Final Blog Post

For the past term I have been working on a dance performance. Coming into the project I didn't know exactly what I was getting into. I started out the term choreographing material that was inspired by a poem I found, 999 Smiles, and progressed by choreographing to music, which then later got cut out my performance. This performance has transformed an incredible amount of times. Although I may have finished choreographing and teaching my dancers the movement almost two weeks ago the order of the movements and the feeling of the movements have changed a number of times.

I thought it would be somewhat of a challenge to relate dance to english. However, what I found is that tying in writing or reading with this project wasn't that big of a challenge. I ended up reading The Illustrated Dance Technique of Jose Limon, which helped a lot with my technique. I noticed that my balance had become much stronger since reading the book and practicing the exercises from the book. I didn't notice that much of a change as far as my reading skills. Perhaps I may have read that book a little bit faster than other books, however that is the only change that I had noticed. As far as writing I have been writing daily in this blog and also I have produced a small artist statement for my dance piece. I did notice that my writing has become a little more fluid, I would have to say that the fluidity is coming from writing every day in my blog.

Organization was a huge part of this project. One thing that I can say is that I have improved as far as organizing my priorities during rehearsals, I have noticed that I can get a lot more done with an hour of rehearsal now than I was able to in the beginning of the term. One thing that I have learned about myself is that I cater too much to other peoples needs rather than my own. For example, if one of my dancers complains that she doesn't want to do rehearsal for a day I would probably tell them they can skip rehearsal for the day rather than telling them that they must come to rehearsal. Listening and speaking has been a challenge this term. As a director you always have to be listening to your performers and be able to tell them exactly what you want. One huge problem I had was speaking, I could never tell my dancers exactly what I wanted from them, however I have come a long way from how I explained things in the beginning of the term, I notice that my dancers are less confused by what I ask from them. I never really had a problem with listening to my performers, I always make sure I know what they want and need as to make a comfortable rehearsal environment for them, which is crucial for a good performance.

I can happily say that I am really proud of my final product. I am incredibly excited to see the performance tonight. I have worked really hard on this project with all my time making costumes, advertising, directing, and choreographing. I am really proud of my dancers and I cannot wait to perform tonight.

Costume/Image

In Class: Presentations

Out of Class: This has been an INCREDIBLY hectic week. However, now that the dance show is over we're able to crack down and finish this show. Yesterday I went out and bought a few things for the costume for the show and today I will be putting the costume together and making posters/advertisements for the show. I have a rehearsal tonight with one of my dancers who has missed a lot of the rehearsals, and then of course I have rehearsal all of tomorrow and wednesday before the show. I'm getting so excited to see the final product!!!!

In Class: Goal: Figure out who says what and when.
I took the poem and took notes on the poem that basically direct the reading of the poem. It says who says what and where.

Out of Class: Goal: Have a rehearsal.
I was able to have a rehearsal today, sunday, for about an hour and a half and we are REALLY close to have a final product. It's starting to look pretty cool and if I had to make an estimate as far as how long the dance is I would have to guess anywhere between 7-10 minutes. I'm kind of glad with where I am right now, although we didn't get to do everything I hoped we would be able to do. Also one of my dancers didn't show up today so I'll have to teach her the dances on another day this week, which is terrible.

In Class: Goal: Work on finalizing dance
During class and through m/x I went over the dances and staged the movement for the read poetry scene of my performance.

Out of Class: Goal: Meet with dancers
I met with my dancers really briefly today and did some exercises and moves I didn't have too much time to do this, but then again I also spent time during M/X working on movement. This week has been TERRIBLE as far as getting work done, and I hate to say it but I actually got more work done last week. I came down with this nasty cold and my body is gross and achy. I also have another tech week this week and had a performance today and will have one tomorrow, as far as yesterday (wednesday) went I actually had to cancel my rehearsal with my dancers because I had to do a run-through from 4 to almost 9 with Circle Mirror Transformation. Next week I will have all of my theater performances done with and I'm hoping to dedicate a lot more time with this dance, otherwise our performance may be a little shaky. ONE THING I forgot to mention. I don't know if I wrote about this before, but I'm actually cutting out the song from my performance and I have actually added vocal percussion from the dancers. The dances look really cool with the percussion, it's kind of an experimental territory and I'm hoping it goes over well.

