Monday, 12 May 2014

Research on styles


Researching the historical context of International dances, such as Flamenco, Bollywood and Tango I have fully explored the context for each one of these dances.

Flamenco originated in Southern Regions of Spain in 1777. However has influenced in world cultures inluding, Latin, uban and jewish traditions. Flamenco is a spanish art form made up of 3 parts, Guitar, singing and dance which are all interpreted into the same dance. However it is not set to any music, more natural components like singing and clapping the hands, this sound is called ' Toque de palmas'.
There are a different range of physical purposes of Flamenco, this could alternatively vary from entertainment, romantic or comforting, all different qualities will have different dance dynamics and emotions. entertainment would have alot of force, high speed, sharp, power and facial expressions being physically happy. Alternatively depending on the stimuli, romantic could be passionate, fast, sharp or fluid, this would also be the same to comforting, but much more slower, using emotions in relationship to the movement and audience.
Flamenco strongly is performed in an emotional style,using the connections with the body as well facial expressions. While performing alot of individuals use a hand held percussion called a 'castanet' these are small pieces of hard wood, curved and held in the palm of your hands. To perform this dance I feel to get into character the costume helps, aswell as the partner, getting into focus, the style house would help with Flamenco due to it all being footwork, these two styles could be interpreted with the right technique and therefore I may try this in my solo.

Flamenco can be performed solo or with a partner, this requires fast technique with footwork.

After watching eva la bubelue I feel that Flamenco takes upon a big role of control and focus, working effectively in relation with the percussion. Flamenco looks very sexy expecially with the dresses they perform in. The fluidity and control in each body lineaments and placement is physically extraordinary, being very sharp with the feet, yet fluid with the arms.

Tango is the meaning of touch. Tango dance is represented with a partner. Tango originated in the 1890's, where it influenced from European and African culture. Tango originated its name in connection from its first performance in the 1980's.
Physical dance elements of tango have been interpreted in different activities like; Gymnastics for when they are on the height bars, and sharply sweep their foot around the back of their leg, also figure of skating and synchronozde swimming due to the dramatic feeling and its cultural relation with romance.

From these picture it just shows passion, fierceness, elegance aswell as sexyness, just from the body placement/ posture and costume. The colour red shows sexyness and representing love, which is the relationship you need to perform tango due to being in partners.

The dynamics for tango would be very powerful, throughout the head to feet, interpreting every muscele to show that control and power full of passionate romance. Relationships are very important in Tango, you need to be fully connected emotionally and physcially at all times during the performance so that it does not loose the story or passion. I feel Tango is a very sexy dance, showing alot of tension and passion throughout the whole performance, the movements are very sharp, fast, full of power and fire.

Bollywood was orignated in Mumbai previously known as Bombay, Bollywood is a commercial band given to modern day Indian songs. Bollywood originated from India, with a strong relation with Hindu culture featuring classical Indian dance style and American dance styles. The dance works strongly with Different regions of India and Bollywood is a big cultural part expecially at weddings. Bollywood can be used to show emotions, expressions but mainly entertainment due to the high energy. Bollywood is an international dance due to the different cultures moving around the country, therefore Bollywood will follow with each individual. However statistic show that a high percentage of full English individuals are learning Bollywood and competing in competitions as desi girls. This is physically positive due to all different cultures being brought into one society, therefore this is allowing the acceptance of different race.

The expressions from the performers show that this dance is entertainment, fun and a tradition to the culture. Therefore if I was performing this dance I would let my self go, have fun and be honoured to dance with this culture.
All 3 dance styles are familiar in the high level of energy, each dance could interpret a high atmosphere from the dance style / material, each song uses completely different musicality, some use natural sounds aswell as they all use instruments to play along side any exsistant music. Each dance has originally got there name from a natural resource, Bollywood got theirs from Indian songs, tango is another word for 'touch' during a tango scene. Finally flamenco is a meaning for a bird, 'flamingo'. However each dance is taught in Differeng countries yet each international dance has a physical vision to being taught in America.

