A2 Group Choreography

A2 Group Choreography

As part of my A level practical exam I had to create a group choreography based on one of four questions given to us by the examining board. The question that I chose was to create a dance based on the features of a Japanese Tea Garden. I researched into this concept and what I found was that the style of garden takes its name from the Roji, or path to the teahouse, which is supposed to inspire the visitor to meditation to prepare them for a ceremony. There is an outer garden with a gate and covered arbour where guests wait for an invitation from the leader to enter. They pass through the gates to the inner garden where they wash their hands and rinse their mouth and face as they would before entering a shrine or in this case the teahouse itself. The path is always kept moist and green so it will look like a remote mountain path. There are no bright flowers or colours in the garden which might distract the visitor from any meditation.

An idea which I wish to also include is Japanese fortune cookies which are said to be given in rituals. Japanese fortune cookies are said to be a bit bigger than others such as American and Chinese. Makoto Hagiwara is said to be the first person to serve the modern Japanese cookies in a Japanese Tea garden in 1890’s.

When it came to choreographing it there were certain features that I wanted to include, for example the entering of the gardens, the invitations, the purifying ritual of washing hands and mouth, representation of stepping stones leading to the house, an intimate unison section of people coming together, the giving of cookies, dancers interpretation of found fortune cookies statements, crossing of bridges, admiring flowers and personal meditation.

These ideas can all be seen in the choreography through interpretation I have made through my movement choices. I have instructed the dancers to show physically them performing hand gestures and wiping the mouth to indicate a purifying ritual. I have included the dancers to help one dancer cross over their backs to create the look and interpretation of a bridge. I have also created a stepping pattern for the dancers to perform around the space as if travelling across stepping stones in a garden. All of these points including more are very literal and can be seen very clearly in the interpretation of the dance. My music choice is a traditional dance piece which compliments the dance well as it is Japanese. There are climax moments to the music which also enhances the dance quality.

I have 4 dancers, 3 girls who are entering the tea garden and being invited in to admire and meditate, and there is also another dancer who is the leader of the ritual in the tea gardens.

Costume choice I have decided on plain black bottoms – harem pants/leggings/tights and short and a plain white top. The reasoning behind these choices is that they are plain and white is a pure and clean colour. It states there are no bright colours in the garden because otherwise it is distracting for the people meditating in the garden.  

Choreographic devices that I have used include repetition – Different arm gestures in a unison arm section are repeated as I feel these movements give an oriental feel to the piece

Fragmentation – The dancers when lead by the leader to go off onto their own stepping stone pathways they perform arm and hand gestures in different orders which are seen through the dance.  

Levels:  levels are seen as I have a staging block at the back of the stage where the leader is to sit and perform, there are times where the leader is stood on the block and the other dancers are dancing on the floor or even lower doing floor work.

I have a contrast in the piece as well as there are moments where there is a build in the content where the dancers perform in unison and in contrast to that there is then the end meditation section which is very calming and mellow in comparison.

I have moments of unison and cannon in the dance.

Here is video of my choreography showing all these points. I feel as a whole dance it really shows the themes I have identified and is clear in showing the details and features of the Japanese Tea Garden.

A2 Dance Alvin Ailey Solo

A2 Dance Alvin Ailey Solo

In my A2 dance I have been creating and choreographing a solo inspired by Alvin Ailey's professional work 'Cry' danced by Judith Jamison. I have included Graham technique contractions and releases and incorporated Horton technique by the use of Lateral T positions, hinges, Horton angular arms. The use of Dunham technique seeing myself use an undulating torso and spine.

Here is a rehearsal of the piece:

As you can see you can identity the uses of the different styles and influences of Graham, Horton and Dunham. This solo originally performed my Judith Jamison her early dance training included ballet which I feel is apparent in my solo what with the balletic arabesque lines and extensions. Choreographic devices that I have used are repetition when I fall and spin/roll to the floor and shuffle on my knees forwards with opening arms, you see me do this twice. I have also used the use of levels in the piece where I start the dance on the floor I have sections where I jump and spin and use a contrast in dynamics. I have used change if dynamics from a calm and sustained dynamic at the start of the dance and then when in the music the woman sing a loud note my movement become faster and more weighted and powerful to get across the emotion of the piece. 