In Class: Goal: Take notes and organize my rehearsal
I spent most of class writing in my directors journal about how I want to spend my time with rehearsal that afternoon.

Out of Class: Goal: Have a rehearsal and teach the dancers 2 more phrases
So I had a rehearsal after dance practice on Friday and taught my dancers two more phrases and than combined to old dances to make an finalized intro to the poem and how the dancers will recite their poetry. I'm starting to feel that I like them dancing to silence better than dancing to music however I don't know if I want to travel down that path yet.

In Class: Goal: Finish Reading Book
I got a little distracted in class today, I read one section about a floor exercise called "pique progression" essentially it involves the dancer to move from first position into a passe in releve. Now that I think of it, what I really needed to do was to plan out my rehearsal for tomorrow, I'm kind of disappointed in myself for getting distracted and not utilizing my time to plan during a week where time is so precious.

Out of Class: Goal: Figure out the sequence of dances.
Not even joking I had ten minutes to work so I decided to grab one of my dancers and learn the pique progression to use as a warm up exercise during rehearsal. Right now One Acts are really setting me behind and I'm really worried about my work, I can't afford to waste another class fooling around because now I'm going to have to spend a lot of my weekend working on this project. Also, I talked to Joel about lighting in the black box and he said that he didn't think it would be a problem.

In Class: Goal: Start putting movement to poetry or finish book.
I went down to the art wing to see if the black box was open and it wasn't, so I decided to crash in a chair and work on finishing this book. I got pretty far and found a little section about recording dances on paper but couldn't decipher the symbols for the life of me. The recordings of the dances looked like diagrams for electrical circuits, they had symbols that vaguely related to what the movements are.

Out of Class: Goal: Rehearse
We had a class meeting which took a lot of time out of rehearsal so we met for a little time before dance started and went over some dances. Now I'm starting to get a little worried that we haven't had enough rehearsal, so I'm hoping that we can accomplish everything we need to accomplish next rehearsal.

In Class: Goals: Work on finishing the book.
I spent about 40 mins in class reading the book that I have about ballet techniques. I read about exercises in 5th and 4th position and took note of exercises that would help particularly with balance. One exercise included a demi in 5th position with a rond de jambe and degage. I really like what I'm reading in this book, particularly because I'm learning all these terms for Ballet moves that I didn't know before.

Out of Class: Goals: Practice exercises
I spent about 10 minutes before dance class practicing some of the ballet exercises and doing some stretches. I honestly didn't have time to do much today since I had a 4 hour tech rehearsal for the one acts. However I am planning to have a dance rehearsal during M/X on wednesday and after school for about 2 hours on Friday. I will probably accomplish a good amount of work within that time, I do however have my work cut out for me, at this time finding time for rehearsal is key, and my time is absorbed with One-Acts. Next week I'm planning on having rehearsal everyday and I think we will have a rough final performance put together.

In Class: Goal: Finish letter/worksheet
I didn't get to finish the worksheet but I finished the letter to Andre Dubus. I got about halfway through the work sheet and decided to turn it in late.

Out of Class: Goal: Finish worksheet
I worked for about 45 mins outside of class working on the worksheet. I also spent about a half hour making a transition from one dance to another on saturday.

In Class: Goal: Finish worksheet/letter.
I worked on my work sheet and calendar that's due for Friday and worked a little on my letter to Andre Dubus. I didn't get to finish my work sheet or letter and I wont have time tonight to write the letter or do the work sheet because I'm going to a concert....which seems like the worst excuse.

Out of Class: Goal: Nothing
I actually went straight from school to get ready to the concert and went to the concert and had no time to do any work on this project.

In Class:
Tuesday was May 1st, college decision day. I spent all of my in class time having a very important college meeting about where I will attend next year, the decision has been made and I will be attending University of Redlands next year.

Out of Class: Goals: HAVE ANOTHER REHEARSAL!!!
So I had a much needed second (technically) rehearsal with my group. I had about an hour and a half reviewing other dances and teaching them a new one. I taught them a really cool new phrase that is danced while the dancer makes sounds. So for instance if there was a bounce the dancer would make a clicking noise with their mouth. It's kind of hard to explain, but basically the music comes from the dancer. I'm trying to figure out whether or not I want that phrase to be a part of a poetry reading or have it stand all alone, but I think for the sake of saving time I'll add it to a poem. I had a problem today, it kind of set me back a bit. I forgot one of the dances I was going to teach them. I remembered the ending but I don't remember how it got to those last few steps. I think what I'm going to do is add those last few steps to a similar dance. Not going to lie, I'm kind of scared that I'm not having enough rehearsals, so next week I told the dancers that I would have anywhere from 2-3 rehearsals, and then the weeks after that a rehearsal during every M/X or G Block and also after school.