In my solo, I am choreographing to ' Dj Bonnie - concrete angels'. During my time of researching more into the elemenets I felt that I wanted to choreograph about ' Natural Disasters'. By researching I wanted to create something physcially emotional that would connect to the audience. I looked into Cancer for a natural disaster due to some cancer illnesses there are no cause,due to all the elements go into conditions for cancer. However during a day at work, I met a young girl who came through my till with high servere burns, all her facial skin burnt off, with minor hair strands growing back, being to scared and shy to speak, down to that one disaster that has happend. From this experience I want my dance to come across that everyone is beautiful, there is a mixed story for my piece. However due to the musicality that I chose the song is about a young girl who gets beaten to death by her parents, and due to statistics in the last years, child abuse has been extremely high, and big investigations have been taken upon, however it is still ongoing. BabyP was a big investigation and Victoria Climbia. My message from this dance is to speak out, do not hold back the bruises, tears and upset, speak up.

My final structure for this is a Narrative, telling a story of a young girl getting beaten up, this will be slow sustained Bollywood movement to show the expressions and emotions I am visually trying to show. I am also using fire to show the angre, this is the climax in the middle of the song this would be the Tango to show the passion, fierce angre that I the littke child cannot take no more. This will happen when the tempo gets much more faster. Aswell as my main element being natural disasters, young innocent children getting beaten to death for no reason and the disaster takes upon them dying, or commiting suicide due to the amount of pain they suffer with. I will then end with sad, emotional flamenco movement to represent being quite about getting beaten, being somebody you are not , I thought this relates clearly with flamenco due to originally coming from a Slavery capture.
I feel all these styles can be interpreted into my solo, and I am fully aware of all the international backgrounds for each dance style.

Friday, 9 May 2014

Presentation skills

Conduct all these during presentation 

Clarity 
Related
Reactive 
Dress code 
Be sure about yourself 
Be yourself/ natural 
Eye contact 
How you present yourself - be positive
Posture, neutral, be enthusiastic 
Be prepared 
Parallel feet/ head lifted 
Pronunciation, politeness/ relaxed shoulders

I should interpret all these skills for when I perform my choreography on the 24th April. 

Thursday, 8 May 2014

self evaluation for assignment


Audition Self-evaluation presentation

On the 28th of April I had my Solo for the assignment of representing International Dance 2.

During my presentation, I felt that getting an audition approach helped me a lot for the focus and concentration. Rosaria made us all work in individually as we would at an Audition, I felt that from auditions that I have previously gone to, have helped me incredibly due to not being as nervous as I knew what to expect. I then did my own self warm up, I made sure that I warmed up all the muscles I  was going to be using, due to my dance involving a lot of jumps and arm gestures, the hips, legs, feet head and arms were important, to get the accuracy on every jump.

When it was my Solo I was 4th to perform this, I went in with a high head, relaxed shoulders and good posture, making sure I smiled.  I felt that when I was verbally speaking my presentation that the preparation helped incredibly lessons before so I knew what to say and treat it like a monologue to learn it before the day of the assignment. I mentioned a lot of the presentation but forgot the main importance to back my Structure which was a narrative, I explained why I chose this but I had statistics to back my evidence of how many children during this present day get neglected and abused by their Parents or guardians’.  Therefore this would of made a physical and emotional impact on why I chose to Perform a piece about ‘Child Abuse’ and would of got the audience physically shocked.

I felt I was clear when I spoke and there was no obstruction to stop me from being heard. I did not look at the camera; I looked fully at the audience, as I felt this was the best way so that the audience felt engaged with the piece as well as understanding fully of the choreography.