I have used embellishment where I have added small detail to movement for example I come to an open fith position with my right leg extended and I do a quick flick of foot in front and behind my leg know as a petite batimont. 

What I need to do when I comes to doing my solo in a final performance/presentation I need to consider my performance and emotional content and performance quality. This dance is very emotional and requires an acting quality to portray the feelings of the dance. 

Here is my final solo performance:

Final Performance of Solo

Cats Research for choreography

Cats Research into my choreography 

I am in charge of the scenes; Jellicle Ball, I’m in charge of giving my ideas for Pekes and Pollicles and the dance section and ending of Rum Tum Tugger.

In the original show of Cats The Jellicle Ball is the celebration which gathers all of the characters together on this night.  As the Cats dance, Grizabella comes on stage  to watch. Some of the cats sense Grizabella's presence and scare her off and then all of the cats begin to dance in the grand Jellicle ball.

In our concept of fashion we are basing the Jellicle Ball on the idea of a big fashion show of Deuteronomy Design's.
The Pekes and Pollicles is my solo song that I sing in the show and originally is about 2 groups of dogs fighting in the street and causing problems. Then ‘The Great Rumpus Cat’ comes along and breaks up the fight between the two groups of dogs.  Link to further information of how I would wish Pekes and Pollicles to be portrayed.   The song ‘The Rum Tum Tugger’ is about Tugger saying how he can never be pleased by anything you give him. He is cocky and confident and all of the female kittens and cats swoon over him and fall at his feet. In our concept we are still trying to include that Idea of Tugger being cocky and confident but in a model parallel and have all of the girls swoon over him. Choreographically I have thought about the ending of the dance into the instrumental to be the girls dancing around Magic (Tugger) and him joining in and encouraging some flirting between them. The dance needs to be energised to compliment the music as it has a high tempo and a trombone in the song really lifts the music and the movement material needs to complement each other. The requirements for these scenes are for the Jellicle ball is an impressive look with impressive dance routines. The pekes and Poilicles requires a sharp and busy hustle and bustle atmosphere to go with the fast paced song and lyrics.  This song requires camera and notepads as props for this dance. For this song I have put forward my idea (Link to idea) however I have left the choreography down to the capable hands of Kat and Emily to set the dance for the year 12’s. In Rum Tum Tugger the requirements for the song is a constant high energy and no dip in momentum. It requires commitment from all of the people in the dance to carry the flirtatious feel and the energised and bouncy feel to the dance. The ways that I am going to achieve this in all of the pieces is for the Jellicle ball is to create interesting dance phrases and let other people have their input in the dance so it caters for all dancing abilities as dance on a whole is our class’s weakest link. In Rum Tum Tugger the way I am going to achieve is this is to first of all improvise to how I feel to the music to be able to come up with movements that I feel goes naturally and suits the movement so I feel a process of trial and error and improvisation is the key to choreographing this dance. 

Rosas Review

Rosas Danst Rosas Review

Rosas Danst Rosas is choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaker and performed by the dance

company Rosas. It was first premiered in 1983 and the filmed version in 1997. The themes seen in

the dance touches upon human behaviours and rage. The starting point to the dance came from the

idea of ‘The Human vs The Abstract’. It looks on everyday expressions, flirtations, longing and frustration. It shows a strong music and dance relationship.
The structure is in 8 sections, in the

filmed version of the dance there are 18 dancers and in the stage there are 4. Dance styles seen in
the dance consist of; Pedestrian movements, gestures, minimalistic, abstract, mechanical, the

dancers have a low centre of gravity; the dance is also concerned with relationships whilst

maintaining dancer to dancer independence. The choreographic style of the dance highlights single

parts of the body drawing attention to small human gestures. The movements are patterned and

structured to create rhythms and perfect unison is achieved between all dancers. The music was

created by Thierry De May (also the director of the film) and Peter Vermersh. The Aural settings are

