1.       Warm up

2.       Body conditioning and plie

3.       Plank and roll

4.       Stretching 

Second activity I had to learn the breakdown section of ‘Going to The Bad Side’ from Dream Girls.

Last activity I took part in was feedback tasks between the group (Lauryn, Naamah and Sam) I was dancing with.

Under each task that you have identified analyse why you carried out this activity.
First activity (warm ups): The warm ups consisted of speed walking left to right whilst stretching our arms in air, moving our arms and hands in and out and skipping around in a circle. we done this 4 times facing different directions. The warm ups that I done will help me develop my dance skills by if there is a particular dance move that involves me moving right to left fast, I will be able to do that with no struggle. It also, develops my dance skills by helping me to work on my accuracy of every dance move I perform.

Body conditioning: Body conditioning consisted of jumping up and down into a plank four times, then on the fifth plank we stay into a plank for 8 seconds and begin to  do mountain climbs; three counts slow then three counts  fast. We then do another set of mountain climbs but going across three counts slow then three counts fast. Pilé, consisted of doing ballet movements with our feets. 

Plank and roll: Plank and roll consisted of, Helen put everyone in a group of 4 in a line and traveling across the space doing a plank and roll repeatedly until everyone got to the end of the dance floor.

Stretching: Stretching required me to be flexible and make sure that my arms were always aligned with my back. Stretching, consisted of me having to breathe in whilst putting my arms in the air then breathe out whilst going down and my arms facing the window/wall. We then had to face down and stretch our legs being straight and then bending it, 3 times each time

Second activity: The second activity, required me to memorise the choreography that was taught to me which was the breakdown section of ‘Step in To the Bad Side’ from Dream Girls. For this particular activity Helen put everyone in a group and the people in my group are Lauryn, Naamah and Sam. In our group, we also had to do  a small activity of devising where we had to decide who goes left or who goes right as well as setting up our formation on who stands where and what sort of shape we will be in. This activity will help me enhance my dance skills by being able to memorise the choreography for next lessons, being able to work in a group and enhancing my dance skills by I will know how to organise where I position myself and others when dancing in a group. 

Last activity: (Feedback tasks)

The feedback tasks consisted of I and my group giving each other feedback on how we done and what we could improve on. My feedback given by Naamah was to; make sure each dance move I make was accurate and clear. This activity helps me with my dance skills by, I am able to accept any feedback that is given to me. Also, the next time I go over my dance I will be able to do it well. 

The term ‘duologue’ means, a scene which consists of two characters. 

My partner is Wesley and our play is called ‘The Royale’. My character is Nina and Wesley’s character is named Jay. Nina and Jay are sister and brother from Alabama, America. Jay is a boxer also known as ‘Jay Jackson’ and Nina is visiting him in his locker-room before his big fight.

I and Wesley read through the script three times and then we discussed what was going on, the relationship between our two characters, where it is set and how our characters are feeling in the scenes. 

Darren also gave us a sheet of paper where we had to write down The Given Circumstances of my duologue.

The skill that I used today was ‘Back Story’. I used this by imagining my characters past and inputting it the current situation she is in now. The reason for using this particular skill was because it benefits me from understanding my character more and being able to be in characterisation at all times.

Second skill I used today was ‘Clear Communication’. Clear communication was used between I and my partner Wesley whilst discussing what was going on in our scene. 

Body conditioning: Body conditioning consisted of jumping up and down into a plank four times, then on the fifth plank we stay into a plank for 8 seconds and begin to  do mountain climbs; three counts slow then three counts  fast. We then do another set of mountain climbs but going across three counts slow then three counts fast. Pilé, consisted of doing ballet movements with our feets. 

Plank and roll: Plank and roll consisted of, Helen put everyone in a group of 4 in a line and traveling across the space doing a plank and roll repeatedly until everyone got to the end of the dance floor.

