Trio Choreography Evaluation (Abigail)

Our trio choreography assessment was on Wednesday 16th December. We had half an hour before the assessment to run our choreography over and over again, full out, before it was time to be assessed. This allowed everyone in our group to make sure they knew all of the choreography but also gave us time to go over any sections that we were unsure of. We were first to perform our choreography during the assessment overall, I feel our performance went well and was a very strong piece of choreography.

At the beginning of our choreography process, we decided on our costumes. As a group, we decided that we would all wear tan tights, black shorts and a simple black dress. We chose this costume as it is very simple but also helped towards our stimuli. In our choreography we were all little girls, therefore wearing a dress helped us demonstrate our characters. We also decided that we would wear our hair in different braids with a red ribbon in,however we decided to change our hairstyle. We decided to wear our hair half up,half down and curly with no red ribbon as we were unable to get hold of ribbon but also because we found that this specific hairstyle was more childlike and would portray our characters better. We danced with a red balloon therefore we needed to include some red within our costume. We decided to wear red lipstick to match the balloon. The balloon represented our childhood innocence therefore we wanted to dance with a red heart shaped balloon. However, we could only find a red star shaped balloon, so we used this balloon instead.

After reviewing our choreography performance during our assessment, I feel that our choreography was very strong and demonstrated our stimulus clearly. I also feel that my performance during the choreography was good however, if I were to perform the choreography again, I would change my performance slightly to enhance it. Our choreography had its weak points however it has several strong points.

One of our weaker points was making sure that everyone was in time with each other. Most of the time all of us were in time however,in sections such as our circle choreography in retrograde, could have been better when it came to timing. Another weak point for our choreography was our facial expressions. During the assessment I used my face to help tell the story however, I could have used my face a lot more and changed the expression I used as the story unfolded. The balloon also became a weak point during our choreography. Despite the balloon making our choreography standing out from everyone else, it was difficult to work with as we had to change movements that worked well together as the balloon would get tangled around us during certain movements, e.g. an illusion. Our final weak point was our lack of different arm movements due to the balloon. We had to use the same movements as the balloon needed to be kept up high to allow it to look effective. This added a lack of variation to the choreography.

Despite the weak points, there was several good points that allowed our choreography to be really successful. Me,Caitlin and Emily are all similar dancers which worked in our favour as we were able to create a choreography that suited all of us and played to everyone's strengths. Each of us are similar however we all have separate qualities,e.g. I have a flexible back so I can use backbends effectively, therefore all of our solos were different to show each of us off however the unison was simple choreography that showed how well we dance together. Another strong point was the use of different formations. We tried to use different formations to ensure that everyone could be seen doing the choreography however the use of different formations allowed us to use duets and solos effectively. Another strong point was our stimulus and the use of a prop. As our stimulus was a picture of a young girl letting go of a balloon, we found it easy to choreograph movements to show this story with a prop. Overall, the mixture of complex and simple movements, the use of levels, the use of duets and solos, the use of unison, the stimulus and the use of the prop allowed us to create an effective choreography which played to the strengths of each dancer as well as telling a clear story.

If I were to complete this assessment again I would use my face much more to help portray the stimulus but also the help show the changes in the story. I would also practice with the balloon more before the exam to ensure that the balloon would work as well as it possibly could during the exam. I would also use a balloon that was more inflated so it would stay up in the air as much as possible,however we would use a balloon with a shorter string next time to make choreographing with the balloon easier. If i were to complete this assessment again, I would personally dance more with the balloon to help with the stimuli. I would also have created more of a complex duet with Emily once we stop dancing with the balloon to help show that we have both moved on. Overall, the assessment went well and the choreography was performed the best it has ever been performed before.

Last Trio Choreography Lesson (Emily)

Because today was our last day of rehearsal but our first day with the balloon we entered the studio quite nervous as we thought we wouldn't be able to do the choreography. We addressed our first problem in Caitlin's solo. The choreography was to difficult to do with the balloon and therefore had to be changed. We changed the choreography to something more simple and also suggested that Caitlin holds the balloon as high as she can at all times. Me and Abigail had not problem with the balloon as we didn't move with it much. All our movements where on the spot. We didn't need to change anything else up until Caitlin next danced with the balloon. But we did clean the choreography we did around the balloon. We also changed all the arms we did to fifth position whenever Caitlin had hold of the balloon in order for it to be easier for her to move around. We are confident that we will do well in our assessment as nobody else in the class has done lyrical, and all of our choreography plays to our strengths. 