Electronic, percussive and minimalistic. There is also the use of natural sounds of the dancers

breathing and using body percussion to create beats and rhythms. Physical settings see the dancers

costumes as drab and everyday wear. They wear grey skirts and tops with black leggings, socks and

shoes. The clothes are loose fitting and functional to move in. All the dancers wear the same so it

gives an institutional and formal uniform look to all of the dancers. The lighting is natural lighting as

it comes in through the windows of the building the dance is set in. The dance takes place in the

corridors and rooms of an empty old school building, meaning that is why the lighting is natural

and comes through the windows of the building. Props seen in the dance are chairs which are seen

in section 3 of the dance. The staging of the dance is that it is site specific where it takes place in the

school building meaning that the dance was created specifically at an adapted location other than a

standard theatre. Looking at a specific section, section 3 sees the chair section. You can see action

movement components such as; High release, heavy breathing, whipping hair, and pedestrian

movements such as looking at each other, and adjusting clothes. When they adjust their clothes they move their tops on and off their shoulder and pull them as if to show that they are frustrated. The dancers are seen using the choreographic device of repetition which can be seen in the movement of clutching their hands and wrists and throwing their arms to the side of their bodies and bending their body over their knees to again show frustration and rage which is a main theme to this dance.The dynamics to the dance are sharp and precise creating perfect unison and the use of accumulative cannon as a choreographic device. Aurally the music is quite electronic and repetitive there is the use of breathing and body percussion from the dancers which also creates an extra dynamic to the dance and a more realistic and intimate approach to the dance for film. The camera shots used in this section are; Close ups, over the shoulder shots, wide shots, medium shots, and angles from behind and the sides of the dancers. I like the way the shots and the filming of this dance has been created as the filming for camera shows exactly what the director wants to see, as sometimes when you watch a performance live at a theatre you miss parts of the dance as you personally focus your attention to one person or one part of the stage at a time. The use of the different camera shots and angles enables you to experience and extra and different dimension to the piece as you can hear the dancers breathe which you would not be able to hear from watching dancers on stage from an audience. The different choreographic devices used in the dance I feel creates great interest as the use of fragmentation creates different versions and variations of original motif and creates a high impact atmosphere which reflects the frustrated theme and energy of the dancers.

Cats final Choreography

Final video clip of the scene I choreographed

Cats Final Performance - Cut to 21mins to see The Jellicle Ball

Cats Final Performance - Cut to 26mins 10seconds - 27mins 35 seconds to see my main bulk of choreography for Rum Tum Tugger

Looking at the final choreography for the songs I choreographed for the shows I really feel that people upped their game once they had a performance in front of them. The opening night was quite shaky being opening night. Having a few mistakes and most likely nerves flying around. I have linked to the final performance and it looks like people were really coming together and enjoying themselves. The choreography for Rum Tum Tugger looked fun and energising and had a very good look to it. There was interest to it as when Tugger (Magic) performed a movement us girls would copy and follow him. Us girls had a sassy and flirtatious feel to our persona and attitude on stage. Magic patrolled and commanded the stage with a confident personality and commitment to his character. There were a few minor things that I would have wanted to devlop which would be dynamic to the movement and ensure everyone was performing the movement to the exact strength as everyone else. There were moments where a few arms weren’t as stretched as others when in unison parts which caught my eye and as a further development would be what I would have liked to have worked on.

In the Jellicle Ball looking at the final show when we performed this number compared to rehearsals people seemed to really look more confident in what they were doing. There were a few minor mistakes however that could happen at any time whether you know the dance or not as I admittedly make mistakes where I lose myself in dance and I forget where I am. As a whole we all gave a bigger and better performance than we had done in rehearsals and our dynamics went up to a different level when we were on stage. The same note as Rum Tum Tugger there were moments where not everyone had the exact arm or leg placements and did not always have the same sharp dynamics. This could have been something we could develop if we were to have done the show together and to be honest the show towards the end was quite quickly put together so these little details weren’t addressed. On a whole I feel my choreography was performed well and well received in the show. It was enjoying to be a part of and I believe from an audience point of view it was enjoying to watch. 