In Class: Goals: Figure out definitive rehearsal time for this week/ learn some formal ballet lingo.
I found this, it's a video that shows a combinations of ballet moves and shows the ballerina in slow motion performing each move, while the ballerina performs each move there is text on the screen that tells you what move she is executing. I think I want to include a phrase in the show that is kind of inspired off of that combo of moves. I have two rehearsals scheduled for this week, but I haven't had any feedback on whether or not people can make those.

Out of Class: Goals: work on choreography
So I spent about an hour in the black box, I was trying to take some of the moves from the video and create my own dance, I kind of got a little something, but it wasn't much of anything. One of my friends ended up interrupting me while I was choreographing and started playing "Pursuit of Happiness" by Kid Cudi and she asked me to choreograph something to it, so after about 20 minutes I finally had about a 45 second dance to the song which I ended up REALLY liking, I think I'm going to try to incorporate it into my show.

(I'm doing a double log for both days that we had presentations in class)

In Class: Goals: Nothing
In class for the past few days we have been presenting what we have done so far with our project.

Out of Class: Goals: Remember/Practice dancing
I ended up reading a little more in that book that I found and practiced some warm-ups out of the book. I learned how to do a pas de bourree and worked on my developpe. I also spent about an hour watching videos on ballet technique and watching how dancers perform some of these moves. I'm currently working on trying to do a petit allegro so that I can incorporate that into my choreography, however it's proving to be pretty tricky.

In Class: Goals: Read a little about dance technique.
Reality: I actually found a really awesome book about technique! Its filled with ballet exercises and other dance shenanigans. I spent about 30 minutes reading this book and trying out some of the exercises out of class. It was pretty helpful and I kind of want to go out and buy it now, but it took some of the warm-ups we already do in V1 but brought them a little further, it put a little extra challenge into something I already know.

Out of class: Work on presentation
I spent about three to four hours on tuesday and weds fine tuning some choreography and teaching it to other people. I put together a little video showing a little bit of choreography that I taught two dancers.
DANCEEEE

In Class: Goal: Further analyze poetry.
I spent about 20 minutes reviewing poetry and then spent about another 20 taking notes of things that I want or don't to do with the performance, sort of like brainstorming ideas for costumes (I know, it's a little early) thinking about how I want poetry read, and thinking a little about movement. Small problem however, since there is a dance class during B block I'm running out of things to do during class, right now my main concern is choreography, which I need a hell of a lot more of.

Out of Class: Goal: CHOREOGRAPH!
I spent about 30 minutes reviewing choreography and trying new things, I'm having a lot of trouble with one song that I'm trying to choreograph that has a really fast tempo. It's so frustrating because every time I choreograph something the movement is too complicated for such a fast tempo. I decided I would go out and find someone to help me choreograph, which is what I will be doing wednesday evening.

In Class:
Goals: I hoped to break down poetry and analyze it to make choreography a little more meaningful.
I spent about five minutes figuring out if the black box was being used during my english block only to find that it is being used. Then I spent the rest of the block analyzing poetry and figuring out whether or not I will need another dancer, which I think I do.

Out of Class:
Goals: Find a new dancer, create more material.
I recruited my (hopefully) last dancer and I spent about 30 minutes choreographing this weekend.

In Class:
Goals: I hoped to have get a rough idea of how the performance would look, the playlist and what would come when.
I spent a few minutes e-mailing my cast to tell them the rehearsal schedule for next week, most of them got back to me within the day, and it seems that we will only be rehearsing once. After that I spent about 30 minutes listening to two or three songs and picking my final choice for songs (it will probably change, I don't doubt it) and then creating a finalized play list. I then made a set list and put songs and read poetry in order and created a rough opening and ending in my head. I also kicked out on piece of poetry from my performance "Black Girl White Girl" will no longer be in my performance.

