Unit 37 - Dance performance

Friday 18^th May

The performance

Today was the day of the final performance. The name of the performance is ‘Maleficent – hero or villain?’ The show tells the tale of the villain in Sleeping Beauty, although as the story is told, the audience finds out why Maleficent is evil but she is in fact a hero at the same time. We have edited the story to tell the tale of Maleficent through dance. The order of the show is as follows:

1. Welcome to the Moors (narration introduction)
2. A thousand years (Maleficent and Steffan growing up)
3. Happy (Maleficent is happy with her current life)
4. True loves kiss (Steffan steals Maleficent’s wings)
5. The Christening (falling through the trees)
6. Fairyland (the fairies look after Aurora)
7. Beautiful Trauma (Maleficent at the Christening)
8. Aurora in Faerieland (Aurora’s solo)
9. The curse won’t reverse (Aurora pricks finger)
10. Rise (battle for the wings)
11. Phillip’s kiss (Aurora wakes up)
12. This is me (Maleficent turns into nice)
13. The queen of Faerieland (final narration and bows)

As you can see from this list, we have used a combination of both pop songs and songs from the Maleficent soundtrack. 

Here is a link to a video of the full performance:
https://vimeo.com/272117833

I was extremely happy with how the show worked out in the end. It showed that all the hard work and stress had paid off. At the end of the performance, I was able to speak to audience about what they thought about the show. The audience for this show was very mixed - we had people from the college (staff and students), family and friends of the performers and also students from Laura’s dance school. From all of the people that I spoke to, they all loved the performance! This was such a great thing to hear because Laura and I have put in a lot of time and effort into this show. It was such a good audience because they gave such a great response to each routine and you could really feel the vibe from the audience when you were performing. 

The show started off with a narration introduction which then led into the dance ‘A thousand years’. The routine shows the effect of Maleficent and Steffan growing up over the years. The routine started with Aidan and Anna on stage. Originally, Anna was going to be the only one on stage but it made more sense to bring Aidan on from the beginning because this was explained in the narration before the routine started. This then led into Eve and Toby’s duet. I think that all of the children danced really well as they managed to remember all of the choreography and showed the effect of the characters growing up. Aidan did especially well considering we asked him to perform the start of the routine with Anna on the day of the show. They were able to apply all of the corrections that Laura and I gave to them to improve their performance. In my duet with Luke, Luke was slightly late for his cue and to begin with, I thought that he may miss his cue completely. However, I did manage to cover up my concern by improvising which is something that I wouldn’t have been able to do at the start of this course. The duet went really well despite having limited rehearsal time together with Laura. 

The next dance, ‘Happy’, went really well. This was a tap dance and possibly the hardest routine in the show in regards to stamina. One thing that I have been struggling with in rehearsals is to look happy during this routine. This is because I have been so focused on getting the steps right that I have forgotten to look happy. However, I managed to take on board my teacher’s comments and I smiled all the way through the routine. I also showed my feeling of happiness through my body language as there was never a moment during the song where I was stood doing nothing. Watching the video of the final performance back, I have realised how much this routine has improved since I first learnt it. 

The stealing of the wings scene came next and I had only taught Luke this bit on the day so I was hoping that he was going to remember it. I wasn’t able to see what he was doing during the performance but from watching the video back, I have seen that he did a really good job at stealing the wings. He acted the part out perfectly. The falling through the trees part which followed this also worked really well although I did have to improvise a little because the effect started before it was due to. This wasn’t a big problem though and still gave a really good effect. I also managed to apply one of Laura’s comments that she gave me in the rehearsal and this was to have more tension when I was falling to make the effect more realistic. 

The next part of the show that I was in was the dance ‘Beautiful trauma’. This dance went really well because I put a lot of emotion into it. This is the point in the story where Maleficent has turned into evil because she wasn’t invited to Aurora’s Christening. This was the first dance that we choreographed in preparation for this show so this routine has had the most practice. I think that this is the best time that I had ever danced it and after speaking to audience members, a lot of them said that this was their favourite routine. 