Dance For Camera Final Film

Dance for Camera - Final Film

Looking at my final film for dance for camera I feel that I have included lots of different camera angles including close us, wide shot, over the shoulder, high shot, low shot. My choreography tells the story of myself entering the dance studio and warming up and rehearsing for a performance. Whilst rehearsing I keep going wrong and falling over. I stumble, trip and fall over and I get really annoyed and stressed out at myself. I am them seen waiting to go into the theatre getting nervous and anxious. I then walk around the performance space and then walk off stage. I then re-enter the stage in my costume and get into my starting position to perform my solo in the theatre with all the lights. I then do the performance perfectly with no mistakes and do a good performance.



I thought about choreographic devices and have used the use of repetition when I do a roll and spin drop to the floor and shuffle on my knees at the big change in the music. I have used the use of levels where I do jumps and turns in the air and I also have low point where I come into contact with the floor. I have also used a change of dynamics from the beginning section of the dance where the music movement is quite slow and steady, there is then a definite change where the music gets louder along with the vocals in the song and my movement then becomes stronger and more powerful. I feel that I portray emotions in the films from the start when I get annoyed and angry at myself not being able to do the choreography right in the rehearsals. You then see me nervous and anxious waiting to go into the theatre, and then you see the desperate and sad emotions seen in the actual dance performance. I feel that the different angles and shots work really well in the piece as it shows different angles to the dance that wouldn't ever be able to be seen if you were sitting in an audience watching. I feel that having it be 9 and half minutes long really shows the different angles and how much material that I have produced. Costume choices I felt were appropriate as I didn't require wearing anything particular when practicing in the studio as I just needed to wear appropriate dancing clothes, the main costume choice was the white skirt and white long sleeve top which reflects the costume from the original dance of 'Cry' which my solo is based on.

Post Show Evaluation - Cats

Post Shows Evaluation

Looking back at the shows I personally felt that opening night wasn't such a success. I went wrong in the opening number in the choreography which then lead to everyone following me what I was doing and doing the exact same thing. This was a worrying thought as it made me feel for the whole show that everyone takes the lead from me for what they are meant to do and that kept playing on my mind that if I went wrong again people would then take the lead and copy me again. When it came to the Pekes and Pollicles song I felt I stumbled over my words a few times and I also bit my tongue which caused me to stumble. During the song I was marching backwards and I fell backwards and landed on the upper stage blocks in a sitting position, I recovered it quite well as people didn't notice and I landed in a sitting position however this was knocking my confidence for this shows performance as I felt I was letting it down due to my mistakes. In the final song ' The Ad-dressing of Cats' In my group I really felt we couldn't get the timing of the song as we had never run through it and so it appeared that we didn't know the words. I knew the words but couldn't get the timing which made it seem that we were singing under our breath to get through it when we were all trying to come in at different times in an attempt to sing a verse which really didn't sound good. The whole of the finale song wasn't too great and it was thought that we were going to cut the song for the next 3 shows. We had a run through of the song in the morning before the next two shows and I felt much more confident with what I was singing as I knew the timing and as a group we sounded so much better that we knew the timing of the song. 

Notes we were given after our first show was the unbalance of people on the stage for example after my ballet solo and Josh and Cherkanah start off singing "Jellicle Cats Come out tonight" and the rest of the cast join in I then make an announcement - I am standing on the cat walk and talking to all of the cast and I believe there were 2/3 people on one side of me and about 8 people on the other side so it was totally unbalanced so that was a note for the rest of the cast to consider their spacing at that point of the show. 
As a personal note for myself I am unsure what happened when I forgot the choreography I think I got lost in it and just got too ahead of myself, I just needed to make sure that I was concentrating. Before the next shows I thought it would be wise to revise the words to 'Pekes and Pollicles'  as I stumbled across the words a few times. It wasn't noticeable as I was able to cover it well as I asked audience members and they did not notice. I spoke to audience members after the show and out of the people I spoke to no one seemed to understand the concept as it was changed and to them it didn't make sense. An argument to that would be can you interpret and understand the original anyways however the people I spoke to were very confused as to what was going on.

