphone which amplified my singing voice, I would still need to project in order to produce a vocal performance.

Within performing arts lessons I have been learning and practicing some diction exercises. When I first started learning my poem, my diction wasn’t very good but now that I have been practicing these, they have really helped the delivery of the poem.

Target – I need to continue working on projection. This will enable me to communicate a performance more successfully.

Applying dynamics

Working within an ensemble to produce group songs has really developed my listening skills. This is key to understanding how to make a performance dynamic and maintain the interest of an audience.

Target – I need to ensure that I memorise performance materials as early on in the process as possible. This will then free me up to be able to listen to my peers in ensemble work and also to creatively express solo pieces.

Communicating performance work

I have not taken part in any college performances but I did take part in the Tapathon which was really well received. In my second experience in the recording studio, the professional engineer commented on my clear diction. He said as a result of my singing performance it brought all of the other vocal parts together and gave the overall sound clarity.

Target – I must try to maintain confidence and not feel inhibited when working with new creative opportunities.

Teamwork

I am tolerant, open to new ideas and enjoy working with others to produce believable performance work. Positive teamwork, listening to my peers is key to producing good improvised drama.

Target – My lecturer was fed back to me and has commented on my strong teamwork throughout the past term. I will continue to contribute to all elements of performing arts as I enjoy feeling that I am part of something and that I have a voice within it.

Dance techniques

Within dance lectures on a Wednesday morning, we have been learning about Alexander technique. I have never done this style of supported movement before so this was a new skill that I have learnt. I feel this would be of use to a totally blind person as it really addresses posture, gait and the way that we move our bodies. Also, it helps with the way that we sit and lie down and the way that we move from these positions.

Target – Next term I am going to lead a Learning and Leisure performing arts session. I am going to use some of the Alexander technique as part of this session, in order to support some of the less able students.

Drama techniques

I have commented on my physical theatre work in a previous blog. We have mainly been focusing on developing improvisation skills as these impact on a lot of performance work as they encourage spontaneity and responsiveness.

Target – An ongoing target for me is to work at being less inhibited in unfamiliar areas of performing arts.

Life skills (punctuality, attendance and engagement)

I aim to turn up to all of my performing arts lectures on time, if not early. I come appropriately dressed for the lessons in clothing that I am able to move well in. I bring all relevant materials to my lectures.

Target – Maintain this level of engagement throughout the academic year.

Responsibility for own learning

I carry out independent research outside of lessons which I then put into my blogs. I write blogs frequently and try to keep as up to date as possible.

I have also carried out independent learning for my diction exercises, poem and duologue. I practiced ‘pah, tah, kah’ firstly to memorise it and then I was able to say it faster and faster. This then helps my diction and this is already showing within the delivery of my poem. I practiced my poem and duologue to memorise the lines and then I am able to add expressing and meaning into the words.

Target – My lecturer has commented on the amount of work that I produce outside of the lecture. I am a methodical worker who sets aside time in the evening and at weekends to carry out coursework. This is evidenced in my blog. I will continue to work at this level for the remainder of this academic year.

Communication

This term I needed to identify a space where I could practice tap dancing with a peer. I approached the manager of thePoint4 sports centre and secured a room with a sprung floor for this purpose. I had to explain to the manager and negotiate a time for the space.

As I have a visual impairment, I had to ask the teacher at the Tapathon if I could move to a place where I was able to see the choreography more clearly. I feel I am proactive, I plan ahead and I have the confidence to speak to people even if I don’t know them.

Target – There are still certain situations where I might feel intimidated for instance having to telephone people to request information. I need to work on preparing what I am going to say beforehand and think about strategies which would help with this process. 

Wednesday 28^th September

The aim of this lecture was to familiarise ourselves with our poems. 

To start the session, we did a short warm up including some vocal exercises. The first exercise was to make sure that the muscles in our face were fully warmed up. We stretched our lips out and our cheeks back and said an ‘ee’ sound and then pushed our lips out and together making an ‘oo’ sound. We kept repeating this gradually getting faster each time. I found this exercise quite difficult once we started to pick up speed but as we practice this more often, it should become easier. 

After the warmup, we looked at our poems which we had selected in the previous lecture on Monday. Our lecturer, Cara recorded our first attempt of sight reading our poems. Here is a link to my first attempt of sight reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpfAadkm01E

Once I had finished reading my poem, our lecturer gave us some feedback. The first piece of feedback which she gave me was that my reading was stilted. However, for people with a visual impairment like myself, sight reading is difficult as we can read no more than 2 words at a time which causes the reading to be stilted. The main piece of feedback that I was given was a target to try and start learning the poem as soon as possible. When I was reading the poem from the sheet, my words were unclear as there was no projection due to the paper being in front of the paper and my shoulders were hunched. However, once I learn the poem, these two issues should not be a problem. Another piece of feedback was that the diction in some places was quite poor. This is an area in which I will need to improve on. Another piece of advice was that I need to be careful when reading the lines and to make sure that if a sentence carries onto the next line, it should still flow. The last piece of advice that I was given was that throughout the poem, I tended to stay within the same tonal range. This meant that I did not put much expression into the reading of the poem. Over time I will develop all of these so that it makes the poem sound more exciting. 

To finish off the session we set ourselves a target for the next session. My target was to learn the first 4 lines of my poem.

Monday 10^th October

The aim of this lecture was to review our starting parts for some elements and to concentrate on learning our poems. 

To start the lesson, we started with the warmup. For this, we started by carrying out the intercostal diaphragmatic exercise. For this exercise we breathed in for 4, held for 6 and breathed out for 12. Here is a link to a video of me carrying out the exercise and also some comments from my lecturer Cara:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoZHkip1IQM

I carried out this exercise quite well as I did not move my shoulders. However, there was not much movement in the diaphragm so this is an area which I will focus and improve on. We then moved onto the diction and travelling exercises that we have had a brief look at in previous lessons. Firstly we looked at “pah, tah, kah”. Although I only just know the exercise without the piece of paper, I am unable to say the exercise with some speed. This will come over time as I keep practicing it over and over again. Here is a link to a video of me carrying out the “pah, tah, kah” exercise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEdLODNKNqs

Once we had finished the warmup we moved onto looking at our poems. Between last week’s session on Monday and today, I have looked at the beginning of my poem a few times but I have not had time to learn it.

Our target from last week was to start to learn the first part of our poem and to learn the “pah, tah, kah” exercise. This means that I have partly achieved my target because although I did not learn the start to my poem, I did learn the travelling exercise. Due to me only partly meeting my target, the duration of time that I had to complete this target has been extended and I now have until the 17^th of October to learn the first part of my poem.

Monday 28^th November

The aim of todays lesson was to start to look at a duologue that we will be learning and developing over the next few weeks. We will be looking at sight-reading skills and starting to look at our characters too.

The duologue that our lecturer, Cara has selected for us is called ‘Split down the middle’ and was written by David Campton. It is about a couple who have been out on a day trip on a boat. It’s starting to get dark and foggy and they’re stranded out at sea wondering what to do. The duologue involves 2 characters, Josie and Fran. I am playing the part of Fran and Angel is playing the part of Josie. 

We first of all read through the duologue as our assigned characters. Once we had read this through once, we read it through again but this time we swapped the characters around. This meant that we were able to gain a better understanding of our character as we were responding to the character that we are actually going to be playing. We then read through it one last time, this time reading as our characters again. Here is a link to a video of our initial duologue which is being sight-read:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyuhGx_IvmI&t=24s

We were able to read this duologue through a number of times because our sight-reading skills are quite good even though we have a visually impairment. A duologue is a lot easier to sight-read as there is less to say at one time. For example, if you are reading a monologue, then it is just you speaking and therefore you have to read a lot of text without stopping whereas a duologue you have short breaks in-between lines when the other person is speaking. 

At the end of the lesson, Cara set us a target. This target is to learn the first 2 pages of the duologue which works out to about 10 lines each. We will assess this on Monday 5^th December. 

Unit 2 - Professional practice in performing arts

Factors affecting jobs in the performing arts industry

The following report will highlight and discuss issues surrounding employment and opportunities within the Creative Industries. I have carried out research into gender, politics, class, ethnicity and age related discrimination. I have been shocked by my findings.

Older women are disappearing from TV due to combination of ageism and sexism, warns Harriet Harman

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/older-women-are-disappearing-from-tv-due-to-combination-of-ageism-and-sexism-warns-harriet-harman-8618313.html

In this article written by Catherine Wylie, it tells us how much older women are affected within the performing arts industry due to ageism and sexism. Harriet Harman who is a labour MP, works as part of a committee known as the Older Women's Commission. This committee is run by the labour party and it helps to gain equality for women over the age of 50. It especially tries to working with the women nowadays as the roles and health of older women has grown significantly. Research within this committee has shown that when women who are working within the performing arts industry especially, and reach the age of 50, their “days become numbered”. A study conducted by the committee showed that although the majority of the population in the UK of over 50’s is women at 53.1%, the majority of the TV presented which are aged 50 and over is mostly men at 82%. This leaves only 18% are women. More research saw that only 7% of people involved with working in TV on and off screen, are women. Harriet also said that these figures which have come from many major broadcasters, show that ageism and sexism do not hit men in the same way as they do to women.

Miriam O’Reilly raised some questions about why there aren’t many women in the business over the age of 50. She started to question this after she won an employment tribunal against the BBC. Was this due to people not employing women over 50 or women leaving the business when they get to this age. She had interviews with several broadcasters and from this she said “they are committed to the fair representation of older women” however, this does not match the figures that have been conducted from the research.

James McAvoy: Dominance of Rich-Kid Actors in the U.K. Is "Damaging for Society"

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/james-mcavoy-dominance-rich-kid-772139

In this news story conducted by Hollywood Reporter, it expresses James’ opinion on rich children within the performing arts industry. However, he clearer states that he does not have anything against actors who went to drama school, but he believes that there should be less successful actors coming from drama schools. He thinks this because it does not represent how Britain is today. He is worried that people from all social classes are not getting the same opportunities. Within the performing arts industry it is advertised as if you have to be elite to become a successful actor normally meaning that you must go to drama school however, this is not always the case.

A debate was set up with the British acting circle where Julie Walter who played Mamma Mial in Billy Elliot expressed her opinion about how aspiring actors within the working class sector were not able to afford drama school. This has been proven to the decrease their chance if being able to become a successful actor.

Arts Emergency

http://arts-emergency.org/

Arts emergency is an organisation that helps young people get into university courses within the arts such as drama, music, theatre, politics, humanities, etc. However, due to the high rising costs of university courses and degrees, many young people opt out of university and don’t even consider it purely because they are unable to afford it. This leads them to forcefully apply for a job but because they have no higher education qualifications, they are unable to find a job because the arts community is very competitive. Therefore the organisation’s main aim is to help disadvantaged young people so they can have the same chance at getting into university than anyone else. They believe that although these young people and their families may not be able to afford a university course, there are certainly ways around it and this should not stop the young person having a potential career in the arts industry.

