Module H21/22 by ester south

first outline of who's being in which dances

2061296 — 2024-04-11 08:15:35 UTC

final sections and who’s choreographing them

2061296 — 2024-04-11 08:15:50 UTC

brainwaves is choreographed by everyone.

experimental session

2061296 — 2024-04-18 08:42:17 UTC

This is mine and Emily’s first attempt at choreographing for our section “the brain”. Before we even got into the space we sat and discussed thoughts and ideas on how we want our piece to look. Another thing that we needed to take into consideration was the fact that our stage and our assessment will be performed and filmed in the layout of the “triverse”. This basically means that our stage is set out as a cat walk style, we will have an audience directly either side of us with a long strip of space down the middle to dance in. When i envisioned this piece in my head for the first time i could see us starting out as a big clump in the middle of the stage, doing identical movements to show us working as one. I chose this because i thought it was a good way of representing the brain and how all areas of the brain work together similarly but in different ways.

After our discussion we chose some instrumental music at random to help us think of movements. We stood together and messed about experimenting with different movements. We agreed that simple movements will look most effective performed in a group at the same time therefore we tried to keep our choreography fairly and simple to start off the piece. However we highly noted that this was simply an experimental session, our final music or layout wasn’t set for our piece we simply wanted to let our choreography just flow with the music and see what we come up with.

By the end of this session we felt satisfied with the thoughts that we had shared regarding our section and had a more thorough understanding of where we was going to take this piece. For our next session we wanted to make a start on creating official movements for our piece snd choreograph to our final chosen music. We realised our aims were high to try and get so much done in one session, therefore i suggested that we both spent time at home to research into music options that would be suitable for our section.

2061296 — 2024-05-17 12:33:19 UTC

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qBTpPDoJ6lE&si=Y9O7Bmt0XaZ80yHi

the brain

2061296 — 2024-05-17 12:33:30 UTC

As a collective, myself and my class looked into various options on what to create our final Module H project about. We had ideas such as "Dance Through the Decades" and "Dance Around the World". However as we looked into it more and had more discussions we decided that we wanted to stray from the popular themes like the ones that had been listed, simply because we wanted to be different and have a more unique approach to our project. Destiny, my class mate, voiced her thoughts on the idea of "the brain". As we talked more about this idea we discovered that doing a theme based on the brain would allow us to get creative and venture out as there is so much to discuss based on the brain. Another positive about committing to this theme is that it's super unique and interesting.

the brain

2061296 — 2024-05-17 13:04:53 UTC

This section is about the importance of the brain and how it controls everything that we do. This beginning section is more of an introduction and setting us up to perform the rest of our project, it shows to the audience what all of the other sections link back to. Our entire H project is relating back to the brain and every section is something that the brain demonstrates regularly in every single one of us. This section links to our theme because it will show us working as a unit, which the brain does. Despite having its own parts and importance, collectively all areas of the brain work together to make decisions and withhold information that we as humans don’t even realise. This section is important to include but it shows the audience a small introduction to a much bigger picture and theme which will come throughout the duration of our performance.

memories

2061296 — 2024-05-17 13:05:51 UTC

This section is about the area of the brain which stores years and years worth of memories. Every day that passes becomes a memory in our brain which remains there always, dependant on the memory it may fade through time or it may stick with us until our last day. The section “memories” links to our theme as it is such a huge part of the brain, when first researching into different parts of the brain one of the first that we thought of as a collective was all the memories that we have individually and collectively. This section is extremely important to include as although the brain is an incredible organ and holds so much information and memories that we cherish, some memories we wish to forget and it can easily become a situation of hatred at how vivid our memory can be.

senses

2061296 — 2024-05-17 13:07:18 UTC

This section was originally supposed to showcase all five senses that we have including: sight, touch, sound, taste and smell. However through discussions as a group we discovered that it may be difficult to showcase all 5 distinctively in one section. Therefore we decided to follow with just the one sense being vision. This section is important to our theme of the brain as everything we see in life is reflected and registered to our brain, whether that’s reading a book and the brain obtains the information and logs it in our mind or whether it’s seeing an urgent situation and deciding whether to become apart of it or keeping at bay. The idea of vision is important to include as quite often we don’t think of our sight and how it links to the brain when we think of it’s importance as a whole. Therefore we wanted to include it as a section in our piece to show its significance.

