Cabaret

On Friday we did our cabaret performance which our performing arts group participated in doing a Bhangra story shown through dance! Our whole topic this term has been focussed on Bhangra so we put together all the new skills we had learnt and made a performance piece based around a certain theme of our choice which we chose forbidden love.

We have been rehearsing all week to make sure this would be polished and ready to perform. I think we worked really hard and my favourite topic in the unit was when we where making are performance with a story line, I found this reallt fun as we had a real go and feel of Bhangra dance, and the choreography needed etc. When we performed Miss Butt lent us some traditional Bhangra scarfs to dance in, I thought these where really pretty! We all did are makeup to suit the theme of Bhangra as well as are hair, with the help from Miss Butt who knows the culture of Bhangra dance, so she was a real help!

We had our own interpretation for are choreography which made both the groups unique! We opened the second hald so during the interval we had a practise to made sure everyone remembered what they where doing. As we got on stage I started to become nervous but I had so much fun with what I was doing, and found it such a fun style of dance to do and research. There was a massive applause and it was a great atmosphere. Miss Dolan videoed the performance so we could watch it back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGKy5O7cfRs&feature=player_embedded

I loved focussing on Bhangra and found the style so much fun to do! I definatley will remember all the skills I have learnt and use it in the future.

Hrithik Roshan - live performances at the 12th Rajiv Ghandhi 2009

I have watched Hrithik Roshans live performance at the 12th Rajiv Gandhi Awards. The music that opened the performance was true traditional Bhangra music, with traditional Bhangra moves and choreography. It started off with all men dancing with swords on the stage, I found it very interesting and enjoy watching the choreography in detail. Some female dancers came on stage to join the men wearing traditional Bhanrga costumes. The music didnt change genres through the whole performances it stayed traditional Bhangra the whole way through but as the performance went on the movements started to get more westernised like the movements we choreographed for our Bhangra performance. As it became more westernised the movements got stronger and sharper. There was a random part where clowns came onto the stage like they where in a circus, this was to follow the tradition of comedy as Bhanga performances always have an aspect of comedy.

I watched the choreography in detail, and saw like all Bhangra performances it was very energetic at all times, the steps they did where very quick too! But they again followed Bhangra tradition and danced in unison. Everyone followed Hrithik Roshans moves and gave the same feel across. The movements he did where very repetative but it looked good as everyone was doing it. Hrithik Roshan was very good at isolations these occured a lot throughout the performance. Even though isolations would be classed as more street dance, Hrithik Roshan still mixed it into Bhanrga to make the performance flow and more exciting to watch. Even though the movements they where doing had a westernised feel to them, they still stuck to beautiful traditional music and costumes, I thought having this mix made it very different and exciting to watch. The way they move is so beautiful, and I can see why people look up to Hrithik Roshan as he has such a talent!

Bhangra

This week has been great fun, we started looking into the idea of strorytelling through Bhangra dance. We learnt about how every bit of choreography tells a story, which is most often based around Forbidden love, chasing someone, betrayal and love. We have also found out that all Bhangra performances have a comedy section and a happy ending.

We got split into groups of around 6 with the above storys we could use. We started brainstorming ideas for choreography once we had chose what theme we wanted to use. My group used forbidden love, we then started to create a story that would go well with our theme. We are focussing on Romeo and Juliet, and have split the group into 3's gang one and gang two. Both gangs have different religions. Gang one have a street twist and shannon is romeo, and gang 2 have a more contemporary feel to there moves, and I am juliet. We have done the street and contemporary twist to are bhangra moves to show the different religions. Romeo and Juliet fall in love, but realise they cant be together because of there religions, then there is a battle scene after this they realise they can be together following the traditional happy ending.

