choreographing a duo evaluation!

On the 26/9/13 I got given the stimulus which was ‘Dances through the era’s’. Once I had been given the stimuli, I started to research theoretical into each background. I researched my favourite dance styles, which was, whacking and house, and Elliot whom was my duo partner, researched his favourite styles. Once we had got our research we acknowledged and combined our research, the conclusion was that all the styles were based around the 80’s. I then looked into the structures that we could choose to give us a clear route of how our routine could physically develop. The structure we chose was Ternary due to having different sections on different styles in the 1980’s, however we had a overlap on the structure to ‘ telling a story’ therefore we had two structures combined.  Devices like a dance planner got taken into consideration as we started to develop ideas, as well as further researching into the 1980’s on costume, famous individuals, styles, famous moves, as all this was going to help with the ongoing choreography.

Throughout my planning there was a range of different idea’s that we was going to considered. The main ideas that we narrowed down to start choreographing was either focus on one of the era’s  which would be the 80’s, or go through a timeline of different era’s , starting with the 60’s and finishing with the 20^th century. However once me and Elliot explained our ideas, the second years explained how they had thought of the same idea. Thinking chorographical, there would be more pressure and hard work, choreographing over 5 styles, so we gave this idea to the second years. So our final idea was to choreograph to the 80’s. During this era there was a lot of hits from albums that I knew, from just listening to some of the songs the physical expression it gave upon me was positive, it put me in a positive mood, uplifting to make me want to dance. Once I had researched the songs, I gave a list to my duo partner to listen to and narrow down to 5 songs. Following on to the research, I researched popular dance moves during the 80’s there was popular moves that I already knew, yet I needed to research into the others, therefore I went onto YouTube.

During the process the strengths on choreographing a duo was that, there was a strong relationship between me and Elliiot, even though we had not known each other for a long time, this did not show. Due to attendance being positive, this was not affecting our research development during class, as we were always both in lesson to respond to the information given. Once we had been given our stimuli, I did not hold back onto exploring and starting the research, I researched in my own time about the 80’s and combined all the research together, to have a positive amount to start developing choreography to.

Each individual had their own styles and due to this, I was aware of how to perform Elliots styles and he knew what mine were, so from this we did not need to choreograph basics, due to already being able to perform majority of the styles, yet just having unique different ways to perform them.

During the choreographic process we used a lot of different devices. Due to this is gave our piece variation and different from others choreography. We chose to be part of unison, a main reason for this was due to myself not being able to pop’ but because Elliot had already choreographed this section, I gave him the option to perform solo, he therefore took my offer and made it fair that myself had a solo section in the choreography, I had a ‘whacking section’ which I choreographed and this was put in the choreo. I felt that our duo piece had a climax throughout the whole piece, due to the audience not knowing what to expect next, our in our case, ‘ what style’. This gave the performance an uplift, yet during the start of the choreography we did not have a climax and it was at the same level throughout, when Kat had watched our performance she explained how their needed to be one, so we took this into consideration and made sure we responded to the feedback. There was a range of different dynamic variations, the start appeared very fluid, bouncy and energetic with a lot of character due to being house, yet during the middle it was very sharp the movements connected with the body as well as lyrics. Finally for the ending the movements were very still on the spot, with a high level of physical characterisation.

During rehearsals, music was a straight forward process due to me and Elliott getting along very easy, therefore there was no disagreements, we both chose the same songs, yet on our own unique styles we chose the songs separate, so for my house song, I got to choose my song and for Elliott this was the same process, as these styles alternatively had never performed before, so we both got given the same equal amount of seconds to choreograph to our individual style.

 I felt this worked well as during times that each other struggled throughout a count we all interpreted ideas. By dividing upon this choice, Kat explained that you could easiely see which individual had choreographed what, therefore this made me think that there was a weakness towards the choreography, alternatively by doing this it positively fasten up the process, due to myself and Elliot understanding what needed to be choreographed, we would both come back the following day with a few counts, for each style. This helped due to not having long left to complete the choreography before the deadline, which kat gave us so she could see which ones was going to be put in the show.

Time management was a good towards myself and Elliott due to both understanding each other’s commitments outside of class, therefore after college rehearsals were essential during the last few weeks/ days before deadline, so we always made sure that the day and time was right for both and having trust in each other to turn up.

We both took a step out of our comfort zone and tried new styles, we was choreographing a routine but also learning new styles at the same time. However we stopped thinking about each others abilities and thought we had a long –term time to teach a style, however this was not the right solution and did not turn out positively, therefore gave a knock down on the choreography due to weakness to conduct / learn a style.  Having a few nock backs did not help, attendance became an issue during the last couple of weeks and therefore this negatively interrupted with the choreography, due to Elliot not turning up this had a physical and emotional impact on my self esteem. Due to this being an ongoing non appearance I was directed to adjust to the circumstances encase this happened on the show night. This weakened the performance; however it made me physically remember the piece without relying on Elliott as well as gaining a positive self esteem when performing to an audience.