Therefore re looking back at the piece, I felt I should of stated my evidence of where I got the statistics from, but also in my piece I explained how I used the element of water, due to water having a strong physical relationship with emotions, therefore from this evidence the audience would have been able to see this piece was going to be emotionally sad. I also made sure that the musicality worked well with the structure, therefore I chose ‘Concrete Angels by Martha Graham’  by watching the video to this I felt the relation worked strongly together, due to the lyrics being about a girl who is neglected by her parents, because of the music I could then choreograph my piece lyrically as well as interpreting the styles of Bollywood, Flamenco, Contemporary, jazz and lyrical.

However if I had chance to improve my piece I would, make sure that I treated my presentation as a monologue learning each line making sure I knew it before the assessment, so that I would not walk out of the room knowing I forgot to say something important in relation to my piece. I  would also walk around not be standing on the spot looking directly again at the audience with a high posture no slouching into the hips and then I would walk around using special awareness but making sure the camera still had focus on myself.

 

Self Evaluation Performance

At the very start I felt I was organised due to having my prop already on the side for me to pick up and put on the dance floor, by this it made myself look organised but also professional showing the audience I was prepared for this day.  I wore clothing so that you could see my body lineaments due to having Bollywood In the choreography the examiner could see my body shapes while performing jumps but also certain physical Bollywood signatures. The start, started very strong, showing lifts as well as different Technique interpreted, however the individual recording, stopped the piece throughout this and I felt this interrupted me throughout my choreography, but I carried on which I thought was the best to do , to show professionalism. I felt that I used the correct spacing around the floor, so I did not stay in one space, this made my piece look more entertaining and fluid. 

The relationship between myself and the musicality was physically connected due to interpreting movement in connection with the lyrics. I felt on sections I physically interpreted this a lot more than other sections, for future development I would listen to the music a lot more and try to remember all the lyrics, as this will be easier to choreograph and for muscle memory.

I felt I shown Technique throughout my piece, due to it being Jazz, Contemporary based, I felt my Arm lines were positive when performing, Chenne' turns, Pirouettes. This showed due to having positive feedback at the end, I feel Technique classes physically helped me as well as on going auditions for the past 6 months. I felt that my leaps, jumps were at the best height for my ability, and the Dynamics for this were very sharp, showing strong arm lines as well as Focus when performing this. Throughout the piece I was interpreting a character of a little girl, I felt I kept the relation for this all the way through the performance and did not loose it. This helped as I felt the choreography a lot more relating strongly with the lyrics of the music. I felt the audience would have been able to understand because of how I performed, but also greatly because of the Lyricals, ‘ She walked to school with the lunch she packed’ this is showing she is a child,  who attends school, there is also emotions from this one sentence due to describing she has packed the lunch herself no parents have, and she is only young.

My emotions throughout the piece was meant to be sad, upset and angry, this was developed throughout the piece, because at the start, I started very small, sad emotional with my head down, covering my face, looking down at the floor, however when the tempo got faster, into the chorus this is when I changed emotions to being angry, with fast, sharp movement with strong arm lines and fast movement traveling across the floor.  However after the chorus the dynamics changed to very sustained , suttle movement, showing an image of a little girl hiding from the fears of being neglect from her mother, I felt that slow movement needed to be taken place hear, so the audience understood and interacted with the movement and relation to the song by not getting to distracted by the movement.

Alternatively there a few weaknesses, these were at the start the individual recording stopped the recording by accident, missing out the main climax for a jump, however I kept on performing but I felt I lost my focus for a count of 8. Due to nerves, I forgot some choreography, this interpreted ballet Technique, also I felt I should of made my movement a lot bigger due to having a lot of room, by this I would work out my spacing before I performed by audition, marking through this on the stage I was performing, to make sure I had enough room but also the camera could see me all the way throughout my choreography. However throughout small sections of the piece I felt that I rushed them, making the choreography look sloppy and unrehearsed, so for next time I would rehearse this a lot more, due to my choreography being lyrical therefore it has been choreographed to the lyrics so relies on this, so I need to make sure my time – management is correct.  I felt I looked down a lot during the choreography, and I pointed this out at the end, however my Tutor explained this worked, due to myself feeling sad and in secure, not wanting to look a anyone as I am feeling scared and unloved, therefore this worked. However during the chorus when I Escape from the nastiness,  this is when I would need to look up a lot more , to represent the different emotions and dynamics.