Once we split the group and had a theme, we started to create some motifs, after 4 lessons, we have now created are story and planned out how we are going to tell it through dance. We are more than half way through our choreography. The first dance is gang 1 then it goes into gang 2, after they have done there dances everyone joins together romeo and juliet at the front with the gang members around gang 1 do there dance at the same time as gang 2 are doing theres, showing a difference that gang 1 are more sharp and funky whereas gang 2's movements flow more. Romeo and Juliet then fall in love, and they have a duo dance, they then realise they cant be together and the battle scene begins! After the battle scene they realise they can be together and celebrate!

We still have to mix are music, but we have planned out where we need to cut the songs etc. We have chosen the songs Bombay, Nachdi De, Jai ho, Buttons and Romantic Jatt all bhangra based and some more traditional than others. Are dance so far looks great, we just need to finish off our choreography mix the music, and then add facial expressions!

On our last lesson of the week we all watched the latest Bollywood movie 'dabangg' we were watching this to analyse the dance sections and understand how they add story to there choreogaphy to help us with ours! In this film the dance was used to add comedy and show a relationship. They looked like they where having such great fun! We noticed that is rare you see one person dancing along, there are always large groups of people dancing always in unison. Watching this film has helped me have a clearer understanding of story telling through dance, and I really enjoyed myself and can not wait for next week!

Splat presents..

Another Bit o'splatter..
On the 26th February I went to sarrat to watch something I used to do from when I was a little girl until last year usually it is a panto but this year it was just different performances, like singing, monolouges, dances, sketches etc. It was very weird to not be involved in the show, and to be sitting in the audience to see people I have grown up with perform!

It was a good night and I found it very fun to watch! Maybe next year I will get back involved in the perfomance!

Roald Dahls twisted tales..

On February 21st my dance school went into London to see Roald Dahls twisted tales. Me and Kelly arrived at our dance school where we all met and got on the coach at around 5:30, we do a theatre trip every year! Once we had got into London, and arrived at the theatre we got some chrisps and chocolates and then went into the room, Kelly and I sat next to eachother. No one knew really what to expect of the show but all in all it was very good!

It was about all Roald Dahls tales put together, the set for the show was very simple but very effective. One of the tales that was included in the performance we had read in English. When the performance was over we got on the coach home. I enjoyed myself, but wouldnt really recommend the show, but it is very different and not like every show you see in the theatre. There was no dancing or singing it was all acting, I was dissapointed by this as I love watching all three but it is what suited the performance.

The costumes where just simple costumes, as it had no exciting storys so the costumes used where suitable. The actors involved where no famous actors or actress' but they where very strong, and loud and clear! It wasnt a professional piece of theatre, but I personally feel they did very well!

Evening of Singing and Drama..

On February 18th I performed in an evening of Singing and drama, this was with my dance school outside of school, where I also act and sing. This evening was great fun, it happens once every year, and this was my first year of doing it. We prepared for it in lessons, to work up for the evening. I went there straight after school, where each class had a rehersal first was my drama second was my singing. It was great fun sitting and watching everyone elses, as we hadnt seen the other classes before. Once everyone had rehersed we all went backstage and got ourself ready into are costumes, and hair and makeup done! Nerves started to build up as it got closer and closer for my group to go on stage. When it was finally are turn, we performed really well! Drama was first, which we got told was a very touching piece and was the best drama piece of the night! Then I went backstage again and got changed into my singing outfit, I then waited again until it was time.. We then went on stage we where the last number of the night! This again was said to have been the best singing performance of the night, and made some people cry!

 For singing I am in senor singing and we sang Beautiful by Christina Agulara this was such a lovely song to sing, and the harmonies my singing teacher gave us where amazing. We wore black on the bottem half and a coloured top, plain and simple to show you are beautiful no matter what! I felt this went really well, and we sang it the best we ever have done! For drama I did a peice with five other girls, this was amazing to it was a very effective piece called Find Me, about a young girl named Verity it was set in the olden days when they didnt no much about children with mental problems. The young girl verity suffered from a mental health disorder where no one new what was wrong with her. Her parents tried to send her into a home, as she was distorying the family but no one would take her in! So she was sent to a mental home, where she burnt a chair value of six pounds, they then sent her to prison, as no one knew what to do with her! We made this very effective and powerful.