Last Trio Choreography Lesson (Abigail)

This lesson was the last lesson we had rehearsing our piece. Since this was the first time rehearsing with the balloon and the last lesson we will have before the assessment. We came into the studio quite nervous and worried incase the balloon didn't work atall in the piece. When it came to Caitlin's solo she was having difficulty doing her choreography with the balloon so we helped her make small changes to make it easier but still show her off. For example, we changed an illusion to a turn to show the balloon off without the choreography looking messy. The rest of the choreography was fine. We cleaned it and made sure we were all  doing the exact same thing,e.g. all of our legs were at the same height. When we got to the next solo that Caitlin had we faced more problems as the balloon was deflating as we were dancing with it  so it wouldn't stay in the places that we needed it to. We also realised the balloon string was too long and kept getting caught in Caitlin's hair and tangled around her as she danced with it. We changed all the unison armwork to fifth to make it easier for Caitlin to dance. Even though the balloon showed issues at the beginning of the lesson, we slowly became more comfortable with it and believe that choosing to dance with it was a good decision as it made our piece more unique and innovative.

Last Trio Choreography Lesson (Caitlin)

This was our last lesson working on our trio before the final assessment. This was also the first time we rehearsed the piece with the balloon. As soon as I started dancing my solo with the balloon we knew it could be a problem, since it didn't stay in the same place all the time so the choreography was difficult with the balloon. We changed the choreography to more simple moves for my solo. For example we changed the illusion to a turn and chose not to put the balloon down inbetween moves. This made it a lot easier. We then cleaned the next bits of choreography without the balloon ensuring our legs where at the same height and we were all in sync. No more problems occurred until I started dancing with the balloon again closer to the end of the dance. We had to change the majority of our arms to fifth position so the balloon could be as high up as possible, this means it wouldn't be in the way when I was dancing. Even though the balloon caused some problems, they were fixed easily and we believe it made the piece more unique and innovative. It helped us link our piece to our stimulus as there is a balloon in the picture. At the end of the lesson we felt confident in our peice. It was unique to what everybody else in the class done and it played to each of our strengths. We are excited and nervous for the assessment. 

Trio Choreography Lesson 7 (Abigail)

Today was our seventh choreography lesson and our plan for this lesson was to completely clean our choreography so that the whole routine looks the best it possibly can. When the lesson had started, we marked the final section of our choreography as we only finished our choreography the lesson before. We then did the choreography, full out, several times to music to make sure that all of the choreography fitted to the music and to make sure the movements were known by everyone. We then cleaned all of the movements from the middle section of the choreography onwards as this was the messiest part of our choreography. We changed a few movements to make sure all transitions followed from one to another. We then ran our choreography alone, in the space we will be using on the assessment day. Our next lesson is out final lesson and on this lesson we plan to run our choreography as much as possible, dance with the balloon and ensure all movements look good when dancing with the balloon.

Trio Choreography Lesson 7 (Emily)

Today was our 7th choreography lesson. We had finished our choreography last lesson so our focus for today's lesson was to clean the choreography. We ran our choreography a few times,full out, with music to make sure everyone knew the whole dance. We then cleaned sections which we decided needed work. We didn't clean the beginning section as it was already very clean but the ending of our choreography needed cleaning as it was our most recent section of choreography. We have one more lesson before our assessment and in that lesson we plan to dance with the balloon and make sure all of the movements work with the balloon.

Trio Choreography Lesson 7 (Caitlin)

Today was our 7th choreography lesson. As we had completed our choreography the lesson before, we had the whole lesson to clean our choreography. Firstly, we ran our choreography a few times,full out, with music to make sure that all of us had remembered the entire dance. After running our choreography a few times, we each thought of a section in the dance that we thought needed cleaning or that we were not 100% sure on. As a group, we knew we needed to focus on the middle and ending of our choreography as we hadn't created these sections very long ago. We spent the entire lesson cleaning the choreography. Our next lesson is our final lesson. In this lesson we plan to dance with the balloon, make sure all choreography is clean when using the balloon and we will also alter any movements that don't work when dancing with the balloon.

Trio Choreography Lesson 6 (Emily)

Today we had one of our final choreography lessons before assessment day. In this lesson we planned to complete our choreography so we had enough time to clean our choreography and make sure that every dancer knows what they're doing before assessment day. Our teacher had cut our music to make sure the length of the song met the assignment brief so we decided to listen to the cut song before choreographing the ending of our choreography to make sure our movements were in time with the music. We also created a diagram, as a group, before our lesson with a final idea for a section of our choreography. This meant we needed to create less choreography on the day as we already had some choreography planned.

