Tuesday 27th January- Dissocia movement pieces

How/why did the movement scene work with the music used?

The music we are using for Dissocia is by a two woman group called Cocorosie. They're music is abstract, fitting with the ideas behind the play, Dissocia and the work Lisa finds herself in. The five songs used by the groups were;

1) Gallow

2) Japan 

3) Smokey Taboo

4) Lemonade 

5) By your side 

I felt that all of the songs worked well with the movement the groups out together. For example, Henry and Luke (the goat and Vince) used Smokey Taboo. This song has a tribal and controlling feel to it, which co insides with the Goat's and Vince's personality, dominant and controlling over Lisa. Henry and Luke used contrasting movements, some very abrupt and quick, to show their character's short temper and other movements of a slow pace, possibly to show their characters lack if understand for Lisa's condition.

The most effective part of Taylor and Kimberly's piece was their facial expressions, they used these as an effective substitute for sound. They changing their expressions frequently, telling a story of the happenings in the scene. 

 Izzy and myself danced our sequence to Gallow, which has a flowing authentic feel to it. Most of the movements we performed were slow and naturalistic however we put one off movements in the sequence so show a change in Lisa's thoughts and personality. These were moves such as lunging forward, stamping and pointing our fingers towards one another. This gives the impression that Lisa was filled with anger and blames herself for her condition, hence pointing towards 'herself'.

What was effecting about combining movements? 

I felt that by combining each groups movements in to one continuous sequence, a story started to come together about how each character feels about Dissocia and the person they are/have become. The most powerful part was seeing all the characters doing their sequences, slowing leaving and leaving the Lisa's as the last on stage. Our last movement was on the floor, representing her transition to the mental institution after her Dissocia experiences. 

YouTube clip of us combining the movements- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v355b33Nj04

 

3 ideas around the movement and how they could be incorporated in to the performance. 

1) 'Yes, but I don't understand. If you've got lots of lost property then surely that makes you the lost property office anyway?

Lisa on stage, delivering this line at a fast pace, 6 in states of tension, with her walking forward and using arm gestures for the rushed and confused effect.

2)

Dissocia as a play, consistently contains scenes with no more than three of four people on stage at one time. However during the Britney scene, there a few point when the whole cast come on stage in a hectic rush. I think it would be good if in these parts, for example on page 68, lots if movement should be happening in stage, a hectic rush if people. This suggests what is going on in Lisa's head and shows how all of these people effect her on a day to day basis and in Dissocia. 

3) 

In this part,  Britney shouts 'BIFFER' I think he should run on stage a level 7, keen and attentive to Britney's command. I like the fact he would come on, acting in a rush and keen to please and help people. This mirrors one of the nurse characters in act 2. 

I feel today was a productive way of getting to know mine and others' characters, through movement, gesture and mine. By choreographing These sequences, it allows doors to be opened, creating potential material for us to use in our performance of Dissocia! 

Friday 23rd January- singing

Today, we have exactly two weeks until we have to perform our duets and Grease routine in the showcase, going towards our final grades for BTEC Musical Theatre.

Today, Jess and I spent 20 minutes with Kim. We ran through our chosen song, I dreamed a dream so that Kim could listen, picking our parts we needed to improve on and add too. Kim suggested we used harmonies with in the song, to contrast our voices and hopefully increase our overall grade we come out with. Adding harmonies makes the duet more challenging for both participents, which will bring the possiblily of a top grade with in our reach if we pull them off.

We decided to use harmonies of the lines;

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

As my voice is naturally a couple of notes lower than Jess's, I sing the lower parts and Jess singings the higher parts. We do this by singing the same line at the same time however, changing notes, to add effect and to increase the difficulty of the song.

There is one line I was struggling with today as the top note that I have to hit is just on the note where my voice breaks from my chest voice in to head voice. If is stretch the note, I can reach it however it doesnt sound as good as it could do with more vocal training. I can't change my range as we only have two weeks until the performance, so Kim has agree wit us to take the song down half a key, a very tiny bit so I can reach the note, sounding professional.

This session with Kim has been beneficial due to the fact Jess and I have had a chance to tidy up the song and work out who is to sing which harmony parts, something that is more appropriote to a duet than singing it straight.

Dissocia- Physical movement homework task

Prepare 8 movements to show to characters emotions from Britney scene- pg 55-73

Move 1 line- "Yes, but I don't understand. if youve got lost property, surely you're the lost property office anyway?" pg 56
Falls to knees, arms out to the side

Move 2 line- "So can I visit the lost property now?" pg 58
One knees, bring arms in to begging position and falls over in to a ball on the floor

Move 3 line- "I do, I promise" pg 59
 Rises up, shooting arms straight up with smile on face

Move 4 line- "Yes, like I- I've lost something ........ An hour" pg 59
When arms in the air, moves them like a clock. Gets up and stands in paralell.

Move 5 line- "What's so funny" pg 60
Four steps back, looking very confused

Move 6 line- "This is so frustrating" pg 65
Stops taking steps, turns away suddenly and uses hand to push people away.