perception of pain

2061296 — 2024-05-17 13:08:52 UTC

This section is about how the brain identifies different types of pain. There’s a massive variety of pain, a broken bone, a headache and a broken heart are all painful but in a different sense and how the brain responds to those pains are all different. The idea of “perception of pain” was discovered a little deeper into our research behind our theme as it’s a little less obvious. However the more we talked about it the more we understood and realised it’s importance. We thought that this section was important to include as we don’t think the audience will have considered this section as significant to the brain, the same way that us as choreographers didn’t until we looked more into it, therefore we wanted them to embark on the similar process that we did.

emotions

2061296 — 2024-05-17 13:10:32 UTC

This section is about all the emotions that the brain registers and how they are portrayed. For example, when we’re sad we’ll cry, when we’re happy we’ll smile and the list goes on. Dependant on what emotion we’re feeling, for the majority our brain will react with a physical response. This links to our theme of the brain because once again it shows how much the brain can obtain, along with all other areas that the brain covers it also withholds a bunch of different emotions and reactions to go with it. This is important to include in our project because everybody experiences emotions every single day, and it’s important that we demonstrate to our audience how the brain expresses those emotions and versatile those emotions are and how quickly they can change.

thoughts

2061296 — 2024-05-17 13:11:36 UTC

This section is about the millions of things that go through our head a day. That small voice in our head that has a hundred things to say about everything is just our brain processing and forming an opinion on every situation. For example, when trying a new food for the first time our brain will register every stage of it, from the texture to the taste and to make a final decision on wether we like it or not in a matter of milliseconds. This links to our theme because we are all aware of that voice in our head we just don’t ever think about the fact that it’s just our brain forming opinions about things or people, sometimes we dwell on our thoughts for hours maybe even days and other times our thoughts will come and go in seconds.

fight or flight

2061296 — 2024-05-17 13:12:09 UTC

This section is about our immediate reaction to serious situations and wether our response is to run or fight. A simple example of this would be an mugging in the street, in that situation of fear and shock would your brain react by bolting out of the situation and running for safety or to stand your ground and fight back? This links to our theme because in these moments we don’t have the time to think and weigh out the pros and cons on what response would give us the best outcome, our brain makes the decision for us and will immediately commit to one option or the other with no second guesses. This is important to include because this reaction from the brain has been about since the beginning of the human race, before we could even speak a fluent language as basic as English. It was the brains first ever reaction to a serious situation and how to deal with it effective depending on what the problem was.

brainwaves

2061296 — 2024-05-17 13:15:21 UTC

This section is about brainwaves, and the electrical voltages that flow around our brain measuring at just a few millionths of a volt. Brainwaves are broken down into 5 sections: Gamma (problem solving/concentration), Beta (busy/active mind), Alpha (reflective/restful), Theta (drowsiness) and Delta (sleep/dreaming). This links to our theme as it shows the five different stages that the brain goes through whilst also controlling everything else as well. This is important as we are using this section as an outro to our project, a way to conclude all of the hugely important sections of the brain and tie it all back together in one section as simple as brainwaves.

final confirmation of who is in what section

2061296 — 2024-05-18 15:39:28 UTC

final order of sections

2061296 — 2024-05-18 15:41:45 UTC

2061296 — 2024-05-18 15:59:27 UTC

https://youtube.com/watch?v=v8ZBTn4eJ2A&si=R_VzYtfX9itbXi_H

final costumes

2061296 — 2024-05-18 16:05:34 UTC

music for my section

2061296 — 2024-05-19 08:37:28 UTC

After mine and Emily’s first session experimenting with ideas for our piece and potential choreography choices, we decided to both go home and research into music choices. When I first sat down to look for music, i already knew that i wanted to look at more instrumental options as I didn’t want the lyrics to overpower the movement, I want our piece to be consistently about the choreography.

