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Within this picture I'm showing a curve within my upper half of the body, Richard Alston uses this curve technique and also used detailed balletic footwork within his choreography.

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1) Akram Khan
2) Richard Alston
3) Matthew Bourne
4) Christopher Bruce
5) Bob Fosse
6) Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
7) Jazmin Vardimon
8) Jerome Roberts
9) Hoffesh Shechter

After researching the practitioners and deciding on which choreographer I was going to base my solo around including their techniques and choreography to create a style study solo. My first choice was Bob Fosse as I really enjoy choreographing and creating movement for "jazz dance theatre" but I then realised that I must challenge myself and go down a different route with a choreographer I know not much or enough about to ensure I have more learning and research information.

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Within our solo process, I have partnered up with 2 other students who have also chosen Richard Alston as their solo practitioner. I worked with Emma Mellin and Morgan Mclennan through out the process and this really helped and influenced choreography for my solo as we taught eachother material and Rep and were able to share ideas which were used by the Alston technique and style and were able to learn different pieces of Rep together and see how we all interpretated the movement with our own bodies. It was really helpful and informing as the movement looked different on each of our bodies but the Rep was the same as his previous pieces.

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Personally, I really enjoy learning different Rep by choreographers, as I am able to transfer the detail of the movements onto my body. I was able to clearly learn Rep From a few different Richard Alston pieces, such as: Strong language, Overdrive and Shimmer. These pieces are completely different with dynamics and speed but the techniques using the contemporary curved upper half and balletic detailed bottom half was shown in each pieces.

Morgan and I worked together on learning different Rep From each pieces and teaching them to eachother so that we could get the movement into our bodies and so that it was easier to embody and remember before transferring the Rep and adapting it into our own solos.

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11/09/17
In this lesson, we received our practitioners for this years A2 exam. The practitioners  I was suddenly drawn to were;

Akram Khan
Bob Fosse
Richard Alston

From learning about jazz and the different styles of jazz, I had a massive insight on Bob Fosse and his ways of choreographing and his technique. So I knew that I wanted to challenge myself and create something that I learn new things about and not something that I already know.

20/09/17
During this lesson we had a conversational class where we discussed as a group our thoughts and ideas about the practictoners. Craig asked us all personally who was our practitioner that we were least drawn to, a few members of the class addressed that Hoffesh Schecter was the least favourited one because of the style and technique he uses to choreograph. I explained that Jermone Robbins was my least favourite practicioner because I couldn't find any research or footage of his choreography so I didn't think choreographing a solo based on his style and technique would be the best thing to do as I couldn't do much research.

We had time to explore the practitioners and their type of movement on our bodies. We did this with every practicioner after researching each choreographer, for us all to see what movement felt good on our bodies and what practitioner we wanted to use for or final decision.

Feedback after creating movement and our solo developing overs the past couple of weeks-

* Richard Alston style study was showing very clearly throughout the Rep I had chosen and my choreography, so this is what I needed to continue whilst developing the solo every week.
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Reflection on the solo class 6th December 2017.

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Reflection on the solo class 6th December 2017.

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My feedback from teaching my solo to the class today was;
*that I clearly have a very clear understanding of the movement material and style that Richard Alston uses within his work.
* i explained and talked about the movement material very clearly to the class so that they could understand the detail of the movement.
* i performed the dynamics clearly within the movement.
* next time I need to concentrate more on the background of Richard Alston and his past dance career.

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From today's lesson we had an hour to prepare and have more studio time to create and develop more of our style study solo material. During this hour I looked at Rep From Richard Alston's piece "Shimmer" and I developed the movement to create my own but used Richard Alston's approach to create new movement for my solo.

The feedback I received from today's solo showing was;
- a dress would be a suitable costume for my solo as the movement is very flowing and a dress would move well within the choreography.
- show a difference between the movement with the different pieces we have taken Rep From. Show you have taken movement from the different pieces in your solo.
- grounded feeling is much better but ensure that I am grounded the whole time throughout the solo.

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For today's session, I will be showing a video clip of Richard Alston's piece "Overdrive". And I will be discussing the movement technique that Richard Alston uses within the movement. So for example, he uses curved lines and upper body and a balletic complex and detailed footwork. He also uses his musicality well.

I will firstly teach the beginning section of my Richard Alston solo. Making sure we are correct;

** grounded weight
** curved upper body
** detailed footwork
** good use of jumps
** turns

After the phrase i have thought, I want you to develop and Create another phrase using different devices such as;

** repetition
** accumulation

You must also ensure that you contain the Alston style and technique such as detailed footwork, curves and tilts in the body, jumps and turns.

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1) What techniques & styles have you used to choreograph your solo?

The main technique that I have used to create my solo is taking Rep From different pieces and then adapting the movement and specials to suit my body and my solo. I have also created some of my own movement but thinking of the Alston approach whilst creating and also his intention of movement, for example his approach and technique for choreography would be using a curved and contemporary upper body and a balletic bottom half using fancy and complex footwork.

2) What elements of the style are you exploring?

The main element of style I am exploring is Richard Alston's movement technique, I have used the Merce Cunningham technique within my choreography as that is what Alston trained in and his movement is based along the technique. His movement also contains lots of curves and tilts in the body, and also very detailed steps and footwork, harmonious lines and proportioned phrases. But Alston uses more weight breath and flow than either resulting in a lilting fluid quality enlivened by clear shapes and rhythms. Another element Alston always uses when choreographing is using his piece of music to create movement to. As he is a very muslical choreographer.

3) What is the dynamic range of your solo?

The dynamic range of my solo varies throughout. The dynamics of the movement are different in sections because I have taken Rep From different pieces, for example; "shimmer's" movement have a more sustained but sharp dynamic quality and "overdrive's " movement has Many different dynamics within the piece such as sustained, fast, sharp, smooth due to the music melody adapting throughout different sections.

4) Are you using your old methods when creating your solo?

Creating my solo, I have used similar methods to what I would usually use to create a solo as these methods work well for me as a choreographer. For example, my first similar method would be that I always use music to create a solo. I create movement to match up with my chosen piece of music to make sure my music is alongside my movement not jut playing over the top of my choreography. Although I have used a different method of creating a solo by using Rep as it is a style study solo, creating a solo based on a choreographer of our choice, but I wouldn't normally take Rep From a different piece to choreograph a solo.

5) What styles does your solo use?

The styles that my solo uses are contemporary and ballet. His technique insists of "a balletic bottom and a contemporary top". The contemporary top contains curved and toilets body and lines and the balletic bottom contains balletic detailed footwork.

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I have also looked into Richard Alston's piece "shimmer" and the balletic footwork really stood out to me in this piece, as the movement and dynamics are sustained and flowing to match the melody of the music.

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Shimmer Choreography: Richard Alston Music: Maurice Ravel - Une Barque sur l'Ocean.

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For my solo, Craig advised that my costume for my solo would be suited with a dress. As looking at his Dancer'a costume in his works you see that they are wear dresses or culotte trousers. I have recently ordered this dress, and I will be performing my solo wearing this dress in the next rehearsal to trial the costume and see how my movement works with the costumes

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Here is one of the pieces I have taken Rep from and have modified and adapted certain movements and specials for my solo. The movement in this piece really suited my body and facility that is the main reason why I chose to use the movement within my solo. For my solo, I have also decided to use the music from his piece "overdrive" as I really enjoyed the musics energy, because of the quick rhythm and repeated melody throughout.

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Richard Alston Dance Company - Overdrive

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Excerpt from Richard Alston's Overdrive, set to Terry Riley's Keyboard Study #1.