Lessons 1 and 2 30/1/12

Lesson 1: Today's lesson, due to mix-ups, was purely business today, working on our CV's and Application Forms etc. It was ok kind of boring
but it has to be done.

Lesson 2: Exactly the same as the previous lesson, same opinion as previous lesson

Bradders signing out :)

Lessons 1 and 2 25/1/12

Lesson 1: From this date til production week, work will be focused on entirely on our FMP, Arabian Nights. The first lesson started off with how we can explore the Four Elememts (Earth, Air, Wind amd Fire) through movement. It was quite an interesting exercise, as many people came up witj different movements to suit their individual element.

Lesson 2: In this lesson hardly any physical work was created, as the lesson was mainly focused on exploring physical skills and mainly listing down what special skills we each individually have. It was quite a laugh seeing what weird yet awesome skills people have

Bradders signing out :)

24/1/12 Lessons 1 and 2

Lesson 1: Lesson 1 was a very active, with the lesson starting with our usual warm-ups with rolls and leg swings. In the second half of the lesson, we was taught a motif which became useful in the next lesson.

Lesson 2: In this lesson we explored The Effort Graph, explaining the lowest and highest limits of the factors of dancing (weight, time, space and flow) and the Eight Basic Efforts Actions (Dab, Slash, Wring, Press, Flick, Glide, Float and Thrust). Then we had to apply each of these to three Harry Potter (dont have a clue why Harry Potter).

23/1/12 Lessons 1 and 2

Lesson 1: Today's lesson was very similar to the story-telling warm up exercises from last week, with one-word story and prop involvement, which i found entertaining.

Lesson 2: This lesson we focused on Performing Arts CV's and personal statements. I feel i am gona find this task quite hard, not because it is difficult but just finding what to say will be a challenge in itself.

Bradders singing out :)

19/1/12 Lessons 1,2,3 and 4

Lesson 1: Started off today with an introduction to the day, with warm-ups and basic acting exercises for the first half of the lesson, with the second half focused on The New World by Harold Pinter.

Lesson 2: In the second lesson we explored the element of soundscapes and how a combination of different sounds can help someone envision an enviroment e.g. A forest.

Lesson 3: In this lesson, we started learning about the art of storytelling, through the re-enactment of a story called The Bird, The Mouse and The Sausage. We were told to incorporate movement into and show how our bodies could before our given characters.

Lesson 4: In the final lesson we continued the idea of storytelling but with our own personal stories. We each had a partner and had to swtch and tell the next partner the previous partner's story, but with exaggeration.

Bradders signing off :)

Lessons 1 and 2 18/1/12

Lesson 1: Did not turn up to college til 9:45am. The first lesson was mainly troubleshooting about blogger.

Lesson 2: This lesson was more physical than the previous one. We learnt a new motif and revised an older one. The lesson was not necessarily focused on a project, it was more a technique building lesson

Bradders signing out?

Lessons 1 and 2 17/1/12

Lesson 1: Lesson 1 today was not what i expected. I expected to get straight into the physical work but instead we watched clips of some dancing films and analysed them. I watched 3 in total; The Car Man, Yesterday (Lullaby segment) and Cool Rooster. I analysed them using 5 criteria; Action (types of moves; stretches, leaps etc), Dynamics (Staccato, Fluid etc), Space (how big the space is, how it is used) and Aural Setting (soundtrack, setting, props etc). I got notes on all three, especially the Yesterday: Lullaby sequence. Next time I could pay attention more to all the dance pieces, not just the one that interests me the most.

Lesson 2: In the second lesson I was tasked to pick one of the three dance pieces we analysed and create a short dance piece based around a selected dance piece (Yesterday: Lullaby). I feel the piece created was'nt all that, due to the fact i didnt rehearse it enough in the given time and i corpsed halfway through. It wasnt the greatest piece of work I have had part in in the long term not every work I create will be of a good quality. Targets for next time would be less talking, more movement.

Review: Rooster

Choreographer: Christopher Bruce
Year of inception: mid 1960s

Rooster was quite and intruiging performance due to the lack of a full ensemble performance. At most there were three dancers at one time, which I thought was quite new and original considering the apparent large scale of the performance. The first performer's actions seemed quite rigid and staccato, with sudden head and arm thrusts, and even though his legs showed massive activity, the performer always kept his torso rigid. The space around the performer is vast, with stage front only populated by the main performer. The rest of the stage is populated with other in-character performers observing the main performer. Unlike the second segmanet of the performance the main dancer has very fluid, watery-like movements and being a female she may well be portraying a chicken. In the first performance there doesnt seem to be a relationship between the main performer and the other performers, the focus is solely on the "Rooster", while in the second performance the female has a relationship with two other males, which I like to show contrast between genders. The aural setting was quite interesting in terms of lighting and soundtrack. They were very contrasting I feel, with one static light creating a somewhat street affect, conjuring thoughts of hustle and bustle, while the music (The Rolling Stones-Little Red Rooster) even though its a rock song, is quite calm in its pace providing that contrast of senses. In conclusion i enjoyed the idea and the thematic messages behind The Rooster
***

Principles of Acting lessons 1,2 and 3

I found todays lessons the most fun and enjoyable of its kind in a long while at college. Purely focused on acting, my favourite out of the 3 aspects of Performing Arts, we researched into the Stanislavski technique of acting, it really helped me understand the qualities of being an actor and the effort it needs to complete your task. Throughout the day we was drip fed parts of Stanislavskis' 10 Elements of Acting, which cover all different aspects of acting, two being Concentration and Imagination. This mix of theory mixed in with exercises expressing these elements I thought provided a great layout on the lesson, which will hopefully be replicated in the future. Gavin has done us proud :)

Bradders signing off

Lesson 1: Creating Dance

Today was a somewhat interesting day and hard day, not in terms of work but how to interpret it. Starting off with learning a motif of moves involving rolls and handstands, then learning to create movement through through the interpretation of text. I found the latter quite had, not necessarily the actual move set but finding the moves proved to be a challenge. But when it came together i found the excercise quite exciting (if i hadnt have mugged myself up halfway through then it would have been better). The first excercise was simpler in a way, maybe because we did not have to come up wth the movement set we was taught it, but it was still moderately hard to grasp. Hopefully my technique will impreove over the coming weeks as i feel its kinda rubbish right now

Bradders signing out :)