I feel that because of my low attendance at the beginning of the term this had an impact on my dance and held me back a bit especially with the group dance 'America' from West Side Story as i was not in a lot of the rehearsals so I did not perform it at the Black History Month performance which knocked my confidence a bit, but as the term went on I began to get back into the run of things and managed to get up to date and learn the choreography to be able to perform it at the Winter Dance Show. Being able to perform at the WDS helped me regain my confidence and I feel I did it to a good standard with good style, musicality and i kept in time.
Have you participated: regular attendance; appropriate presentation e.g. clothing, footwear, jewellery; focus and concentrated; development of movement memory; willingness to respond to direction?
I had problems with attendance in the first term but after that i've continued to have regular attendance and i've been focused and concentrated and responded well to direction and i've kept appropriate presentation with correct clothing and footwear.
Have you attended workshops: tutor led and choreographed; learner led and choreographed; adaptation of professional repertoire through use of visiting company/artist or reconstruction from video?
I missed a few workshops for America but attended the Seussical workshops regularly.
Have you demonstrated physical skills: posture; alignment; coordination; balance; flexibility; strength; control; rhythm; spatial awareness; awareness of and relationship to other dancers in performance?
I have demonstrated physical skills but when i am not confident with the routine i have noticed that my posture suffers for example i look at my feet and crouch my back so i need to learn to lift my breast bone and my chin and lower my shoulders. When doing corner routines in the second term Sam did lots of turns which i was unable to do without losing balance so i must work on finding a spot to focus on to improve balance. In Seussical i feel there was problems with spatial awarenesss so i must work on this.
Have you demonstrated interpretative skills: timing; emphasis; musicality; phrasing; projection; focus; facial and bodily expression? I feel i need to work on my musicality, for example in America i could of listened to the music more before the performance to get a better feel for the timing.
Have you demonstrated dances: at least two different styles e.g. ballet, contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, rock n’ roll, folk, tap, African, Latin, street?
I've demonstrated a Latin style of dance in 'America' that we showed at the winter dance show and i also demonstrated the dance style Musical Theatre Jazz in the year 12's show 'Seussical'.
Have you evidenced the review process: self-assessment; tutor observation; peer observation?
For both of these dances i have put one of the rehearsal process videos in a blog post and commented on what went well and what i could have improved on for evidence.
Have you evidenced evaluation: identify strengths and weaknesses; setting appropriate targets?
Similar to the previous question i have put the videos on my blog of the rehearsal process and identified strengths and weaknesses and set targets for myself to improve.
Have you evidenced improvement: respond positively to feedback and constructive criticism; focus work in rehearsals to achieve identified targets; re-evaluation?
I responded positively to Sam's feedback, she said that throughout dance numbers I tend to focus too much on getting the moves right that my facial expressions tend to not fit the style of the song, for example in a happy active song my facial expressions get too serious as i'm concentrating too much so I need to focus on smiling for example.
Second term
This term we focused on unit 38, which I have to do a 2 minute solo or duet in any style I choose to be graded and also on the dance numbers from the musical we are doing 'Bad Girls'.
In this term I feel a lot more confident than last term, I think what also shook my confidence a lot was being put into the year below's dance class because of timetable clashing so I had never danced before in front of them so I felt a bit reserved and uncomfortable. But in this second term I got to know the year 12's better so my confidence grew.
Me and Lindsey decided we would do a contemporary style duet to the song grade 8 by Ed Sheeran, incorporating dance moves that we've learnt in our dance lessons with our own and put them together, we got one minute of dance and then we both decided we would make up 30 seconds each and then put it together the next time we saw each other.
Later on in this term me and Lindsey decided that this dance was not to a high enough standard that we wanted so we decided to change the style of the dance to a 'Chair Duet' to the song 'Read all about it' by Emeli Sande, and we found this a lot easier, the theme of the dance was Lindsey having a lot of personal problems and me trying to help her but Lindsey pushing me away and keeping to herself.
Having a theme really helped with making up a routine because we both had motives in the dance to build the moves on.
