Variety Show rehearsal

On Tuesday the 24th of April we held our rehearsal for our variety show which will be taking place on the 27th of April. After having a few incidents of acts cancelling on us last minute we managed to find replacement acts in time and informed them all of the rehearsal and said if there were any problems then to let us know! All acts said they were able to come and the rehearsal ran smoothly.

To begin with we were unsure of what to do because we arent used to being in charge but eventually we got the hang of things and it ran pretty well. We made sure we did all the guest dance acts first so that we could get the miks set up. Then we did our group acts and made sure with spacing and positions.
By this point the mics were set up and we ran through every guest singer or soloist and then ran through pur solo.

I did a duet with Shannon and this was the first time i'd got up on stage and sung a solo infront of people so i was very nervous! Once i'd done it i was okay but it was very scary!

We took notes on spacings of guest acts, mics used and movement to make sure the lighting and sound was correct for the act.

We also took note of whether the act needed to have curtains open or shut, however we had organised the running order so that it would wor with one act infront one behind one infront one behind. This managed to work well.

At the end of the rehearsal we told the actsq what time to be at school on friday for the performance and throughout the rehearsal we made sure someone went round and made sure all the costumes that acts were wearing were appropriate.

The rehearsal seemed to go pretty quick and it was over within a flash. We felt that we had done enough, however to improve i think we could have been slightly more organised and more confident with the performers at the begining and with bossing people about.

Overall the rehearsal went well and think we all felt that we were prepared for friday.

Caberet evidence

http://klsperformingarts.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/and-all-that-jazz-assignment-4-evidence.html?showComment=1334436393834&m=1

For video and photographic evidence

Cabernet Performance Evaluation

See performance on the kings Langley school performing arts blog!
When watching the performance back I think we all did extremely well! Not just talent in dancing wise but we all stayed in character and kept to formations that we'd arranged after researching the show. We'd all agreed that we needed to smile so that we could show that 'show girl' element of the performance! It is clear on the video that we all execute this well! After watching the final performance and the rehearsal there are certain elements of the show we could improve on one being shapes however this was slightly out thrown due to one of the girls being ill in hospital, this can be easily corrected when we perform this price again in our end of year show! The other thing we could improve on would be confidence when using props! I think it is clear that some of us on tape but we knew in ourselves that dancing on the chairs was a challenge! For me this was due ti the overall height of the stage and then the chairs! But that's a personal fear of my own!

One thing that I think we all found difficult to begin with was the sassy sexy feel to the performance, we were fine in rehearsals and were slightly apprehensive when doing the rehearsal in front of the rest of the show members! But we all got into that 'musical theatre' performance mind and I think everyone stayed in complete character even if things went slightly pear shaped in choreography and mistakes!

One other thing I think we pulled off well was the whole look of the performance our outfits were simply leotards hot pants fish nets and jazz shoes all of which we had! We made sure the look of the dance fitted the theme and so did our hair and make up and this helped u's all get into character and feel the performance.

Overall I think there were some slight glitches but it was very well perceived by the audience we performed to and this gives an impression of how well we did! We will be performing this again at our end of year show! With singing as well possibly!
Following post containing link to video and pictures