All in all it was a great night! And I would love to do it all over again!

ROCK CHALLANGE!

On Tuesday 15th February Kings Langley school performed at stevange in Rock Challange. The school have been doing this for ten years, of which I have been in 4 (including this one) usually we would have performed and aimed to win meaning we will have a place in the next round at Portsmouth, however due to winning 3 years in a row in previous years we have been put into premier league! Meaning we were only showcasing in Stevanage.

Rock Challange meens so much to the school, and even though we were not competeing there was still a lot of pressure on us as we wanted to be the best and prove to all the other schools we deserve to be premier league and show them the difference between a premier school, and a non premier school! We rehearsed hard for this causing stress but it was all worth while! As the event was coming up everyone was attending a lot more rehearsals as they felt the pressure, and a lot of time was spent on painting and doing the set which was amazing!! Nerves has started to kick in, and everyone was so excited!

The day before our last rehersal went very well, and the set and costumes looked amazing! No one could belive tomorrow was the big day! Everyone had worked so hard, and it was moments away, especially the teachers and it started to get a bit scary as we knew that we had no time to change anything, but there was no need to as it looked great!

The next day came, and we had to be at school for 7:30 in the morning! But it wasnt as bad as we thought as all the excitement had kicked in! We got to Stevange where the atmosphere was amazing! And was great fun, it came to are turn to reherse on stage, and even though it was a rehersal we felt the nerves as all the other schools where watching! It was going so well, until we realised our set was slightly big for the stage.. But this was fine, as the teachers worked it all out, and managed it in our second rehersal which went so well! We got a lot of praise from the other schools, so I am guessing this ment they could see that we deserved that premier league title!

We had the day time events, where all schools would mix together and the atmosphere was amazing! I had so much fun, and this is what makes Rock Challange so special! Once this was all over with the manic started in the changing room, when everyone from all schools started to get ready for the show! It was great to see everyone with their hair and makeup done, as well as in their costumes! everyone looked fantastic! As we where waiting to go on stage the nerves had really started to kick in, we where standing in the room, steps away from the stage, we where waiting for the school before us to finish so are perfomance could begin!

It was finally are turn, and to hear our music start was petrifying! The whole performance went perfectly and to just have that experience was amazing! I had so much fun, the whole day was great we won 13 awards of exellence which made it even better than before! I really love being involved in Rock Challange, and I cant wait to go to Pourtsmouth and show everyone out there how amazing we are, and just the general feel of are first year in premier league and see all the other schools perform to such high standards!

week 2 of Bhangra

This week in performing arts we worked on perfecting the Bhangra dance we had made up and made it flow. We have been inspired by the films we watched creating are dance to be really effective. They arms are something we focussed on as well as the head and hips, we took this step by step. One lesson we focussed on the arms, the next head movements and then hip movement as this is what they do in Bhangra a lot of isolations. Once we had done this we made it into more of a dance and polished it so it looked more professional. The street section to are dance is really hard but now we have practised it I am starting to get the hang of it. We polished it to make it look more effective and professional. We have been researching Bhangra dance for homework as we have to write an essay, I have found this very interesting and found out many facts I never knew! Bhangra is so different from all the other styles and is so interesting to learn. I find it so fun, and learning about the culture as well as the history so interesting and different. I think its great they we are attempting to make our own Bhangra piece as it is something I would have never thought of trying out before.

In costume construction this week we are continuing to work on our We Will Rock you mood boards.  We have already reasearched about the history of the show, the music, costumes and the storyline, so we are now focussing more on the charecters. It is really interesting as from researching this I have found that the personalities of the charecters influence the clothes they wear and there makeup and hair style.

I finished my mood boards of the charecters etc, and completed my skirt so next lesson I am going to make a start on making my corset, as I have already designed a few. We have to make sure it is comfortable to wear and also follows the We Will Rock You theme of punk rock, and denim. During this lesson I made sre everything was completed and up to good standards.