Today’s Objectives:
- Contribute, discuss and explore performance ideas.
- Create and develop a devise performance that explores space in movement.
Introduction: Today was our fourth lesson on unit 10 and 11 Devising and movement. We continued the devising process by working in small performance groups. The small working groups were:
My group: A: Karina, Lucie, Matt, Kayden, Lily
B: Josh, Ailie, Lauren, Isaac, Molly
C: Tasmin, Connie, Vicki, Jake, Libbi, Bethany
Task 1: Teacher led physical warm up
We started with a led warm up to prepare for rehearsals.
Task 2 As homework, you were asked to research your themes and topics.
What did you find?
I researched covid themes and how the ball could represent the spread of the virus through close contact.
Research:
The main way of spreading COVID-19 is through close contact with an infected person. When someone with COVID-19 breathes, speaks, coughs or sneezes, they release particles (droplets and aerosols) containing the virus that causes COVID-19. These particles can be breathed in by another person.
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-how-is-it-transmitted
Do you have any new and fresh ideas to apply to your work today? We will discuss as a group how we can create a bigger impact with the Covid theme and ball passing.
What will happen next in your story? This is something we will be working towards.
Task 3: To music, develop your performance with an understanding of space and movement, include body shape, group shape and pathways.
Shapes formed by Human Bodies, Pilobolus Dance
This tells me body shape is round and and like a penguin needing more space and for covid this is something that’s recommended to stop the spread.
In our performance maybe we can create pathways like this going in different directions.
Shape is an aspect of the element of space. Shape is perhaps the strongest visual component in dance. The term shape may refer to individual body shapes (the way in which 3-dimensional space is used by the body) and group shapes. Body shapes are present in all actions in dance. Shapes in dance convey meaning.
There are many types of shapes:
• shapes with straight lines and angles
• curving or organic shapes
• open and closed shapes
• symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes
•harmonious and contrasting shapes
• centered and off-centre shapes.
Shapes with straight lines and angles
Class information around shapes and space to consider:
We can make shapes with straight lines and angles relatively easily because of the straightness of the bones and the way the body is jointed. Simple angular shapes are also easy to recognize and learn. Angular shapes and actions can convey a range of meanings e.g.
The natural curve of the spine and the ability of the body to flex at a varying degrees allows us to make softer, more curved shapes. Curved shapes and actions can communicate a range of emotions to an audience.
It is important to consider how the audience views shapes in dance and movement performance. A shape that looks good facing front may not be as pleasing when viewed from another angle.
You can explore the personal space (kinesphere) around your body to create new shapes.
You can reach into this space using different parts of the body, in any direction. See what shapes you create by ‘reaching’ high or low leading with your knee, elbow or shoulder.
Shapes in non-locomotor and locomotor movements When moving on the spot (nonlocomotor) or across the floor (locomotor), consider the shapes that your body is making. You can apply the same explorations of personal space when you are moving. Try making different shapes while you are walking, running or leaping.
Ideas we might use in our group:
In our group performance we could apply any the extra space to stop us from bumping into eachother and pretend we are bigger.
Shapes we will use:
Answer: When looking at the cannon effect movements we might create some shapes with our hands to create a bigger effect on the movement like when moving or jumping.
Do we need to change direction in order for your movements to seem more appealing?
Answer: I think some changes in direction could improve the performance especially if we are all travelling in a certain direction a sudden change could tell the audience of the change and make it more obvious or give it more impact.
Task 4: To music, develop your performance. Your performance must display an understanding of space and movement, include levels, audience boundaries, planes and lines.
Watch the video below of an A level movement performance. How are they applying levels? Levels means the height in which movement happens. Is it low? Medium? High? I love this video because they use a wide variety of levels
A level Dance Group Choreography
The group in this video are applying different levels as some are standing tall, others with bent knees and some bending forward to create a shape.
Planes of motion is dividing the body into different sections of movement.
I think the transverse plane is interesting. It reminds me of isolated movements, which are often simplistic but extremely effective. For example, watch this amazing routine below:
I See Fire – Ed Sheeran / Anthony Lee ft Vinh Nguyen Choreography, Kinjaz Crew / URBAN DANCE CAMP
Class article to read and discuss: When to break the fourth wall
The half-hearted efforts of La Cage aux Folles fall flat. Maybe there’s a time and a place for audience participation
Thu 10 Jan 2008 13.00 GMT First published on Thu 10 Jan 2008 13.00 GMT
Shaking a leg … La Cage aux Folles at Menier Chocolate Factory. Photograph: Tristram Kenton
In front of me, Philip Quast is caressing a man’s head and, I believe, whispering something filthy in his ear. This is one of the more amusing moments in the illness-beset revival of La Cage aux Folles, a 1983 musical set in a St Tropez transvestite club, currently playing at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
At the front of this mid-sized studio theatre, the bench seating has been replaced with a scattering of cabaret-style tables. During the show, Quast and his troupe of corset-clad dancers exchange innuendo-ridden banter with the people who have taken these seats, as well as perching on their laps and in one instance popping an olive into someone’s mouth.
It can be refreshing when a production breaks down the barriers between audience and performers in this way, puncturing the fourth wall and encouraging interaction. It makes you feel actively involved in what you’re watching, makes you feel part of the performance. But it needs to be managed imaginatively for it to really work, and there is a tepid quality to the way it is done in La Cage. These interludes felt a little too rehearsed – ironic in a production that otherwise has a distinctly rough-around-the-edges appeal. There was no danger, it all felt a bit forced and half-hearted. They’d tweaked the rules, but only superficially. You got the feeling that any genuine interaction with the performances would be unwelcome.
It is understandable why they’d want to minimise the uncertainty that comes with audience involvement. After all, by drawing the audience into things in this way, they’re introducing another volatile element into the already precarious experience of performing live. I just wish they’d been a bit more daring and pushed this aspect of the show a little further.
Over in New York, a more ambitious audience participation sequence is a vital part of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee where, according to the West End Whingers, “part of the genius of the show is that four members of the audience are selected to sit with the other ‘children’ on the stage and actively compete in the Spelling Bee”.
I’m going to have to make the now obligatory reference to Punchdrunk and their production of The Masque of the Red Death. Here, audience members are pulled into the production in a literally physical sense. They are taken by the hand and led into rooms, or, in my case, after I had inadvertently stood in the space where an acrobatic fight sequence was about to begin, shoved rather roughly aside. And as the audience move through the BAC’s corridors, caped and masked, they inevitably add yet another layer to the production’s considerable atmosphere, blurring the very notion of what it means to be a spectator.
This blurring was even more evident in Soho Theatre’s ambitious but patchy Moonwalking in Chinatown, where, by taking the audience and the show out on to the streets of Soho, the audience became part of the production, drawing curious stares and an audience of their own.
La Cage is a more conventional production, but it raises similar questions about audience involvement. Would theatre benefit from blurring these boundaries more often? Or can these things only ever work in a particular context?
What is the impact of breaking the fourth wall? Answer: We talk to the audience and they feel more involved.
Why might we do this in performance? Answer: To give a bigger impact and because its presenting re life events such as the virus which has had a a huge impact on the whole world. This could affect the audience.
Would you consider doing this in your solo performance? Answer: Yes I would as I would like to consider how I can engage my audience and how it affects them.
Do you enter their space? Answer: I would if we werent social distancing it would have been better too.
Do you look at them? Answer: Eye contact is possible and we can still do this during the performance to create the scenes.
Matthew's Drama Blog 