Rock Challenge 2012

This amazing day started by waking up early and getting to school for 7:45am and we were all very sleepy, we left at 8 am from school and started our journey to Stevenage. When we arrived we were all very excited as this is one of the most important days on the school calender for us! Some schools were there already but we were the only premier team there. As we are a premier league school we only showcase and the other schools compete, this is a way is better for us because we can relax a bit and watch the other schools without them being our competition, however this can be a downside as some of the dancers feel that this means that they do not have to put in as much effort. They are wrong as this can mean we have to put more effort in to show the open league schools why we are a premier school. We got to be a premier school by winning numerous rounds over a period of years. When we got this amazing upgrade we were overwhelmed. This day was even more exciting as Miss Dolan our teacher was being the co-host throughout the evening!!
Once all the school had arrived it was time to start rehearsing, we watched a few schools and there were already a few that stood out from the rest, everyone had really upped their game and it shows how much people want to win and how much people love the rock challenge experience. Soon it was our turn to rehearse, so that meant hair up and shoes off, health and safety and all that.
We all got into our starting positioned got into character and performed. I did not start on stage so i guess it wasn't as pressuring but we had to crawl along the bottom of the stage at the back behind the boards so that we could create that element of surprise.
My part this year was to be part of Oberon's army from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' we marched on and as soon as we started you could feel the stage shaking. We performed and rehearsed twice and watched the rest of the schools.
It was the morning production meeting and it was very exciting, one of the rock challenge staff was Josh, and he used to come to Kings Langley and he was in fact a main part 2 years ago so this was almost like a claim to fame for us.
After this was lunch time, this gave us a chance to rehydrate and make sure that we ate so nobody passed out.
We continued watching the rest of the schools, and one school really stood out for me and thankfully this school won, this was 'Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School' I thought their drama skills and their dance skills put together were captivating and i couldn't take my eyes of some of their main parts. Their entire performance was amazing and they truly deserved to win as i don't think they could have done anything to improve as they put their heart and soul into the performance.
The last schools to perform were the 4 primary schools and every single child in every single school looked as if they were having the  time of their lives up on that stage and it really made us smile and i suppose that is really what rock challenge is about, apart from obviously the rock challenge ethos, a natural high.
Before we knew it, it was time to start getting ready. We had a few difficult decisions to make about the make up for Oberon's army, some was too simple ans some just didn't look right. In the end we just went with the traditional army camo make up. We used this as a sort of experiment as when evaluating our performance you cannot see any of the army's expressions due to the excessive make up.
However the performance went amazingly well and nothing went terribly wrong.
We got many awards including choreography and costume design which in my eyes and for me were the best awards seeing as we choreographed it and made some of the costumes.
As rock challenge is part of our btec course we had to evaluate the performance the next day in our lesson, unfortunately another teacher had the DVD so we couldn't. But instead we evaluated some formations, costumes and make up design using the pictures on the nick scott website. From this we discovered that the Athenians hair needed to be bigger and the make up needed to be more doll like, the fairies costumes needed to be more flamboyant and the makeup bigger, the army needed all boiler suits down and hair bigger yet make up to be smaller, drama skills needed working on and some timings as the camera caught a few people out (including me).

When evaluating our performance i think we did extremely well especially as we wanted to keep a few tricks up our sleeve for when we compete in portsmouth on the 9th of may! Some of the drama skills need working on and everything needs to be polished. To improve i think as a cast we need more focus but overall it was amazing!

After a very tiring but amazing day we all went to bed still buzzing with adrenaline from the spirit that flies thorugh the rock challenge day!

Musical theatre evluation

Cabaret Piece.

I was in a group with Shannon and Shauna and we were given the song ‘Cabaret’ to sing from the production Cabaret. All three of us are very shy when it came to singing, but to get a distinction we had to sing a solo so we decided that we would divide the song up so that we each got a solo and then we would sing the chorus and any other bits altogether or in twos. This was also a good idea as we had to dance at the same time, and dancing and singing confidently at the same time is difficult especially if you aren’t the most outgoing person when it comes to singing. With musical theatre you have to be very over the top and characterised so we had to do some research on the film and storyline first. We all agreed that it was definitely the singing we needed to focus on most, being so we decided to choreograph the dance routine first as we knew we could get this done quickly and we could then focus on singing techniques. (Choreography notes in folder section ‘Musical theatre’). We made sure that all the choreography was facing outwards towards the audience because if we turned our backs it would ruin the effect completely. We all found this task challenging, but our performance went well and we enjoyed it. To improve myself I think I’d just have to have more confidence in myself. I will use this confidence when singing in our end of year show.