Another point audience members made was that Saxona who plays Grizabella was dressed up as Macavity and playing him. Later in act 2 there is what is called 'The Macavity Fight'  which we have got Macavity pretending to be a courier to get into the design house and steal designs, I then figure out who it is and I pull down the hood and Macavity is revealed. As it is Saxona who has doubled up to play that part audience members were very confused when the hood was pulled down and they thought it was Grizabella with a mask on stealing the designs. So we are now going to ask a year 12 from the classes to be Macavity at this point of the show as it was very confusing for the audience as I said they didn't understand who it was.  

Coming to the Thursday Matinee show we performed to an audience of St Andrew's school boys. The main things that went wrong in this show was that at the beginning of act 2 the music cut out and part way through Grace and Niamh singing and into Ellie's solo and for all of us to join in singing 'Moonlight turn your face to the moonlight, open up enter in' 
The music then came back in for the next song instead as of course the people operating the sound would not have been able to have come back in with the music at the exact time so they needed to come back at an appropriate time where people would be able to pick the music back up which in this case was the beginning of the next song. The other thing which required some improvisation from myself and Magic was after the macavity fight the music was skipping the song Mr. Mistoflees and was going straight to memory. And so magic and I were on the stage improvising to waste the time and try to give the people on the music time to try and sort out the situation. I felt I worked hard in my song Pekes and Policles, I felt I managed to get all of the words in and I didn't mess up. I felt performance wise when looked at myself in choreography that I perform with confidence and carry the choreography well. It comes quite naturally to me to use extension of arms and go that extra bit with movement. When looking at choreography as a group there are times where there aren't always arms and legs with extension and haven't always got a strong and sharp dynamic. A further development if we were to do this show again as a whole on the choreography would to spend time on performance quality, the movement is all there however it's the performance element and the dynamics on the performance. 

In our final performance we had another technical issue where the music cut out in the song 'Gumbie Cat' it's cut out whilst I was singing the second verse and then wasn't able to come back in until the start of the next song. We all had to carry on acapella and had to then do the tap routine without music I was very worried as of timing if everyone would Listen and watch each other and not speed up or slow down. Watching the video back I can see and hear that the tap did speed up as we were all trying to listen to each other to keep in time and as it happened it all started to speed up, we managed to keep up very well and able to push through the situation. Speaking to an audience member at the end they did not actually realise that it went wrong and thought it was some contemporary idea to dance to no music so a positive element to this was that some people didn't realise that anything went wrong meaning we managed to power through the situation in a professional manner.

The things that I was trying to achieve in our production of cats was my voice, movement and interaction. Vocally I felt I had clear vocals and diction when speaking as part of my character I made a lot a lot announcements to the Jellicle Cats about the Jellicle leader announcing who will go to the heavy side layer. I had a lot of issues with my mic not picking me up properly and on Thursday night of the show my Mic's batteries died. This meant for my song 'Pekes and Pollicles' I really had to project when singing as it is a wordy song as it is so I need to make sure that what I was singing was heard.
Movement wise and my location on stage I wanted to be located high up in the office to show my status of being high up in the office and physically show that by being high up on the staging. My interaction with other characters was that I was always showing care for them for example when the Macavity Fight happened I was rushing about around the models making sure that they were okay and showing my care towards them. I was always involved with looking for outfits for the models by presenting them items of clothing to wear for example in the opening scene and also during Rum Tum Tugger song I presented Tugger with an item of clothing during the song. When up in the office with Elsie - Old Deuteronomy - myself and her would be discussing models be looking at the picture of head shots and also be looking through files. I would also be writing down things and taking notes as if writing a letter for Elsie.
Looking at character aims, my aims where in the Pekes and Pollicles and the Macavity fight. In the Pekes I wanted to be able to show the narration of the song and my status of explaining the story. I felt I did this by being involved with the year 12's choreography and the gestures that I included whilst singing. During the Macavity Fight my aims for my character was for the audience to understand my status in the company of fashion to show how I sorted out the situation maintaining the models. I felt I maintained momentum in this section as there was no dialogue so the movement had to be what maintained the piece and create interest to the audience, I felt I did this as I was rushing about the stage directing models to go to different places and do things and it was all quite chaotic and I felt that I managed to hold the interest.
Further Developments for Cats if we were to do it again I would want us as a group to tighten up on choreographic dynamics; for example the extensions of hands and arms and having sharp dynamics as when watching back there were times where not everyone looked the same when we were dancing in unison and as a dancer I have picked up on that instantly. Personally I would perhaps experiment with the way I sung pekes and pollicles and maybe add more of my own spin and interpretation to it, as I sung quite straight and how it was written.
As an overall conclusion I feel we managed to pull off the show as to begin with I personally was unsure about how the concept would work. As we got closer to the show it was quite late that we go the ball rolling and it started to come together and look like a show. Overall I am pleased with how I performed and come show week I started to really enjoy performing the show.