Move 7 line- "No! Because if you loved me, you'd help me. Vince said there would be people trying to mislead me. But I had no idea it would be you!"
Looks around with head then turns whole body back, stamps and spreads arms out down. Points to audience then arms back down.

Move 8- The fact Lisa survives the attack with out putting a gag in her mouth, she realises she is the Queen after a stage of denile.
Looks all around and then places imaginery crown on own head.

Shouts "Oh my god, it's you" and falls to the floor.


The Cocorosie song I have chosen to perform my set of moves to is Terrible Angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRQZMreM5Qs&index=9&list=PL10mus35CpM017FzOSMVlyiS1G8sMvH6O

I felt that this song was appropiote to suiting Lisa's mood in the Britney scene becasue good and bad things come out of it. I feel that the instramental to the song is gentle and reminds me of a song which is played at the part in a film when everything starts to make sense when so sense could be made before hand. On the other hand, the lyrics talk about terrible angles, which is an oxymoron because angles are meant to be the opposite of terrible. This links in to the fact that in this scene, Lisa feels like her new friends she has made in Dissocia have betrayed her because they would rather her not fing her hour. This idea is an oxymoron because friends are for supporting you through hard times, not being selfish and directing you in thr wrong path in life.

Friday 23rd January- Dance, Grease

Today in our dance lesson with Emily, we managed to get through the rest of the choreography for our ensemble piece, extracts taken from Grease. I found this lesson beneficial as we completely finished all the choreography for our sequence and went over, in detail parts of the choreography we had learnt last week that we still needed help with or weren’t too sure on.

A very enjoyable part of the dance that we learnt and devised today was the very beginning. The four boys in the class were placed in centre stage and learnt several counts of Grease inspired choreography that Emily had devised herself. This included manly clicks, hand gestures and complex knee and leg movements. Whilst this was going on in centre stage, the girls in the class were split in to two groups of four and were placed to either the left or right of the group of boys. I was with Jess, Livvi and Amber on stage right and we were set slightly back from the boys. We choreographed a set of three movements which we continuously repeated whilst the boys were dancing their introduction. At this point we were the ‘chicks’ of Grease the musical and were the backing dancers to the boys if you like.

We created three movements;

1)   Step and click with attitude for eight count

2)   Shimmy forwards and backwards for eight counts

3)   Step, raising and dropping arm for eight counts

We chose these particular movements because we felt that with them, we were staying true to the original moves in Grease however they were our own moves we had devised ourselves. Putting your own twist on dance is always a good way to go otherwise there is no personal achievement if you have copied the original, it is therefore not your own work.

 

At one point in the dance routine, I am partnered with Livvi and this piece of the dance was one we had choreographed last week. Today we went through the logistics of making the opening part of our dance come to life.

For this, we used Henry to jump over as we leap frog him, forward down stage centre. Last week this worked perfectly because Henry’s partner wasn’t here however this week his partner is back and we had to work out how we were going to make this happen for the actual performance.

We decided that Henry and his partner would dance first and then when it is time for Livvi and I to dance, Henry is going to stay on stage for an extra 16 counts so we can leap frog over him as we had planned. Henry moves in to centre stage and Livvi and I jump him. After, Henry runs to the back of the stage and kneels down with the others who have just had their turn at dancing, watching and bobbing to the beat as we have ours.

Livvi and I chose to do a slid to the side after the leap as this is stylised and is a typical move that the chicks would perform in Grease. To fill the final counts before we start the main routine, we have used Livvi’s unique move of moving your arms in on the other as you take quick steps to move out of the way. This looks very typical of a girl and really effective on camera.

The ending of this dance we have yet to finish because we still need to decide as a class what we want to do, as it is not going to bet 100% set movements, but a jump in the circle and improvise kind of feel. This will give the dance a more natural and edgy feel to it.

We will finish and perfect this dance on Tuesday 27th January, as we have timetabled two hours in the after noon, 1-3pm to do so.

Here is the final piece that we ended up with after two hours of rehearing, this is something I am proud of and am also proud of all of the class for the effort we put in to this piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psWgdjztXxs

Thursday 22nd January- Dissocia

Today we started off the lesson with quad jumps as a warm up. These involved seperating in to three lines and jumping in rounds of 8. The first group would do 8 jumps and turn 90 degrees over their right shoulder whereas group two did 6 jumps, turning on the 6th. The third group repeated this pattern however, jumping on the 4th beat. We stayed in these three groups and mixed up which group jumped in which count and how many counts we left in between. This exercise really got me thinking about energy in dramatic form and how I can interpet this energy in to acting Lisa.

Our next challenge was to come up with three movements which represented our character's mood and emotions in act 1. I worked with the other Lisa, Izzy to do so.
We created three main movements that we felt summaries the mood of Lisa when she enters Dissaoic and through out the first act.
Move 1- Slowing walking forward and bringing our hands up to on heads to symbolise confusion.


Move 1

 

Move 2- here, we came out of move two, transisiton in to the next move by lifted our other hand to our head and change our facial expression to a pained and agonising expression. We then spinned out and around to go in to the next move.