All of the young people that are part of Arts Emergency are aged between 16 and 19 years old all of which are in further education. Arts emergency have several schemes which aim to help disadvantaged young people who are least likely to be able to pay for their education but will benefit from it the most. The main scheme in which the organisation runs is their mentoring scheme. Each individual is given a mentor which they are then able to talk to about their options, research into higher education courses and set reachable targets. The programme only lasts for a year but when they ‘graduate’, they still offer support if they need it. Another scheme that is run by Arts Emergency is networking. This enables young disadvantaged people to connect and talk about their aspirations. The volunteers who run the project have all come from TV, theatre, music, etc. so have a great understanding of what is needed to get into university or higher education courses. These volunteers also visit colleges to give talks and workshops about keeping your options open for higher education in the arts sector. These workshops aim to educate, inspire and inform people that they are able to aim high. The also work with young people and their families to educate them about the opportunities that there are in higher education. Young people that come from a poorer background may have parents who have no experience of the performing arts industry. This means that the parents of the young person may be very against the idea of their child going to university to study a course in the arts when they don’t know what it will entail. Arts Emergency therefore work with the parents, alongside the young person, to educate them that arts courses are extremely beneficial especially for their child who may be disadvantaged.

One of the main factors that effects employment in the performing arts industry is the amount of funding cuts and the high rising prices of university degrees and higher education courses. Arts emergency is an organisation that aims to reduce the effect that the high rising university costs will have on potential young people aspiring to go to university to study a course in the arts. Nowadays, to get into the performing arts industry, it is quite likely that you need a qualification at degree level but if young people are not able to access this, then there is a limited chance that they will be able to pursue a career in drama, music or dance.

Letitia Wright interview

The interview can be found here (11:30): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w5y0l

Letitia’s first main role in a production was in a film called ‘The Urban Hymn’. The film is set in 2011 in the time at which riots broke out in Britain. The film is based around 2 girls and their very strong friendship and support for each other.

She started acting when she was about 15 years old in secondary school. Once she had finished secondary school, she watched a lot of films during the summer holidays. Watching all of these films taught her that she needed to be persistent with her future career. She knew that she definitely wanted to go into the performing arts industry so she produced some basic headshots and sent these to several agents looking for work. Although Letitia was a very talented actor and started to think more seriously about her career, her mum wasn’t sure on the career choices that she was making. This is because Letitia’s mum had come from an educational background and acting wasn’t in her culture. This meant that she had to give her daughter a chance and trust her because at first she did not want her daughter going into the performing arts industry.

When Letitia got her first interest from an agent, she was asked to recite a monologue. Instead of looking for a monologue and learning it, she created a monologue herself and performed it in front of the agent. Both the agent and her mum were gobsmacked and the agent decided to sign her later that day.

When she was 17, she went for an audition where, on the advert it was specified for a young white female actor. However, Letitia made the executive decision to go to the audition even though she was black because she just wanted to show people her talent. The people running the auditions said they wanted to give her a chance of playing the role so gave her the job. Letitia also mentioned about how she believes that there should be more ethnicities and diversity involved in the performing arts industry.

She lastly went on to talk about the many projects that she has been involved with lately including a second serious of a show called ‘Humans’.

In conclusion, Letitia’s journey into the acting industry was not as straight forward as many other individuals. Letitia had many factors in which she had to overcome before going into the performing arts industry. Such factors are that her mum did not want her to go into acting because it’s not in her culture as she had come from a very educational background and she was in an ethnic minority. Another major factor that she had to overcome was that she did not go to drama school meaning that she had no major acting experience. Unlike most aspiring actors who were the same age as Letitia at the time, Letitia had no nepotistic advantages meaning that she had no connections within the industry to give her a leg up.

Andrew Lloyd Webber warns of diversity crisis in British theatre

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/dec/01/andrew-lloyd-webber-warns-diversity-crisis-british-theatre

A report that was conducted by Andrew Lloyd Webber recently expresses his opinion on the topic of black actors within theatre.

The report mainly focuses on how the theatre industry will start to suffer if the amount of black actors does increase soon. In his report he used the term “hideously white” in regards to the amount of white actors that there currently are in the performing arts industry. He made a point of saying that it is not only the lack of black actors, but also the lack of black people who are part of the backstage crew and technical team. Andrew Lloyd Webber went on to say “I passionately believe that the stage needs to reflect the diversity of the UK population or it risks becoming sidelined.” There needs to be more black people involved in the Creative industry.

Andrew Lloyd Webber stated that if there isn’t a change to this situation now, then it can have massive effects on how the industry runs in the future. There will gradually become less and less black actors applying for drama school because they feel like they are in a minority. Less black people enrolling intro drama school means that there will be less appearing within productions. This can also have an effect on the audience. Black people play an important part in the audience numbers and the less people there is in the audience of a production, the less money that is made.

I believe that there needs to be a change within the performing arts industry in regards to the equality for black and white people. Black actors are currently in a minority and white actors are the majority. Directors need to start accepting black actors even if the character has been specified to be played by a white actor. This will then mean that the audiences for performances will remain constant and theatre will carry on as normal.

Theatres under threat from £3.3bn funding cuts

https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2015/theatres-threat-3-3bn-funding-cuts/

Local authorities are being forced to cut their funding due to funding cuts from the Government. This has led to an estimated cut of £3.3 billion funding from local theatres. According to the Local Government Association, the funding situation is not going to get much better in years to come either as it will continue to decline. The funding cuts may lead theatres across the UK to be under serious threat as the cuts decrease. Some local authorities across the UK have stopped their funding for the arts already such as Westminster County Council.

There are arguments that funding for the arts should be, in fact increased rather than decreased. A statement from a recent interview with David Brownlee said that there should be at least one theatre company in every local area that is funded by the local authority. The local theatre is a place where the work created by and within the community can be presented and the local people can come and see what has been achieved. If the theatre has cuts and isn’t able to run, the projects created by the local community will be no longer and the local people will not be able to get involved in the arts.

Charlotte Jones who is the chief executive of the Independent Theatre Council stated that local theatres that are supporting by the local authority are helped hugely by the funding. She said that not many people realise how much these theatres are being supported with the funding and if this gets cut, the theatres will begin to suffer.

Darren Henley who is the chief executive of Arts Council England said that a strong connection between the local authority and the theatre is absolutely key.

In conclusion, from the research that I have carried out throughout this term, I have found that there are many different factors that affect employment within the performing arts industry such as ageism, sexism, funding cuts and ethnicity. I am shocked at the research that I have found. I believe that there needs to be more diversity within the creative industry. At the moment, the majority of actors within theatres are male middle-class white actors who are middle-aged. This needs to be minimized so that female actors, older and younger actors and actors from other ethnicities have the same chance as getting a role in theatre as everyone else. There needs to be an equal spread of actors from different backgrounds being selected for jobs in theatre. The funding for local theatres should not be cut as this can have massive effects on a local community as it can cause for the theatre to shut down as the theatre is unable to put on any productions. 

Freelance report

Factors of a freelance working - practitioners and contracts

Magnetic Diaries

On Friday 7^th October, a theatre company called “Reaction Theatre Makers” came into to college to perform their show called “The Magnetic Diaries”. The show was open to the college staff, students and the general public. This was a one woman show and she was present on stage throughout the whole show. I had never seen a one woman show before so I was very excited to see a new type of theatre. The show was about a woman suffering from depression that had traveled to London for treatment and is receiving letters from her husband. Throughout the play, we hear these letters from her husband spoken aloud. We also hear from the woman’s son and doctors. Overall I really enjoyed the show, however at first I did not understand it because the play was all written in poetry. However, as the play went on, more things happened and I started to understand what was going on.

Before the show started we had a questions and answers session with the actor, Vey and the director, Tiffany where we asked them questions about their experiences within the performing arts industry. Whilst talking to them we found out that there were many different factors of working in freelance careers. The first feature that you must have for a freelance worker is that you must be flexible in the work in which you look for. This means that it is very difficult to stick to one specific job role within the performing arts industry. As Tiffany mentioned during the interview, throughout her career she has worked in many different areas of the industry with many different people such as working with children with learning difficulties and directing several different performances. This shows us that as a freelance worker you must take the opportunities that are given to you or that you find yourself. As Tiffany mentioned in the session, there are many different platforms in which jobs can be advertising. Tiffany uses a website called Casting Call Pro which is a website that you are able to advertise jobs within the industry. Here is a link to the website: http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk

Tiffany is able to advertise jobs on the website and then receives applications from many actors. The only problem that Tiffany has is that when she advertises that she has a new job available, she will receive hundreds of applications for the one job. This then leads to the next feature of a freelance worker, that you have to be able to sell yourself well in an application. If you are unable to sell yourself then it will be impossible for you to be able to find work. Your application and profile must stand out from the rest so you are shortlisted and then possibly selected. This means that this is a key feature as it is essential that you have a good application because if you do not, you will not find work and will therefore not be successful.

Another feature that a freelance worker must have is that you must always be looking into the future for jobs and opportunities. Working in freelance in the performing arts industry means that you are unsure of when your next job may appear and it might take you a while to find a job. This means that you could be out of work for a significant amount of time which means you will not have any income. As we heard from Vey in the questions and answers session, to sustain her career she works with her husband building environmentally friendly houses. She works here 2 days a week which then helps her with her income. It especially helps her when she is a lean period (a period of time which she may not be working within the industry) and therefore is gaining no money because she is not found any work within theatre.

Another feature of a freelance worker within the performing arts industry is that you must be highly motivated. As a freelance actor, you may have to attend lots of auditions where you may not necessarily get selected for the job. This means that you have got to have the energy to go to many auditions at which you may only have a very small chance of getting the job. Also, you must be prepared for any sort of audition that you go to. This also links back to keeping your options open to other job roles within the performing arts industry and this shows that this is a major feature within the world of freelance careers.

Another factor of working within the performing arts industry as a freelance worker is that you must be passionate about what you want to do and set yourself achievable targets. Tiffany studied BA honours in drama and theatre arts at Goldsmiths University. Since then, she has always worked within this industry. She is very passionate about the work that she has done in the past and the work that she is doing today. On the other hand, Vey did not study any sort of drama course at university; instead she studied graphic design. She got into acting through an adult acting class at the courtyard theatre in Hereford. She got noticed by the teacher and her career started from there. This tells us that to be a successful actor you do not have to go to drama school. I would like to go to university but I would like to study a course which will hopefully get me into teaching. However, if I change my mind when I am older and want to go into acting, Vey has demonstrated to us that this is definitely achievable. 

Freelance musician

This morning we had a Q&A session with our performing arts teacher Cara Tivey who, before she starting working at the college, was a professional musician.

Did you go to university/ If so, what course did you study?

Cara went to drama school because the courses that she wanted to study were not available to her within universities. She studied at BSSTDA (Birmingham School of Speech Training and Dramatic Arts) and although she went down the drama route, she realised that this wasn’t the route for her. This is when she decided that she would be better suited within the music industry. To start off her career as a musician, she played with many different artists around Birmingham. Most of this work was unpaid because the aim of it was to get her name out there. She made it clear that this is a key aspect for a freelancer because you have to be prepared to carry out work even if you don’t get paid for it and hope that your name will then get heard within the industry.

What happened when you stopped freelance?

Towards the end of her career as a freelance musician, Cara was doing a lot of touring and although she enjoyed touring, she had 2 young children and a husband at home and most of the time when she was away, she had to organise supervision for the children. This became progressively harder so she made the decision to start and look for a job within the local area. She came across a job vacancy here at The Royal National College for the Blind (RNC).

What was the first ‘professional’ piece you performed?