We started to choreograph from the ending of our unison. Caitlin travels towards the bottom right corner with the balloon to show that she still has her childhood innocence. When Caitlin has finished travelling, me and Abigail step backwards as we have lost our innocence however we do an arm movement which shows that we want Caitlin to leave the balloon. We then reach towards Caitlin as if we are trying to persuade her to come with us. Caitlin then looks at us before letting go of the balloon. She then travels downstage to join me and Abigail as shown in our diagram. We then all dance, in unison, away from the balloon to show that all three of us no longer have our childhood innocence and no longer need the balloon.

After this, we decided to use the motif from earlier on in our choreography. In this motif we all did the same movements circling the balloon. We developed this motif by dancing it in retrograde to show a change in the story. After this,all of us walk towards the bottom left corner before we all stop, In canon, me and Abigail look towards the balloon and then exit the stage, then followed by Caitlin doing the same movements. Caitlin looks at the balloon last as she is the last person to no longer have her childhood innocence. Now that our dance is finished, we will clean it in our final lesson to make sure that all dancers know what they are meant to be doing in each section of the dance and to make sure the choreography is neat and tidy.

Trio Choreography Lesson 6 (Caitlin)

Today we had our sixth choreography lesson and this was one of our final lessons before we are assessed on our final choreography. We entered the studio with our minds set on what we needed to do this lesson. By the end of this lesson we planned to finish our choreography to ensure that we had enough time to clean our choreography before we were assessed. As a group, we spoke outside of our lessons and created a diagram for one of the sections in our choreography so that we had ideas already set to quicken up the choreography process. We listened to our cut music before we started to choreography to make sure that the movements we were about to choreography were in time with the final section of music.

We started to choreograph from the end of our unison section. From this section I travel towards the bottom right corner with the balloon. I travel away from Abigail and Emily as I still have my childhood innocence. Once I have finished travelling, Abigail and Emily step away from me however they use an arm movement that shows that they want me to join them. They then reach towards to which shows that they want me to join them and leave my childhood innocence (the balloon) behind just like they did. Once they have finished their movement,I look towards them, leave the balloon and do a travelling movement to join them in the line,as shown in our diagram. This shows that I have finally left my childhood innocence and joined the other dancers. From here, we do two arabesques at different heights each time away from the balloon. We then look towards the balloon in canon.

We then decided to develop the motif we used to circle the balloon near the beginning of the piece. This time we danced this motif in retrograde to show that the storyline has changed and to make the choreography more interesting. Once we have finished this motif, we all walk towards the bottom left corner and stop. In canon, Abigail and Emily look towards the balloon and walk off before I look at the balloon and exit as well. I look at the balloon last as I am the last person to leave the balloon behind. As our choreography is now finished, we plan to clean our choreography in our final lesson before our assessment.

Trio Choreography Lesson 6 (Abigail)

Today was our sixth choreography lesson and this was one of our final lessons before the day of our choreography assessment. When we entered the studio today, our main priority was to complete our choreography so that we have enough time to thoroughly clean our choreography before assessment day. We needed to have our music cut as well our music was longer than three minutes and this didn't meet the assignment brief. Our teacher cut the music for us so it is within the time limit and we listened to the music before starting to choreograph the ending of our dance to make sure that our movements matches the mood of the music as well as telling the story line. We knew what the final section of our choreography needed to portray so we began to choreography,however we had created a diagram of a section of our story which we wanted to include when we began to choreograph.

We continued on from our unison section by Caitlin moving away from me and Emily with the balloon. When she has stopped travelling to the right downstage corner, me and Emily do a movement to step back with arm movements that signify that we are trying to get Caitlin to understand that she can't have childhood innocence forever,before we reach towards her to get her to come and follow us. Once me and Emily have reached towards Caitlin, Caitlin looks to us before letting go of the balloon and using a travelling step to join the line. We have then used our diagram to help us carry on choreographing movements with us holding hands,moving away from the balloon to signify that  all three of us no longer have childhood innocence.

After we followed,our diagram and choreographed what we had on paper, we decided to use retrograde on a motif we had already used in the piece. Earlier on in the choreography, all three of us do the same choreography circling the balloon. We repeated this choreography backwards in a circle,however this time we are not circling the balloon. We then ended our choreography with simple movements. All three dancers walk to the downstage left corner and, in canon, me and Emily look towards the balloon with an arm movement and walk off stage. When we have exited the stage, Caitlin looks towards the balloon with the same movement and then walks off stage. Caitlin looks at the balloon last as she is the last person to walk away from her childhood innocence. Now that our choreography is completed, we plan to clean the entire choreography and dance with a balloon in our final lesson to ensure that our choreography is neat, to ensure that all dancers are in time with each other and the music and to ensure that the choreography looks the best it can.