I thought back to previous dances i have down during college and remember this one piece of music called “Sand” by Nathan Lanier. The music was completely instrumental so i thought that he might have more instrumental music similar. After some trial and errors i come across this track called “Resolve” which i was immediately hooked on from the beginning of the music. I thought that the music had a good range of tempos so that there could be a range of fast and slow movements. I also just thought it was an interesting piece of music to listen to. The long, soft outro at the end of the music would serve us well as we transitioned into the next section. I immediately took note of this song and was prepared to bring it into our next session and gather Emily’s opinion on it.

creating official choreography

2061296 — 2024-05-19 20:56:03 UTC

At the beginning of our second session myself and Emily sat down and kicked off the session with a small discussion. I showed her the music and asked for her opinion and she also thought that it was a good match for our theme. I also discussed my idea of starting our piece in two lines, one facing to the front and one facing to the back. I also thought that it would look interesting having both lines doing the same movement at the same time but in different facings.

As I begin to talk about choreography i will be using timings from the video for reference. The first portion of the video up until 0:26 seconds, was a mixture of both of our choreography. Every other move is my choreography, to start off the piece we decided to work together to give ourselves a strong start on the piece. However at 0.26 in the video, I take credit for this movement. In my head i could envision all of us shoulder to shoulder in our two lines, creating a ripple effect like waves during the change of the music. I thought that this was a good idea as it shows us working together and working alongside our theme too.

From 0:39-0:47 is completely my choreography. When creating choreography, i always tend to use the beats in the music to help me think of movement. I realised this when i was creating my own solo for my G18 assignment. I thought that it was time that we changed our levels and move onto the ground to do some floor work. I don’t want our whole section to be at one level after the beginning i wanted to make sure we went back down to the ground to add more visual dynamics to our piece.

At 0:58 until the end of the video, you can me doing a box type step before shooting out of it to standing normally. This was an idea i had as a way for us to change formations and switch lines. However this idea only came to me during the end of our session therefore there is only a rough snippet of it at the end.

final assessment video

2061296 — 2024-05-21 08:19:44 UTC

finishing off our section

2061296 — 2024-05-21 08:33:57 UTC

Once the choreography was taught to the group myself and Emily worked with Jamie and Renee to finish the ending of our section. They both volunteered to help as they had finished their section had nothing else to work on. Renee gave a helpful idea of repeating the beginning movements to end the piece to show the brain doing a full cycle from area to area. Me and Emily both loved this idea and worked together to make sure this movement fit the music.

At 1:05 you can see everyone leave the stage apart from us four and we did a rough idea of how we want the ending to look. At 1:04 you can see me moving into a new position on stage. I decided on creating a tunnel sort of formation with Jamie and Renee on either end of the entrance and once this movement was complete we would walk for a count of 8 into a clump to finish. I thought that performing in a clump with the same movement from the beginning would look really interesting and dynamic. I was happy with the formations I had planned moving forward into the finishing area, however i just needed to make sure it looked good on not just four people but on all 14.

meeting 4

2061296 — 2024-05-21 10:05:02 UTC

You can hear me discussing my points during the meeting from 0:15-0:32.
By this point at our final meeting, everyone has learnt most of the section however I make sure to assure everyone that our piece is complete therefore they will know that they will be taught the ending soon. I also mention how the formations within the piece and transition into the next section is all complete and polished. I made sure to mention this so that my group will know that when they come into our next session to clean they know that all formations and movements are ready to be taught and will definitely work. The final point that I make is that our music for our section is cut, prepped and converted into an MP3 ready to be added into our H project edited music.

meeting 3

2061296 — 2024-05-21 10:06:24 UTC

You can hear me discussing our progress from 0:35-1:00.
In this meeting I inform everybody that we have chosen our final piece of music for our section that we have created 1:20 worth of choreography in just one session. I thought that this was important to tell the group so that they are aware that we are making speedy process and that they will be taught choreography soon. I also inform everyone that we would both like everybody to be in this section being as it’s the start of our project and we would like to showcase and include everybody, but also that we feel as though this dance will look better performed as a large group.