Outside of Class:
Goals: I hoped to have had finished choreographing one of the songs.
I spent a little over an hour working on choreography, I keep on cutting things and I never did get to finish that song, my creativity went in a different direction and I choreographed about 6 stanzas of the poem "999 Smiles". I have about 3-ish minutes of choreography so far, and I want there to be at least 15 by the performance day. However, everyone knows, a dance performance is never finished until one minute before you are on the stage.

Log #6

Yesterday in class I organized the meeting that I had. I took notes and thought about major points to bring up/ also meeting times for our group. I'm staying pretty tight with my schedule, in fact I could even say that I am ahead of schedule. After meeting with the dancers my one worry is that we wont have enough time to rehearse. I told the group that we would meet once or twice before midterms and then after that we would meet regularly Monday, Wednesdays after school and during some M/X blocks, Sundays, and Friday afternoons. Last night I spent almost all of study hall reworking movement, adding counts, and choreographing some more material to two songs that I will use, however in the upcoming weeks I will be choreographing movement that goes along with the poetry that I found.

Log #5

Blogger is being really annoying and giving me error codes and deleting my work, so lets try this again for the third time... Anyways, in class I spent my time reading poetry from an African poetry book that was given to me. I decided that I would use poetry from only this book because I like the subject matter in most of these poems (racism, genocide) and also I feel like having one book to find poetry from makes my job a little easier as finding poems. So far I have found three poems that I really like, mostly dealing with war and race, which I think would make for really interesting movement.

Outside of class I'm almost done with choreography for one song that I have picked out. This choreography process is going pretty slow, but I have a decent amount of material that I'm ready to teach my dancers.

Log #4

On friday during class I spent all of class finding poetry books and looking over poetry. One poetry book that I found particularly useful was one that was filled with African poetry. The poetry didn't only pertain to African natives but also to people of different cultures and backgrounds which I found particularly useful for this performance.

Outside of class I recruited one more dancer, the final (I think) of our dancers. I also went ahead and did a little more work with choreography.

Day #3

So, I spent most of class picking songs that I thought would work well with the performance, I noticed a trend that I'm tending to pick songs written by Amanda Palmer...I don't know if I like that or not, I'm kind of debating whether or not choreographing an entire show to one artist would be cliche. I spent a lot of that time trying to find more foreign music, songs that people our age haven't really heard, or even more ambient music. I found Je Ne Regrette Rien by Edith Piaf, I loved it and I thought it be an awesome song to choreograph to, but then I was quick to realize that that song is also know as the "Wake-Up" song from the movie Inception. In class I also sent out an email and scheduled a meeting for tuesday m/x. Outside of class I spent a lot of time in the Black Box working on technique and choreography. So far I have a few movements choreographed that I like, and have already cut one out because it didn't work with the piece.

Originally I had decided to go with asking the community for their secrets but upon further thought I realized that that may not be the best idea as far as creating a piece that satisfies myself. I really want this to be completely original and I think that you with the whole "post-secret" idea has been done too many times. I want something new, something better, and reading the online secrets, they don't satisfy me enough. So here I am still thinking about a medium, a point, but the catch is, that's too difficult to do through dance. It's not that it can't be done, but to choreograph something that tells a story without using words is a really difficult task.... I need to talk to Brian.

Tuesday 4/10

IN CLASS: I went out and got myself a directors journal in which I am sharing with my one-act. Its where I will be planning out my rehearsals and taking note of a plethora of things I come across while producing this project. I also went out to find my last of five dancers who said that she would do it. I HAVE MY CAST!!!! I started taking notes of what I want to do with my first meeting next monday, and I think I need some choreography.

OUT OF CLASS: I spent a long while in the black box today, listening to songs, attempting to dance to them and then deciding that they don't work with the vibe I want out of this performance. HOWEVER, I did find this song that I love and choreographed some movement. However, that song had me thinking, and I feel like I might stay with that artist for music for the performance, however I'm not entirely sure.

First Day

I spent most of in class figuring out my calendar and deciding the specifics of what I want to do. So what I have on my hands is a dance performance that combines Post Secret and modern dance. I know there's something more I want to do, I want to make it bigger than just a dance performance, but how? I guess that's something to discover during the process of making this. 

Outside of class I spent most of my time trying to recruit dancers, explaining what exactly I am doing and then telling them about time commitments and such. I got 4 dancers to agree to do it, and I'm going to find one more. Although I only want 3-4 dancers I know that at least one will drop out because of time and scheduling so I figured I would plan for that ahead of time.