Evaluation- Movement in Performance

Evaluation

Throughout the Movement unit I feel as though I have shown consistent growth and development of my skills within movement. At the start of this unit I set out to improve certain skills/action that I felt needed more exploration or that I had simply never used them within a performance, using workshops that specified in the elements of R.A.D.S, other factors within movement and devising our own work has allowed me to specifically focus on my skills. They were:

1. Work on my musicality

2. Explore Projection within movement

3. Amplify my full body participation

Work on my musicality

I feel the improvement of this skill is very clear within our final performance. I maintained focus with the music and listened out for certain beats which triggered certain movements, keeping focus of the music meant that my timing was also on time, however at 1.10 you can see me and Cameron turn around too soon, I feel as though this was a result of not enough practice of this very first scene. We choreographed most of it a week before our performance date which meant that I wasn't able to spend as much time on it, understanding the pattern of the music as I did with mine, Alice's and Will's. This is obviously, something I would alter if we were to complete this unit again- spending an equal amount of time on each scene in order to have a strong foundation of what the movement sequence is. This inconsistent of musicality can also be seen during my scene at 10.00, I became a little flustered in my movements but recovered in time for it not to have a damaging effect. Furthermore, simply incorporating music into most of our practical work within class whether that be completing a workshop encompassing R.A.D.S or Slapstick, it allowed me to gain a basic understanding of rhythm and how the body almost connects itself to the music in someway. As stated in my skills audit, I wasn't very confident performing within a group as I was worried that everything looked wrong, got distracted by other dancers. However, it is evident in our final performance that this confidence has grown immensely. I feel I am now much more confident within group, I don't rely on them to remember movements and where i am focusing on the music i dont find myself being distracted by anyone else on stage. Additionally, our musicality as a group was amazing, in the group scenes we all managed to move as one and be in sync with each other, I feel that this is imperative to have as a group as it makes the performance look better in general. Obviously, within the final performance there are notable moments where we do mess up but that is bound to happen in performances, the audience didn't seem to notice so it didn't really have an overall effect on our performance. We are not trained professional choreographers/dancers so I think it was okay for our timing or musicality to be off at points.

Explore projection within movement

As stated in my skills audit, I wanted to explore different types of music genre's to dance to. I think that throughout this unit, I have explored the elements of movement with a variety of different styles of music from Rockin' Robin by Bobby Day to orchestral music from 'Lord Of The Flies'. The diverse range of music has allowed me to play with R.A.D.S. within my movements and how each element can use a different genre e.g. Dynamics can use a very fast tempo piece of music, however relationships may use a slower piece of music to highlight intimacy. Using this concept in our development of our masterpiece I was able to improve my projection within my movements. I think this improvement is overly visible in my scene at 8.00, the concept we went with hit somewhat close to home as, although I do not identify as transgender, the songs lyrics transcended through me and my past. Being able to relate the song made it easier for me to complete these movements whilst underlining a meaning within them. I felt that the audience were engaged throughout this scene as one member quoted the scene as 'very moving'. As i had more creative control in my scene I feel this is where I developed this skill the most due to me being the one to create the movements whereas in others I did not. Understanding why i was completing a movement aided me in the progression of this scene, this was so important to me. If i didn't know why i was performing a certain movement I couldn't immerse myself into the performance and they became half-hearted with little effort. For example the move at 15.00 where we all jump out of our spotlight was to highlight that we didn't want to see ourselves, I was able to put myself into this scenario and use the projection effectively. Overall I would say that I have improved this skill to some extent however it needs further progression for me to be able to use it effectively during rehearsal practice.

Amplify my full body participation 

My final skill that I wanted to improve was full body participation. Prior to this unit i hadn't completed much movement based work, only dances in school musicals and physical theatre within lessons. Analysing my past performances I noticed how loose my body is in certain movements when it shouldn't be i.e. my arms become flimsy after a move. I soon discovered how i wasn't participating all of my body for a movement, again they contained little effort which was clearly visible. However, I feel as though in the final performance I was making sure to dedicate my whole body to all of my movements, even if a certain part of my body wasn't needed, it still had something to do. For example, at the start of my piece 8.10 you can see that only from my neck upwards was moving however I was committing my whole body to this movement. I made sure to tense my muscles so that the outlook of my body did not look sloppy. Personally, I found this skill very hard to manifest into my movements only because it takes a lot of energy to do so. Some rehearsals I would find that I just didn't have the energy or understanding to participate my whole body. However, I feel that this skill in some sense intertwined itself with the one above as once I understood the meaning behind the movement it then became easier to participate my whole body as I had a reason to convey a message through the movement. Overall, I think that I have developed this skill to a to a substantial level and I wish to expand upon it in future works.

Conclusion

In conclusion I feel as though I have diversified and moulded these skills into what i needed out of them. They are now personal to me as i used them how i wanted to in my final performance. i think that i may have focused on musicality more than the others however this does not mean that they aren't of satisfactory level, just a little less broadened as i'd hoped at the end of this unit. I do wish to carry all 3 skills with me into other units as they are very useful and can pretty much be applied to any type of movements I will use in the future.