Jazz

Recently in performing arts lessons we've been working on our Jazz assignment. First we got an introduction to what we need to do to be able to achieve the grade that we want. Jazz dance is a range of different dance styles. There are many different interpritations of jazz dance, there is no specific rules to jazz dance. With this it set us up to work on our tasks in groups for our practical and independently on our written work. We split up into 3 groups; Lyrical Jazz, Hip Hop Jazz and Rock n Roll Jazz. In each group we choreographed a routine in that style of dance and then we were told that we were to teach it to the rest of the groups and it would be videod for evidence which our teacher Miss Dolan did for us.

Me, Shannon and Chloe Stockman taught the rest of our class our Hip Hop Jazz routine. We choreographed a section each and then tied it all together. We chose the song Deuces by Chris Brown to dance the routine to. This is because the song had a flow rhythm to it and so does the dance. As the rest of the class are not major street dancers, we choreographed the dance to suit them and made it more lyrical. This meant that it wasn't too alien to them but there were still jazz and hip hop elements in it which is what we were aiming for from the beginning of the choreography stage.

We introduced ourselves to the camera in our group and began teaching, which started with Chloe teaching her section. Even though Chloe was teaching this section it didn't mean that Shannon and I couldn't help others if they had questions. Shannon taught the second sections of the dance and I taught the 3rd and final section. Our dance consisted of flow movements and then ended in sharp beats which fit well with the music. It took about 45 minutes to teach the whole dance and make sure that everyone was clear on what to do. It was good experience for us to teach the group our dance, however we were used to it from teaching routines at rock challenge and previous dances that we've done in b-tec.

Here is the link to the video evidence of me teaching the hip hop jazz section. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTegibkJS6c&feature=player_embedded#!

Kelly, Myriam and Alice taught us the lyrical jazz routine that they had choreographed. Their dance was to the song Beautiful by Christina Agularia. Each movement was flowy but then in parts of the movements there was snappy and sharp elements. It didn't take long to learn the routine as the girls made it clear when they taught the group the dance. The song fit in well with the choreography and it was a really nice dance to learn!

Chloe G, Ellie, Laura-Anne, Louise and Shauna taught us the rock n roll jazz routine that they had choreographed. It was fun and full of energy which is why it took longer to learn as the room started to become very hot as we were constantly putting energy into the fast movements that was in the routine. The dance reminded me a little bit of hairspray which is why it was my favourite to learn even though it was the hardest to learn.

I've enjoyed doing this jazz practical because I got to dance the different dance styles that are involved with jazz which is something different.

Christmas concert

On the 7th December, our performing arts group performed at our school's christmas concert. We were told about 2 weeks before that we would be performing and we had to be quick in thinking of what we wanted to do. We performed in MSH has got talent a while ago and we decided doing this number again in the christmas concert would be the best option. However we did change things to make it look more effective on such a small stage.

This time we had 3 main singers which was me, Kelly and Chloe Stockman. Kelly and Chloe shared one stationary microphone on one side of the stage and I used the other stationary mic on the other side of the stage. The reason we didn't stand in the middle and sing was because the stage was too small therefore it would be easier to use the mic's at the side to give the dancers more room. It was a tight squeeze when us 3 joined in for the dance bit in the middle of the song but we managed! Laura-Anne also had a head mic and sung on stage whilst dancing which im sure was hard work so hats off to her!

We turned up to school with our hair and make up done and went to the drama studio to get ready for our performance which meant warming up our voices and our muscles for the dance. We practiced our song about 3 times but we had to be quiet and mark it through as the drama studio is above the corridor that leads to the hall and stage area. We were the last act on before the interval therefore we were not rushing around as much as we would be if we were the first act on. We got called down and were all nervous to go on stage. We then got on stage in our opening positions, the music started and everyones energy was up and performing to our best. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed performing that song again as it is energetic and lively which is what we all wanted and im hoping what the audience wanted to see too!