The next part of the show was Aurora’s solo leading into the pricking of the finger. Sienna danced her solo beautifully. She was a bit behind on the timing but this didn’t really matter because the end of the dance only overlapped the narration a little bit. The pricking of the finger section was very powerful. I caught Sienna when she fell back and carried her off stage ready to start the dance ‘Rise’.

This dance was a very powerful one and is a major part of the storyline. What made this dance really special was the special effects that we had on the projector. We had a special effect of glass smashing whilst I was getting my wings back on. When I was putting my wings back on, I didn’t think that I was going to get them on in time but thankfully I did manage to get them on. The ending of the dance was also really powerful because when I stood on the blocks and lifted my wings up, this created a shadow on the back wall which really added to the routine. The shadows during the song were also really affective. 

Aurora waking up was the next part in the show. Sienna remembered everything that I told her in the rehearsal before the show.

The final song of the show was ‘This is me’. There were a lot of corrections and comments that I was given by Laura just before the show so there was a lot to consider for this dance. There was a part in the dance which I did have to improvise slightly because the time that was originally there for getting up onto the block was now free which meant that I had a bit of spare time. Although I improvised, I don’t think anyone noticed as it looked like it was part of the choreography. 

The show finished with some narration ending on the word ‘Maleficent’ which is when I took my bow. I then called the rest of the cast onto the stage to take their bow. 

There were so many positives from the show. I was feeling really cautious and nervous before the show because of the dress/tech rehearsal not going great. However, everyone seemed to step up their game for the final performance. During the rehearsal process, we have had a few problems along the way. 

One of the hardest things about putting this performance on has been relying on other people to commit their time to rehearsals. There were many things that we couldn’t do until the day of the show because we hadn’t had people in rehearsals to teach them their parts. Equally, we couldn’t really choreograph these parts until the week of the show because we weren’t sure on the exact order and placing of each narration part and song. We then had to ensure that all of the narration made sense so that the audience could follow the story. A main struggle during the rehearsal and preparation process has been trying to get Luke in for rehearsals. When we first proposed the idea of doing a duet within this show, he was all up for it and very keen. Dance teacher Emily then choreographed the duet piece for us. We were then able to practice on a Thursday evening every week however, Laura teaches at this time so wasn’t able to come and watch us rehearse. Luke then entered his exam period at school and couldn’t attend any extra rehearsals on the weekend or after school. Consequently this meant that the only time that we were able to practice the duet and show Laura for the first time was a couple of hours before the show was due to start. The original plan was for us to start a rehearsal with him at 5:30pm but he didn’t turn up until 6:15pm. This then meant that we couldn’t have a lift in the routine and just had to go with the choreography that we already had. I had to improvise a little towards the end of the duet part because there wasn’t really any time to choreography anything. Another consequence of him not being able to attend any of the rehearsals was that he did not know his cues. We taught him the part where he had to come and take my wings on the day of the show. This then caused major stress on the whole of the cast as I was beginning to get worried that he would not remember what he needed to do because he had very recently learnt it. Something that I would do differently if we were to do the show again would be to start this rehearsal process earlier so that we could have the part learnt and then we could just perfect it every week. I think I dealt with the situation as well as I could and did all I could to make sure everything was going to be fine but I know that I could only do so much to enable this to work out. 

Another problem that I had during the rehearsal process was that when I was learning the tap duet with Emily, she told me that she wouldn’t be able to perform in the show. The original plan was that Emily was going to play the part of Diaval who is Maleficent’s best friend. Because she couldn’t do the show, we had to change the narration to make sure that the story made sense without her being there. 
There were a few scenes during the performance which could have done with a bit more development if we had more time. Scenes such as Aurora waking up and the end of ‘A thousand years’. However, we didn’t have any more time to develop these scenes but if we were to do the show again, these scenes would be at the top of the priority list to look at and improve to make the show even better. 
Despite the problems that we have faced, the performance turned out to be a massive success in the end. Here are a few photos from the performance:

An ongoing target for me is to improve on my flexibility. I feel like I could have worked on my flexibility a bit more during the rehearsal process to make the lean in ‘A thousand years’ straighter. Flexibility is something that I am always working on but I feel like I could have put more effort into this during the rehearsal process. 

