Dance evaluation
My first ever dance unit went better than I was initially expecting. I now have an understanding of the contemporary style of dance and how to link this style with others. Also my leadership and teamwork skills have been beyond satisfactory. I will elaborate:
To begin almost every lesson we would have a warm up in which we would copy a set of moves going from one part of the corner to the other. While pretty basic these allow us to stretch ourselves whilst practicing staying in time with the rhythm in a dynamic way. From watching the videos of these warm ups its apartment that I exceed in extending my limbs the full amount to give it a sincere reaching effect however, I need to improve on my sense of timing as it becomes apparent that my partner and I are not perfectly synched up. Here is a link to one of these warm ups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hobkWjm3pDE&index=36&list=PLl8RU1N6TfpIe67uUNntZeX1BBe47w8MZ
There are instances however, where we have a warm up in which we give peer feedback to a partner and do the warm up again while taking account for the criticism given by the partner. The first one can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rec6eqHEs_A&list=PLl8RU1N6TfpIe67uUNntZeX1BBe47w8MZ&index=24 In this one I was given the feedback to increase the straightness of my arms which i can be seen to have improved in this table:
Here is a link to the video, post feedback: ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3RUhYeN4nE&list=PLl8RU1N6TfpIe67uUNntZeX1BBe47w8MZ&index=26
The feedback I gave to my partner was to increase the size of her jump this is because it is apparent that her jump is but a few centimetres high
The second time we did peer feedback was on our solos for our dance show perception; that I will address at a later date. In this one I was given the feedback to change the dynamics of my pace, for an increase of variation. I implemented this advice into the start of my solo which is apparent during the final recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOyZF3lOVHg&list=PLl8RU1N6TfpIe67uUNntZeX1BBe47w8MZ&index=67 at 4:51 onwards
The feedback I gave was to work on their eye line, as thy would often look at their arms or legs as they moved them, to increase the length of the solo as it was not near the suggested 32 beats, and also to begin work on performing the phrase in retrograde as that was asked from us by our teacher.
From reflecting on these peer assessments I am under the belief that I perform well in them, I take others feedback into effect and give out my own. However, I could improve by explaining a point of praise to the person I am with as this displays to the person you are talking to that you like their work and that you want it to improve, rather than if you plainly say what needs to be better they may misconstrue it to be an attack on their work.
Another section of our lessons that appears often is when we learn a new dance phrase. In these sessions I always give the attention necessary to learn the phrases and am vocal if I ever need to inquire something. However, I could improve these sessions by not thinking of the next move as I am doing another. As this creates a situation in which I am focused only on getting the moves correct but do not take into account staying in time with the music and other performers. This is apparent here:
Another aspect of this unit was the ability to work as a team and teach others. I believe that I am a competent teacher; I teach moves and phrases by physically displaying them while also giving a descriptive commentary on it. I also make a conscious effort to use objective language rather than subjective language, so for instance while you may say “turn left” I would say “turn anti-clockwise”. I do this as to not confuse those I teach as their left would be different to mine I were to face them, this would cause the phrase “turn left” to become ambiguous. This can be seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIGciD0bfsU&index=17&list=PLl8RU1N6TfpIe67uUNntZeX1BBe47w8MZ
There are instances however, where my teaching does not go too well. I shall refer to the 30th of November as I believe that is the day where the flaws of my teaching method are most apparent. In this day we were told to go into groups of three, create a piece of physical theatre and then collectively teach the rest of the class our piece. This did not go so well, this was mainly due to how people in my group interrupted another as we were teaching, I believe this happened as we were aware that this would be part of her blog and therefore wanted to impress the person viewing the video. To make sure a repeat of this event does not happen again I will try and create a teaching plan or discuss who would teach what part of the dance, allowing us all to teach a certain part of the piece, this would lead to a decrease in the interruptions of us as we would have a clear path to follow.
The aspect of teamwork is different; I am proficient in working in groups and suggesting and combining others ideas with my own. This is most apparent in the first ever piece of devising I did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnM9imHHPgg&list=PLl8RU1N6TfpIe67uUNntZeX1BBe47w8MZ&index=8 while it is hard to recognise in the video I combined my idea of us being manipulated by an intangible force with another student’s idea of a pendulum. I then added the idea to travel under this pendulum by rolling and sliding under it. In addition, my peer had the idea to have her and I separated by the pendulum, and have us follow it with our body indicating its existence to the viewer. I believe that this is an example of how well I can work with other to create pieces of dance. To improve my team- working ability I will need to work on how I teach in a team, as I have stated before the last time it happened our group had no clear teaching structure which lead to many people interrupting each other.
Our main dance piece perception was shown on the 28th of November As I came on, I kept in my neutral pose and stared directly forward. I continued to do this for the rest of the parts I was not performing anything of my own. I believe that this was a good thing to do, as this allowed the audience to focus on the phrases that were happening at the given time as if I hadn’t there is a possibility that they would of gotten distracted by how I was not still and composed while I was at the side.
When my first phrase came on, I made the intentional point of slowing my movements down, as others would have to match my speed later on. Since they were not as familiar with it as I was, due to how I created it, I cannot expect them to go at the pace of which I started with a few months ago. My choice to slow down this section was a good one as it allowed the rest of the group to synchronize up with me.
The next phrase I made a similar decision to slow down my movements to allow myself to match the speed of the others doing the same phrase.
The next phrase I did was the one when I react to being pulled by an invisible force in a line. Unfortunately, I believe that this was the worst part of my performance as I wasn’t able to make the jump everyone else was due to how I had my right leg forward. However, I did not let this mistake show too much and carried on regardless. Later on, I noticed how when all the members in the line skip and turn out of the line is not in complete unison. And as a result doesn’t look as good as it would, I rectify this I would have the skip and turn be cannon instead of unison as this would intentionally harness how we are not in turn and make it into a move that looks a lot more better.
During my solo I made no noticeable mistakes, however I do think I could have reached more with my limps to make my piece look more refined. Also in my reverse solo, I ended up not having any pauses between my moves and therefore they lost a bit of their impact. I believe that this was due to how I had never done a dance show before and got a bit nervous and therefore sped up without realising.
Overall, I do believe that I did an expectable first dance show regardless of the few mistakes I made.
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