After getting her name heard around Birmingham, Cara started to get paid for local gigs in social clubs. In these social clubs she played for a band. This then enabled her to start work with bigger bands for about a year which included touring to other countries.

The first big band that Cara played for was ‘The Fine Young Cannibals’ and this was her first experience of working within television. Cara happened to hear about this job of working with a band through being at the right place at the right time and this was that a band needed a keyboard player. She applied for the audition and was given the job. Cara said that freelancers have to be prepared for an audition and these can be varied. Talking from experience, Cara said that the people running the auditions can ask you to prepare a piece before the audition or memorise a piece within the audition. She made it clear that freelancers must be prepared for any time of audition if they want to get into a job.

Cara told us that she got quite nervous before auditions as she did not know what to expect. She was offered money by the band but didn’t know what to expect as this was her first professional paid job. She earned £100 a day and she was lucky as she didn’t have to negotiate with her band. However, another quality of a freelancer is that you have to be able to do this negotiate with your manager as they may not be paying you an adequate salary.

Something that Cara learnt from her freelance career was how to behave when working with the band. This is a key quality as freelancers need to have an understanding of where they stand with the people that they are working with. Cara learnt that freelancers shouldn’t talk about their personal life when work with a band. The same advice could be applied to an actor who is being employed by a production company. You have to know your place and find out what your boundaries are when working with the company.

Another quality of someone working within freelance is that you have to be flexible as things can change very quickly. For example you can start very early one day and then not start until the afternoon on other days. You also have to be prepared to learn material very quickly and finding what works for you. This is key as a freelancers’ job can change very quickly.

How did you generate work?

There will be periods of time where you will not be working and it’s important that you budget throughout your career. Cara made this clear as it can be tough during the periods of time when you are not working. She said that you need to be able to budget accordingly otherwise there may become a time where you are struggling for money.

Cara mostly looked within a magazine ‘Melody Maker’ which included jobs within the creative industry. The first job that she found that she was interested in was looking for a 3 piece. She decided to apply for the job with her soon to be husband and friend. They then carried out an audition for which they had to learn a song prior to the audition and had to play some of their own music. One strategy of generating work is when you see a job, apply for it, attend the audition and then hopefully get the job. However, Cara also informed us that you could get an agent but these are very hard to come by and there aren’t many pop music agents nowadays. Cara did have an agent for a while but ended up finding her own work.

When playing for a band ‘Everything but the girl’, she got noticed by another singer and gave them her phone number. She wasn’t expecting to hear from the singer but they did get in contact after a while.

When her contract ran out with the band ‘Everything but the girl’, she had 6 months of unemployment. However she did work with smaller bands during this time but nothing really big that was getting her name heard.

When she toured around the world, she had 2 children and got married. Then, once she had finished touring, she decided to take a year out. After her break Cara answered another advert in the magazine and got shortlisted.

Throughout her time Cara has worked a lot with TV but not so much in recording material. However she has toured serval times with different bands to places such as Japan, Europe and the UK.

Running your business - the financial ins and outs

Register with the HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) - this is so they know that you are self-employed. Once a year you will have to submit your completed tax return and then the HMRC will calculate how much tax you owe for that year. As a self-employed person you are also responsible for paying your own Class 2 national insurance contribution. If you earn less than £12000 per year you probably won’t pay any tax. It is important that you keep all of your receipts and a record of your outgoings (payments that you make) as these will be offset against your tax.

Using social media to market yourself

There are lots of different social media platforms for performers and artists to use as networking tools. I have carried out research into the following:

LinkedIn – a professional social networking site which enables people to connect with companies with the aim of finding a job. Once your connection request has been accepted your profile becomes visible to your ‘friends’.

Facebook – this social media platform enables people to connect with other people as ‘friends’. It also allows people to like pages that have been set up by companies/businesses and this keeps them up to date with any information sent out by the page that they have liked.

Twitter – this allows people to ‘follow’ others. It is short and snappy as you are only allowed 140 characters per tweet. It also allows you to connect directly with big companies and artists and you know about these because they have a blue tick next to their name meaning ‘verified’.

SoundCloud – this is a website where by musicians and artists can publicise their music. People are able to follow each other and the more followers you have, the more popular you become. You are also able to like and comment directly on the pieces of music to give the artist feedback on what they have produced. Although you are not able to sell your music on SoundCloud, you are able to advertise it so that people can then go out and buy your music. 

Dinos Aristidou

We spoke to Dinos Aristidou from UCAN productions a few questions about his career as a freelance theatre maker, education consultant and workshop leader. 

Did you go to university? If so, what course did you study?

I went to York University to study English and Related Literature. At that age I wanted to be an actor but everyone said it was too uncertain and that it was better to get a degree. I just chose the subject I loved best and at University I discovered playwriting and directing.

What made you decide to become a theatremaker and educator?

It was always a passion. Ever since I was a child I liked to live in imaginary worlds in my own head or in books. When I discovered theatre I realised I could make a career of this. I also wanted to share my passion with others and give them the keys and tools that would enable them to also become creators of or citizens of the imaginary- That’s why I was drawn to education; so that others might also have the possibility to cross the threshold into the world of the imagination

What was the first ‘professional’ i.e paid for piece you ever performed/directed?

For my writing it was as writer in residence at The Chester Gateway in 2000 where I was hired to write their millennium production, as a director it was for ‘ Ziggurat’ for the Manchester Commonwealth games. As a performer it was just after I graduated with a Theatre in Education company called Shoestring that toured schools with productions. That inspired to become a teacher which I did for 11 years before going into the professional world of theatre.

Is there a particular genre/style you prefer working in?

I’m interested in collaboration, creating with communities and young people and I used to be drawn to the epic, working with large groups but now I’ve also become interested in immersive and intimate theatre. I’m interested in the themes of memory, identity and our search for home. Also interested in creating theatre based on people’s experience.

What sort of work do you get?

I looked through ‘The Stage’ newspaper that had all the theatre related jobs in it, also ‘The Guardian’. More recently I’m subscribed to organisations and online newsletters that advertise opportunities such as ‘The Writer’s Compass’

Do you network with other directors/actors?

I’m involved with lots of organisations and so have become part of a network of artists and artist educators. I find networking quite challenging even though I enjoy meeting people. It feels different when it’s professional.

How do you generate work?

I work with some organisations regularly and have close relationships with them that I’ve built up over the years. Creating good relationships and being a good collaborator and good to work with is really key in the work I do. I also try to keep my work current so I’m always reading, learning, going to the theatre, trying to keep abreast of new innovations and movements in theatre and in education. I also apply for positions that look interesting.

Would you contact a producer or a director with a script idea?

Yes but these are usually people who I’ve worked with before and who know my work.

How does research help you with your job?

All of my theatre work involves research. I’m always researching, reading, going to the theatre, talking to people. You have to make sure your work is relevant, current and also underpinned by theory. Theory is simply the discoveries other people have made and I’m always appreciative of their insights. Research is a useful way to make sure your work is informed. I’m also very curious and research satisfies some of my curiosity. I’m currently writer-in-residence at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton and my work involves researching the history of the building and the theatre so research is a key skill in my work.

How do you manage during lean periods?

I try to work as far as possible a year in advance- so I’ve been very lucky in that I haven’t really had any lean periods. I’m willing to try my hand at different things and happy to work in a variety of fields so there’s always a lot of work- touch wood!!! Being self- employed is always slightly scary because you do worry about the work drying up. I think its worth having a mixed portfolio rather than depending on one source of income.

So currently here is my list of jobs from now until June to give you a flavour of the variety of contracts and work that a freelancer may do:

·      Lead artist on RSVP project UCAN

·      Workshop delivery at your college

·      Lead artist on ‘Art of Kindness’ project UCAN

·      Running workshops for teachers on the art of reflection

·      Writer in residence 2017 at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

·      Running young writer’s programme at Theatre Royal Brighton

·      Curriculum consultant for the International Baccalaureate

·      Running 4 week online teacher training for theatre teachers

·      Artistic Director for a youth theatre festival in Atlanta, USA on civil rights in collaboration with Civil Rights Museum in March

·      Guest artist in residence at Academy in Shanghai, China in April to create a new intimate and immersive piece of theatre

·      Running theatre teacher workshops in Singapore in April 

Action plan for a sustainable freelance career

·      Flexibility – people working in the freelance industry must be flexible because they may need to maintain a few different projects/jobs at one time. Also, it is very hard to continuously look for the same job role. This means that you need to be flexible with the job roles that you look for and apply for. They may also be asked to work different hours for each day of the week which could range from a few hours to a full day’s work.

·      Budgeting – this is very important because there will be periods of time at which the freelancer is not working and is therefore not earning any income. You need to be able to save money during the time at which you have incoming salary so that you will then have money when you are in lean periods.

·      Prepared to work without getting paid – everyone has to start somewhere and for most freelancers within theatre, they have to carry out unpaid work to get their name heard within the industry. Once they have their name out there they can start applying for jobs.

·      Presenting yourself well – as a freelancer you must be able to stand out from the crowd either in the world of work or in auditions. It may be quite difficult for you to find a job because you are not able to present yourself well and stand out from the crowd.

·      Must always be looking ahead – although it is great when a freelance worker finds a job, they don’t know how long it will last for and if they do, it is not going to last forever. This means that the worker always needs to be looking for new jobs in which they can apply for to take on after they have finished their current job.

·      Motivation – there needs to be high levels of motivation to become a successful and to remain as a successful freelancer. There may be quite a few occasions where you will go for an audition and not get the part or even shortlisted. However, you then need to put this aside and attend more auditions.

·      Resilience and self-belief – freelancers have to be thick skinned because they may attend many auditions before they get offered anything.

·      Practicalities and finance – a freelancer must make a regular class 2 national insurance payment. This will provide security for them in the future. You also need to keep your receipts for things like transport, hotels. postage and any other purchases that are business related. If you are a performer, you can claim for cosmetics, toiletries and clothing. Once a year, you need to submit a record of your income and outgoings to the HMRC (tax department). This is called a tax return.

·      CPD – this is continuous professional development. This is about maintaining a professional skill level. You may attend classes, carry out regular voice/movement warmups, research new audition materials and look at relevant sites on the internet. Also, you need to maintain a current CV.

·      Research – keep on top of new employment opportunities by looking at The Stage online and any other online journals where jobs are advertised. 

Unit 25 - Dance Improvisation (all blogs)

Wednesday 14^th September

This was our first dance lecture of the academic year.

To start off the lesson, Laura our dance lecturer, gave us an overview of the unit and what we will be developing throughout the next year in these lessons. She also ran through her expectations and asked us some questions regarding own dance background. Lastly, she set us some personal targets for the year. My personal target is ‘to build up confidence for a solo performance’. Then, when we had finished making the targets we started the warm up.

The warmup consisted of few different exercises to get the blood flowing round the body faster to warm our muscles up. Firstly we warmed up our legs by slowing rotating the ankles in small circles, moving up to the knees and then to the hips. Once the muscles in our legs were warm, we were then were able to make our bodies sit down a bit more to feel more relaxed. We did this by having our feet turned out, legs apart, knees slightly bent and our backs straight. Then we bent our knees more, leant forward and pushed the backs of our hands along the floor moving them up towards our heads. Once the arms were abover the head we rolled wrists downwards and after every roll we clicked. The last warmup exercise that we did was warming up the upper half of the body ready for the rest of the lesson as the aim of this lecture was to focus on isolations. For this exercise we simply moved our ribs forwards and backwards without trying to move our hips or shoulders too much. We then changed the direction of this to side to side and then round in a circle.

