Joshua Moreton
Dance Logbook
Week 18
This week we were lucky enough to be taught by an experienced dance instructor, who helped us explore simple movements which would later enable us to choreograph a small routine.
This was performed in the safe environment of the sports hall, it was evident that a risk assessment had took place, which resulted in me feeling safe and comfortable whilst taking part in the Dance session. The reason the working environment was safe, was because the floor was dry and clear, as well as the absence of obstructing objects, which could have had an adverse effect on mine and my peers health.
In terms of content, I and my peers were split into small groups and were told the key aspects that make a successful Dance performance, these were:
-Jumps
-Gestures
-Travels
-Turns
-Falls
We were then left to collectively devise small routines which would provide the foundations for our final performance in week 3 of Dance.
This week I learnt about the philosophy of Rudolph Laban, whose belief was that everything involved with Dance was categorised by his principle of movements. This belief asks questions about our movement, questions such as why do we do this? What do we do during this? Or even how do we do this? This knowledge empowered me to understand and link the critical aspects of Dance, into my performance.
In term of evaluation, a positive of week 1 of Dance, was that the session was rich with knowledge, which added value to my Dancing experience. This was because we were giving the fundaments of a dance routine, which in effective made my groups choreographing much easier, because we knew what we had to include. Another positive component of the session was that the idea of group work made me feel more comfortable with doing dance. This is because I did not feel embarrassed, being as peers were also put in this awkward predicament with me.
Things I feel could be improved about the session are that more time could have been allocated to choreographing our actual routine. This reason this was bad, was because my group failed to add more complex movements to our routine, which means that more work will have to be done next week, which could result in the final performance appearing as rushed. In order to improve this, less time should be spent on knowledge based activities, and more time should be allocated to us for devising a routine, thus maximising the chance to make our performance aesthetically pleasing.
Another recommendation of mine would be for the teacher to allocate us themes, rather than allowing us to choose our own. This was bad because I and my group are largely inexperience in dance, so it was a bit too much of an overload to choose a suitable theme ourselves, and to construct a routine around this. A fitting solution to this would be for the teacher to allocate us different themes, which would allow me and other groups to concentrate on illustrating the theme through movement.
All in conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised as to how much I enjoyed this dance session. This think the underlying cause of this enjoyment was that I was able to work with friends of mine, this made me feel much more comfortable in an activity that I had not done before, which obviated the potential cause of internal embarrassment.
Personal targets for Dance
I aim to attain the ability to express my chosen theme through dance, I should be able to do this through a series of simple to more complex movements that will enable my body to portray a visual and aesthetic message. The time period in which my aim must be reached will be in 3 weeks’ time, when I am ordered to perform my dance in front of my peers and assessors. This will be measured by the degree of complexity I can successfully complete dance moves.
Professional targets for Dance
I aim to successful depict my groups chosen theme through the art of dance and creative movement. The time scale I have to do this is 3 weeks, in which I will have to have