Stretching: Stretching required me to be flexible and make sure that my arms were always aligned with my back. Stretching, consisted of me having to breathe in whilst putting my arms in the air then breathe out whilst going down and my arms facing the window/wall. We then had to face down and stretch our legs being straight and then bending it, 3 times each time. 

After doing all the warm ups we then went through the dance routine. Going through the dance routine is beneficial because it can show Helen where we are at with our memory in terms of what we know so far from the dance routine, it shows Helen which certain dance routine we are strong at and which certain dance routine we are not strong at. Another benefit of going through the dance routine is getting my body use to doing the dance routine as well as my body and memory will know what to do when going through each step of the dance routine. 

The last activity consisted of team-work, communication and good listening skills. This is because, when in a group of team I must be able to be a good team member. For example, participantjng with the fellow people in my group as well as listening to everyones ideas and inputs. Listening is key when working in a group because someone may have said a wonderful idea but no-one listened which is bad. This is when, communication comes in, being able to communicate your idea clearly to the people in my group as well as communicating the choreography clearly to the others that will watch.

Control: The ability to start and stop movement whilst travelling across the space as well as changing directions in the space. Also, to be able to hold a shape in a frozen position. 

Accuracy: The ability to work on your preciseness whilst performing.
 

Alignment: The ability to correct your body parts in relative to another body part. For example, your arms being aligned with your shoulder when doing a plank. 

First activity I participated in, Helen split everyone into groups of twos to go through the pliés and tondus. My partner was Chris and we went through the Pliés because we was not strong on doing pliés. 

Second activity we done the warm ups, consisting of warm up, body conditioning, pliés, tondus and stretching. 

The warm ups consisted of speed walking left to right whilst stretching our arms in air, moving our arms and hands in and out and skipping around in a circle. we done this 4 times facing different directions. The warm ups that I done will help me develop my dance skills by if there is a particular dance move that involves me moving right to left fast, I will be able to do that with no struggle. It also, develops my dance skills by helping me to work on my accuracy of every dance move I perform. 

Body conditioning: Body conditioning consisted of jumping up and down into a plank four times, then on the fifth plank we stay into a plank for 8 seconds and begin to  do mountain climbs; eight counts slow then eight counts  fast. We then do another set of mountain climbs but going across eight counts slow then eight counts fast. Helen changed the counts from 3 to 8 counts for when doing the moutain climbs. This is because to push everyone to work harder, to also strengthen our arms and our stomachs. 

 Pilé, consisted of doing ballet movements with our feets. pliés and tondus: This required us to put our hands on our waist and stretch our legs and feets forwards and sideways. We do pliés and tondus to strengthen our legs, to strengthen the accuracy of when pointing our feet as well to improve our alignment.
 Doing Tondus and pliés is important because the routine for Dream Girls requires a lot of feet pointing and our body parts having to be aligned with another body part. For example, there is a section where we have to glide across the dance floor, it requires the arms being aligned with the left leg and back. 

Stretching: Stretching required me to be flexible and make sure that my arms were always aligned with my back.
 Stretching, consisted of me having to breathe in whilst putting my arms in the air then breathe out whilst going down and my arms facing the window/wall. We then had to face down and stretch our legs being straight and then bending it, 3 times each time. 

Last activity was going through the whole of the dance routine. Helen also added in a new travelling dance routine part of Dream Girls which last for 12 beats. This new travelling routine consisted of everyone to use their listening skills and patience. This is because it took a while for everyone to get it straight forward.

What Went Well: I memorised and picked up the dance routine very quickly which is an important skill because if going for an audition and I do not remember my dance choreography it will look very bad and especially embarrassing to the judges on the panel. Another thing I done well was, I was able to make my dance moves as accurate as I could have as well as making clear on if i’m turning left or right. Last WWW is, I was able to not give up. For example, this is my first time doing a dance style from Dream Girls so if I did not understand a particular dance move, I kept on trying until I done it well as well as asking the teacher for help and the people around me.
Even Better If: To be more confident in what I am doing as well as to be confident in the dance that I perform in. For example, there is a section I go to the ground then come back straight up, I am not really confident on that part so I need to make sure I go over that part and practice it so that I feel confident.