Feedback from my tutors were, that my upper body is very stiff sometimes, therefore I need to work especially with the styles I interpreted to release the upper body, showing more fluidity in the piece. However due to my performance, my spacing was good as well as Technique, and from watching international dance 1 + 2 you can see a difference contrast in both, physically and emotionally.  If I was to perform this again, I would firstly listen to the music more to understand and remember the lyrics as I would then find the choreography easier to remember, but also relax my upper body making it more fluid and in control, as this would visually look better but also easier to represent the different styles, especially with the Bollywood. I would also wear ballet shoes, for me to be more comfortable but also having a much better grip when performing the contemporary piece.  Lastly, I would remember my presentation like a monologue, so that I knew every word, without forgetting on the day, making sure that nerves did not get to the better of myself and performance.

Overall I was happy with my piece, but I should of put a lot more rehearsals in before the assignment day, as I felt this shown on the day, yet everything I have learnt from College as well as outside I have interpreted making the piece look Technically professional.

 

Thursday, 27 March 2014

Monologue speech for solo

Many abused children cling to the hope that growing up will big escape and freedom. 
My solo is about child abuse therefore I am using the elements of fire to represent  this by showing emotions, anger and betrail of how my own mother, biological blood can beat me until I am no longer a human. 
The styles I will be interpreting are contemporary, lyrical , flamenco fused with house and destained Bollywood emotions and movement. 
I will be representing a young girl who gets beaten by her mother, il show this to the audience through emotions , character expressions aswell as being in costume to have a full effect on my character so the audience will understand this. 

The song I have choreographed this to us ' concrete angels'.

Monday, 24 March 2014

Assignment 2 international

Researching the historical context of International dances, such as Flamenco, Bollywood and Tango I have fully explored the context for each one of these dances.

Flamenco originated in Southern Regions of Spain in 1777. However has influenced in world cultures inluding, Latin, uban and jewish traditions. Flamenco is a spanish art form made up of 3 parts, Guitar, singing and dance which are all interpreted into the same dance. However it is not set to any music, more natural components like singing and clapping the hands, this sound is called ' Toque de palmas'.
There are a different range of physical purposes of Flamenco, this could alternatively vary from entertainment, romantic or comforting, all different qualities will have different dance dynamics and emotions. entertainment would have alot of force, high speed, sharp, power and facial expressions being physically happy. Alternatively depending on the stimuli, romantic could be passionate, fast, sharp or fluid, this would also be the same to comforting, but much more slower, using emotions in relationship to the movement and audience.
Flamenco strongly is performed in an emotional style,using the connections with the body as well facial expressions. While performing alot of individuals use a hand held percussion called a 'castanet' these are small pieces of hard wood, curved and held in the palm of your hands. To perform this dance I feel to get into character the costume helps, aswell as the partner, getting into focus, the style house would help with Flamenco due to it all being footwork, these two styles could be interpreted with the right technique and therefore I may try this in my solo.

Flamenco can be performed solo or with a partner, this requires fast technique with footwork.

After watching eva la bubelue I feel that Flamenco takes upon a big role of control and focus, working effectively in relation with the percussion. Flamenco looks very sexy expecially with the dresses they perform in. The fluidity and control in each body lineaments and placement is physically extraordinary, being very sharp with the feet, yet fluid with the arms.

Tango is the meaning of touch. Tango dance is represented with a partner. Tango originated in the 1890's, where it influenced from European and African culture. Tango originated its name in connection from its first performance in the 1980's.
Physical dance elements of tango have been interpreted in different activities like; Gymnastics for when they are on the height bars, and sharply sweep their foot around the back of their leg, also figure of skating and synchronozde swimming due to the dramatic feeling and its cultural relation with romance.

