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.