Process, research log and evaluation of my performances by Callum G https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log Practitioners include Owen Piscator, Sonya Tayeh and Merce Cunningham en-us 2018-11-19 12:18:08 UTC 2025-11-03 13:28:47 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Diskette.png Step One - Deciding what to do callum_g98 https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/305876362 Deciding what I wanted to perform was a rather easy and quick process. I knew I wanted to explore more dancing from the very start so I had my mind set on dance from the beginning. The choices given were two 5 minuet pieces or one large, group 45 minuet piece. Dancing for 45 minuets would be incredibly hard so these factors contributed heavily to the decision. Another factor that contributed to the final decision was complete creative control. Not having other people working with you meant that I was in control of everything, I could choose to do and include whatever I wanted which was a bonus. Having other people can be a good thing however, other people can be good as they can help you stay motivated. 

]]> 2018-11-19 12:24:38 UTC https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/305876362 Step two - Choosing a practitioner callum_g98 https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/311005621 When looking at dance practitioners I found myself looking at the same handful of dancers and choreographers that I have previously explored. Dancers that have their own recognisable style such as Martha graham, Sonya tayeh, Alvin Ailey and a few others. So I then found myself struggling to choose something that I had not done before. Eventually I decided to choose Sonya tayeh and research her work more for inspiration but I did not start anything practical at all by this point. Still not satisfied with the practitioner I had chosen I attended a lecture in which my tutor made me aware of two new names that I were not familiar with at all. These names were Erwin Piscator and Merce Cunningham, one was a theatrical pioneer, Erwin was the first to successfully introduce lighting and special projections to a theatre performance and merce cunningham was a well known dance practitioner with a unique style and approach to dance. So I decided I would use both of these to create my pieces, using Erwin Piscator as my main practitioner. From this I came up with something I wanted to do and something that I had not looked into before. I decided between my two five minute pieces that I wanted to show how special lighting and projections influenced by Erwin Piscator could improve and enhance a on stage performance. The way I chose to do this was to have one piece that used lighting and projections an excessive amount and one piece to be as minimal as possible so it just involves one simple light literally just for the purpose of seeing what it happening on stage. I was also inspired by merce Cunningham the dance practitioner, and ivolved his influence in both of my choreography. ]]> 2018-12-04 16:55:50 UTC https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/311005621 Step three - Erwin Piscator callum_g98 https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315022337 The next part of creating my pieces was to research my chosen practitioners. Erwin Piscator was a German theatrical practitioner who was recognised as a multimedia pioneer in the world of theatre. He may not have been the very first person to ever involve projected images or projected videos in performance but was a pioneer for the idea and was one of the first people to do so successfully. Erwin made use of machinery, newsreels, photos, film clips and audio recordings to enhance on stage performances. Erwin Piscator would use films, projected on to the background as scenery, images of places and people from different historical periods and different subjects all to better the audiences understanding of the on stage circumstances. Still images and films projected to the background were devices Erwin Piscator almost always employed in his work. Erwin has even collaborated with well known fellow German theatrical practitioner Bertolt Brecht in two 1920’s Berlin productions, ‘Rasputin(1926)’ and ‘The good soldier shweik (1928)’, in these he uses many different forms of media to benefit the pieces. ]]> 2018-12-16 22:41:08 UTC https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315022337 Part four - Merce Cunningham callum_g98 https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315023227 Merce Cunningham was a very well known dance practitioner who had a very different approach to dance and movement than other dance practitioners. Merce Cunningham believed that not every dance piece had to tell a story through the movement involved. Instead he liked to choreograph dances just for the sake of it, just because they were visually appealing, there was no need for a stimulus. These dances however were usually very technical and required a seasoned dancer with much training. Merce Cunningham was an innovater he developed many different techniques for example, he required his dancers to participate in a short meditation for a few minutes before performing, this was because he believed it would help them get in the right mind set to focus on the performance. Merce Cunningham actually created 180 repertory dance pieces! ]]> 2018-12-16 22:52:42 UTC https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315023227 Part five - ride callum_g98 https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315023685 After deciding the two practitioners I wanted to focus on, it came to start work to create the first piece. The song I chose lead to a strange conflict but I decided to use it anyway due to the song itself. I chose ‘Ride - Land del rey’, this song is very relatable to me as I feel it speaks about going through a hardship and just getting through it “Riding” with it. The conflict it created was I related to the song so much and wanted to use it to tell a story but decided on a method by Merce  Cunningham and didn’t have a stimulus to work from. With that u began looking at choreography from Merce for inspiration and decided to put my own twist with some modern moves for example I included a split and a rock and roll hand sign simply ton fit with the music as I had stimulus I wanted the music to speak for itself. Over a few weeks of rehearsal I developed the dance adding some common contemporary movements such as twirls, spins and floor work trying to fit with the music alone and not tell a separate story. After I had finished the choreography