This semester for Project X we created a dance which was to be performed at the illuminate festival. The theme of the dance was toys/puppets and this also influenced the way we moved and danced. This means that our movements were stiff and rigid like dolls or robots.
First we started by learning what tutting getting into small groups of 3 and creating tutting pieces based off of what we knew about tutting. This was about 4 counts of 8 long and took us about 30-45 minutes long to create. Ruby, Kereen and I worked very well in this time as we all collaborated an equal amount of choreography and I added moves that I had learnt from my dance studio. The end result had different levels, shapes and took up a good amount space. We showed our piece that was created to the rest of the group and they showed us their work too. Later in this lesson we created a whole group piece of tutting and collaborated ideas to create a tutting piece about two 8 counts long. In this piece, we had 4 people sitting on the floor and 5 standing in the back as this was inspired by the videos of tutting Cod showed us. We then filmed our work so that we wouldn’t forget it or the counts. When we first started making this piece our movements were quite weak and flimsy and we did not fully understand the techniques on how to make our tutting look good. As we kept going on with this piece and got lots of advice and tips from Cod, our group learnt how to make our movements sharp and neat.
Next, we had to focus on our individual bits for the dance. Each person in our group were to think of a toy that we could create moves inspired from. I chose slime, which meant my movements were supposed to be randomised. We then were instructed to create a piece by ourselves that was about 4 counts of 8 long. This was a challenge for me as everybody else’s movements were stiff and sharp, and slime is the complete opposite being soft and weak. So I made it work by making my movements lying down and rolling around to create the effect of slime. Apart of this dance was also getting into groups of three and created another small tutting sections. I was not here the week of creating this bit, so Kereen and Ruby choreographed this and then taught it to me, this was quite easy to learn. The next part of this dance was a complete change and was new to us. I had to walk up a tree with the help of the group lifting me. We first practiced on the dance studio wall so that it could be safer. When actually rehearsing outside it was tricky to walk up the tree, as the bark was falling off and it was rough.
When our whole piece was finished we had to rehearse out on the common. This was a challenge as the grass was different levels and there was wood chips everywhere. We then had to learn and adjust to this environment. When it came to the actual performance we had to do different facial expressions on different parts, for example on the tutting bit we were serious, but on the tree climbing bit we were laughing. The end performance was done well as no one messed up, we did our moves well and our facial expressions went with the dance. Over this semester, I learnt collaboration, listening and teamwork.