For Bad Girls my dance teacher made up a routine and taught us for the musical numbers: 'A-List' 'All Banged Up' and 'Baddest and the best'
Have you participated: regular attendance; appropriate presentation e.g. clothing, footwear, jewellery; focus and concentrated; development of movement memory; willingness to respond to direction?
I have regularly attended my dance lessons, worn the appropriate footwear and clothing and removed any jewellery, I have been focused and kept concentration throughout the lesson. My movement memory has improved a lot since last year and I find it a lot easier to remember set routines and be able to perform them without having to always look at my dance teacher. I have followed directions and instructions from my dance teacher.
Have you demonstrated physical skills: posture; alignment; coordination; balance; flexibility; strength; control; rhythm; spatial awareness; awareness of and relationship to other dancers in performance?
After watching back videos of myself dancing I have tried to improve all these physical skills, for example 'Balance' - When doing turns I have noticed I get unbalanced and dizzy very easily, so I tried to work on this skill and have been able to do two turns instead of one. In my first term I stated that 'when i am not confident with the routine i have noticed that my posture suffers for example i look at my feet and crouch my back so i need to learn to lift my breast bone and my chin and lower my shoulders.' I have noticed that I have developed this and I do tend to notice my posture more when I am dancing and I have lifted my eye line so that I am not constantly looking at the floor. I feel that I have also improved my spatial awareness as in 'Bad Girls' because there was a lot of us on stage for group numbers for example 'I shouldn't be here' and 'A-List' I have made sure to leave myself and others the correct space to perform well and safely.
Third term
At the beginning of this term from the 22nd- 29th of April we were still focusing on the Bad Girls dance numbers to make sure they were presentable for show week. Then after 'Bad Girls' was out of the way we were focusing on the dance number 'One' from A Chorus Line' which we would be performing at the variety show on the 22nd of May.
This is the rehearsal video from 'One', I am (when we are in lines) nearest to the camera in the front line.
Have you participated: regular attendance; appropriate presentation e.g. clothing, footwear, jewellery; focus and concentrated; development of movement memory; willingness to respond to direction?
I have regularly attended my dance lessons, worn the appropriate footwear and clothing and removed any jewellery, I have been focused and kept concentration throughout the lesson. My movement memory has improved a lot since last year and I find it a lot easier to remember set routines and be able to perform them without having to always look at my dance teacher. I have followed directions and instructions from my dance teacher.
Have you demonstrated physical skills: posture; alignment; coordination; balance; flexibility; strength; control; rhythm; spatial awareness; awareness of and relationship to other dancers in performance?
In the dance number 'One' I feel that I have improved a lot in these skills since my first term, for example posture, because it was a jazzy sort of cabaret dance it's important to keep a very straight posture with shoulders back, breastbone up and chin up and I feel like I was a lot more aware of this whilst doing this dance especially in the beginning pose for the dance I made sure my posture was good to improve the opening look.
My coordination was okay in this dance, not as good as I would prefer for example in some parts of the dance we needed one hand on our hat, other parts we needed a limp hand, bent arm and in others we needed straight arms depending on what we were doing, so getting this coordination perfect was hard as i'd be focusing on, for example, my kicks and then remember I needed my limp hand.
My Flexibility has improved, this is visible in the high kicks at the end, as I have improved in how high my straight kicks can go.
In the video rehearsal you can see my spatial awareness and awareness of other dancers in the 8 counts when the front and back lines go round each other, you can see me look to see where Katy (the girl behind me) is moving to make sure I don't hit her, I also made sure my elbows were tucked in as well so I didn't hit her.
Have you demonstrated interpretative skills: timing; emphasis; musicality; phrasing; projection; focus; facial and bodily expression?
My dance teacher has spoken to me about my facial expressions throughout dance numbers, as I didn't realise but I start off the song with the right expressions but about half way through when i'm concentrating hard on getting the routine correct my facial expressions are obviously serious and a little blank, but apparently after a few seconds I do realise what I am doing and I go back to the right facial expression for the style of the piece. I did try very hard when we performed 'One' to prolong my facial expressions but I did accidentally make a mistake because I realised I wasn't concentrating at all and then that put me off a lot from that point, so It wasn't my best.
