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