week one-bhangra

This week was completely different, we are focussing on a new style dance, that was a shock to us all at first but is great fun now we are getting used to it! We started by watching two videos that use the dance style bhangra, and whilst watching these, I noticed it is fulll of energy and fun! The music also has a strong beat to it, and was repeated throughout. Both peices of music where both so different but yet so simular, and they where very catchy. The dances where different to eachother, but used a lot of repetition, and both performed in large groups in unison.

It was all a big shock to us, and before we started everyone was worried about it, and that we where going to look weird doing the style as noone was used to it. Bhangra dance style was very different to how I thought, and we where all so excited to try it and start the topic.

Our first practical lesson was a double, and we learnt basic movements associated with bhangra. We split into groups, and started to get a taste of the style, and created are own bhangra routines. At the start nobody had many ideas, well we did just were not confident enough to share them. But towards the end, everyone was shareing ideas, and it was great fun! some really good routines where made! The second lesson we strarted to add western style to our movements. The styles are very different, but mix well together. They both use dynamic sharp movements, with isolations so in this way they are simular. We where all in love with bhangra and couldnt wait for more lessons, and our dances turned out to be very good!

In the last practical lesson of the week we added in isolations to our dances as bhangra is big on this! We started with our hands, and then came up with a count of eight for this, aswell as our heads, ribs/chest. It was more complicated to pick up as it isnt something we are used to, but at the end the movements looked effective.
This week in costume construction we are again focussing on We Will Rock You, we have already done a lot of work on this, for example we researched it, including the history, cast and story behind it. This is so we are not behind when it comes to handing it in, and have longer to design our costumes. I am really enjoying all the work we are doing! In both practical and costume construction!

corsets

The history of corsets-In the 1830’s after using my research I have found the corset was thought of as a medical piece of clothing. I feel it was believed that a woman was very fragile and delicate and needed assistance from some form to stay up. Even girls as young as three or four where laced up into bodices, and wore corsets no matter what age. Gradually these garments were lengthened and tightened. By the time they were teenagers, the girls were unable to sit or stand for any length of time without wearing a canvas corset reinforced with whale bone or steel. The corset wasn’t healthy and for those who wore it, it deformed the internal organs making it impossible to draw deep breaths in or out whilst wearing a corset. Because of this Victorian women were always fainting and getting the vapors, so no matter what the outcome was ladies in mainly the 16^th-19^th century would have to wear the lovely elegant looking things that caused such problem.
This shows me that women were thought of as the weaker sex, therefore their minds and bodies were weak. So the corset was said to be morally and medically necessary. I have found from my research that corsets really set an impression on the person; a loose corset was probably a sign of a loose woman. So to keep your innocence a lady had to be chaperoned everywhere she went. She could not read or see any plays, even Shakespeare was though unsuitable for ladies. A woman needed to protect herself from inappropriate men, by wearing heavily reinforced layers of clothing and tight corsets and simple clothes is what they did to do this. This was because they didn’t need the freedom to do household chores, as those who wore corsets where those who where wealthy so could just pay servants to do this.
I feel that the history of corsets have changed over years, from being something beautiful and something people had to wear to now being looked at as a piece of underwear. Corsets have existed for centuries and can be traced back to Greek and Minoan times. However when the subject of corsets is mentioned many people immediately think of the tight lacing that is associated with the Victorian era, and the horror stories of practices that took place in that time in order for woman’s shapes to me molded to what was accepted and constantly held up straight.

4th january

This week in btec performing arts it was a very short week, as we only had three days at school. We only had costume construction lessons, and we where foccusing on preparing are work to hand in to be marked. I was all of the work we have done so far, so it made me nervous that I wasnt going to get it all done to good quality standards.

We finished most of our written work before we broke up for the christmas holidays so now all we had to do was place are work onto mood boards, and make them look presentable. We are using denim and tartan so we used these on our mood boards for decoration and detail. In the lessons we had been stuffing peices of felt into tartan fabric then tying the bottem bits, this was to show skills we had with materials etc. We also did many other techneques like sticking, joining, sewing etc.

Dance that means something!

Friday was finally the day all our hard work would be shown, performance night! We were all extremly nervous, and couldnt wait to get onto that stage and perform to our friends, teachers and family! We were not expecting as many people to turn up that did, which was great as it made us feel we had a proper audience that had come to watch us show our DV8 performances and many more. This was our first performance the btec performing arts group had done together which made us feel the nerves even more, as nobody knew what to expect!

Before the evening started we set the room up so it looked presentable, and put a programme on each chair. The programmes where made by Kelly and I which will also go to out final grade so we had to put a lot of effort into these aswell. Once the room etc was ready everyone was running through their dances and we started to get excited! Me, Kelly and Alice where given the task to perform a presentation Kelly had put together to explain what DV8 was so the audience had an idea. I was so nervous as my throat was killing me, and I had just recovered from the flu, so I was worried the audience wouldnt be able to hear what I was saying.

The audience started to come through, we had to welcome them and collect money for Btec and the CRY charity. We had mood boards up at the back of the room showing the Costume construction work we had done, and we explained to the audience about our work, and showed them a few of the costumes we had made. The performance started at 7 o'clock, the audience took there seats, and we got ourselves ready. We opened the show with a dance called 'Heartbeat' this was choreographed by Miss Dolan, and included everyone from the btec group! The evening was chilled and we didnt feel the pressure. I can not wait for another performance!

Here is the running order-
HeartbeatBallet/Contemporary duo
Boom boom shake shake
DV8 presentationTeardropRaindrop
Teardrop
Requiem of a tower,
Unfinished sympathy
All in your mindINTERVAL
Fourth one down
Last requestA level solo
Rock 'n' Roll
Hide and seekMajorettes
Ramalama
All the ones that have been highlighted I was in.It came to the end of the night, I was happy we had done it, but I wanted to do it again, as it was so much fun! I think we could have performed better, but we had fun, and tryed our best. I really enjoyed it and hope the audience to, I now cant wait for the next performance we do! I am so glad we managed to do something like this, it was such a good experience.