When we had finished the warm up, we moved onto the main part of the lesson which was to focus on and improve our isolated movements. The main activity that we did was that we stood at one end of the room and we had to write our name with our ribs using isolated movements. I found this exercise quite difficult as I have not really done any work on isolated movements before. Because I haven’t done this before, it took me a while to get the movements correct. Once we had written our names a few times on the spot, we started writing them again but instead of staying on the spot we moved down the room whilst carrying out the isolated movement. We did this until we got to the other side of the room.

Once we had finished writing our names, we each picked a word in which we would spell out using isolated body movements and the aim was for the other people to guess the word. We chose simple words to begin with but then the words started to get more complex.

Wednesday 21st September

The aim of this lecture was to start exploring different factors that affect dance improvisation. In this lesson specifically, we were focusing on the lyrics and music that influence us when we are improvising a piece. We started the lecture with a gentle warm up. This warm up consisted of a few exercises that we had carried out in the previous week and then also some new exercises. Firstly we started by loosening up the body with some shoulder and hip rolls. Then, we moved onto the breathing exercise which we carried out the week before. This was when we brushed the backs of our hands along the floor as we breathed in and then as we breathed out, we rolled our hands down and clicked after every roll. We then did some gentle stretches with the legs by putting the soles of our feet together and trying to bring them in as far as possible. 

For the next part of the lesson we focused on and got our first feel for dance improvisation. The activity that we were given was to find 4 different points on the floor and at each of these points we would have to pick a dance motif. We would hold this position for a few seconds and then move to the new spot where we would create our second motif and so on. Once we had practiced this through a few times, Laura chose a piece of music for us to move to. As we heard the music, our movements slightly changed to fit the beat and the emotion of the music. When we started getting the hang of this, we slowly started to think more carefully about the transitions from one motif to the next. This activity will help us later in the year as we will be creating our own dance pieces and this is just a starting point of creating our own small sequences. Once we had completed this activity once and had showed the rest of the class what we had created and developed, we tried the exercise again, however this time we used 4 different spots within the space, different moves and different music. In total we did this 3 times with 3 different types of music. This meant that we could explore many different types of music and get a feel of different types of music and lyrics. The 3 different types of music that we used were very different and contrasting. This meant that we had to think about what sort of transitions would fit with each different style of music. I found this exercise moderately easy as I have had dance experience in the past but I also found this hard as I haven’t covered dance improvisation before. 

Wednesday 28^th September

The aim of this lecture was to continue looking at the different factors that affect dance improvisation. 

To start the session, our lecturer took us outside onto the grass area just outside the building. We stood in the middle of the grass and we were asked “what does this remind you of?” This reminded me of walking my dog through the park back at home because you could just about hear the cars on the nearby road and he birds in the sky. Once we had thought about what this reminded us of, we thought of the emotions coming with it. The emotion that I felt was sadness and homesickness. Once we had headed back inside, Laura asked us what sorts come into our minds when we were given an emotion. She firstly asked us what makes us feel calm. Between me and my friend Angel, we came up with a list of many things which make us calm including a tidy room, clean bedding, peaceful music, family/friends and a log fire. On the other hand, we were then asked to think of things which made us stressed or uneasy. For this, we said things such as tension between family or friends, homesickness and falling behind with work. These thoughts and emotions will be very useful to us as we experiment with different dance styles. We will use these emotions throughout the year when experimenting with dance improvisation. 

After thinking about all of these emotions, we decided to put these into practice by physically showing these emotions through body language. Because we weren’t doing too much physical movement today, we did not need to carry out a warmup. This meant that we saved time in the lesson so we could spend more time on the main activity. The main activity of this lesson was to think about emotions in which we will be able to use within our dance pieces. We started off the activity by walking around the room in neutral position whilst there was some music playing quietly in the background. After a few minutes, we were given a situation in which we had to imagine we were in. This meant that we had to physically act and change our body language. The first situation that we were given was that we were in a very hot desert walking across some very hot sand but we had a very heavy load on our backs. To demonstrate this, I took small steps and I was hunched over. Another situation that we were given was that we were lead in bed with our cosy pyjamas on watching our favorite programme on TV. At this point the music changed so that it was much calmer. At first I found this activity quite difficult as I wasn’t thinking emotionally about the situation but as the task went on, I began to bring my emotions into it. 

This lecture was very useful to me as it helped me to think about different emotions and how we can use these within dance to improve the piece.  

Wednesday 5^th October

At the end of last week’s session, our lecturer, Laura briefly told us that somebody would be coming into the next 3 dance sessions to teach us Alexander technique. Between the last session and this week’s session, I did a small bit of research into what Alexander technique is as I had never heard of this before. I found that over the series of sessions we would be gathering a wider awareness of our bodies and how not to put more strain and pressure onto our bodies. 

To start off the session, we carried out a warmup to get the blood flowing to the muscles quicker so we were able to move quickly for the first part of the session. Included in the warmup were some exercises from previous weeks but also new exercises. We carried out the breathing exercise which helped to open up our lungs and also some stretches which helped to gently loosen the muscles. A new exercise that we carried out consisted of sitting on the floor with our legs straight out in front of us and our arms were loosely on top of our legs with palms facing up. Slowly, we started to pull one shoulder back but as we did this, we pulled the whole side of the body with it. This acted as if we were a puppet and we being pulled by the strings. This helped to loosen up some parts of the body such as the shoulders and the neck.

Once we had finished the warmup, we moved onto the main activity. Before jumping straight into the Alexander technique, Laura decided that it may be a good idea if we show Anne, the Alexander technique teacher, what we have been doing within the past few lessons. As a class we decided to show her the 4 spot improvisation task. However, this was done much more quickly than the previous week.

We started off the Alexander technique by Anne talking to us about where you should be placing your weight within your feet. We learnt that the weight has to be evenly distributed within the 3 main points located on the sole of the foot. These points are in the centre of the heel, at the ball of the foot underneath the big toe and at the ball of the foot underneath the small toe. We then tried this out by walking around the room slowly, concentrating on distributing the weight evenly throughout the sole of our feet. I found this quite easy as it is easy for me to walk using the 3 points. We the0n started to think of the position of the head and where the end of the spine is. This helped us to think and we were then able to balance our head on top of the spine. We were then told to walk around the room with our head straight, balanced on the top of the spine and the weight disturbed evenly on the soles of the feet. However, as we started to walk around the room, I started to find this difficult because we were not allowed to move our heads and they had to be looking forward. I found this hard because I have limited peripheral vision meaning that I can’t see outside my tunnel of vision. This meant that we had to adapt the exercise so I was able to turn my head so I could see where I was going.Here is a picture of me and Angel walking around the room thinking about the 3 points on the soles of the feet and the head balancing on the top of the spine:

The next thing that we started to look at was sitting down. When Anne said that we were going to look at how we sit down, I did not think that there was a correct way to sit, however I learnt that there is a correct way in this lecture. When we sat down on chairs we talked about how often we use our sitting bones in daily life. We came to the conclusion that we don’t use them very often. To gain better posture and to minimise the amount of strain you put on your body, you should use your sitting bones.Here is a picture of us when we were thinking about the sitting bones and posture:

The last activity that we did consisted of lying on the floor. For this activity, we lay on our backs with our knees bent because this makes the arch in our back smaller and is more comfortable. Anne came round to us individually and assessed how much support she thought we needed underneath our heads so that our spine was straight. For the next session, she said she would bring a few books to place under our heads to support the head a bit more. Once we had been lying on the floor for a few minutes, we rolled over onto one side. Once we were led on the side that we thought was the comfiest, we curled up by bringing our knees into our chest. This exercise stretches and lengthens the spine. We also did this exercise the other way by moving our legs away and behind us and our arms above and away from us. This also helps to strengthen and lengthen the spine. 

From this lecture, I learnt a lot of new things about the body such as balancing the weight evenly through the 3 points on the soles of the feet and how to lengthen and stretch the spine. This information will be very useful to me as we go through the course this year. I will take all of these pieces f information into consideration when improvising my dance piece. 

Wednesday 19^th October

In today’s dance lecture we were continuing on from last week and we were looking at Alexander technique. To start off the lecture we carried out a gentle warmup including some leg stretches and some head rolls. We did not need to carry out a big warmup as we were not required to due to Alexander technique not being very fast pace. 

We started the Alexander technique with a reminder of the 3 points on the soles of the feet and balancing the weight evenly between then. We were also reminded about the top of the spine and balancing the head. Once we had walked around the room thinking about this for a while, Anne who is the Alexander technique teacher, got us to think about our head leading our bodies. To start the movement we looked to one side which was then followed by the head moving around and then we would end up walking in a circle. This exercise helps us to picture the spiral that is created in our spine. Another way of us being able to picture the spine and how it works is by lying on the floor.Here is a picture of us of thinking about the spine by lying on the floor:

As Anne said last week, she would bring some paperback books to help with the lengthening of the spine. These books were placed under our head so that our head was in line with the rest of the spine. We had our legs bent as this would help to minimise the natural arch in our back. Anne came round to us individually to make sure that our necks were loose and that our shoulders were as wide as possible. Next we rolled onto our side and curled up as small as we could. This helps us to think about the curve in our back. We then carried out the inverse to this by moving the arms and legs away from us and creating an opposite curve. Once we had created this other curve, we curled up and made the first curve gain and then kept alternating between the 2. Once we had done this a few times, we rolled onto our stomachs, up to hands and knees and slowly stood up. Lastly, we went for a gentle walk around the room. Here is a picture of us walking around the room to finish off the lesson:

Wednesday 2^nd November

This dance lecture was the last lecture that we were looking at Alexander technique. Like the last session of Alexander technique, we did not need to carry out a warmup due to Alexander technique being very gradual and it doesn’t require much movement on the muscles and isn’t very strenuous.

At the start of the lesson, we were reminded about the 3 points on the soles of the feet. The weight is distributed evenly through these points and the head is balanced on top of the spine. We walked around the room for a bit thinking about these and bearing them in mind. 

The next thing that we did was to think about the crown of the head. We started to move as if the crown of the head was leading the way. As we were in a dance class, we were able to move around the space more using our existing dance skills to move around the room where the crown of the head was the leader. We then tried placing our hand on the top of each other’s heads and this made the exercise a lot easier as we were now more aware of which part of the head was leading the movement. We then moved onto having the forehead leading the movement. We imagined as if we had a head torch and that this was the only source of light for us to be able to see. Then, we tried moving from each of these movements and the other person had to guess where the movement was coming from. I went first and I started with the crown of the head leading the movement and then I changed to the forehead. I then guessed when Laura changed her movement. She started by moving with the forehead and then switching to the crown of the head. 

We then moved onto the next activity in the session which was talking about the primary and secondary curves along the spine. Anne, our Alexander technique teacher, showed us where the primary and secondary curves are down the spine but we weren’t able to picture this very well so she got us to lie on the floor. This was better and we got a better understanding of the curves as we were able to realise them more. We then carried out the exercise which we did last session where we roll over onto one side and then curl up to make a primary curve and then curl the other way to make a secondary curve. We then interchanged between the 2 curves a few times before rolling onto our hands and knees and standing up slowly. 