On reflection in terms of my technique, I think that I have improved since the beginning of the rehearsal process especially in the areas which I was not very confident with. When I first learnt ‘This is me’ I really struggled with the choreography and the style of the dance. However, I used any time that I had to practice over the different sequences in this routine and I managed to grasp the choreography and then had time to add emotion to it. The dance performance involved a lot of different dance styles including contemporary, commercial, tap, hiplet and ballet. This meant that I had to change from the different disciplines every time that I went on stage. I managed to do this by thinking about Maleficent was feeling and applying this to my dancing. Maleficent’s mood changed throughout the show significantly and I was able to add the emotion that she would be feeling to my dancing. This is something that I would have really struggled with at the start of the year but now it comes much more naturally because I have had a lot more practice. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Friday 18^th May

Today was the day of the dance show. I was in rehearsals from 10am to ensure that I was ready for the show tonight.

To start with, we had a full run-through of the show. We didn’t have time for this yesterday so this was the first thorough run-through that we have done. The aim of today is to have as many run-throughs as we can to make sure that we are ready for tonight. The more run-throughs we can do, the more practice that the tech team can get and the better the sound and lighting will be. 

After the run-through, I was given some notes form my dance lecturer, Laura. The main note that she gave me was that we needed to look at the last song ‘This is me’. This is the first time that I had practiced the full routine with the wings on. At the moment, the routine isn’t quite looking finished. Laura walked through the routine with me to change some of the moves slightly so that the routine worked better with the wings. We only got the wings on Wednesday so this is the first time that I have practiced this routine with the wings. When I learnt the routine, a lot of the moves included punches however we soon found that when I did this with the wings, it didn’t really work that well and that we needed to make some slight adjustments to the choreography. We did this by making the punching movements more fluent. For example, in one of the moves I originally snapped my arms in and out with my leg. But instead I am now flapping my arms in and out. This looks really affective with the wings and I will practice this a few times from now until the show tonight. Another point in the dance which needed changing slightly was the leap off the block. At the moment, I get up onto the block and then leap off it to travel diagonally downstage to the corner. However, when Laura gave me some feedback, this bit of the routine didn’t really work and she wondered what else we could put in its place. I tried out a few moves and I am now going to do a chasse into a leap. This should look better and will fit with the rest of the choreography. 

The other notes included some lighting/technical pieces and possible choreography for the duet with Luke.

After a lunch break, we carried out some admin tasks. This included making a list of all of the people that had reserved tickets. We have reserved 76 tickets which means there will only be 4 seats left for people who may turn up and haven’t recovered a ticket. We also printed off the tickets and made sure that these were all cut up and ready to be handed out tonight. The programmes were also printed. Here is a copy of the programme:

After carrying out all of these admin tasks, I went back into the performance studio to go over the running order of the show with Graham – the lighting/sound technician. He said to me that the more we can go through the order of the show, the better the technical elements of the show will be because he will know the cues better making the show flow better. This run through was very quick and just involved me walking through the show with Graham telling him which routine went where and what each cue was. This really helped both Graham and I because it was allowing me to rehearse over the order of the show and also it allowed Graham to become more familiar with the order and the lighting and sound elements. After this technical run-through, there was going to be a full tech/dress rehearsal with all of the cast at 6pm. This will allow us all to practice all of cues, costume changes and scene changes. 

In between the technical run and the children arriving, I began to get ready for the dress/tech run because I figured that I wouldn’t really have much time later on. 