2061296 — 2024-05-21 10:09:36 UTC

This session, myself and Emily taught all the choreography to our class. This was extremely helpful to see our choreography on our peers as it put things into a clearer perspective of how our section will look once on stage. Everybody worked hard and listened carefully to instructions and was able to pick up the movement fast.

During this session we also decided to do a full run through of our H project from start to finish. It was bound to be rocky as not all sections were finished or clean, however it was beneficial for us to atleast attempt to have a rough run through to see how it’s looking. Personally, at this point in the process i was very happy with how it was looking. Apart from the ending not being complete yet, i knew that there was not much more to fill in and that it would be sorted by our next session. Speaking more on my peers performance during our first run through i was really pleased with how it was looking to say they had only learnt it an hour beforehand if that. Moving forward i would just like them to go over the material and ask any questions to me or Emily that they may have about the choreography and just become overall more confident in what they’re performing because it’s looking really good so far.

meetings 1&2

2061296 — 2024-05-21 15:51:54 UTC

Unfortunately the recordings for our first two meetings have been lost, however for each meeting that we did we all wrote down important notes and details that we wanted to voice therefore i will include them here.

For our first meeting, we all discussed our theme in depth and spoke in pairs about each section. Myself and Emily spoke out about our initial thoughts and ideas for our section, and that we would like our piece to start our project as we feel as though it would make the most sense to have our section as an introduction to the rest of the project.

By our second meeting myself and Emily had endured in our experimental session. We proceeded to speak openly about it and explained that it’s given us some more inspiration towards our piece and that we now feel more confident to start choreographing alongside our theme.

2061296 — 2024-05-21 15:53:24 UTC

During this session we cleaned all dances and answered all questions regarding everyone’s pieces. Emily and I started off our session by recapping what we had done last week, before then moving onto to teaching the last bit of the ending. Everybody caught on quickly as it was repeated movements from the beginning so it wasn’t a thing too difficult to grasp. After receiving feedback from our teacher Ellen, who was supervising our session in the studio today, she informed me that me and Emily should go over the timing and counts. This was useful as for quite a lot of our section I can’t see what timing the other line are doing due to our different facings, so now knowing that we was out of time with each other it gave us the opportunity to work on that whilst cleaning. We decided to clean by working through our piece section by section, and clarifying the movement and the timing at the same time. Once everyone felt comfortable with that small chunk we would perform it to the music and see how we got on. If all was well then we would move forward and do another chunk and then perform it again, this was effective because the more times that we did it the more practice everyone got.

After we cleaned H we then moved on and created the brainwaves section by working in duets. I was paired with Kaianne and we used a mixture of movements to create a duet. During the video at 0:40 you can see myself and Kai enter the space and begin our duet. Between 0:42-0:49 is completely my choreography, I actually took this movement from my G18 solo as I thought it added some different levels and was a nice use of jumps. Besides this section, the rest of the choreography was made by Kai as we had used quite a large portion of our duet time using my choreography so it was important that Kaianne was also able to use creative input.

a clearer visual of mine and kai’s duet

2061296 — 2024-05-21 17:36:48 UTC

conclusion

2061296 — 2024-05-21 18:19:59 UTC

Now looking back and watching our assessment video back, overall I’m extremely happy with how mine and Emily’s section came out. For the majority it looks super strong and in time. Majority of our formations looked good and switched up the vibe of the piece and kept it moving and visually interesting. Unfortunately down to certain individuals, some of the formations didn’t succeed as well at times. For example the stagger after the ripple and the four lines as well. Whether this was down to nerves or not remembering the formation I’m not sure, but luckily it was only a few people so for the most part it looked really nice. I feel similarly to the choreography, at times it’s clear people aren’t sure on what the next move is but mostly everyone knows what they’re doing. The most important thing for our section was to just work together and use our peripheral vision when needed. Another thing that I wanted to comment on was the lighting, I really do believe that it completely ties together our piece and makes it look much higher quality. The final thing that I want to comment on regarding my section is the transition from “the brain” into “memories”, from watching at an outside view it looks so really feel as though it’s perfect. Even down to Jamie taking Holly’s white shirt off stage in preparation for her to do her duet in the next section it all just ran so smoothly. Myself and Emily are so pleased and proud with our section.