To finish off the lesson, we went for a gentle walk around the room just to loosen up the muscles again and to think back to the 3 points on the feet and balancing the head on the top of the spine. 

Overall from these sessions when we have been focusing on Alexander technique, I have learnt about the body a lot more. I have learnt about how to get out of bad habits and ways in which to lengthen the spine and body. Also, I now have a clearer awareness of my body and I can carry out the exercises in the future if necessary. 

Wednesday 9^th November

The aim of today’s dance lecture was to start devising our duet piece.

To start off the lesson we carried out a warmup because it is very important that we do a warmup in dance as we will be using most of the muscles in our bodies. First we carried out a breathing exercise and for this we sat on the floor with our legs crossed. We sat up straight with our hands gently rested on our knees. When we breathed out we sunk our pelvis into the floor and arched the back. When we breathed in, we straightened our back and pushed the chest out. Then we just carried out some simple leg stretches by doing some lunges. Another exercise that we carried out was to sit with our legs out in front of us and act as if a person is pulling the side of the body. As this happens, we pull the shoulder back and stretch that side of the body. 

We then moved onto the main part of the lesson. Today we were starting to devise our first dance piece. The song that we are dancing to is called ‘A gift of a friend’ by Demi Lovato and is from the Disney film Tinkerbelle. We chose this song because we are able to show the emption throughout the song and the lyrics are very fitting. Throughout devising and improvising the piece, we will take into consideration the factors that we have been looking at in previous weeks that may help us to improvise. To start devising the piece, Laura asked us to recreate the 4 spot improvisation that we did a few weeks ago. However, at one of these points we would have to be in contact. We picked our 4 points in the space and then started to think about the transitions and movements between these. Once we had come up with something, we showed each other and gave feedback on each other’s performance. As the name of this unit suggests, elements within the piece may change because it is an improvisation therefore we are able to change it if we want to. The feedback that I gave to Angel was that she had a lot of emotion but her movements needed to flow a bit more. To solve this, I taught Angel a spinning move that I thought would be really nice and fit in well with her movements. Here is a picture of me teaching Angel the move:

Angel then gave me feedback. The feedback that she gave me was that I needed to try and think of a middle section of the 4 spot improvisation because at the moment I was a bit hesitant within this section. 

Wednesday 16^th November

To start off the dance lesson we carried out a warmup. This consisted of many different physical elements. Firstly, the breathing exercise, when we sink the pelvis into the floor and then pull up. Also having both legs straight and bending and pulling one of the legs in. The last exercise that we did was 4 small jumps and then we dropped down with our legs apart and dipped to one side and then to the other. We repeated this a few times to warmup up the muscles.

After the warmup we had a discussion about what the piece of music that we were dancing to meant and what message it was trying to tell us. It carries a message of how having a friend can make a big difference. We then thought about what friendship meant to us and what we expected in a friendship. We came up with lots of ideas but the one that we were going to focus on was trust. This is because we were going to try some trust exercises which we may add into the dance piece. I went first and I trusted Angel to catch me when I fell back. We started off quite close so the fall wasn’t too big but then we made this bigger gradually. We then tried this the other way around so I was catching Angel. Angel had never done this before and did not like the feeling when she fell back although, after some practice she was able to fall back and I was able to catch her. 

We then moved onto thinking about contact improvisation. For this activity we had to move across the room but we always had to have contact with each other and every step that we made meant that we had to change to point of contact. I found this exercise quite difficult as I have never done anything like this before and found it difficult to think of many different ways to keep in contact. 

After the contact improvisation piece we ran through our piece a few times. We were both able to remember it so we thought about new movements that we could possibly add to the end of the material that we already have. We thought about contact when adding on new moves and came up with a few different possibilities however, we did not make a decision as to which one we would use. 

Wednesday 23^rd November

The main focus of today’s lesson was to carry on devising our piece of dance. 

To start off the lesson we carried out a warmup. Firstly we sat on the floor with our legs bent and the soles of our feet together. We tried to bring the feet in as far as possible. Then, we crossed the legs and carried out our breathing exercise when we curl the back and sink the pelvis into the floor. Another exercise which we carried out was when we pull one side the body back which is led by the shoulder. Unfortunately in today’s lesson I had a sore shoulder as I had a trapped nerve between my shoulder and my neck. This meant that it was hard for me to carry out this exercise as it was very painful. Also, for the rest of the lesson I was not able to carry out some of the movements due to having pain in my shoulder. 

For the rest of the lesson we were focusing on learning a short sequence that would form the next part of the piece. To learn the routine we used the mirrors so we were able to see what the movements looked like and it was also easier to copy from our teacher, Laura. Here is a link to a video of the sequence that we learnt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b31peenyiOA&feature=youtu.be

The sequence includes lots of different moves such as lunges, turns and arm movements. It took us a while to memorise the sequence but once we could remember it, we practiced it without using the mirrors. Once the sequence had good fluidity and we could remember it from start to end without our teacher calling out the steps, we decided to run the full piece with the sequence at the end.

Once we had run the dance all the way through, we thought of improvements that we could make. The idea that I suggested was that we may need a bit more dynamic at the start of the new sequence as there is a change in the music because it gets louder and bolder. Something that we developed during the lesson was the timing of the piece. At first, the last part of the sequence did not fit the music very well, however with our input and some help from Laura we were able to overcome this and it now fits nicely with the music. 

To finish off the lesson, we thought about what we would like to do for the rest of the piece. As the piece is a duet, we considered about being able to incorporate some solos. There are 2 sections in the music that are very suitable for solos. The first part is straight after the sequence that we have learnt today starting at 1:12 and the other section that would be suitable for a solo starts at 2:10. Because we didn’t mind which part we got, Laura decided for us. Angel was given the first bit of music and I was given the second. From this we were then asked to listen to the piece of music that we had for our solo parts over the week and think about what moves we would like to include in these parts. We will then start choreographing this next week. 

Wednesday 7^th December

To start off the lesson today we carried out a short physical warmup. Because my shoulder was still hurting, I wasn’t able to carry out movements fully and had to be careful as to how much movement I gave it. The warmup consisted of a few exercises that we have carried out in previous dance lessons such as the breathing exercise, jumps and dips.

For the main part of the lesson, my dance teacher Laura was going to be teaching me a routine that she had choreographed herself. The dance is to the song ‘Tears’ by Louisa Johnson. The dance routine is a commercial style piece. Laura wanted to teach me this routine as commercial dance is one of my weaker styles of dance and learning this routine will stretch me and bring me out of my comfort zone. The routine consists of many isolated movements which I am not very used to, however we did practice this a few lessons ago and I picked this up quite well. I managed to learn a good part of the routine, from the start right up to the chorus (16 bars of music). Once I had learnt the routine, I practiced it over and over because I was then able to add more definition to it once I knew the steps.

Wednesday 14^th December

Today we were carrying on with looking at the routine which I learnt last week. The dance routine is to a song called ‘Tears’ which is sung by Louisa Johnson. This week were looking at adding some improvisation movement. Firstly we decided to change the song to ‘All around the World’ by Justin Bieber. The routine and the moves that I have already learnt fit very well to this music. We ran through the routine that I had learnt last week a few times and then Laura set me a task. The task was to create some material which would add onto the end of the piece that I was already confident with. When she set the task, Laura left the room so she did not see any of the material that I was creating and so it was 100% my input. This was to assess me on how well I can choreograph movement and if it fits in with the style of the dance.

When Laura came back into the room, I showed her the material that I had created. The feedback that she gave me was that the moves really fitted with the style of dance and that I am able to create material really well. Once I had showed her the material that I had created on my own, I put this together with the routine. The first time through I wasn’t very confident as I forgot parts of it but the second and third time through I was able to recall it better. An improvement that Laura gave me to work on was to try and make the moves bigger and sharper. Because I am not used to this style of dance, I find this quite difficult. At the moment, for the moves that I have added myself, I am sharper and these are clearer. At the moment I am still trying to remember the choreography but hopefully in the next lesson I will be more confident with the routine and therefore be able to put more emphasis on the moves. 

Wednesday 11^th January

For the next few lessons we are going to be taught by one of Laura’s dance teachers, Charlotte. Charlotte trained in a variety of styles and now teaches these styles. Throughout the next few weeks she will be teaching us a duet which we will then perform in the showcase towards the end of the year.

We started the lesson with a physical warmup. This included some jogging, gallops and stretches. We then carried out a breathing exercise. Charlotte explained to us that breathing is very important in contemporary dance. If the breathing fits to the piece then it brings a lot more definition and meaning to it. To start with we led on the floor and breathed in time with the music. Then we thought about moving a limb when we breathed in and moving it back when breathing out. Lastly, we repeated this but instead of moving the limb back to the original position, we moved another limb and we did this to standing. I found this exercise quite difficult as I was focusing on the movement more than the breathing. Also I have never done this before and although I could breathe in time with the music, I found it hard to breathe in time and move at the same time.

For the next part of the lesson we worked on technique. We travelled one by one down the room carrying out different travelling exercises. Firstly we started with something easy – walking in time with the music. We then looked at small leaps, and then increased these to split leaps. The last travelling exercise that we carried out was triplet runs. I found these travelling exercise quite straight forward as I had carried out most of these before in my previous dance training.

For the rest of the lesson we were working on learning the first part of the routine. The song that the piece is choreographed to is ‘Shape of you’ by Ed Sheeran. We had a discussion with Charlotte before we started learning the routine about our own input into the routine. If we had any ideas for any moves that we wanted to put into the routine then we are able to do so. Here is a picture of me and Angel learning the beginning of the routine. 

Wednesday 18^th January

In today’s dance lesson we were carrying on with learning the rest of our dance piece.

To start the lesson we carried out a warmup. This consisted of jogging around the room, gallops and stretches. We then recapped the breathing exercises from last week. We did the same as last week – lying on the floor and breathing in time with the music. We then moved a limb when we breathed in and moved it back to the original position when we breathed out. We then repeated this whilst we were standing up so we travelled around the room slowly. Although this was only the second time which I have carried out this exercise, I felt that it was easier than last week. Hopefully each week this exercise will get easier and I will then be able to apply this to the dance piece.

Once we had finished the warmup, we started to learn the next bit of the dance. However, firstly we had a quick recap of what we learnt last week. Because we were both able to recall it, we started learning straight away. Here is a video of what we have learnt of the routine so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RSancjeOCA

As I have had dance experience before, I am able to memorise a routine quite fast. This then enables me to work on the moves because once I have learnt them, I am then able to add more definition and meaning. 

Wednesday 25^th January

In today’s dance lesson I started to learn the choreography for my solo which will be included within the dance performance at the end of this academic year.

To start the lesson we carried out a warmup. This consisted of some jogging, galloping and stretching. Once we had carried out an overall warmup, we did some extra leg and foot warmup exercises. This is because for the solo that I am learning I will be wearing pointe shoes and dancing en pointe. These muscles need to be especially warm otherwise they can become damaged very easily.

For the main part of the lesson I was learning the beginning of the routine. To start with, I learnt the routine whilst using my pointe shoes but after a while my feet started to hurt so I learnt it without them. I managed to learn up to 1:50 which is almost 2/3 of the piece. At the moment I am finding some parts of the routine difficult such as a priroette on my left foot. This is because my left foot isn’t very strong however over time and as I practice the move more and more, I will be able to do it in the end.