The children started arriving at 5:45pm. Sienna was the first to arrive so I spent some time with her, going over her solo part just to make sure that she was confident with it. I then worked with Molly and Sienna to go over the first part of this dance where Molly comes on and waves goodbye to Sienna. When we practiced this yesterday, there was a lot of time in between the small acting bit and the dance. I had a discussion with Laura and we decided to move the acting bit to further on in the track so now this will start about 30 seconds after it was originally meant to. When I had told Sienna and Molly the new timing and they adapted their part, it looked so much better as there was now no long pause in the middle of the track. After running the solo twice and with Molly’s part at the beginning, I moved on to teaching Sienna the other small bit that she will be in after the song ‘Rise’. This is the part where Aurora wakes up from her death-like sleep. Sienna will enter stage in blackout and lie on the blocks as if she is asleep. As the narration says, Aurora wakes up as Maleficent kisses her on the forehead. The 2 characters hug and then walk off stage in blackout. Sienna picked this bit up really well. 

Once I had finished teaching Sienna the extra bit, we were then able to teach Luke his extra bit. This involves him coming onto stage during the part of the narration which tells us how Steffan wanted to become king and comes to Maleficent to steal her wings. We didn’t have much time to practice this at all as we had to start the dress/tech rehearsal as soon as possible. 

In my opinion, I don’t think the tech/dress rehearsal went very well. A lot of things during the run-through went wrong which concerned me a little in the lead up to the final performance tonight. 

One of the major concerns during this rehearsal was that people did not know their cues. This made it difficult because it meant that it affected everyone else who was in that routine/section. The reason why people are missing their cues is because they haven’t been able to attend rehearsals. 

I am hoping that this rehearsal has made everyone think about their parts so that they can get it right for the performance tonight. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Thursday 17^th May

Today was the day of our tech/dress rehearsal. Starting at 1pm, we were working through to 5pm. During this time, different people were going to be arriving at different times to practice their parts for the show tomorrow. This is because there has not been a time where everyone has been free and able to attend the same rehearsal. This has made it difficult to rehearse routines such as duets because the children attend different schools, have exams and have other commitments. We are working around the times that everyone else is available to make sure that we can practice the routines when we can. 

At the beginning of this rehearsal, we helped Paul and Graham set the lights for the performance. We needed many different lights for several focus points throughout the show. We also needed the projector so we had to make sure that there weren’t any lights in front of that. We had 2 LED lights at the side of the seating – one was green and the other was green but with a slight red tint. When both of these lights were on and I was stood in front of them, they produced some really good shadows which is exactly what we wanted. 

Once the lights had been set up, we did a full run of the show. During this rehearsal, I got to practice my costume changes for the first time and we were also able to practice with the narration. This was our first full run-through of the show so I was still getting to grips with the order of the show. During this run-through, we also sorted out the cues for the music and narration. As we worked through some of the cues, we realised that some of the timings will not work because they do not leave enough time for me to get changed or for the blocks to be moved which meant that Paul had to cut some of the sound up. 

There was a lot of stopping and starting during this run through because we needed to adjust quite a few lights because they didn’t match up correctly with how the blocks were positioned. We also had to get a light for the spinning wheel which was stage right and up on the platform. We needed a light on this because it is a significant part of the story. We also had to test out the special effects as the timing had to be right. There are 2 special effects – falling through the trees and breaking glass. We spent a little while making sure these were in the right place and were timed right because they are both played when there is movement and music going on. 

Once we had completed this full run-through, the children started to arrive to practice their parts. Some of the children could only stay for a short amount of time so we had to prioritise what needed to be done first. To start with we practiced through Sienna’s solo. Molly and Sienna were also able to practice their part together at the very start of this dance. They practiced this and then it led into Sienna’s solo. This part is something that we need to look at tomorrow because the timing isn’t right at the moment and so we need to work on that tomorrow during the rehearsals. Sienna performed the solo really well. She was slightly ahead of the timing but it didn’t really matter too much as the track fades into narration. This then led into the pricking of the finger. For this part, Aurora walks over towards the spinning wheel and Maleficent is walking behind her trying to stop her. However, the curse is too much and when Aurora pricks her finger, she falls back into Maleficent’s arms into a death-like sleep. We practiced with Sienna falling back into my arms and this was perfect. We have worked out a signal that when I tap Sienna on the shoulder, she knows it’s ok for her to fall backwards. Before the show, this is something that I haven’t done before but with a few practises, it is starting to look much more natural. 