My duo choreography should have had a stronger structure, research was very strong and we both developed our choreography around the research intake. However we did have a motif which we developed throughout the whole piece, this was combined with the structure of a narrative, by telling the story of a time travelling watch. The motif was an arm movement holding the watch and was developed in control linking with the correct style. Spatial awareness was used as well as transformations throughout the piece, making sure we were not standing in the same spot. Time- management was good, as we hit the recommended minutes of choreography, ours was 2.36. When working with different mixed performers there is a lot of physically things you need to consider and this will react with the choreography. These are;

·         Abilities – different progression

·         Musicality

·         Styles – making sure they can perform the styles

·         Responsibilities outside of college (Time- Management )

·         Trust- making sure 100% trust worthy and not going to let you down.

 

When performing towards an audience, we firstly was in the half of the show, I felt happy and secure were I was placed. I felt that the first performance with the children was the best, the atmosphere when going onto the stage was positive. Straight away the children interacted by clapping cheering when tricks were performed. By this it therefore increases your self esteem, which was great due to the ongoing performance all day.  During the last few days before the show the second years watched the whole show, which contained about 10 dances, however they had 2 spaces to fill for their Christmas show, and mine and Elliot’s duo got chosen, I was very happy about this and knew that the recognition would be good as well as performance skills. The lighting skills were correct that we had asked for and this made the performance much more physically stronger, as throughout the performance there was always the same level of performance occurring. Musicality was positive due to being able to choreography to the music, therefore our last piece was lyrical due to the performance being connected to the lyrics of the song ; ‘ Snoop Dog- Hold up’. Automatically when the song is played it gets the atmosphere high, therefore the characteristics were very high/ positive and I felt this was the best section to finish with. Relationship between myself and Elliott was strong throughout the piece and I was happy I got to choreograph a Duo with himself.

Weaknesses, I personally felt that the first show in front of the school children was performed much more better than the evening, this was due to nerves and therefore the counts were miss calculated and Elliott was going faster than should have been, yet I improvised and carried on as normal with no misleading expressions  so the audience noticed.  

Throughout the whole performance there was contrasting Dynamics that were applied, from the start of the performance, performance skills were interpreted with a relationship between myself and the audience, due to wanting their reaction to be ‘clapping’ so by keeping a focus and looking directly towards the audience helped them understand and automatically respond, the reaction was incredible and got myself in the mood to perform. Using a prop at the start helped to tell a story for the audience, however before the show in rehearsal process interpretive skills were developed due to pretending we had watches. The lighting we chose was pretty dark colours, I felt this was a good choice due to it being dark around the stage, so I kept my focus and did not lose my control spot. During the show, my partner went to fast on some of the counts, therefore this meant that I needed to carry on; I felt I kept my focus very controlled and carried on so the audience did not know any different. I used a lot of dynamics with the music, due to being aloud lyrics this meant there was a lot more potential, with my pieces I choreographed a lot in relation with the lyrics, the dynamics, were very sharp, fast with control. There was a climax towards the middle with a lift, it started very fast in preparation and then was fluid with control of Elliott to hold me up.

Throughout the rehearsal times, to the show night, the choreography changed, due to originally choreographing a section with the duo, yet days before the show we changed it to a solo piece, as we both agreed and felt this will look more efficient, due to myself not physically being able to perform the style. The order of the choreography changed dramatically after taking into consideration on what Rosaria and Kat explained, we needed the tempo to gradually increase with a climax, we responded to this however this did not turn out the correct way, the music was not edited with its best ability and therefore we started getting mixed up with the order of transformations. This did not work out in a positive approach, it slowed down the process of choreography due to putting a barrier over as we felt no improvement with the new changes. Class individuals, ourselves and Teachers, kindly said the first idea/ order worked and looked much more better, therefore myself and Elliott both decided to go back to the original idea, after rehearsing this, it physically felt much more cleaner and stronger.

Next time choreographing I will have a much clearer structure, So I know exactly where I start and finish, with developing devices throughout. I felt that we put a limit on what our choreography looked like, we played to safe by just choreographing styles that we liked, and this therefore put a barrier over my abilities. Next time I need to make sure that there is an equal discussion and for nobody to take over charge of the choreography, as this can easierly be seen.  As soon as I get my next assignment I will start to research into depth the stimuli, due to not having enough time to choreograph an extradinary piece. Due to being in group choreography this time, I defiantly need to remember and consider each other’s abilities, so nobody is emotionally distressed because of a style they cannot perform, but also not being safe, taking risks and thinking outside the box at all times. Overall I am very happy with my ‘Era’s of Dance DUO performance’.