Towards the end of the lesson I decided to put my pointe shoes back on so we could run the dance a few times with the pointe shoes on. Here is a video of me and my dance teacher Charlotte, running through the routine in pointe shoes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXK9m890Z_Q

Next week we will carry on learning the rest of my solo and then, once I am confident with the moves all the way through the routine, I am able to perfect them by adding more emotion and definition. 

Wednesday 1^st February

To start off the lesson we carried out a physical warmup which was made up of jogging, galloping and stretches. After this we then carried out the breathing exercises which we have been doing for the past couple of weeks. Every week I am beginning to feel like they are becoming easier and I do not have to think about it as much.

For the main part of the lesson we were learning the rest of the duet piece which we will be performing in the end of year showcase. The duet is to the song ‘Shape of you’ by Ed Sheeran. We managed to learn quite a large amount of new material which we then added to the end of the piece which we had learnt in the previous week. There is one move which we are struggling to get right and this is when Angel has to lean forwards and I have to lean back on her. At the moment the move doesn’t look very natural. Overtime we are hoping to improve this by making it look a bit more natural.

Although we spent most time focusing on the duet piece, we did have a little bit of time to look at my solo. The solo which I will be performing will be on pointe so it’s important that I keep practicing to maintain the strength in my feet. Although we only had a small amount of time, we were able to add a bit of choreography onto the end of the material which I was already familiar with. We then filmed it so that I could look back at it to remember it and look for any corrections. At the moment I am only learning the dance so throughout the video there were a few mistakes but as I become more familiar with the dance, the amount of mistakes will decrease. 

Wednesday 22^nd February

We started off the lesson with a warmup. This consisted of a few stretches, jogging and galloping. We then moved quickly to the rest of the lesson because we had a lot to get through in today’s lesson.

We started by recapping what we already knew of the duet to ‘Shape of You’. Once we had gone over it a few times we decided to learn the rest of it. We had to learn the rest of this duet today because this was the last week that we would have Charlotte to teach us the choreography. We pushed on quickly as we still had quite a lot of choreography to learn. We will then be able to practice this in the weeks leading up to the dance showcase towards the end of the year. We manged to learn the rest of the choreography that Charlotte had choreographed. Because we have just learnt the choreography, the moves are not very tight because we are currently focusing on being at the right place at the right time. I did not find working at a fast pace hard because I am able to pick up choreography quite quickly. This means that I am therefore I can help the others in my group in perfecting the moves and timing. Throughout the next few weeks we will be looking at tightening up the timing of the routine. This is very important for the routine because this routine is about a fight between me and Angel.

For the rest of the lesson I learnt the last part of my solo. I had learnt most of the solo in previous sessions so there was only a few bars to learn. I was able to learn this fast and then once I had picked up the choreography; I was able to have a full run through of the routine without my pointe shoes. 

Wednesday 1^st March

Today the dance practitioner, Laura was not able to make it into college so I practiced the material that I had learnt in previous lessons.

To start off the session I carried out a physical warmup to make sure that I didn’t injure myself. This consisted of some jogging on the spot, shoulder rolls and stretches. After this warmup I went on to recapping the routines that I had already learnt.

Although Laura wasn’t in this session, she had set me work to do. Firstly, I ran through the duet that me and Angel have been learning. Although Angel wasn’t in this session I was still able to practice this to make sure that I could remember all of the moves and to make sure that the timing was right.

Next, I decided to go through my solo. I firstly practiced this without my pointe shoes just as a refresher. Once I had gone through this a few times and the routine was fresh in my head, I put my pointe shoes on. Before running the routine with my pointe shoes on, I did some more warmup exercises to make sure the muscles in my feet were warm. These exercises will also strengthen the muscles in my feet because at the moment, my feet are not strong enough to get all the way through the routine. After the exercises I ran through the pointe routine a few times. At the moment I am not able to perform the pointe routine all the way through in my pointe shoes because my feet aren’t strong enough but over time, my feet will become stronger if I carry out foot strengthening exercises regularly. 

Wednesday 8^th March

Today I was beginning to learn the choreography for the duet which Callum and I will perform in the dance showcase at the end of the year.

To start the lesson we carried out a physical warmup.

Before we started to learn the choreography, Laura introduced us to some lifts. Although I have had quite a lot of dance experience, I have never been lifted before. This is a new skill that I am going to be developing over the next few months. Laura showed us 2 lifts. The first one that she showed us was the easiest one and this is where I run up to Callum and as I jump, I curl around the side of Callum. We tried this a few times because it took me quite a long time to finally do it right. Laura then showed us the second lift but I wasn’t confident enough with doing that one so we just stuck with the first one for now.

Once we had had some practice with the lifts, we moved on to learning the start of the choreography. It didn’t take me much time to pick up the choreography because I am used to learning routines quickly. However, I am currently putting no emotion into the dance. Showing emotion is my main target because at the moment I can perform the moves well, but I struggle to show emotion. Because I have only just learnt the moves, I am finding it quite difficult to put emotion into the dance because I am mostly concentrating on remembering the choreography. In the next few weeks, as I become more familiar with the moves, it will be easier for me to put emotion into the dance.

Something else that I am struggling with at the moment is the beginning move. At the start of the music I perform a move which creates he effect of breathing. At the moment I am unable to imagine this but as we learn more choreography and I have more practice, this should become easier. 

Wednesday 15^th March

Today we were working on the duet that Angel and I have been learning over the past couple of weeks.

To start the lesson we carried out a warmup consisting of stretches, bounces and dips. After this we moved onto looking at the duet.

To recap, we went through the routine without the music so we were able to ask any questions if we were unsure of the moves before we danced it through with the music. At the moment, we are having a few problems with the timing of the moves. We are both going at different times and this then makes the routine look untidy.

We ran through the routine a few times with the music to practice over the moves and the timing. For this duet, my main target is to build up and show emotion throughout the piece. I have been struggling with this so we spoke about ways in which I could show my emotion in the piece. As this duet is about a fight between me and Angel, I need to be able to show anger so that the audience know that we are fighting.

Once we had run through the duet a few times and we were feeling more confident about it, I practiced through my solo. Before I started the solo, I did a few extra warmup exercises just to make sure that my feet were warm enough to be able to dance en pointe. I danced through my solo a few times en pointe. However, the more I rehearse and practice in my pointe shoes, the more my feet get tired and I am unable to perform the routine as well, the more times I do it.

My target is to carry on strengthening my feet so that I am able to dance to the best of my ability. I also need to carry on building up emotion in both of these routines which I have practiced today. I am currently finding this quite difficult but as I have more practice of it, I will begin to find this easier. 

Wednesday 22^nd March

Today we were focusing on the duet that Callum and I have been learning for the past few weeks,

We carried out a warmup to make sure that our muscles were warm and that we weren’t going to hurt ourselves when we started dancing.

For the main part of the lesson we were practicing and running through the choreography that we have already learnt. However, in today’s session I was feeling a bit ill so we weren’t able to dance for very long. Once we had rehearsed over the routine a few times so that it was refreshed in our heads, we sat down to have a discussion about the showcase.

Laura told me the order of the show so that I had an idea of the routines that I still need to learn and where the ones that I have already learnt or I am currently learning will fit into the show. Currently I still have another 3 group routines to learn as well as the rest of the duet with Callum.  We also discussed my target which is to build emotion within my dances. I am finding this quite difficult at the moment because all of the dances have a different emotion. This means that I need to think about each different emotion and build these up over time. 

Wednesday 29^th March

Today we were focusing on learning some more lifts for the duet and learning some more choreography.

To start the lesson we did a warmup which consisted of stretches and some half twists. After this we moved onto learning some new lifts.

The first lift that we learnt was quite difficult. It consists of standing quite close together and both bending our knees at the same time. As we both bend our knees, Callum leans over me and I bend and curl. As Callum is bent over, he puts his hands under my legs and has to lift me up from under my legs. We found this lift very difficult to start with because Callum wasn’t bending low enough so that he could pick me up but then we started to get the hang of it. Over time as we practice these lifts more, they will become easier and they will look good when we include them in the choreography. The other lift that we looked at was when we stand facing each other holding hands. I cross my arms and bend down as a preparation for the lift. Once the momentum has built up I have to launch myself upwards and forwards and Callum has to catch me. This lift takes a lot of trust because I am not allowed to grab onto Callum. To practice at the moment, I am grabbing onto Callum’s shoulders so that I can get used to the lift ad then once I have got used to the lift, I will not have to grab onto his shoulders.

For the rest of the lesson we ran over the choreography that we have already learnt and then added some more. We were only able to add a little bit on this week as we spent a lot of time focusing on learning and practicing the lifts. At the end of the choreography that we learnt last week we both end up on the floor with our backs against each other. We decided that we should sweep around each other, contract and then sweep back around again. After this, Callum does a teddy bear roll to end up sitting next to me and then I do a split backwards roll to end up further away from him lying on the floor. At first, we were both going to do a teddy bear roll at the same time but this looked a bit childish which is the opposite of how we want it to look so we changed it so just one of us did the teddy bear roll. 

Wednesday 5^th April

Today out dance teacher, Laura was not in college but she set us work to do whilst she was away.

To start the session, I led a warmup which consisted of jogging around the room followed by some stretches. After this we moved on to practicing the duet.

The duet that Callum and I will be performing is to ‘House on fire’ by Sia. The routine includes quite a lot of lifts so we need to be practicing these quite regularly if we want them to look good and smooth within the routine. We decided to use this time to practice through the choreography a few times so that it is fresh in our heads. After this, we practiced some of the lifts that we have been learning. I found this lifts slightly easier today as I have done them before and I am now used to being lifted.

Once we had then practiced these lifts, we ran through the choreography again but included the lifts this time.

My target for this duet is to feel more confident when performing the lifts because at the moment I am feeling very nervous about being lifted in the air because I am not used to it. However, as we practice these lifts more and more, I will become more confident. I need to ensure that I am practicing outside of these dance lectures for both duets with Callum and Angel because there isn’t much time till the show and we need to make sure that the routines are performed to the best of our abilities. 

Wednesday 26^th April

Today we were focusing on learning some more of the duet that I have been learning with Callum.

To start the lecture we carried out a warmup to make sure that we did not hurt ourselves whilst dancing. The warmup included stretches and small jumps to loosen up the body.

For the rest of the lesson we spent the time learning some more of the choreography. Although Laura had choreographed more of the dance, some of it didn’t fit with the flow of the dance. Therefore, we worked together to come up with some ideas of what moves to put into the dance. However, to start with, we ran through the dance a couple of times so we could refresh the dance in our heads because we haven’t had dance lessons for 2 weeks due to the Easter break. In this lesson we managed to learn a lot of choreography as we were focused and we are both able to pick up the choreography fairly quickly. Some of the moves that we have added into the routine include a backwards roll, backwards drags and the quickstep. Over the next couple of weeks before the show, I need to keep to keep practicing these moves separately as well as the routine. Moves such as the backwards roll and the quickstep need special attention because I am not used to carrying out these moves and at the moment they are a bit rusty and need perfecting. I will practice these moves and the routine in my own time outside of lectures.