Once we had practiced Sienna’s solo and she was happy with it, we moved onto ‘A thousand years’. This song involves all the different ages of Maleficents and Steffans. Today we were able to practice with most of the children in this dance. The only person that wasn’t able to make this rehearsal was Luke. This didn’t affect anyone in the routine apart from myself so we will have to work before the show tomorrow on our duet piece. For now, we were focusing on the parts that we could do which involved Anna and Aidan’s duet and Eve and Toby’s duet. We walked through the dance without the music to begin with so that the children could get used to the space and their cues. We also went over the choreography for Anna’s part because she only learnt this last week and she couldn’t remember it very well. Once we had run through it, we ran the dance a few times with the music to check that everyone was happy with their parts and that the routine flowed well. The more we practiced this, the better it became and hopefully the children have now had enough practice before the rehearsal tomorrow where they will get a chance to rehearse it a few more times. 

I am very happy with how this routine is looking. The only bit that I do have a little concern about is the very start where Anna is on by herself. She is still struggling to remember the choreography. After a discussion with my dance teacher after the rehearsal, we have decided that Aidan will also join Anna on stage from the very start to help her with the choreography. Aidan knows the choreography and will give Anna a helping hand if she forgets a move. Making this change also fits the story better because the narration mentions Steffan before the routine starts. We will go over the choreography with Aidan tomorrow but he will be fine with it and will be able to perform it.

The rehearsal today went really quickly. We haven’t been able to do a full run-through without any stops. Hopefully we will be able to do as many run-throughs as possible tomorrow so that I can get used to the order and help all of the other performers so they know what they are doing. Before the show tomorrow, we will have all of the performers so that we can have a full dress/tech rehearsal. We will also have the chance to go over any other bits and pieces which we need to teach the other performers. So, to ensure that we get everything done in time, we will start rehearsal tomorrow at 10am and will work throughout the day up until the time of the show with breaks throughout the day. The children should start to arrive at 5:45pm to start a full rehearsal at 6/6:15pm. 

Unit 59 - Music in the community

Plan for expanding the music workshop project

By expanding the music workshop into a music project, workshops will be held once a week over a 6 week period. This will then enable the young people to gain from the project as every session will be different with the first session being mostly filled with ice breaker activities. This is so that the group can get to know each other and their facilitator. As the weeks continue, the sessions will involve activities which will improve several skills for the young people. At the end of the project, the young people will be given the opportunity to perform a short piece to their parents, family and friends. When planning and organising the individual workshops, I need to consider the following:

• The workshop needs to be longer. There wasn’t enough time to get through all of the activities. 45 minutes would be a good length of time for the workshop.
• Gather more information about the clients prior to the workshop. This way we can make sure that all of the activities are inclusive and also check any access arrangements so that everyone has an equal chance to participate. 
• Advertise the workshop more so that more young people can attend.
• Cap the number of participants at 8 – 10 so that we don’t have too many participants and the workshop is hard to control.
• Have a set age range for the participants of around 10 years to 16 years old. 
• Consider the time of the workshop so that all of the clients are able to make it i.e. taking into consideration the school run and traffic in the local area

My budget for the project would be £1000. Each workshop that I run will cost about £100 plus £20 admin fee per session. This then works out to £720 for the course of the 6 weeks. The remaining money can be then be spent on equipment for the group to use during these workshops. There are many different places where this funding could come from such as Children In Need, Arts Council England and The National Lottery. We could also apply for some funding through the local authority as well. 

fThe outcomes of the overall project is to improve the skills of the young people with a visual impairment. They will improve many skills over the 6 week period such as confidence, listening and communication skills. The young people can then apply these skills within other situations that they may come across in everyday life such as school. The workshop also gives the group a chance to meet with other visually impaired people where they can start to make new friends. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Wednesday 16th May

On Monday we recorded the voiceovers for the performance. These voiceovers will be played in between the songs to help tell the story of Maleficent. These are currently in the process of being edited by Paul and will be ready for us to use in the tech/dress rehearsal.