it was time to choose the tech I wanted to employ. This was the whole point, to show how tech can have an impact so I wanted to include as much as possible. First I created a video to project after the dance which would be played whilst a recorded speech would also be playing. The video was a simple video that showed clips of my fellow performer and I and different memories we had, this would be played over a speech by Lana del Rey after her song 'Ride'. The speech talks about finding your family and wanting nothing more than to make your lives into works of art with each other which is how I feel. Playing a recorded audio and projecting videos are both devices that Erwin Piscator used in his work. Additionally I employed the use of lighting technology to enhance the piece even further and to try and overwhelm the audience with technology as much as possible to help me show the difference between the two pieces. I chose specific parts in the song that I wanted to be enhanced through lighting, I used strobe lights, changed the colour of the sike, used the normal stage lighting and had the crystal ball rotated two different colours at different parts, as well as my video projections and speech. ]]> 2018-12-16 22:59:18 UTC https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315023685 Part six - Ocean Eyes callum_g98 https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315028719 After completing the first five minuet piece and continuously rehearsing it I moved on to the second. The second piece was the minimal one in which I wanted barley anything other than me dancing on stage, this was to further outline the whole point. At first I decided on another contemporary routine and began the same as before and started choreographing a dance with no stimulus. After a couple of weeks I came across a music video that inspired a new style of dance, the choreography within the video 'Lover' by Sonia Stein. The moves in the dance were very hand focused and reminded me of a soft Vogue contemporary style which I liked. A man named 'Phoenix Chase-Meares' choreographed to the song in this style so I decided to do my own version as I liked it that much. This meant that I had to start over from scratch but it was not that detrimental as all I needed was the choreography itself and the music for the minimal piece. The song I chose to dance to was a song named 'Ocean eyes' by a young artist name Billie Eilish. This song was similar to the one Phoenix choreographed to in the sense that it was song and emotional and allowed swift movements that fit rather well. I also like this style for the reason that it made the piece look much more minimal as there were no jumps, leaps, spins, or any fast past travelling. It consisted mostly of hand movements similarly to a Vogue piece but it was not meant to be fierce like Vogue is, it also had absolutely nothing to do with fashion. After I had fully choreographed the song I ran into another issue, the whole point of the second piece was to be as minimal as possible and use as little technology as possible this means I could not fill the remaining time with a video or lighting effects like I had the first piece and by this point it was too late to start over. I can to the conclusion that I was just going to have to fill the remainder of the time talking about what I had done and the whole point of my pieces which I did not like but I needed to try and fill that time. ]]> 2018-12-17 00:11:07 UTC https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315028719 Part seven, My self- evaluation of both pieces callum_g98 https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315034111 My first piece overall went quite well, the peace lasted just over 5 minuets and I performed it for the most part as I intended with just a few mistakes. The video and all the technology worked well, my timing was where it should have been and the track flowed in and out as intended. When I was performing I did however miss out one move, it was a jump as the song reached its climax, I unfortunately just did not jump but instead I ran to the same place and carried on. At some parts of my performance there were supposed to be quick backdrop changes of colour which simply didn't happen and the crystal ball was late at one of the points it was supposed to be on. If I were to perform this again I would ensure that I make that leap through more rehearsals but in front of people as I believe that was the issue, I would also require more tech runs just for the first piece so the lighting and the video would come in at the correct times as I only had one. 
The second piece However did not go according to plan, the minimal lights and movement looked how I intended it to look but I unfortunately went wrong in the choreography. The second piece started off fine but I got the moves muddled up due to their similarity I believe and ended up improvising half of the dance. After this happened it affected the rest of the performance as I was very disappointed and frustrated that when it came to speak about my practitioner and explain what I had intended to show I was lost for words and only spoke for around 30 seconds and did not manage to get what I had intended across, this meant that my second piece fell short of 5 minuets. All things considered I think the improvisation was not too bad and I held it through to the end and the performance was so much more minimal than the first so that way how I wanted. I think the improvisation really ruined it for me at least and let the second performance down. If I were to perform the pieces again I would rehears more or perhaps become more familiar with that dance style as I ultimately ended up confusing myself and the piece went downhill from there. To conclude I believe that my first piece was alright, it did what I wanted it to do and it made sense as neither me or the technology went terribly wrong. My second piece however is a different matter while it still showed what I wanted it too, it was did not go as I intended as a matter of fact it was rather far from that. ]]> 2018-12-17 01:16:35 UTC https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315034111 Reference List callum_g98 https://padlet.com/callum_g98/Process_and_research_log/wish/315041953  
Cash J . 2018. Thedramateachercom. [Online]. [10 December 2018]. Available from: https://thedramateacher.com/erwin-piscator-multimedia-pioneer-for-the-theatre/

Cunningham M. 2018. Mercecunninghamorg. [Online]. [12 December 2018]. Available from: https://www.mercecunningham.org/


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