Unit 26 - Choreographing dance

Monday 23^rdApril

2 faced dance company, which is a professional dance company based in Hereford, came into college to gather some ideas about how to make their new production more accessible to blind and partially sighted children. The main focus of the session was to explore the idea of audio description and a touch tour but it also gave us a chance to talk to them about their show and learn more about what they do.

To start with, we had a discussion with Tamsin who is the artistic director of the company. She gave us a bit of background about the dance company and also a bit of information about their production that they are currently working on. This production is called ‘Moon’ and is about a young boy and a moon. The production is told through contemporary dance and is aimed at children. 

After the discussion, we were given a chance to hold some of the props which are used throughout the show. We even got to try some of the props on. Some of the props that we got to touch were a chimney sweeps hat, the moons hat, the dragon head and tail. Here is a picture of me with the dragon wings on:

After having a discussion about how to present the touch tour, the group showed us a piece from the show. There were 3 male dancers making the cast of the performance. Here are some pictures of the scene which they performed to us:

The scene was a contemporary dance scene which showed the young boy meeting a dragon. The scene was very well choreographed so that when the tension built up in the music, the story also built up as we were watching it. The music and choreography really suited both their target audience and their storyline. They have incorporated a lot of different components into the show which meet the needs of the target audience and the storyline. For example, they have a trapeze artist who will symbolise the moon throughout the show and the use of lots of different props and costumes which have been very cleverly put together to draw the audience in. I feel that the use of these props and costumes really added a dynamic to the performance and makes it more interesting. It will certainly make it interesting for their target audience as the children will be amazed by the movement with the props and costumes. 
After watching the scene, we worked with the audio describer to create some speech which could go over the soundtrack.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the extract. It was very different to anything that I had seen before and gave me some good ideas for my own choreography which I could use in my pieces in the future. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the session. I hope that I get to see this production when it is finished.