Improvement Target:
1) To be confident within myself and within the dance routine I do.
2) If I struggle with a certain dance section, I must go over it and practice until I get it right.

Second activity we done the warm ups, consisting of warm up, body conditioning, pliés, tendu and stretching. 

The warm ups consisted of speed walking left to right whilst stretching our arms in air, moving our arms and hands in and out and skipping around in a circle. we done this 4 times facing different directions. The warm ups that I done will help me develop my dance skills by if there is a particular dance move that involves me moving right to left fast, I will be able to do that with no struggle. It also, develops my dance skills by helping me to work on my accuracy of every dance move I perform. 

Body conditioning: Body conditioning consisted of jumping up and down into a plank four times, then on the fifth plank we stay into a plank for 8 seconds and begin to  do mountain climbs; three counts slow then three counts  fast. We then do another set of mountain climbs but going across three counts slow then three counts fast.

 Pilé, consisted of doing ballet movements with our feets. pliés and tendu: 1st and 2nd position with our feets. This required us to put our hands on our waist and stretch our legs and feets forwards and sideways. We do pliés and tendu to strengthen our legs, to strengthen the accuracy of when pointing our feet as well to improve our alignment.
 Doing tendu and pliés is important because the routine for Dream Girls requires a lot of feet pointing and our body parts having to be aligned with another body part. For example, there is a section where we have to glide across the dance floor, it requires the arms being aligned with the left leg and back. 

Stretching: Stretching required me to be flexible and make sure that my arms were always aligned with my back. Stretching, consisted of me having to breathe in whilst putting my arms in the air then breathe out whilst going down and my arms facing the window/wall. We then had to face down and stretch our legs being straight and then bending it, 3 times each time.

The last activity consisted of going through the whole dance. Helen also, put everyone in a formation in a shape of V for the ending of the dance routine for Dream Girls. 

It is important to have a warm up before practical lessons because your energy levels up, you are less likely to feel tensed before rehearsing or performing. Also, it gives you more motivation to go straight into your character. For example, we have warm ups where Darren will say a number like 9 therefore when he says 9, everyone must run around in the space. Whereas, if he says 2 that means to walk very slow. Activities like that help a lot to go into your character because your character could be a person to walk very fast in a tense scene or in general.

The next activity consisted of everyone going into their duologues group and to work on their duologues as well as filming it. 

Unfortunately, my duologue parter Wesley; was not in. So instead, I did a character biography on my character as well as Wesleys character. I also took notes on what was happening, why certain scenes were happening and what caused the scenes to happen. 

Fourth activity: helen told us to all come together and go through the whole dance routine as a whole group. Helen then told to go back to our partners from the first activity and film each other do the first part of the dance. below this there will be a video of me where my partner had filmed me doing the beginning of the dance. 

2)   List the events in the scene: Listing the main events that are happening in the scene. For example, the main event that happens in one of my scenes is racial comments being said, which causes change in the atmosphere as well as changing the mood of the scene and the characters. 

3)   Improvise the scene, going from event to event as guard: Being of script. Improvising the events that are happening in the scenes. I and my duologue partner Wesley, attempted to improvise without script and found it to have went really well. This is because; we got the chance to understand our character even more in terms of why they say the things they’re saying and act more like them in terms of my character Nina, acts shady most of the times towards Jay as well as showing affection towards Jay. It also gave us the chance to interpret certain scenes differently so that we were able to make the scenes that were tough from making it easy to perform. 

4)   Go back to the script: After improvising, go back to the script and ready through it. Whilst going through the script again, think about if the improvisation you done for a particular scene makes sense to what are on the script. 

5)   Improvise again. Bring in same dialogue from the scene: After going through the script and deciding the improvisation you first done to what is on the script, continue to then improvising again and bring in same dialogue from the scene.