We have had a few extra rehearsals throughout the past week to ensure that everything is ready in time for the show.

Today we were having an extra rehearsal to make sure that I knew all of the choreography in time for the show. The rehearsal today involved going through all of the dances in the order that they will be performed with the main focus on ‘This is me’. This is because I only learnt this dance last week and I am still struggling to remember it. I think this is because it is a different style of dance which I am used to and am still working on the choreography. After working on this routine for some time, I finally managed to get the choreography and now need to work on perfecting it before the tech/dress rehearsal tomorrow.

Unit 24 - Auditions for actors

Tuesday 15^th May

Today was the day that I was performing my final rendition of my Shakespeare piece. In the piece I was playing the part of Juliet in the scene where she is saying goodbye to Romeo. During the scene, Juliet is deliberating what will happen if she is to drink the vial and is prepared to do anything for the one she loves.

To start the session, I carried out a full diction warmup to ensure that I could perform my piece to the best of my ability. I was then ready to perform the piece. Here is a video of my rendition of Juliet’s ‘Farewell’ monologue:

After performing this, I received some feedback from my lecturer. She said that she thought that the first half of the monologue was really believable. She felt like she was in it and could feel Juliet’s emotion. However, going into the second half of the speech, she felt like the emotion was lost and therefore she didn’t feel the connection for the character anymore. She then asked me to perform it again but this time focusing on the second half of the speech. Here is a video of me carrying out the monologue for the second time:

I believe that in the second video, the second half of the piece was a lot better than the first time I performed it. I think this is because it is what my lecturer told me to focus on and therefore I applied this refinement to my work. However, I also believe that the first half of the speech wasn’t as good as the first time that I performed it. I think this is because I was focusing so much on the second half of the monologue that I forgot to focus on the first half of it and put in the same emotion for the first part as the second part. Therefore, if I was to do the piece again, I would make sure that this emotion was conveyed all the way through to make the piece more believable and realistic.

There are many different similarities and differences between the 2 pieces that I have performed.

A similarity is that both of the monologues involved props. For my contemporary monologue, I used a hat. This was both a part of costume and a prop because I used it whilst I was doing some of the movements. For my Shakespeare monologue I used a vile and a dagger which both helped with my characterisation. However, a couple of rehearsals before performing this piece for the final time, I removed the props from my performance. This was because I wouldn’t necessarily have props in the audition. Therefore I decided to perform one with props and one without so it gives me an insight into both variations.

Another similarity is that when I was practicing the monologues, costume really helped me to improve my characterisation. For my contemporary monologue I wore tap shoes which really helped because there are some tap moves mentioned in the monologue. For my Shakespeare monologue I wore a long skirt which flowed nicely and would be something that would typically be worn in the time of when the piece was set. Therefore because this is something that my character would wear, it made me feel more like my character and therefore improved the piece a lot during the rehearsal process.

A difference between the monologues is that at the start of the process, I really struggled to learn the Shakespeare monologue because I struggled to understand the meaning behind the language that Shakespeare was using. This then led me to working slowly through the text to firstly understand the meaning behind the text and then I could start to learnt the monologue. This is in complete contrast to the contemporary piece because I was able to understand this piece of text straight away and therefore found it a lot easier to learn.