MSH's Got talent

On Sunday 2nd of October we went to Watersmeet theatre in Rickmansworth to take part in a competition to raise money for Mount Vernon Hospital. At the beginning of September we started to work on a dance that was upbeat and energetic for this and we did a spider diagram on the board to make it clear on what choices we had. In the end we all came to an agreement to perform a dance to 'You can't stop the beat' which is from the musical Hairspray. The reason we chose this was because it was fun, familiar and energetic.

In classes when we were rehearsing, the five singers (me, Kelly, Alice, Laura-Anne and Chloe) focussed on our breathing through-out the dance as it was a hard song to sing and to do a high energetic dance at the same time! Therefore we decided as a group that the singers didn't bounce around so much whilst singing and that we just did the arm movements but with the bounce of a hip too so that we didn't look stiff. The reason we didn't have the whole group singing was so that the dancing could be done properly and full out with tons of energy, however to make this possible and less hard for the dancers, we decided that they didn't have to sing. This meant that there were different levels of energy in the performance which we made sure was clear by setting ourselves in to a formation.

On the 2nd we met at the theatre at 2:30pm for a technical and sound check run through on stage. The five singers were given professional £2000 head mic's to use which we were very excited about as this made us feel professional and lucky too but on the other hand we were scared of breaking them!

After our run through we went out for lunch as a whole group and then came back to the theatre to watch a few more of the acts which would be performing on the show too. We then remembered that we are girls and needed time to make sure our hair was big and our make-up was perfect so off to the dressing room we went.

For our outfits we all had different colour vest tops on and had white skirts on with skin coloured tights. We then began to put our stage make up on and we curled our hair and put loads of hairspray in it to help make our hair as big as possible. We all helped each other do this.

We were the 5th act to go on in the show and we were happy with this. We put loads of energy in to the performance, personally I think that it was the best performance that we've done of doing that song and from the loud breathing sounds behind me at the end I could tell that everyone was out of breathe! One of the judges was a dancer and she loved our performance and complimented us which made us all relieved, however the other two men were not so nice but we have plenty of support from each other and our teachers, family and friends which helped us keep our heads high! I enjoyed this event and as it was for a good cause I was thrilled that we could be involved!

This picture above is of us all including our teacher Miss Dolan before going on stage.

This picture is of us when we were on stage. What a happy bunch!

Her Majesty's Theatre

At PQA (Pauline Quirk Academy), we do end of term projects; I have already done a big project such as a film premier which highlighted what we do in film and television classes. Last term we did a musical theatre project which we performed at Her Majesty's Theatre! This was great experience and a lot of fun.

The whole of the academy were involved but we did separate performances and then a finale at the end together. We also shared the night with 3 other PQA academy's from different locations.

We had prepared for our performances for over 9 weeks and I choreographed the whole finale scene which meant that I worked for the afternoon academy as well as I had to teach the afternoon academy the same routines. This was hard work but a lot of fun as I got to know a few more people from the afternoon and it was good experience to be able to teach two whole academy's my choreography.

I also got involved with the media side of the performance too as I edited the music and put it all together for our performance. I learned how to do this in a B-TEC Performing Arts lesson and I was able to do it again at home. I personally didn't find it challenging as I knew the basics and so it was fairly easy as I knew timings etc.

The performances that I was in were from Legally Blonde the musical and Rent. Only my age group were involved in these. (14-17yr olds) It was just the girls that were involved in the legally blonde song and as a group we were involved in a song from Rent.

In the legally blonde song I played the bossy girl who told everyone what to do. We did the song OMG. In the song we are all excited because we think that El is about to get engaged which means we acted very stereotypical girly Americans. This was my favourite performance to do as I got to be with my friends, wear pink and sing solo in front of loads of people in the audience, which Pauline Quirk herself was in.

The other performance was called Rent and it was the complete opposite to Legally Blonde because we were poor and scruffy and negative. It was a very powerful performance and I enjoyed performing it as we all had loads of energy and therefore the outcome was brilliant.

I had a good night performing at Her Majesty's Theatre and I won't forget it! Great experience for me and I loved every second of it.

Stomp

On 25th September, as a birthday treat, I went to London to go see STOMP with my family. I searched on YouTube for some videos as I hadn't got a clue what it was about. Once seeing these videos, my excitement of going grew.