From these picture it just shows passion, fierceness, elegance aswell as sexyness, just from the body placement/ posture and costume. The colour red shows sexyness and representing love, which is the relationship you need to perform tango due to being in partners.

The dynamics for tango would be very powerful, throughout the head to feet, interpreting every muscele to show that control and power full of passionate romance. Relationships are very important in Tango, you need to be fully connected emotionally and physcially at all times during the performance so that it does not loose the story or passion. I feel Tango is a very sexy dance, showing alot of tension and passion throughout the whole performance, the movements are very sharp, fast, full of power and fire.

Bollywood was orignated in Mumbai previously known as Bombay, Bollywood is a commercial band given to modern day Indian songs. Bollywood originated from India, with a strong relation with Hindu culture featuring classical Indian dance style and American dance styles. The dance works strongly with Different regions of India and Bollywood is a big cultural part expecially at weddings. Bollywood can be used to show emotions, expressions but mainly entertainment due to the high energy. Bollywood is an international dance due to the different cultures moving around the country, therefore Bollywood will follow with each individual. However statistic show that a high percentage of full English individuals are learning Bollywood and competing in competitions as desi girls. This is physically positive due to all different cultures being brought into one society, therefore this is allowing the acceptance of different race.

The expressions from the performers show that this dance is entertainment, fun and a tradition to the culture. Therefore if I was performing this dance I would let my self go, have fun and be honoured to dance with this culture. The picture on the right shows more of a reality tv show being performed, yet the other is a different contrast of entertainment at a show/ theatre.
 
All 3 dance styles are familiar in the high level of energy, each dance could interpret a high atmosphere from the dance style / material, each song uses completely different musicality, some use natural sounds aswell as they all use instruments to play along side any exsistant music. Each dance has originally got there name from a natural resource, Bollywood got theirs from Indian songs, tango is another word for 'touch' during a tango scene. Finally flamenco is a meaning for a bird, 'flamingo'. However each dance is taught in Differeng countries yet each international dance has a physical vision to being taught in America.

In my solo, I am choreographing to ' Dj Bonnie - concrete angels'. During my time of researching more into the elemenets I felt that I wanted to choreograph about ' Natural Disasters'. By researching I wanted to create something physcially emotional that would connect to the audience. I looked into Cancer for a natural disaster due to some cancer illnesses there are no cause,due to all the elements go into conditions for cancer. However during a day at work, I met a young girl who came through my till with high servere burns, all her facial skin burnt off, with minor hair strands growing back, being to scared and shy to speak, down to that one disaster that has happend. From this experience I want my dance to come across that everyone is beautiful, there is a mixed story for my piece. However due to the musicality that I chose the song is about a young girl who gets beaten to death by her parents, and due to statistics in the last years, child abuse has been extremely high, and big investigations have been taken upon, however it is still ongoing. BabyP was a big investigation and Victoria Climbia. My message from this dance is to speak out, do not hold back the bruises, tears and upset, speak up.

My final structure for this is a Narrative, telling a story of a young girl getting beaten up, this will be slow sustained Bollywood movement to show the expressions and emotions I am visually trying to show. I am also using fire to show the angre, this is the climax in the middle of the song this would be the Tango to show the passion, fierce angre that I the littke child cannot take no more. This will happen when the tempo gets much more faster. Aswell as my main element being natural disasters, young innocent children getting beaten to death for no reason and the disaster takes upon them dying, or commiting suicide due to the amount of pain they suffer with. I will then end with sad, emotional flamenco movement to represent being quite about getting beaten, being somebody you are not , I thought this relates clearly with flamenco due to originally coming from a Slavery capture.
I feel all these styles can be interpreted into my solo, and I am fully aware of all the international backgrounds for each dance style.