Personal Review and Reflection

 This week I have completed the first full draft of my independent solo choreography and even though there are some slight changes to be made and a significant amount of cleaning to do I am really happy and proud of my work nevertheless I am please with how I have challenged myself both as a choreographer and dancer throughout this process.

The new section I have created and added to my piece, is the ending where the character starts to lose hope of being rescued and gives up on trying as they believe it is over when it gets to the eleventh day. This then develops into the use of repetition with much smaller and intricate movements to represent hearing the boat which rescues the stranded men. This section is much more emotional as there are a mixture of feelings involved such as happiness to have survived and finally being found  whereas there is also the feeling of desperation whilst feeling very weak and unrecognisable as the eleventh day comes.

 (Smith, 2016)

 

Thinking back to the learning outcomes of my independent choreography I feel I have met the learning outcomes with my choreography as well as research I have put in to the choreography and these next few weeks, I will continue to work towards achieving these to ensure my solo is the best it can be. 

The first criteria I feel I have met is to: demonstrate an in-depth knowledge and understanding of a key choreographer including stylistic and interpretative qualities within their work and historical context and I have done this with my research into my chosen practitioner Alexandra Whitley, using his choreographic process as well as movement qualities as inspiration for my solo. The second criteria I feel I have met is: critically review received knowledge, evaluate arguments, and formulate an independent view in both written and oral submissions. I feel I have met this requirement as in my feedback from my teacher and peers I have been able to ask as well as answer questions about my choreography and apply this to my written work. The third requirement is: be able to realise a solo performance from a range of sources, as my piece is now complete and I have been able to run and perform it in the studio it has allowed me to self reflect on my choreography as well as research into different choreographer's creative processes and see how it all comes alive on stage, especially with my chosen practitioner Alexandra Whitley. 

 

Over the next few weeks I need to ensure that I work on remembering my solo and performing the whole ten minutes without stopping with the use of props and edited music as well as ensuring I have a contrast in dynamics so the energy of my movement and phrases matches the music and the storytelling, as this was something I received a few times when getting feedback from my teacher and peers.

 

As stated above, the past few sessions and showings of my choreography I have received feedback from my teacher and peers, I have found the feedback really useful and the feedback has allowed me to evaluate and reflect on specific sections from an audience’s point of view. Some of the feedback includes: working on dynamics so the music doesn’t overpower my movements, using a bigger prop so my movements aren’t restricted and exploring the space more with my choreography. These are all things I have considered and will continue to work on as it comes to the last few weeks of working on my solo before performing the choreography for the assessment. 

References 

Smith, V., 2016. Amazing story of downed World War 2 RAF crew who survived 11 days in freezing Atlantic in a tiny dinghy. [image] Available at: <https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/amazing-story-downed-world-war-7579828> [Accessed 5 February 2022].