Stomp is about a group of people using common household objects to make a variety of sounds and then creating a spectacular rhythm. The group of people (10 at most) split up the show into scenes.  Each scene had a different object in it and every actor used this object differently. For example, in one scene, they were using pipes, however, individually they all had their own length of pipe, this created different sounds and when they hit the pipe to the ground with force at different times in a specific on going rhythm it sounded astonishing this was because they were putting a lot of energy into the performance.

The people that were involved didn't just use objects as we soon found out, some had tap shoes on however we didn't notice at first as they camouflaged in to what everyone else was wearing. There was an incredibly funny element to the show as well as the group of people were actors too and there were 3 men in particular which were really funny. They made us laugh by pulling faces and making funny noises and taking the mic out of each other. They also interacted with the audience which was great, for example, one guy would clap twice and get us to repeat it, and then later on in the show he's do it and we wouldn't do it right therefore he would look down in shame and we laughed.

A highlight was the scene where they used newspapers to create sounds and rhythms. The reason why it was my favourite was because the actors were making funny movements, faces and sounds. One actor in particular stood out for me because he was trying to make another guy laugh when the other guy was trying to be serious. Another reason why it was funny was because this actor was very muscular and tall compared to the other one who was small and had no muscle.

There were many objects that were used such as; pots, plungers, brooms, sinks, bins, dust pans, wooden sticks, huge water butts, metal bins and lids, chairs, newspapers, cups, basketballs, black pipes, lighters for light effect and clicking sounds, they clapped their hands and even used dust to add noise when they tapped their feet. In the sink scene they used water to add to the effect, for example when they tapped the cup it created different sounds as the water came out of the cup. Creating a rhythm by using these objects must have been very hard and complicated, however they all had their own individual rhythm which didn't look hard at all, however the outcome fo them all coming together sounds brilliant!

The scenery was incredible. They had different types of lids, bins and pipes all over the set, even up high which 2 men interacted with. These men were muscular and probably had to be as they were hitting very big bins right at the top of the set and they were on a harness for safety obviously and so that they could swing to another part of the set to use different objects that entwine with the rhythm.

Another highlight of my evening was that my dad's chair gave way several times which made us and a few members of the audience laugh which added to the humour of the night.

Overall watching the show was a lovely experience, was entertaining for all the family and I fully enjoyed the comedy moments that they put into the show. This show was very different from any other show; the objects that people throw away I wouldn't even think twice about to make sounds with it. These factors is what I believe made a 10 out of 10 show and I would recommend this show to anyone at any age as it was appropriate and entertaining for everyone.

Watford Palace Theatre

Watford Palace Theatre work experience

I have chosen to take on the role of being an actor because I enjoy doing this and I would like to have a career in being an actor as it is my passion. At Watford Palace Theatre we did many different workshops and we had a choice in what job role we would like to take on for our end performance. These were things such as, lighting, sound, and costume, set design, acting, directing, and stage management.  We had about 1-2 hours for each workshop and did this through-out the whole week on our work experience. This gave us an idea on what to do for a role for us individually focus on.

There were two groups within the group of 11 of us. There were 5 actors’ altogether, 3 in one scene and 2 in the other. I chose to play Alice from Alice in Wonderland for a scene with Chloe who played the white rabbit. This was great to work on because instead of me and Chloe deciding how to perform it and how to set the scene. We got advice and were directed by the other students from the group which I was not used to and it was different and made me realise that in a career of being an actor, this would be normal.

Thursday morning was the first workshop for the actors. As the other days had been workshops for stage management and lighting ect. I was looking forward to this the most because I enjoy acting the most. We did warm ups and were explained why we need to warm up in certain ways. I found that these were good tips as an individual because if I perform in a show later on in life then I know I can do these before the show by myself or share the tips with the other actors. If I get in to teaching then I can also use these warm up techniques in classes.

We played interaction games so that we became familiar with our surroundings and the people and props that were by us. We did things like memory games and awareness games and we joined in games that were played for us to be able to use all our senses.

