Lesson ten: creative development, final changes to our piece and reflection on assessment

This was the last lesson before our assessment week. Our piece has developed in many ways from when we first started. To the audience my group wanted to portray a journey though war, following a group of soldiers and how the brutality of war has affected them. We wanted the audience to feel a connection to the characters. I feel that we managed to achieve this as throughout our piece with the use of facial expressions to portray our characters thoughts and feelings. The audience gets to know the characters and can therefore feel sympathy for them. 

During the choreography process the main challenge that we came across was working with our props. The sticks are long and we found it difficult at first to think of movements that weren’t basic or looked awkward. After a few rehearsals with the sticks we were able to come up with dynamic and precise choreography that kept the audience assertive. I think that choreographing the marching section was the easiest as it was quite an obvious motif to take ideas from. We were able to work well as a group and think of interesting formations that were pleasing to the eye. 


Before today’s lesson we received more feedback from our teacher to help enhance our choreography. Some of the feedback that was included was:

  • There were some timing issues with the sticks, make this clean and clear 
  • PTSD section was good but could be taken a little further with the acting out of gestural movement and facial expressions to show the emotions and also think about how the emotion can be displayed in the body.  


Some positive feedback:

  • Good development of the leg up motif it is clearly seen throughout. 
  • Really effective crossing the front line section it clearly links back to the stimulus.


At the beginning of the lesson we decided to implement some of the feedback that we received into the piece. To improve the timing of the stick section we went slowly though the movements talking about exactly where head, arms and feet were placed. We decided that we wanted to change a part of the choreography to help us look more in control and make better use of the sticks. We used the choreographic method (Translation) to help come up with new choreography. We used the words comradery, fun and triumph as our starting points as these related to our theme of the section. By using this method we were able to create more intricate and faster choreography. We were also able to  make better use of the sticks, using them to their full potential rather than just holding them and swinging them around. 


We also decided we wanted to change another part of the coming together section. We thought the old choreography didn’t show the theme enough, it looked random and out of place. To choreograph a new motif we thought of obvious movement’s that showed strength and training for example an up and down plank. By having obvious positions like this the audience could make connections to strength training themselves, therefore showing our theme for this section ‘training’.


We then talked about the the PTSD section and what we wanted the audience to feel. Our feedback was to use more facial expressions and use our body to portray emotion. To improve this we decided to run the section again and again focusing only on the emotion, trying different things each time. We had a different person watch the section each time and give feedback on what worked and what didn’t. This gave us an outsiders perspective and allowed us to decided what facial expressions were most effective. 


Reflection after assessment:

This module has been an exiting challenge for me and pushed me out of my comfort zone. Working on creating 10 minuets of choreography was very daunting at first but after completing it i am now a lot more confident in my choreographic ability’s. Working with different choreographic methods helped me to create diverse and unique choreography quickly and affectively, connecting the movements to my stimulus to make sure I portrayed my theme to the audience. I believe that my group worked very well as a team. We all contributed ideas but listened to others. We weren’t afraid of criticising each other if something didn’t look right, this made it easy to clean and perfect our piece as no one got attended if they were doing something wrong and they then tried hard to correct it. 


I think our assessment went well. My group tried our best to show the theme and storyline that we had created. We did this by envisaging ourselves in a soldiers shoes and portraying how they would be feeling to the audience. This made everyone’s facial expressions different as we all took the image of being on a battlefield different. This made our piece more interesting to watch as the audience could see how different people react to the same events. I tried my hardest to implement all the corrections we had discussed in rehearsals. I danced to the best of my ability and really pushed myself to use my facial expressions. If I was to choreograph another piece I would 

Comments

  1. Devanshi GanatraNovember 27, 2020 at 2:13 AM

    The performance was outstanding - I completely agree with the positive comments! I also admire the fact that you have thought very carefully about all of your choreographic choices and continued to strengthen the piece. Reflecting over the process, is there anything that you would do differently if you had the opportunity?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownNovember 27, 2020 at 2:47 AM

      Thank you for your comment Devanshi! Due to coronavirus we haven't been allowed to touch. If I could have done things differently I would have loved to have included more partner work and use of levels as this would have allowed our piece to change in dynamics and height with the use of lifts. The use of partnerwork would have added a different dimenstion to our choreography, allowing us to create 3D shapes with our bodies.

      Delete
  2. Lucy Athorns choreographyNovember 27, 2020 at 2:16 AM

    This blog rounds your choreography off very well and I have enjoyed following your process for your choreography. You mentioned that you used the translation task to help you come up with new choreography to create more intricate movements. Was there a reason why you didn't use this task earlier in your choreographic process, if so why?

    When you focused on the PTSD section, you said that individually you watched each other to give feedback of what worked and what didn't. What was the feedback that you got given and did these corrections change this section drastically?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownNovember 27, 2020 at 3:02 AM

      Thank you for your comment Lucy! When creating choreography for the coming together section for the first time we focused on making movements reflect the music. When finishing the choreography we decided that this made the choreography look like it didn't have a purpose. It didn't match the rest of our section. Using the Translation task helped us to come up with choreography that represented our theme, therefore connecting it to the rest of the piece.

      Some feedback that we discussed about the PTSD section was how effective eye contact was. The people who make eye contact with the audience were more engaging. As an audience member you were drawn to them. By having everyone do this the section became more powerful , the facial expressions became clearer and as an audience you could understand how the characters were feeling.

      Delete
  3. Storm IdeNovember 27, 2020 at 3:22 AM

    This blog is an excellent final blog, finishing your choreography module. You have clearly mentioned how you have achieved your beginning goals and how the use of choreographic devices helped you to do this, reaching your final piece. The way you have use feedback to guide your overall choreographic process is brilliant.
    Do you think that the personal expressions you used to encompass your character made specific characteristic elements evident to the audience?

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    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 27, 2020 at 1:41 PM

      Thank you for your comment storm! Definitely in the PTSD section many characteristics such as fear became evident to the audience as I moved sharply and hastily. I wasn’t calm and my movements were slightly uncontrolled to help portray my character that had been affected by the war.

      Delete

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