My contemporary piece required quite a lot of choreography to make it more realistic and believable. This meant that I had to work through the piece to choreograph moves which were referenced in the speech. This meant that in the end, there were a lot of different movements. Compared to my Shakespeare monologue, there was a huge amount of movement. My Shakespeare monologue did not contain much movement at all. There were a few movements to a chair and a few hand gestures but apart from that, there wasn’t much movement. This then gave me a big contrast because one of my monologues had a lot of movement compared to the other which had hardly any movement. I feel like movement helped me to portray my characters better as it is something that comes quite naturally to me.

The characters of both monologues are very contrasting. Mavis from the contemporary monologue was very bossy and wanted everything to be perfect. Although she was bossy, she was also quite lively and a typical dance teacher of the time at which the play which the monologue was set. However, Juliet from my Shakespeare monologue was very sad and fearful of what was going to happen to her if she drinks the potion.

Overall, I much preferred learning and performing the contemporary monologue than the Shakespeare monologue. I think that this is because the contemporary monologue is much more in my comfort zone than the Shakespeare monologue. Even though I had to work hard on my contemporary piece, I had to work extra hard on my Shakespeare monologue because it was very different from anything that I have done before whereas the contemporary piece was similar to other pieces that I have done in the past.

Unit 59 - Music in the community

Monday 14^th May

The workshop

Today was the day of the music workshop which was being led by Kev and I in collaboration with the charity LOOK UK who work with children, young people and their families who are affected by visual impairment. The aim of the workshop is provide a chance for young visually impaired people to come together through music. It also aims to develop many skills such as communication, listening and confidence.

The workshop was due to start at around 4:30pm to allow people to travel from school/work. The original time of the workshop was going to be 5pm but due to the feedback from the participants, they said that it would be much better from the time to be earlier. On arrival, the participants were greeted by the first year performing arts student Robert, Kellyann and Molly. Kellyann was signing people in behind the desk whilst Molly and Robert were behind the desk serving refreshments. Here are some pictures of them carrying out their job roles:

At this time, I was upstairs with Kev in the performance studio going through the workshop for one last time before we delivered it. We worked out a plan of what to do depending on how many clients we had turn up for the session. Here is a photo of my and Kev going through the programme of activities that we had planned for the young people:

At just after 4:30pm, the young people came up to the performance studio ready to start the workshop.

To start the workshop, Kev did a small introduction about himself and what the workshop was going to entail. He then moved on to giving the group some information about the instrument that we would be playing for the first part of the session.

The first activity for the workshop was the ice breakers. There were many different exercises which we used in the workshop. However before we got started on the exercises, we told the group a bit about how to play the instrument which then led on to experimenting with a noise rumble and getting the group to stop and start at the same time. I then led the group through an exercise involving a crescendo. This is when the group starts really quietly and then begins to get louder. Here is a video of me leading this exercise:

We then introduced the group to another ice breaker activity which was called ‘Fish and chips’. This exercise involved playing a set rhythm whilst saying the words ‘fish and chips’. The rhythm was one beat in the middle of the drum and 2 beats on the outside of the drum. We then added the words fish and chips to this. Once they had got the hang of this, we were then able to add in a more completed rhythm – ‘mashed potato’. Here is a video of this exercise:

So far the workshop was going very well and we had actually run over the time that we had planned for these ice breaker activities. We had originally only planned for these activities to go on for 10 minutes but we were now 15 minutes into the workshop. We then decided to leave the rest of the ice breakers and carry on with the rest of the workshop. Because the workshop was running very smoothly and the children/young people had had some refreshments before they had come upstairs for the workshop, we thought that it was pointless to have a break at this time and therefore we made the decision to carry on with the workshop to keep in the flow.

For the next part of the session we were working on a song. The song that we have chosen is ‘Shape of you’ by Ed Sheeran. We picked this song because it is very popular at the moment which will most likely mean that everyone will know it. When we asked the group if they knew it, everyone knew it but even if they didn’t, it is a very easy song to get to grips with because it is very catchy. Another reason why we selected this song is because we can do a lot with it. There are several different parts to it which we can separate and layer.

