This week in BTEC Performing Arts we have started our new unit. In this unit we will be studing Bhangra dancing. I'm looking forward to trying this out because it's very different and I've never done anything like it before. In our first lesson we learnt the basic steps and had a go at putting some of them together to make a rountine. We had to think about the things Miss Dolan had put up on the board.
- hand and gestures
- isolations
-story telling
- dance in unison
-lots of facing each other
After making up our Bhangre rountines we put a Western style to it to make it different. I found this a bit diffcult because I don't do street dance and this was a bit like that. I found it a challenge but after I got into it I found it easier. We all worked together to put together the dance and teach everyone. We thought of Bhangra moves and thought about how we could put a western twist to them. This took time but in the end we finished it.
Wednesday 26 January 2011
Evaluation of Unit One
Evaluation of Unit One
On Friday 10th December we did our performance evening of 'Dance That Means Something'. It was a really successful evening with 78 people in the audience and we raised £95.42 for C.R.Y and the Performing Arts Fund. The evening was filmed by Miss Shipp and Rachael Davis and photographs were taken by Ross Hudson. I know the audience enjoyed it from whom I've spoken to. We had only been doing BTEC Performing Arts for 11 weeks so our dances were not perfect and it was only a work in progress. All our work from costume design lessons was on boards at the back of the hall for everyone to see before the show started. It was nice to be able to see people appreciating the hard work we had done in class. I performed in 6 dances all together and I also performed the presentation with Myriam Maley and Kelly Rolfe. We had to invite guests to dance to pad out the show. I invited my brother along to do some ballet but he asked me to do it with him. We performed a duet we had performed earlier in a show. We also did a presentation to explain DV8, this gave the audience a much clearer understanding of the theme. I don't think they would have understood if we hadn't have done the presentation.
On Friday 10th December we did our performance evening of 'Dance That Means Something'. It was a really successful evening with 78 people in the audience and we raised £95.42 for C.R.Y and the Performing Arts Fund. The evening was filmed by Miss Shipp and Rachael Davis and photographs were taken by Ross Hudson. I know the audience enjoyed it from whom I've spoken to. We had only been doing BTEC Performing Arts for 11 weeks so our dances were not perfect and it was only a work in progress. All our work from costume design lessons was on boards at the back of the hall for everyone to see before the show started. It was nice to be able to see people appreciating the hard work we had done in class. I performed in 6 dances all together and I also performed the presentation with Myriam Maley and Kelly Rolfe. We had to invite guests to dance to pad out the show. I invited my brother along to do some ballet but he asked me to do it with him. We performed a duet we had performed earlier in a show. We also did a presentation to explain DV8, this gave the audience a much clearer understanding of the theme. I don't think they would have understood if we hadn't have done the presentation.
We gave out a questionnaire to the audience to ask them what we need to improve on and what they enjoyed about the evening. 100% told us that they understood the theme of DV8 which is great because it shows we put it across well. Ramalama came out as the most popular dance along with other favourites being Unfinished sympathy, All in your mind, Teardrop and Raindrop. Things that the audience said we could improve on was more singing and drama but this was purely a dance show. We thought someone had a good idea that we should show history of the dancers in the programme we will think about it in the future, someone said the flow of the evening but we don’t really understand this because they ticked the organisation of the night was good and someone asked for more of a variety of dance styles but the theme was DV8.
In our practical lessons we started experiments with DV8's style of dance. DV8's style is very different and it’s all about interacting with other people and going with the flow. When choreographing you have to think about not choreographing and letting your body just go in a natural flow. I think it’s very hard to do because I'm so used to choreographing and putting things together rather than letting my body flow naturally. My favourite lesson was when I was in a group of 4 with Chloe, Shauna and Chloe. We put together a piece that flowed together very well and we let our bodies go where was most natural. We ended up with a piece where we were rolling over each other and all linking together and moving together. It took a couple of times to get it right but when we did it looked very effective.