Trio Choreography Lesson 5 (Caitlin)

It was our fith choreography lesson today . We had lots of ideas leading on from our last choreography lesson therefore we decided to work through our ideas one by one to make sure we included all of our ideas as well as adding on as much choreography as possible. This week we started off with Emily's solo which needed to be 12 counts long. When it came to choreographing our solos, we knew we needed to do movement towards the balloon to show our childhood innocence. During Emily's solo we decided to use a motif of a lifted leg to the side that we have already used in our trio already when we circle the balloon. The first time we need this motif we all did the movement together,however we developed the motif during the solos as Emily does this movement on her own. After we choreographed Emily's solo we moved onto mine and Abigail's solo's. Our two solos also needed to be 12 counts long. Abigail's solo used more sustained movements than mine to show our characters ages. After these sections were completed we moved onto our new unison section where we show that Emily is no longer an innocent child whereas me and Abigail are. This idea is shown by the use of direction; Me and Abigail dance towards the balloon when Emily dances away from the balloon, however Emily's movements have more force than ours do as she is no longer innocent.  In our next choreography lesson we plan to choreograph the ending section of our dance, where Abigail's character dances with Emily to show that she is also no longer innocent and I am left dancing alone with the balloon before we end with another unison section and letting go of the balloon to show that all of us are no longer innocent therefore the balloon is no longer needed.

Trio Choreography Lesson 5 (Abigail)

Today we had our fifth choreography lesson and we were very prepared as we already had ideas ready before we started the lesson. To begin to tell the story even further, we decided to start with our solo section. Within this solo section, we decided that each solo must have at least one movement towards the balloon as the balloon represents our childhood innocence,therefore the movements towards the balloon show that we are all still innocent. Each solo must be 12 counts long and each solo must be different to demonstrate the different ages of the three characters. Since Emily was the person already stood in front of the balloon,we decided she should be the first person to have a solo,then Caitlin and then me. Since Emily is the oldest character her solo used several turns and sustained leg movements. In Emily's solo she uses a leg movement which all three dancers do earlier on in the choreography. This is a developed motif as, at first, three dancers do the movement and now only one dancer does the movement.  We then choreographed Caitlin's solo. Caitlin's solo is the only solo with a jump in as she is the youngest character. Finally we choreographed my solo. As my character is older than Caitlin's character but younger than Emily's character I decided that my solo should be a solo of very sustained choreography to show that my character is around the teenage years.  Due to this, my solo includes a ponche and a backbend. After the solos were completed we moved onto a unison section. At this point, Emily will no longer dance with the balloon to demonstrate that she has grown up and is no longer innocent. To represent this stimulus,we decided that Emily will dance in the opposite direction to me and Caitlin to show that she has lost her childhood innocence before us. Me and Caitlin dance towards the balloon whereas Emily dances away from it. Despite this section involving unison,Emily uses more force when dancing to show the fact that she is no longer innocent and doesn't want to dance near or with the balloon as the balloon represents innocence. Next lesson we focus on the final minute of our choreography. In this last section, I will begin to dance with Emily instead of Caitlin to show that I am no longer innocent. After this we will all dance a unison section together before Caitlin lets go of the balloon to signify the ending of the choreography but also to show that all three of us are no longer innocent therefore the balloon is no longer needed.

Trio Choreography Lesson 5 (Emily)

Today we had our fifth choreography lesson. During today's lesson we decided to add as much choreography on to the piece as possible,following on from what we had created in our last choreography lesson. We came into our lesson  with a few ideas. One of the ideas was to start off with my solo and carry on from there .We had 12 counts each to create for this section of the trio showing me losing my childhood innocence and wanting to let go of the balloon . When choreographing our solos we decided that we should all do at least one movement towards the balloon to show our childhood innocence. During my solo we had the idea to develop a motif  we had used with a leg that we all do together during our section where we travel around the balloon . After these sections were completed ,we started to create Abigail and Caitlin's solos which also needed to be 12 counts . Abigail and Caitlin then follow on with their solos. Everyone's solos needed different moves to show the different ages of the three characters.  We then created our unison section. I use more angrier movements compared to Caitiln and Abigail in this part as I have left my childhood innocence and begin to no longer dance with the balloon. I also do this section a opposite way to Caitlin and Abigail to show the difference between us as I have lost my childhood innocence and Caitlin and Abigail haven't .Next lesson we will be finishing off this unison section and adding on the choreography off getting Abigail as the middle girl to come away from the balloon with me , whereas we will leave Caitlin to dance alone with the balloon , before we eventually end with our final unison section that shows that all of three of our characters are no longer innocent as this final section will show the balloon being let go off .