After we completed the warm ups and interactive games we started to look at the scripts and get to know it a bit better by reading through and understanding the aim for the characters and where the scene is. This included thinking about how the characters are reacting with each other and their surroundings. Chloe and I discussed about the reaction our characters should have with each other and how the scene should go whether it be a calm or relaxing atmosphere. We were directed by one of the other student’s from our group and from there we improvised to see what we could work on to make the scene better or more convincing to the audience.

On Friday morning I went through my scene with Chloe and we went over our scene many times so that we could not get it wrong. At the end of the day the staff from Watford Palace Theatre came to watch our performance and so did a few parents of the students. I think that every student successfully took on the role that they decided to do and it made both scenes successful and entertaining. If I could do it again I would switch scenes as I would like to get to play a different character and act completely opposite to what I played on Friday.

I have chosen to focus on being the wardrobe supervisor for the show that the students of our work experience class are doing. The performance is based on two scenes from Alice in Wonderland. I contributed towards picking out costumes for the characters to wear for their scenes. The reason why I chose this role to take on from the performing arts industry is because I am a media student at school and I understand that representation is important for a character because then it is easier for the audience to understand more about what the character is like by the clothes that they are wearing. For example, for tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, we wanted them to be like young rebels from London that are identical twins therefore we made sure that we picked out costumes that were the same and used a shirt and tie to help the stereotypical view of young teenage boys at school come across to the audience.

At work experience we did a workshop on costume design and I drew tweedle-dum and what my ideas of what a stereotypical teenage gangster would wear in London. As tweedle-dum is a trouble maker I drew on baseball hat, a puffer jacket and some dog tags to show a bit of ‘bling’. I thought that the character should also be wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a pair of blue pastry’s to match his blue jacket.

Obviously we had no budget to buy any costumes from the shops to get the clothes that are similar to what I drew, however we did chose some clothes that would represent the characters personalities.

For the white rabbit character, we chose a waistcoat for Chloe to wear because in the film the rabbit is wearing a waistcoat, therefore it would be easier for the audience to figure out that Chloe is the white rabbit in the scene.

For Alice we picked out a jacket for the character to wear. As Kelly and I played Alice in the two scenes we shared the jacket to show that we were both Alice. The jacket was girly and simple to show that Alice is girly and innocent and when the scene changed I gave Kelly the jacket to show the switch between scenes.

Film premier

There are three groups in an academy and also there are the Poppets which is for children aged 3-5. Each group/class created their own performance to be filmed and then the poppets would have an advert filmed between each clip as they were too young to manage a bigger project like the rest of the academy.

As I work in the morning but do not assist the teacher of 'Film & TV' I had no idea what the other students from other classes were doing therefore it was a surprise when I watched the preview before the cinema screening. As I am a student in the afternoon academy I got to take part in the film project. My group's idea was that we would take little parts from romantic/comedy movies such as '500 days of summer', '10 things I hate about you', 'Juno' and we also did two music videos. There was the music video for the boys and they did 'every little thing' and made it really funny! The other music video was then choreographed by me and Lisa, I was the lead role in the video and it was to 'Dancing on my own' by Robyn and it took all afternoon to film both videos which was really cool to do voice overs and see the high tech equipment.

There is a morning academy and an afternoon academy and our films were shown in separate screens at the cinema. We had the cinema to ourselves at 10 in the morning and we were welcomed by a photographer and red carpet which was really cute, fun and exciting. After we watched the film we went into town for lunch at pizza express and then headed back to Bovingdon primary school where we were going for an award ceremony. The night before the cinema screening, me, my mum, and the principle and vice principle set up the hall for the ceremony. We set out a load of decorations from the party shop and placed the fake Oscars on the table. We made this look really nice by turning off the lights and just keeping on the spotlights which was bright enough but looked really classy. We had a number of awards for each group, the main ones being, best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress and as my group did music videos there was an award for best performance in a music video and I won which I was extremely happy about. Everyone clearly thoroughly enjoyed the whole day and it was a really great experience.

This picture shows my award and the paper that was read out to announce the winner of the award.