Performance Journal
Week 1:
During the first week of rehearsal period, I was unavailable as I had prior commitments with my dance company that I had to fulfil. One of those included performing at Wembley Stadium for the Prime Minister of UK and India. Although I missed the week, I was sent videos of choreography through social media by my colleagues, and therefore I could look at the videos and catch up with the choreography.
Strengths: I was able to catch up with the choreography through videos
Weaknesses: I was not physically present to in order to learn the choreography with the correct technique.
Week 2:
During this week our aim was to produce a short piece of choreography that would be included in the main piece. A colleague who was given the responsibility began to do so. I started by learning the sections I had missed the previous week with the correct technique as I wanted to make sure I did not injure myself in any way. This week, we also started learning some new sections of choreography which was not structured in the piece yet however, they would by the end of next week.
Strengths: I was able to pick up choreography quite quickly.
Weaknesses: This same week I had to hand in my persoanl statement so I was more focused on that and could not completely focus on choreography.
Week 3:
The main aim for this week was to complete the choreographing the entire piece, so we can begin to polish our work. By the end of the week, we began rehearsing in the Endeavour Theatre in order to get used to the space with the travelling sequences, positions, timing and changing sides backstage.
Strengths: We were able to the complete the entire piece
Weaknesses: As soon as we went into the theatre, due to the bigger space we found it difficult to position the piece.
Week 4:
We spent this whole week polishing our work by either adding or subtracting sections or people that did not quite do justice to the piece. This entire week we rehearsed in the Endeavour Theatre, so that any sections that needed adjustments could be done in the space with whosoever available. The main theme in rehearsals was performance and focus point. In order to perform effectively, we need keep our chin up and project the conviction through our faces to the audience and also present the theme of the act through our performance.
Strengths: We were successful in cleaning the piece and placing it into the theatre.
Weaknesses: The focal point for all the dancers needs to be worked upon and everyone performing the piece need to understand the concept of the piece in order to express.
Week 5:
This was the performance week. We had our final rehearsals two days before the show where we went through each section one at a time and polished each dancers' movement so that the choreography is thorough. We conducted technical rehearsals a day before the show and the main notes given out was to perform with conviction and to add energy in the piece. The first performance on Wednesday, 9th December went very well and rather quickly.
The second performance on Thursday, 10th December was apparently better than any rehearsals that we have had or even better than the performance the previous night.