Units 1&2 Induction

Induction Task- Feeling Good: Nina Simone

Task- 

• Listen to the song and spend time studying the lyrics 
• Look into provenance of the song and lyrics
• Devise an actng scene around themes/lyrics/mood

My Research: 

I looked up the provenance of the song and found it was originally written for a musical called "The Roar of the Greasepaint- The Smell of the Crowd" in 1965. 

I found out that a great deal of popular artists have covered the song including: Muse, Michael Bublé, Jennifer Hudson, George Michael and Avicii which explains why the song is so well-known now. I listened to Feeling Good and took a particular in the lyrics "A new dawn, a new day, a new life for me, and I'm feeling good, as well as the jazzy feel to the music. 
I also made a list of the key themes I could think of and highlighted the ones I wanted to use either implicitly or explicitly in my script.
The music gave me an image of a villain walking away from a hero so I decided to do my scene about a man released from prison, changing his identity and going to live a new life with the subtext of the fact he hasn't really changed at all. 

SCRIPT:

Project Workshop 17/9/18

1. What did you do in project today?

Today we worked on spatial awareness and the importance of using your body without facial expressions or speech and how that can build a narrative. We did an exercise using numbers 0-7 where 0 was standing completely still and 7 was running. We then created a sequence of 5 movements in pairs, we had to transition from each position fluidly. This is mine and Ella's duet movement sequence.

We then made a group with another pair to create a sequence altogether and create the beginnings of a narrative. My group (Rina, Ella, Sonnah and me) based ours on the idea of being on a night out clubbing. We had a movement of all of us "cheersing" drinks, slamming them on the table then drinking them. We went through the motions of being out and ending with all of us crashing on the floor. This is our group's performance.

2. What was the purpose?

The purpose was to emphasise how much of your character comes from simple body language and even the way you choose to show your character walking.

3. What did you learn?

I learnt that a lot more of your characterisation comes from your body than I had thought before. I also learnt that you don’t need speech to create a narrative and that you can tell a story even without facial expressions.

4. What do you need to do next?

Next we need to build on our narrative and begin implementing a clear beginning, middle, and end to the story. We also could start adding facial expressions and eventually dialogue to create a well thought-out scene based on the movements we did today.

Project Workshop 18/9/18

Today we worked on contact work and looked at relying on others spatially. I worked with others in the class and we did movements including back bends over each other's backs and working on leaning on each other with enough force to be able to stand up without using our hands. We worked on lying on each others backs in a way that was supported in order to use this kind of this movement 

Project Workshop 24/9/18

Today in project workshop we looked at the work of Laban and worked on making a series of movements go from pedestrian to very abstract using the concept of 5 degrees of abstractness.

We worked on using a series of movements to tell a story in pairs. I worked with Nehemie and we came up with the idea of someone meeting her friends

We then thought of story-lines of a journey. Then we had to make up 12 movements that told the story of the journey and make it more and more abstract with each time we did it. I chose to make mine a journey to the airport which ends with the person sitting next to a celebrity on their flight. This is the 5th, most abstract version. 

Project Workshop 25/9/18

We changed the solo movement piece we did the day before and combined them with someone else to create a duet. My partner was Ghazal and our narrative was a relationship between two sisters that ends with one being run over:

Project Workshop

In this lesson we looked at intention in movement.

Theory: 

In this part of the lesson we looked at the features of dance and movement practitioner Laban. 

We looked at his theory of movement: FORCE-TIME-EFFORT-SHAPE + TIME= DYNAMIC

The warm-up we did involved pretending to walk in rain or mud. Acting as though we were in a rush: running for the bus or running away from someone.

We then sat down and came up with the narrative of a journey. We then had to start acting this out, each down with a higher degree of abstraction until we got to the 5th degree which was total abstract movement. 

Project Workshop 25/09/18 cont

In this lesson we looked at Laban's movement theory and all his different actions which are called "The Eight Effects"

We then worked in pairs to create a sequence that had all the different movements in it. I worked with Leah. We firstly brainstormed what we could do for each movements which is seen here: 

This is our end piece:

Project Workshop 1/10/18

In this project workshop we started working on our piece for the induction show. We warmed up in the usual way with walking around the room and roll downs. Shelley then got us to start working on the opening of our piece which was entitled "The Party" we started off in a grid, 3 down and wide and began a sequence to the song "Oops Upside Your Head" based on the dance moves that are famously related to the song. 