Cats show 1 Part 1
Cats Show 1 Part 2
Cats Show 1 Part 3
Cats Show 1 Part 4 

Cats Show 2 Part 1
Cats Show 2 Part 2
Cats Show 2 Part 3

Cats Show 3 Part 1
Cats Show 3 Part 2
Cats Show 3 Part 3
Cats Show 3 Part 4
Cats Show 3 Part 5

Dance for camera draft 1 of dance

Dance for camera - Draft 1

Here is a draft of my first try of my dance for camera filming. I started with the idea that I wanted to film my A2 Dance solo inspired by 'Cry' Performed my Judith Jamison and choreographed by Alvin Ailey. I am thinking for the costume to wear my white long sleeve top and white long skirt which is my costume for this dance which I will wear for my dance exam and is what I have worn for performances show casing this dance. The costume is also very similar to what Judith Jamison wears in the original performance. 
When filming I accidentally fell over during one of the shots, this then gave me a further inspiration to where my  dance for camera could go. I had the idea that I then could film me in the dance studio practicing for a performance of my solo and I keep going wrong and stumbling and getting annoyed with myself. I then could go into my solo in the theatre in costume and with all the lights ready for my performance and the solo goes perfectly. Some of the shots that I have used in my draft are shots that I would like to follow through for my final film. I like the use of mirror shots and the close up of my arm on the words 'Hard drugs' as it is a use of music visualization as I am doing movement which reflects the music of the dance. The music of the dance is 'Been on a train' by Laura Nyro which is the music seen to be used in the original.
Here is my draft:

Watching this back I have noticed that the picture of the film is going between landscape and portrait which is to do with the person filming me. This is something to take into consideration when it comes to my final film to make sure that all of the shots are in landscape so its is flowing and doesn't jolt and change between orientations. 

I will wear normal dance/practice clothes for my final film at the beginning and then I will change into costume and do the proper performance in the theatre with stage lighting. I would like the lighting to be blue as with a white costume I think it will complement each other. In the original performance of 'Cry' the lighting is blue, I also feel that blue is a sad colour and the dance is very expressive and emotional. 

Developing my dance:

I will be using an ABC structure:

A - Rehearsing in the studio

B - The waiting to go into the theatre

C- The performance

As my final will develop and now have a story line, it is also narrative. #

The dance style is ballet contemporary which is apparent to the style of Judith Jamison who originally performed this piece. The use of extensions are inspired from ballet style and also of Alvin Ailey. The further choreography of my piece will show contractions which is taken from Martha Graham which was an inspiration for the Ailey style as well as Lester Horton which I will take elements of his style in my solo.

Choreographic devices I will use will be the use of repetition when I drop to the floor in a spin to the floor I do twice, the use of levels in the whole dance comparing me jumping and close floor work, contrasting dynamics seen in the music and the emphasis on choreographic dynamics, Embelishement is also seen where I add very small details for example a small beat (batteu) with my foot in front and behind my ankle.

Costume Unit- costings for all characters

Costume unit- Rumpleteaser

Costume unit - Rum Tum Tugger costume

Costume unit - how my designs became a costume