Move 2

 Move 3- for our final movement for this task, we placed our left hand on our chest and held the right arm up in a surrender sort of movement. This movement represents when Lisa surrenders and and makes promise whilst in Dissocia to abide by their rules. 

Move 3





Following this small sequence we had in the process of making, Rachel started asking us to add movements to our three orginal movements, so that we started to create some choreography the represnted our character, Lisa. We were asked create a movement which was overly exaggerated than it usually would be and two movements, changing the pace, one at level 1 and one at level 7 state tension. The begining sequence of Izzy and I was our final piece which we used to perform to the class. All of the other characters has done the same, basing their mood again around their characters and how they would have been feeling and looking in Dissocia. Here is the final performance of our sequnce; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyM-Th6y93c


Our final task of the day was to choose a page from the text in act 1, when our characters interact with Lisa and rehearse with one of Lisa's to then show in front of the class again. We were also asked to incorporate movements in to the text, some that we had earlier used in our sequences.
Whilst everyone chose a scene to do, Izzy and I decided which groups we were both going to work with and split ourselves up amoungst the class. 
We went round, alternating between groups to work on our characterisation and the way we used the space and our bodies. Here is the end result.


jhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WejhhCICOes








 

Tuesday 20th January- lesson

Today, we started the lesson looking at the 7 states of tension. These change depending how you are feeling and are as follows;

1) exhausted 

2) laid back 

3) neutral 

4) alert 

5) suspense 

6) passionate

7) tragic 

The 7 states if tension are a way to summarise how characters can be feeling with in acting. These will normally fluctuate during a play, however some characters remain on the same number depending in their personality. 

We started the lesson walking around the space, going through the levels of tension, walking how we felt was appropriate for that level of tension. For example, level 1, exhausted was an extremely slow and sluggish walk, with no motivation or emphasise behind it whereas on the other end of the scale, level 7, tragic, needed an energic run around the space to convey passion and the need for something. I felt this exercise helped me understand the meaning of each of these states and made me think about my character Lisa and what state she might fit in to at certain points in the play.

In the next part of the lesson, we did some characterisation development with the other person in the class who is playing the same part as us. Izzy and I worked really well together, firstly discussing how we were planning to okay Lisa and deciding on what level of tension we would give her in the first and second act if the play. We decided that in the first act, Lisa starts off as a level 3 however as she makes her way in to the world of Dissocia, her state raises to a 5, peaking at 7 at points. This is because in Dissocia, she has to be aware of her surroundings and alert to what's happening because she is new to the world needs to be aware of the characters she meets and who they may truly be. 

We then were asked to find a few lines from out character and act them out with the appropriate state if tension. I chose two contrasting lines, one with laid back level 2, 'I would. I'd very much like to hear it. Is it nice?'

And the other with a level 5, suspense. 'No! If you loved me you'd help me! Vince said they would be people trying to mislead me but I didn't think it would be you.' 

We performed these to the class and everyone had to estimate what state of tension we had intended the line to be persived in. Most or less we all made accurate judgment of this, suggesting we all understood the menaing of these states of tension. 

In the second half of the lesson, we discussed the meaning of subtext. This means an underlying theme that comes up during a conversation. Meaning, when someone is thinking something separate to what they are saying. For example, my character Lisa says 'And I want to have a cigarette' the subtext for this sentence would be- I'm off for a cigarette, now get out my way. She was thinking the subtext however didn't think it was appropriate to  say it exactly like that, therefore tries to imply the meaning of the subtext with out sounding rude. By saying her line instead if the subtext line, may actually have a better chance of getting her want she wants, therefore says it instead to avoid unnecessary arguments. 

To finish off the lesson, we created some subtexts for the lines we had for our characters in act 2. I am again Lisa in act two and I noticed whilst doing this activity that she does at some points become aggressive and you can clearly pick out what she really wants to say from what she is actually saying. Here are some of my examples; 

I felt that Lisa was getting to a high state of tension, a 6 / 7 at times as she really is determined to get well and return home to her family. She also knows she needs to please her family and get well and doesn't want to let then down however the support from her family members isn't prehaps what she needs it to be.

For the rest if the lesson we split in to our serperate casts and devised together act two, which lasts roughly 15 minuets. My main focus was my characterisation skills when I came to the scene that Lida has her beloved Walkman taken off her. She is dancing in the bed at one point and I feel I need to work on how the audience perceive this, they need to be aware that her music is her escape from the hospital unti she has been placed in and that's why she gets so angry when it is taken away from her, her only escape taken from her reach. 

The rest if act 2 today we were just getting used to and developing the personality of our characters. Going through the act with our cast helped me to develop Lisa by feeding off of the characters around me. I took in board how the characters interacted with me, and acting towards them how I felt someone living with Lisa's condition may act. Thinking about the levels of tension also helped me think about how someone suffering from her condition may act and I felt it was appropriate I acted Lisa in the higher region f the scale, high 5 to 7 due to the content if the text, pressuring and agrovating for her.

Unit 7 - Performing to an Audience - Assessment Record Sheet

Form 1

Form 2