Monologue. ‘And turning stay’

Our monologues were a solo piece and we were each given a different piece to perform. We were all given a sheet with our monologue on and we were told to annotate it and learn it. This was homework so we spent no class time on it. The day we filmed it we did so in the drama studio and used the lights. I had the piece called ‘And turning Stay’ which is about a break up between a couple. I have never been in this situation so I had to link it to a time when I thought maybe a relationship of mine was close to breaking. This would help me portray the emotion in the performance. The things I found difficult in the task was probably remembering the lines but I think everyone has that difficulty, one other thing that I think maybe hindered my confidence was the nerves when you get in front of the camera, it’s almost as if your mind goes blank and you can’t remember anything, but once you conquer that its fine. To improve I would say I had to add more emotion into the performance and maybe have more confidence with it. Evidence of this is on the kls performing arts blog

Costume Construction Evaluation

I have made a costume for Rock Challenge, our school production. The theme is ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
I have used netting and elastic to form the basic skirt. I have added strips of different coloured satin to the waistband. My colour scheme is purple, yellow and gold. I have also added extra sparkly strips to make it look fairylike and magical. I have also added a few flowers and leaves as decoration so that the skirts fit the theme.
I have made these pieces by ripping strips of material from big parts of material. To make roses firstly you cut out a wide strip of material and fold it in half, tacking with a needle and tread all the way down the open side of the fold. Once at the end slightly scrunch up the material. Fold the edge of the material down where you finished sewing, make sure it is tight at the bottom and tack until secure. Twist the material around so that the bottom of the rose will be in a spiral shape. Every so often tack the bottom of the rose tightly. Once at the end of the material, fold the edge down as you did at the beginning and hide the open seem. tack securely and tie a knot at the end. Secondly we learnt how to make the leaves. Firstly you cut a strip of material, half the size of the material you cut for the roses, place the leaf template on top  and cut around it. Once you have many leaves cut of of material pair them up, pin them back to back. Tack round the edge leaving a small gap at the end. Turn the leave inside out using the hole left. Finally tack neatly along the open edge. Your leaf is complete.
The costume will be work with light pink tights and a dark pink leotard with matching coloured ballet shoes. The leotards will have roses and leaves on too. I have ensured that the costume is well made and fits correctly. It will have lights underneath to add effect on stage. This will improve the overall appearance of the costume and make it have a more magical feel.
I will also help to make the main character costumes such as Titania, Cobweb, Mustardseed and Peaseblossom by adding roses to the costume and spraying the costume base (leotard) a different colour.

jazz evaluation

Workshops I was in.

When we originally found out that we have to lead a workshop I was apprehensive but as soon as we started choreographing I found that the leadership skills almost came naturally. Whilst in the workshops I explained basic steps alongside more technical steps. Throughout the workshop I helped my fellow team members and ensured that the other members of the class understood what they were doing. Each section was broken down into individual sections and these where performed to the music once half completed and fully completed. When each section was put together it was also put to music then too. Overall I enjoyed leading the workshop that I did because it boosted my confidence and I enjoyed teaching members of the class a new style. I think our workshop went well.

Workshops I took part in.

The two workshops I was in were the lyrical jazz and the street jazz. Out of the two I would say I found the lyrical jazz more difficult because I have not been trained in that area of dance whereas I have been for street. During the workshops any steps that I or any other member of the class found difficult was explained and/or repeated again. However in the lyrical jazz workshop I did enjoy it because it gave me a chance to learn a dance or style that I dint usually dance out of choice. It gave me an insight to the style and I would definitely dance it again. Although some moves were difficult I found both the workshops easy to handle and nothing was too challenging, the only difficulty if any was the space we had to dance in.

Overall.

What I did.
During workshops I directed class members on how to do technical moves and execute them correctly. I helped other members of my group when/if they got stuck and I helped any member of the class that didn’t understand something. When taking part in a workshop I listened and participated, I questioned if I found difficulty and I learnt fantastic routines of different styles within jazz.
What style I preferred.
Out of the two workshops I participated in I would say that I preferred the street jazz to the lyrical jazz. Most probably because I have been trained in that dance area. However I did enjoy participation in the lyrical jazz as I loved the choreography and the way the space we had was used. I enjoyed the Rock’n’Roll jazz workshop that I partly led because I am also trained in that area of dance too.
What was involved?
The things we had to do were lead a workshop in a dance that we had choreographed in a group to the rest of the group, we also had to take part in workshops and it had to be filmed as evidence.
How could I improve?
If I were to re-do this task I would probably do a few things to improve these would be:
-Be more confident in speaking
-Go round and ensure each member of the class understood and perform one-to-one help if needed
-Face the class so that it was easier for them to see and understand
-Teach the class in better surroundings.