2022 Illuminate – Year 8 Transition Celebration
The 2022 Illuminate Year 8 Transition Celebration provided us with the opportunity to express our talents and passions and to try something new and present what we had been working on in Project X this year. I was involved in the Dance Performance and a Singing Performance and enjoyed showcasing my skills.
Describe in detail the process we went through to create the Dance routine for the Illuminate Festival.
The process that we went through to create the Dance routine for the Illuminate Festival started with us creating our own little puppeteer sequence with a partner, this helped me get an idea of how to move like a puppet. We next started to learn the choreography for our dance and Ms Codalonga gave us feedback on how we could improve our movements individually, which I used in each rehearsal up until the performance. After we learned the choreography, we started to get into our different formations and focus more on spacing. After we were clear and confident with the dance, we went outside and rehearsed it on the grass so that we each could see which of our movements worked/ didn’t work and we could change/ adapt them from there. On the day of the performance we got together with our other class and each got to focus on the expressions and character of the dance and clarify any parts of the dance that we needed to, so that we were ready to perform.
Describe the structure of the dance work. It had a binary structure. Explain the 2 parts and how it relates to your schooling journey.
The structure of our dance consisted of two different parts, the first part was the very set movements which we were all doing the same without choice. The other part of the dance was the more free movements, the parts that we got the choice to do what ever we liked with our movements. Both parts relate to our schooling journey being transitioning from middle school into high school and having more freedom and choice to do what we would like.
Most of the choreography was created by you in small groups. This requires collaboration. Describe how you collaborated effectively and also what you could do next time to improve your collaboration skills.
Our dance was created using a lot of collaboration. Some of the ways that I collaborated effectively was by listening to others ideas and giving kind feedback to others about their ideas. Listening to others ideas about the dance helped me to form new ideas and build on their ideas. Giving feedback is so important because it gives people an idea of what they think from different point of views. Group dancing is one of my favourite forms of dance, and from my previous experiences I have learned that everyone has to do their part for it to come together and look good. Some ways that I could improve my collaboration skills are to demonstrate my ideas. This will help dancers who aren’t as familiar with the vocabulary or even help to form more of a visual idea for the other people who I am collaborating with.
Describe the style of movement in the two sections. Describe how we used Body (Shape), Energy (how you performed the moves), Space and Time.
The style of movement in the first section was very sharp and jerky, highlighting the contraction and expansion of the body. The style of the movement in the second section was very fluid, energetic and free. The two different movements contrasted the ideas between as we transition through our years at the school our freedoms change. We used asymmetrical movements on our own, but in our group we used Symmetrical movements to create shapes and dimensions. The freedom part of the dance was a lot more energetic than the more ordered and similar part as we had to use a lot of energy to try and get the audience up and dancing. In our piece, we used a lot of levels and changed our direction very frequently when changing position on our ‘stage’. Finally, it was really important to keep our timing, because it was a group dance and one way that helped me do that was to use my prereferral vision, to work out when people were going to start/stop.
Describe what you did well in the performance ( eg commitment, expression, accuracy, timing, spacing etc)
Some things that I think I did well in the performance were timing, commitment and keeping my movements sharp and clear. As we learned the different movements of our piece, I discovered that each of the moves had to be very clear and sharp to look good. During the performance I made sure to focus on timing as I knew that that was a big focus of the piece. An example of when timing had to be sharp is in the different canons throughout the piece. With canons you have to be so precise and only worry about your count, as if one person goes a little bit late or early, it messes up the whole canon. Throughout my dancing years I have learned that staying committed through the whole performance is very important. I focused on staying committed throughout the dance so that the whole dance would be exciting and not have a drop in mood.
Reflect on how well you believe the group performed
I believe that the group did really well, however there were a few things that we could all have improved on. The first thing is timing, when I watched the video of our dance I found that a few people were rushing the choreography in certain parts and some people went a little bit late. I also believed that we could have been more still at the start when waiting for the music to start, as it would have made the starting of our dance a lot more dramatic and surprising. Overall I think that we did do well considering that it was our first time dancing Site-Specific and in the outdoors on the hill, which we had to adapt our choreography to and consider the amount of space we had to use.
How was performing outside on the Common different from performing on a stage.
Performing outside was very different from performing on a stage. We had to adapt to this and modify our movements because of this. Some things that made us have to modify our movements were the unevenness of the ground, the rough gravel and the massive tree in the middle of our performing area. Obviously the outside also didn’t have a centre stage, which made it tricky for us with our spacing especially in the triangle formation. It was a great new experience for all of us and provided us with the opportunity to perform in front of an audience in a setting which we wouldn’t usually.
What have you learnt from the process and performance that you can take with you for future projects (this can be in dance or in other areas of school and/or life)..
Some things that I have learnt from the process and performance that I will take with me for future projects are that I have learned to enjoy entertaining people and learning about what it’s like to work and collaborate as a team. This experience has also given me more confidence, to perform in front of a large audience, and I really enjoyed the whole opportunity. I will also be taking the message of the dance through the rest of my school years as I grow up, becoming my own person and being unique and different.
I also had the opportunity to perform in the music part of the evening. I sung a solo called ‘Baby Mine’ from Walt Disney’s Dumbo, contributing to the theme of ‘Illuminate’ and performed it to two different audiences.
“Great Dancers Are Not Great Because Of Their Technique, They Are Great Because Of Their Passion.”
Martha Graham
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