I think this lesson was very productive because we got a lot done and managed to learn a large portion of the dance. In my spare time I need to keep on practicing the moves and the routine. I also feel like I managed to learn the quickstep quickly although I will keep practicing. 

Wednesday 3^rd May

The aim of today’s lecture was to recap over all of the material that we have learnt in preparation for the showcase in a few weeks.

We carried out a warmup to start the lecture to make sure that we didn’t hurt ourselves when we were dancing.

After the warmup, Callum and I practiced through our duet and the new choreography that we learnt in last week’s lecture. We were both quite familiar with this dance because we arranged to meet up and practice on Sunday. This meant that we only needed to practice through the routine once before we could start learning more choreography. We managed to learn quite a lot of choreography. The new choreography includes a lift of which we practiced a few weeks ago and me doing the splits.

Next, Angel and I practiced through our duet. We also practiced this duet on Sunday so we could remember the dance quite well.

After the duets, I ran through my solo a few times. In my solo I use a suitcase as a prop. Today, I practiced for the first time with a box which is going to be made into a suitcase. The first time that I practiced through the dance, I was unsure of where the suitcase was meant to be at most points but by the second time of running through the dance, I was sure of where the suitcase was at all times. In future sessions, I need to keep working with the prop so I can get used to moving the prop around the stage and remember when I place the prop down and pick it back up.

To finish the lesson, Callum and I ran through our duet one last time. Here is a video of us rehearsing the dance:

Today’s lesson was very productive because I ran through all of the dances that I currently know for the showcase. I was also able to learn some more of the duet that I will be performing with Callum.

Due to having exams during our normal dance lectures, we have managed to arrange some extra rehearsals so that I am able to learn the group dances. 

Wednesday 10^th May

Today we were focusing on learning the rest of the duet which me and Callum have been learning over the past few weeks.

We started the lesson with a warmup. This is important because we were doing lots of lifts during this session and we need to make sure that we do not injure ourselves.

After we had finished the warmup, we ran through the duet with the music as a refresher. After this, we carried on learning some more choreography. We don’t have much time left before the show so we need to work quickly. Luckily, both me and Callum can learn choreography quickly so this hopefully will not be a problem. The original plan was to learn a little bit more choreography and cut the music to near the end of the original track. However, because we learnt the choreography so quickly, we managed to learn nearly all of the choreography up until the end of the track.

We worked very well and efficiently together as we managed to help our dance lecturer, Laura come up with some ideas of choreography. We also worked hard to learn and carry out another lift.

This is my last dance lesson before the show. This is because I have exams which all lie when we are meant to have a dance lesson. Therefore we have worked together to come up with some times where we can have some extra dance rehearsals. Everyone who is in the dance show will be attending the rehearsals so that we can learn and practice the group dances. We will also spend time going through and running all of the routines in order.  

Friday 12^th May

Today we had our first dance rehearsal which we had arranged at the start of this week as I will not be able to attend any more dance lectures till after the show due to exams.

We started the session with a thorough warmup. I was chosen to lead the warmup because our dance teacher, Laura was stuck in traffic. I took the group through quite a long warmup to make sure that we were all ready to rehearse and ready for when Laura arrived.

When Laura arrived, we spent most of the session learning one of the main group dances. This group dance is to the song ‘America’ from West Side Story. Angel and I have not learnt any of this choreography but Callum, Emily and Danielle had all learnt the choreography in their dance lectures.  We spent most of the lesson learning the choreography. This dance involves a lot of acting as well as dance moves. We learnt the choreography and then we were put into our places. I found the choreography quite easy to learn and remember.

For the rest of the lesson we ran through the dance show. We started running the show in the order which the routines will come in the show. The first routines in the show I had to learn in my own time because I didn’t have time to learn these in lectures as we were busy learning other dances. I need to go over these routines as I am not 100% sure on these routines yet as I have only just learnt them. We filmed us dancing through these routines so I can watch the videos back to remember the routines. After these routines it goes into America.

I think this was a very successful session as we managed to learn most of the America routine. We only have a small bit to learn at the end of the track but we can’t really learn this until the track has been cut. We also managed to practice through most of the routines in the order of which they will come in the show. However, we did not manage to practice through my solo but we will hopefully be able to practice through this at the next rehearsal. 

Friday 26^th May

Today we had another dance rehearsal. This rehearsal was not on the original list of rehearsals that we had planned and agreed as a group however, because myself and others in the group have missed rehearsals due to being in exams, we decided that we needed to fit in another rehearsal before we went home for half term. The only person that wasn’t able to attend the rehearsal today was Danielle because she had already travelled home.

So far up to this point we all know which dances we are in and know most of the routines for the show. The main aim of today’s rehearsal was to learn the choreography to the last group dance. This group dance was originally going to be to the song ‘Cell block tango’ from Chicago but due to storyline of the show changing, this now doesn’t fit with the story. Therefore the song and choreography has now been changed to ‘Turn around’ by Connor Maynard.

We learnt the choreography at the start of the rehearsal. I learnt this choreography quite quickly. I then helped others in the group to learn the choreography to.

After learning this choreography we had a quick recap of the group dance ‘America’ which we learnt at the last rehearsal. We went over this a few times to make sure everyone in the group could remember it.

Once we had finished learning and going over choreography, we started at the beginning of the show and carried out the dances in the order of which they will come in the show. This helped us to start to get a feel for the running order of the show and to then start thinking about the transitions in between the dances. These transitions are going to be very important because they will help to tell the story as well as the dances. Although we managed to complete a run through of the show, we were unable to time it as we stopped and started a lot due to practicing the transitions. I think that this run through of the show went quite well because I remembered all of my choreography.

Last week on Saturday, Callum and I went into the performance studio to practice our duet. This enabled us to practice the lifts as the more we practice them, the better they will become. I also practiced my solo in this time.

Over half term I need to keep practicing my solo, duets and group dances. I will not be able to practice these fully but practice them just so they stay fresh in my head. In class we have recorded the dances a few times so I can watch the videos back to remind myself of the moves. My main priority will be to keep looking at the ‘Turn around’ dance as we have only learnt this dance today and I need to know it well in time for the show.

Over half term I also need to think about costumes and what I am going to be wearing for each dance. 

Monday 5^th June

Today, everyone bought in their costumes or any clothes that they thought would work for the dance show. I brought in several different things because I am in different dances and I need to wear different outfits for the different dances. We then put some of the costumes over what we were already wearing so we could start to get into character a bit more.

We then had a run through of the show. We have already done a few runs before so we were now starting to remember what came after what in the show. This also gave me a chance to see if I could change my shoes in time in between dances and then still have some spare time to change my outfit when it comes to the actual show.
Something else that we worked on today was the transition from 'Boot scootin' boogie' into 'Footloose'. After 'Boot scootin' boogie', the three daughters which are me, Angel and Emily head over to the bar. At this point we carry out improvised movement. We did not choreograph this as we wanted it to look as realistic as possible whilst Danielle is talking to the audience. When Callum then enters the stage, my reaction to when he starts dancing is going to be improvised. This is when he gets me up to dance which then goes into the choreographed dance. We also came to the conclusion that we would each individually improvise a pose at the end of this routine. We came to this conclusion after we had tried some ending group poses but these did not work well. When we tried improvising our own poses, this worked a lot better. 
Today was also the day where I was given my prop. The prop that i will be using is a suitcase and I will be using it in my solo. The suitcase had been especially made for me by the art department. I was not sure how small or how heavy the suitcase would be. I had done some preparation by practicing with big bags which were quite heavy. The first time that I practiced through the routine with the prop, I improvised picking the suitcase up and putting it down. This worked really well so I blended this improvisation into choreography as I remembered what I did and then did this again for the next rehearsal. 

I think that this was a successful rehearsal as we managed to have a good run through of the show. We did have some stops and starts but we managed to block the dances and recap over the dance that we learnt just before half term. We also came to a decission about what poses we are going to do at the end of 'Footloose' because before today we didn't really have anything that looked natural. The show is now really coming together and I am excited to perform this to a live audience on Thursday. 

Wednesday 7^th June

Today we had a tech and dress rehearsal for our dance performance which we will perform tomorrow.

In the session on Monday, we all brought in our costumes which we thought that we could wear for the dance show which would fit in with the theme and our characters.

We started the rehearsal by getting into our first costumes and setting any costumes or props that we would be using throughout the show. For my first costume, I was wearing my leggings and checked shirt. Under this, I had to wear my leotard and tights because in the show I have a quick change in and out of the costume which I will be wearing for my pointe solo. On top of the leotard, I will be wearing a ballet wrap skirt. Also for the solo, I will be dancing with a suitcase. Charlotte and I choreographed the dance around the suitcase because I need to put it down and pick it up. The suitcase symbolises my character leaving the town as I become upset with Callum as I see him dancing with my sister.

We ran through the show but stopped after every dance because we needed to sort out and decide what we were going to do for each transition. For the transition after 'Tennessee Waltz' going into 'Shape of you', we will use improvised movement. We were given a brief instruction from our lecturer but weren't told what to specicially do. We had to think carefully about what to do for this transition as we had to make sure that it fitted in with the story. We improvised the transition to make it look more natural. 
We also had to stop because Laura, our dance lecturer, had to tell the lighting and sound team what sort of lights she wanted for the next dance. She also had to give them the cues for the sound.

One thing that we needed to finish off today was the ending of mine and Callum’s duet. Laura wanted us to finish the duet on the floor so Callum and I came up with a way that we would end up on the floor. We decided to stand side by side and then bend both knees to end kneeling on the floor facing each other. We then ended in a hug.

Once we had finished the run-through, we had a group discussion about what we were going to do with the group dance – ‘Turn around’. Danielle has only just learnt the choreography to this routine this week and is currently struggling with it. Emily and Angel learnt the choreography before the half term break but they are also struggling remembering it. Originally, the dance started with an argument between Angel, Emily and Callum. They are arguing about me leaving the town (part of the story). It then went into me coming on to stage and Callum, Angel, Danielle and Emily following me. We would then dance through the choreographed sequence twice together. After this, Angel, Emily and Danielle would leave the stage and would just leave Callum and me on the stage dancing through the sequence twice. We have now changed the routine so that Danielle, Emily and Angel don't come on stage for the dance and the dance is now a duet. At the start of the dance, I come on to stage and improvise walking across the stage and act like I am debating whether or not to leave the town. This then goes into a choreographed sequence. When Callum enters the stage, this part of the routine is also improvised but then goes into choreographed moves. 

I think this rehearsal went very well as we managed to have a full run-through of all of the show and tidied up some of the loose ends that we had. We managed to give the sound and lighting team the suitable cues and information that they will need. They will be coming into the rehearsal tomorrow as well so we can have another few tech/dress run before the show tomorrow night. We also managed to decide and practice the transitions between the dances. We will have to practice these tomorrow but we should be able to remember them. I am only in one of the transitions between the dances because I am mostly getting changed into my next costume. It also wouldn’t fit in with the storyline if I was to come on during the transitions. We also decided on what we were going to do for the 'Turn around' dance because in the rehearsal, it didn't work very well. Therefore we improvised and the routine now works a lot better than it did before. 

Tomorrow we will be having another tech and dress rehearsal. Hopefully, we will be able to have a few run-throughs of the show tomorrow so that we are able to see how long the show runs for and I will be able to see how long I have to change in between the dances and to see if I will be able to change in the time that I currently have.