We started off doing the sequence in canon, with people clapping, jumping and fist pumping on different counts. However, this proved to be quite challenging so we decided to change it to altogether in a later rehearsal.

Project Workshop 2/10/18

In this class we got together in pairs and began to brainstorm around the theme of parties. My partner was Nehemie and we looked at the different types of parties. We came up with a lot of different types such as children's birthday parties, Christmas parties, family parties and teenage house parties. We decided to focus on a teenage house party. We then began coming up with ideas of what situation our characters could be in. The final scenario we came up with was 2 friends, one of whom thinks her ex-boyfriend wants to get back together with her and the other knows he's got a new girlfriend. After brainstorming we got up and started devising. We started off with quite a naturalistic piece and added a new degree of abstraction every time. We struggled with trying to make the scene where we fight abstract but after Shelley helped us we had more ideas and were able to flesh it out a bit more.

Project Workshop 8/10/18

In this class we built on the semi-abstract sequences that we'd begun the week before, adding new degrees of abstraction onto what we had worked on previously.

Project Workshop 9/10/18

In this class we went through our piece, The Party, to ensure it was was ready for performing at the induction performance the next day.  

Induction Performance 10/10/18

My Class's Performance

Medea

I felt that our performance of Medea went quite well. There were a few moments where the piece didn't go as planned but overall it was engaging and understandable. As a group, we could have projected more as some lines may have got lost as we didn't use microphones. If I had to make any improvements for my performance personally I would make sure I didn't skip Leah's line as she was meant to say "You love your children don't you, Medea" however I thought it was my line so I spoke before she did. Staggering the entrances during the piece really worked as it added a comedic layer with all these characters gossiping and then more coming in to hear what the fuss is about. 

The Party

I think our performance of "The Party" could have been improved. While there were no major problems with our piece there were a few small mistakes that happened that would've made the piece better if they weren't there. In the opening "Oops Upside Your Head" section a few people, including myself, got timings and actions wrong but upon watching the video the mistakes aren't too noticeable. Another thing that could have been improved was projection. As some groups were further back than others it is more difficult t hear what they are saying and I know that for me personally, I needed to have projected more so the audience would be able to hear the lines that would make my piece make sense. I think overall it was clear enough to show that it was a party and that we all played different characters who have some kind of conflict. We also did well in the comical, slow-motion fight at the end of our piece and it added another level to our piece as the piece hadn't had a comedic moment before this. 

One Short Day

I felt like our performance of One Short Day went very well. The  only noticeable mistakes made were due to us not being able to hear when the track started and missing the first line and a half of the song. However, the dancing was kept together and was tight on timing. The singing was good all the way through. If I had to pick out something that wasn't quite right I'd say that the very long note on the second "Emerald City" was a bit patchy as a lot of people, a lot of them due to the fact they were ill, didn't hold the note as long as they were able to in rehearsal. I'd also say that, as a class, we could have projected a bit more as some of the words got a lost and the audience couldn't hear everything all the time. Overall I thought the song was well-performed and the dancing and most of the singing went very well.

Level 2 Acting Performance

The level 2 acting piece on identity was very impressive and I really enjoyed watching it. A moment that really stood out for me was when one of the boys performed a spoken word/rap about the political state of England. This was hugely impressive as he'd written it himself and what he was saying about the state of the government and the political figures running the country was extremely powerful. He had also made the whole thing rhyme which meant it contrasted from the naturalistic acting that we had seen before this. I also loved that in one of the final pieces some people used accents. These were extremely effective as their piece was about immigrants. The accents were very well acted and sounded very authentic which added a level of realism to their piece. Their projection was also really good, there wasn't a moment where I couldn't understand what someone said or was unclear as to what was happening.

If I had to improve their piece I would say don't break character as there was one moment when someone broke character and began to laugh which, as an audience moment, drew me out of what they'd created. 

Overall, I really enjoyed what they performed for us and thought the messages they put across to us as the audience were extremely powerful and thought-provoking.