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Final Performance Evaluation:

Final Performance Evaluation:  I am very proud of what my group and I created. The final performance was a fulfilling one, the hours dedicated to rehearsal, work and research eventually payed off. We successfully produced a piece that was passionately full of emotion, creative ideas and choreographic devices and processes... which all contributed to the delivery of our stimulus and messages. Although the initial task to create 10 minutes of choreography seemed daunting, we managed a steady and productive plan to stay on track, giving us plenty of time to clean our piece to the best of our abilities.  I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my group and learning how to work in a team, an important quality to have in a dance career. Some took more leading roles however everyone contributed hugely. Always open to new ideas, we encouraged one another to experiment with movement pathways and formations. I personally feel I pushed myself out of my comfort zone in this module, as I of...
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Week 10

 Week 10: Our most important starting objective was to demonstrate the impact War has on individuals,  express the repercussions of war and to exhibit its repetitive nature. These have  strongly directed our group throughout the creating of our piece.  We wanted to create something emotionally driven, using movements with clear purpose to enhance our stimulus and messages. We wanted to leave viewers feeling emotionally warn out, aiming for them to strongly question: why haven't we learnt from our mistakes? Should we be using real lives like playing cards to solve problems? At times we drifted away from our key objectives, occasionally simply filling the music for convenience. However we always bought ourselves back to our motives by taking the time to review, reflect and question our work. This did result in changes to our original structure, for example conjoining Fear and Chaos with the War section, as we developed ideas that would support our object...
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Choreographic Influencers:

Throughout the weeks, we have looked at different artist, performances and chorographers as a platform to inspire us and help the flow of our creativity. Two groups that particularly aided our vision was the Shaolin Monks that perform in Sutra and the group Ballet Boys in their Basic Training video clip.   When considering the choreographic process  Iván Pérez,   used to create "Basic Training" in Young Men, I couldn't help notice how the scene was so genuine, so real... suggesting to me that perhaps he simply allowed the character's emotions and reactions to dictate the  coming movements and steps. The impact is massive, placed exactly as they intended me to be, the overwhelming feeling of concern and pity consumes me as a viewer. This is the phycological control we aim to have with our audience. Great emphasise is placed on showing facial expressions, despite these pauses the piece is incredibly engaging as the contrast of stillness helps increase th...
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Week 9:

 Week 9:  During the week, we managed to finish all choreography, connect sections with seamless transitions and perform a full 10 minute run through to our peers. We worked on making the steps and timing as familiar as possible, allowing us to solely focus on the quality we gave to movement and expression. During our chorography lesson we created our PTSD section. We started by recording an improvisation, we visualised and embodying our characters and were guided by the haunting, but beautiful, Moonlight Sonata. After selecting the parts we liked from the video we refined our individual phrases. We agreed the initiation of movement would come internally to express vulnerability and display the soldiers' mental scaring. Weak and traumatised, a combination of slow draining movements combined with sudden impulsive ones express their skittish and confused minds. We reveal a mass of damaged beings previously so vibrant, so innocently keen now detached from the world and one anothe...
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Week 8:

  Week 8: This week we focused on the sections that include our sticks: the ending of Coming Together and the Countdown.  Before starting, we watch "Sutra" by Sidilarbi to give us a starting point for our movement. The skilled Monks inspired our ideas as we seek to move with the same control. We decided to use sticks as props as it helps the audience visualise the world we are trying to create.  They are used to represent guns, barbed wire and barriers to cross before going into battle.  In addition, they are a way for us to include some form of contact work with the current COVID restrictions. They add an extension to our group patterns and symmetry as well as sharp dynamics and sound effects. Our stick work aims to display skill, control and unity as we navigate them into our movements, giving the impression of mastery... but this will only heighten the contrasting impact war has on the best of bodies. Repetition is used at the start and end of the Coming ...
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Week 7:

 Week 7: We met week 7 with enthusiasm and a clear idea of what we wanted to achieve in the lesson. We quickly finished the music selection and started working on the Coming Together section. This was a very enjoyable process; a strong work ethic was established as we fed off each other’s ideas and were open-minded as we experimented with the choreographic method, improvisation. With all members of the group focused on teamwork and cooperation, our rate of productivity was high – all were able to contribute ideas as well as listen to the thoughts of others.  It was in this lesson that we decided to adapt the original Coming Together section as we felt our message wasn't being expressed to the degree we wanted.  Previously only representing the unity of an army, we adapted it to give an insight into the characters and personalities of the recruits. We see training taking place, demonstrated through movements such as leopard crawls and salutes, but we also express ...
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Week 6:

Week 6: During this week’s session, we worked in our groups on details that needed refining. We started by choosing music, taking the musicality, tempo and dynamics highly into account. We considered: does this music generate the same level of emotion we are trying to produce?  Is there a clear connection between potential movement and the music? Will the music enhance or diminish the impact of our dancing? We then reviewed the Marching motif started in week 4. We rearranged the patterns and placement; added and developed parts to bring more clarity and purpose; found stronger dynamics and inserted pauses to give a more robotic, characterless impression.  With our motif expanded and developed, we then performed it to the class. Only after this performance, dancing to the sound of Nathan’s counting, did we have the idea to simply use a metronome of 120 bpm as the ‘music’ for this section combined with his counting.   We also concluded that we wanted to make certain p...
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