Later on in the evening, I sent out a student notice to everyone in the college. The email was inviting people to come and see the show. The description of the show reads:

Madame Brewster and her 3 daughters have been running a quiet little bar tucked away in an uneventful corner of Tennessee.  Famous for its laid back and monotonous ways, where nothing unexpected seems to happen is just the way Madame Brewster likes to keep it since the heart-breaking death of her husband.

But as we see...It only takes a tall stranger to set the cat amongst the pigeons. 

Thursday 8^th June

Today we were in rehearsals from 1:30pm in preparation for the dance show which we will be performing tonight at 7:30pm.

When we arrived at the rehearsal, Laura our dance lecturer ran through the assignment brief for our unit. We had a group discussion about what the rehearsal was going to consist of. We then started getting ready for a dress and tech rehearsal which we were going to start at 2pm. I got changed into my costume and placed all of my other costumes and props backstage in the correct places ready for my quick changes. The aim of the rehearsal time was to fit in 3 full runs of the show. The first one would be quite relaxed and just getting into costumes and making sure that everyone was in the right place at the right time. This run through also gave the tech team the chance to remember what they were doing for the lighting and sound and they could ask any questions if they had any. The second run through was a more fluent run-through as during the first run we had to stop several times as sometimes the tech team had to ask a question. This was the first time that I got an idea of how long I had to change from one costume to another. The third and final dress and tech run was a full out run-through. We treated this as if it was the real performance in terms of performing the dances. We timed each performance to gain an idea of approximately how long the show would run for.

I think that the first run-through went quite well. However, we did have to stop quite a few times as the tech team had to remember what cues they had and we had to change a few of the transitions. One of the transitions in particular that we had to change slightly was after my solo ‘Another suitcase in another hall’ and before ‘Turn around’. This was because originally I did not have enough time to change from one outfit to another so the new transition gave me more time.

The second run-through also went well overall. However, I did not think my solo went very well as I was unable to perform it to my best because I didn’t want to tire out my feet just before the performance. Also, after the solo, I was unable to get my skirt off in time and had to go on stage with it on for ‘Turn around’ which was the next dance.

The third and final rehearsal of the show went the best out of all of the rehearsals. All of the group dances went very well as we were all in time and both of my duets went well. I know this, as I was given feedback from my lecturer after each run-through. However, my solo did not go as well as I was struggling to stay up on pointe and kept losing my balance. After the run-through, I tried not to panic as I knew that I have done it well before and I need to try my best for the performance tonight. Also for this rehearsal, we had a small audience that could not make it to the show tonight. This gave us an opportunity to get a feeling of what it is going to be like to perform to an audience tonight.

In between each of the run-throughs, we had notes given from our lecturer. Some of the notes that she gave me were that she could see the anger in the duet with Angel (Shape of you) and the sadness in my solo (Another suitcase in another hall). Me and Callum executed our duet very well.

We finished the last run-through and notes at around 6:15pm. We then had just over an hour to get ready for the show which started at 7:30pm.
Here are a few pictures from the dress rehearsal:

 The three daughters in Madame Brewster's barn. 

 The three daughters and Callum in the barn. 

 Madame Brewster and her three daughters. 

The whole cast with our lecturer Laura.

Thursday 8^th June

The performance

Today we were performing our dance showcase. The dance show was called ‘Trouble in Tennessee’ and had a western theme. The performance was set in Madame Brewster’s barn one night where she was joined by her 3 daughters. During the night, a stranger walks in and grabs the attention of one of daughters. However, he is then seen dancing with one of the other daughters which causes the girl to leave the town in jealousy. He runs after her with the aim to catch up to her and when he does, she forgives him.

The running order of the show was:

Boot Scootin’ Boogie (group)

Footloose (group)

America (group)

Tennessee Waltz (duet – Callum and Danielle)

Shape of you (duet – Charlotte and Angel)

The Sound of Swing (duet – Callum and Emily)

Another suitcase in another hall (solo – Charlotte)

Turn around (duet – Charlotte and Callum)

House on fire (duet – Charlotte and Callum)

I really enjoyed performing the show to a live audience. Because I have done dance before moving to college, I have performed in many shows before and I haven’t taken part in a show for a long time. The show gave me a chance to show an audience something that I am passionate about.

Here is a link to a full video of the dance performance:

Here is another video of the show from a different angle. it is split into two parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Evaluation

At the start of the performance, we used improvised movement. When the audience were coming in to the performance studio, the whole cast were on stage improvising like we were in a bar. Angel and I were sat stage right at a table, however we did move about the stage as well. Emily was at the bar, Danielle welcoming the audience and Callum was sat quietly in the corner so that nobody noticed him. We used improvised movement to set the scene and make it seem as realistic as possible. We did this by making sure that we stayed in character and had music running in the background which sounded like we were in a bar. We purposely didn't choreograph any movement because we knew that this wouldn't give a naturalistic feel. I carried out improvised movement individually and also interacted with other members of the cast including Angel and Emily. I think this was a successful part of the show because when I spoke to one of the audience members after the show, she said that she felt like she was walking into a bar because there was a realistic scene set. Also, we all managed to stay in character. I was quite worried about starting on stage as I did not know if I was going to be able to stay in character but I think I did this successfully. 

During the first dance, 'Boot scootin' boogie', there was timing issue within the first part of the dance. This meant that all of the cast who were on stage weren't dancing in time with each other. This meant that I had to improvise and think what would be best to do in this situation. I decided that i needed to carry on with the correct timing and not join in with the timing of everyone else. This meant that when we got to the chorus, everyone became in time again. 

Another strength of the performance was that the group dance ‘Footloose’ was performed very well. We all stayed in time with each other and I feel like I put a lot of effort into this routine. Callum had a small tap solo during this routine which he performed excellently as he hit all of the beats.

I managed to show lots of emotions during the performance. For example, during my duet with Angel ‘Shape of you’, I showed a lot of anger during this dance. There was a lot of anger and tension in the air because I had seen Angel with Callum and I was jealous. Therefore, the purpose of the dance was to fight and at the end of the dance, I win. I know that I portrayed this emotion well because after the performance, I spoke to my lecturer and a few of the audience members and they said that there was a lot of tension in the room during this dance. Also, in my solo I managed to look really sad due to the fact that I had left the town because I had seen Callum dancing with one of my sisters. Another dance where I showed a lot of emotion was the duet with Callum ‘House on fire’. Throughout the dance I had to show different emotions because at the start of the dance I was frightened of Callum but then as the routine went on, I became happier. I was really happy with all of the comments that I received in regards to emotion because this was my main target for the academic year – showing emotion during performance. This is because I have had lots of experience with dance but not much experience in showing emotion during these dances. I felt very overwhelmed with all of the comments. The last dance which I was focusing on showing emotion was my solo ‘Another suitcase in another hall’. For this routine I had to show sadness as I was leaving the town. I know that I did this successfully as when I spoke to one of my performing arts lecturers after the show and she said that I looked really sad during the routine. This was really good to hear because my aim was to look sad and she said that I defiantly did.

Another strength is that I remembered all of the choreography to all of the dances. I was worried in the lead up to the show that I was going to forget the choreography especially in my solo and the duets as there weren’t many people on stage at these times. This meant that everyone in the audience would be watching me which is a lot of pressure.

My solo ‘Another suitcase in another hall’ went very well. I was very nervous for the routine because in the final dress rehearsal, this routine didn’t go very well. This made me think that it was going to go bad in the final performance. However, I managed to stay up on pointe at all times which were choreographed. I also think that I used the suitcase well as a prop. I didn’t drop it at any time and danced well whilst holding it. It did not disrupt any of my movements. 

I was able to use improvisation when there was a slight problem during the show. When I came off stage from performing my solo, I had a quick change out of my pointe shoes and into ballet shoes. In rehearsals, I realised that i wouldn't have enough time to do the change and therefore Danielle offered to come onto stage and do some improvisation which would then give me a little more time to change. However, during the show i could not get my pointe show off in time so I missed my cue to enter stage for 'Turn around'. I didn't know what to do at this stage so I thought of a way around the situation. All of a sudden I heard the track start from the beginning and at this point I had my shoe off. This meant that I was able to go onto stage and perform the routine as normal. 

The duet performed by Callum and I was the last dance of the show. I think this routine went the best out of all the routines. The routine included lifts which we executed all perfectly and carried out the rest of the routine really well. Feedback from the audience after show was that this was their favourite routine because you could tell that there was story to the dance. The audience also said that they could feel the connection between the 2 characters which fitted in with the story really well.

Weaknesses and improvements

Although I think that the performance went really well overall, I believe there were some things that I or other people could have done better.

Although I thought it was very good, during Callum’s tap solo he was looking down throughout most of it. This meant that he couldn’t really connect with the audience whilst he was performing. An improvement that he could make if he was to do the show again is to keep his head up when he is performing to connect with the audience.

Another weakness is that during ‘Shape of you’, there were parts in the dance where we were a bit early and we were waiting for the music. In rehearsals, we have performed this where we have been right on the timing. To improve this routine, we could have listened to the music a bit more carefully and performed the moves a bit slower. Also, I noticed that in some parts of the routine we weren’t in time with each other. This may have been because Angel wasn’t as secure with the choreography. An improvement that could be made here is for me to run through the choreography with Angel more so that we could be in time as this is really important in a duet.

At points during my solo, my arms were not controlled. Because my solo was a ballet solo, it is really important that every part of the body is controlled. If I was to do the show again, I would concentrate on focusing on the control of my arms throughout the whole routine. I would also try and do some more foot strengthening exercises on the lead up to the show just to make sure that my feet where really strong for the routine. Another improvement that I would make is to practice with the suitcase quite early on in the rehearsal process. This couldn’t be helped in this circumstance because we were waiting for the suitcase to have been made by the art department but I did start practicing with it as soon as possible.

After my solo, I had a very quick change out of one outfit and into another. I also had to change from my pointe shoes to soft ballet shoes in just under a minute. When I came off from my solo, I could not get my pointe shoe off in time ready to go on for the next routine. The music had to be started again and I was ready for the cue the second time round. It is quite difficult to improve this as this doesn’t happen very often and you can’t really help it because it was a piece of clothing. To improve I could possibly not panic as much when I couldn’t get my shoe off because I don’t think this helped the situation.

Something else that I could have improved on was my timing in ‘Turn around’. I did do the sequence slightly too fast the first time but when it came to the second time through, I realised that I was going too fast for the music and slowed down when I did the sequence again with Callum.

Here are some more photos of me and Callum in our duet:

Overall, I think the performance went very well. I put a lot of effort into every dance lecture rehearsal leading up to the show and also during the final performance.

After the performance I spoke to many of the audience members about what they thought of the show. Everyone that I spoke to thoroughly enjoyed the show and was giving the whole cast amazing feedback. I found the feedback from the audience very overwhelming as dance is something that I am very passionate about and I want to carry on doing. Many of my friends and family came to watch the show and they all really enjoyed it. Some of the comments were “The show had been very well thought out and the amount of effort that the whole cast has put in is amazing” and “We saw that the whole cast had different challenges throughout the show but everyone performed amazingly”. Speaking to the audience after the show informed me that during my solo, I made a few people cry in the audience. This shows that I managed to show emotion and connect with the audience within my dancing. This made me feel proud and overwhelmed by all of the amazing comments that I received.