Using our DV8 knowledge we had to create our own dances thinking about DV8’s style. We got into pairs and starting choreographing our dance. At first it was hard but as we got into it, it became easier. We started off by just thinking of moves we could use then we thought about putting them together. We had to make sure the moves flowed together so as we were linking the one’s we had, we had to add a few more. This made it more of a dance rather than just moving from move to move. We decided we wanted to add the flying angel into our dance. It took us a long time to get this move perfect but we practised and practised to get it right. We broke the move down into stages and worked our way up. I started off on my knees as we both got more confident I started on my feet. We ended up getting it perfect but it did take a few lessons to build up confident and to get the technique right.
All the dances we were making up in class were working towards our performance evening. We performed them all on the evening.
Tuesday 11 January 2011
Corsets
The History of a Corset Function
A corset is a piece of clothing that holds in the torso (upper body) and shapes it into what’s known a hour glass figure . It is used for pulling in the waist and supporting the breasts.
Some women wore corsets tighter than they needed so that meant they would buy corsets with smaller waists. Most women, although they bought an 18 or 20 inch waisted corset they could leave a gap at the back to have a more realistic 22-26 inch waist. For most women the corset would only reduce their waist by only an inch or two at most.
Women would also use corsets to make their bust look bigger by pushing their breasts up. Doing this would also make it look like their waist was smaller. Also,
By 1800 the corset had become mostly for supporting the breasts not shaping the waist. Corsets still shaped the body but not making it the V shape with the tiny waist like it was originally.
A corset is a piece of clothing that holds in the torso (upper body) and shapes it into what’s known a hour glass figure . It is used for pulling in the waist and supporting the breasts.
Some women wore corsets tighter than they needed so that meant they would buy corsets with smaller waists. Most women, although they bought an 18 or 20 inch waisted corset they could leave a gap at the back to have a more realistic 22-26 inch waist. For most women the corset would only reduce their waist by only an inch or two at most.
Women would also use corsets to make their bust look bigger by pushing their breasts up. Doing this would also make it look like their waist was smaller. Also,
16th to late 17th Centuries
The earliest corsets were called "payre of bodies" and were usually worn with a farthingale (hoops under the skirt to make the skirt or dress stand out in a circle). The payre of bodies, which the name then became stays, this made the upper body into a matching shape of the skirt. They had shoulder straps and ended in flaps at the waist. They flattened the bust, and in so doing, pushed the breasts up. The stays made the front of the body flat by squashing the breasts in that pushed them over the top to make them fuller. They wanted to the flat body different to the roundness of the breasts and the skirt.
By the middle of the 16th century most women were wearing corsets. They were made of several layers of stiff linen with wooden busks or shafts that were in a pocket at the front the keep the corset and figure straight. This is the sort of corset that was used until about 1860.
18th Century
In the 18th-century the main idea was to make the upper body shaped like a upside down cone. Underneath they wore skirts in a similar cone shape but the right way round. This made it look like two opposite cones sitting on top of each other. The primary purpose of 18th century stays was to raise and shape the breasts, tighten the middle of the body, support the back, improve posture to help a woman stand straight, with the shoulders down and back, and only slightly narrow the waist, creating a 'V' shaped upper body over. Another type of corset was called a jump and it didn’t have as many stays. It was worn for informal occasions. It didn’t help her posture that much but it did give her some support. Both of these corsets were underwear and would not be seen under their clothing. They were more comfortable than the ones before. Women could work and move well in them.Late 18th to early 19th centuries
Stays became much less tight when the fashion changed to the empire style. This style was more about making the breasts look bigger and the a skirt that went straight down. Some stays were still used but they were short and only went below the breasts so they didn’t pull the waist in at all.By 1800 the corset had become mostly for supporting the breasts not shaping the waist. Corsets still shaped the body but not making it the V shape with the tiny waist like it was originally.
Tuesday 4 January 2011
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