For the first part that we introduced the group to was the ‘oh y oh y oh y oh y’. To begin with, we taught the whole group this part just to ease them in. They seemed to pick this up really quickly and so we moved on to teaching them the other part – ‘come on be my baby come on’. Here is a video of the group carrying out this part of the song:

Once both parts we learnt and secure, we split the group in half to get the parts going at different times and them singing them both at the same time. Here is a video of the group carrying out the exercise:

When the group was carrying this exercise out, it started to sound really good and tuneful. We then decided to take them onto another part of the song because they were picking up the parts really well and we still had enough time left. The other part of the song that we thought would be good to teach them was the riff part. This part is mostly heard at the beginning of the song but is played all the way through. To begin with, I taught the group the riff in body percussion. We did this by slapping our thighs and then clapping twice which then created the sound of the riff. It took the group a while to get this rhythm and I think this is because it is quite syncopated which makes it harder to grasp. Here is a video of me teaching the group the riff:

Once the group had learnt all of the parts, we were able to put some of these together and alternate between them to create a piece. We alternated between the riff with body percussion and the ‘oh y’ and ‘come on’ parts. Once we had put these altogether, the piece sounded really good and got the whole group involved.

In my opinion, I think that the workshop went well. However I think there is a few things that I would change if I was to do the workshop again.
In my opinion, I think that the workshop went well. I have received very positive feedback from the clients and their parents. Also after the workshop, some of the children were singing the different parts which we had taught them in the workshop which shows that they were engaged throughout the session.
Another positive of the workshop is that it was inclusive. We weren't sure about the age of the children that were going to come to the workshop so we made sure that we planned activities which everyone in the group would be able to manage. I think that we pitched the workshop just right as it suited everyone in the group even if we did have quite a large age range. Another aspect at making the workshop inclusive was making sure that the activities were suited towards visually impaired children. This meant that we couldn't use any visual tasks throughout the workshop because this may have segregated the group. I especially took this into consideration after the pilot workshop because I was running this with my peers who are all visually impaired. This then made me aware of what would work and what wouldn't work for a group of visually impaired children of a younger age. 
However I think there is a few things that I would change if I was to do the workshop again. 

Firstly I would change the length of the workshop. The workshop that we ran today aimed to last for only 20 to 30 minutes. Before the workshop I thought that this was going to be enough time, if not too much, but the time seemed to go very quickly and therefore we didn’t get to do all of the activities that we had planned. Therefore by making the workshop longer it will enable us to lead more activities in the time frame. Also, I felt like the group were in the flow of the activities and it was a shame to stop at the end of the half an hour because I felt like more could have been done with the group. I would like to run a workshop which would last about 45 minutes. This way it is not too long but it is also not too short so that more exercises can be done with the clients. We could also have a break in the middle of the workshop if the participants needed it.

Prior to the workshop, we did not have much information about the participants in regards to their ages, disabilities, level of visual impairment, etc. I think this may have been helpful when we were planning the workshop because we could have made sure that the activities were more inclusive and involved everyone in the group to the best that they could. I was expecting a lot more older children for the workshop but instead we had a massive age variety ranging from 5 years to 15 years. For the smaller children, their parents were able to help them with some of the activities which they found a bit more difficult. It would then be a good idea to have a set age range from 10 years to 16 years so that the participants feel comfortable and are all able to join in the the exercises. 

I think that also the advertising of the workshop should be a bit better. The event wasn’t very well advertised and if people were given a bit more notice, they may have been able to get to the event. By advertising the event more, we may have got more participants for the workshop. Having said that, we should have thought about capping the number of clients because I think that if we have too many in the workshop, it may become incontrollable and the young people won’t benefit from it. 

Another aspect to keep in mind if we were to do the workshop again is the time and day of the workshop. Originally we were going to start the workshop at 5pm but then a few people said that they wouldn’t be able to attend at this time so we changed the time to 4:30pm. However, I am not sure if it would have been better to do the workshop on a different day due to the school run. We could have even started the workshop at 4pm because this could have meant that the parents could have brought the children straight from school.