Final Evaluation

Final Evaluation: 

Context: 

The performance concept of this piece was a cabaret evening, this is because this style of performance allows various kinds of acts to be performed such as singing and dancing. Having a cabaret style performance also gave us the opportunity to connect more with the audience, constantly breaking the fourth wall and creating a night out atmosphere. A few pieces I was interested in doing was a dance about the tornado from the ‘Wizard of Oz’ as a solo and ‘Peter Pan’ or ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as a duet that I'd choreograph to improve on my choreographic skills. 

To begin we needed to research about what a cabaret was and what they included, such as it was a pub that showcased acts like singing, dancing and comedy where people expressed themselves. To create a cabaret themed performance, the things that we had to consider was how we were going to create the atmosphere of a cabaret whether that be the performances or the layout of the stage and the audience. We discussed how we can establish that relationship with the audience by having them sit at tables that are set around the stage as if the audience were customers in a restaurant and having a small stage in the center of the stage where the MC introduced the next act. When choreographing the dance pieces, I needed to consider the spacing that we had left because of the stage and how to connect to the audience, for example during pieces if we run through the audience. 

Initially, before the cabaret concept we had another idea planned for this unit, this was going to be a play that talked about what you don’t see leading up to a performance, letting everyone know what the struggles of a performer off the stage are. However, we came to the realisation that this did not benefit any of our skills as it included writing a script and making characters and acting as them especially for me and Marshall as we are not actors. Separating ourselves from the characters and the struggles was another problem we faced with project so it had the effect of no impact as it felt to others perspectives that we were playing ourselves. After the decision to discontinue this offstage project, we came upon the idea of a cabaret as it allows a variety of performances, which is great for our group, as we all have different skills. Another idea that I threw away was the tornado dance from the ‘Wizard of Oz’, this was because I found it difficult to find a starting point and that the idea wasn’t inspiring me greatly for choreography, as I felt too restricted as I had to portray a character and tell the story. This led me to change the focal point all together and not base my solo off of a musical but a videogame called ‘Contrast’ as there are many different interpretations you can take from a game. 

As a group we had decided on ‘All that jazz’ from Chicago for the opening number, ‘You can’t stop the beat’ from Hairspray for the entrance to the second half and ‘Hard to say goodbye’ from Dreamgirls as the finale number. ‘All that jazz’ was chosen as its intention was to pull the audience in and to act as a way to tell the audience that lots of exciting performances were to come and so, I feel that it’s a good song to choose for the start of the cabaret. ‘You can’t stop the beat’ was chosen as it was a very upbeat song and this was to keep the audience on the edge off their seats. ‘Hard to say goodbye’ was chosen as the finale number as it acted as a way to say thank you to the audience for coming and hoping that they enjoyed the cabaret show. Marshall and I picked ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for both of our duets as the story is well known, and putting our own spin on the characters and the story will be interesting for the audience. I chose my solo to be based off the video game because like I have done, there are many other ways to interpret the story and aim of the game and so putting this in a cabaret show will get the audience to create their own view. 

While doing initial research on the characters in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ the relationship between Alice and the White Rabbit is funny, as she follows the rabbit nonstop and making him late, so to make it work for the theme of a cabaret the solution was to add comedic value to the choreography, research that I looked at was the mistake waltz as the sole purpose of that is things go wrong but on purpose and I wanted to add that in. I think for every piece you had to consider how is this going to connect to the audience, and researching storylines and characters and becoming that character and telling the story is one way. I was able to create a more stylised choreography to ‘All that jazz’ thanks to researching Bob Fosse and previous versions of the song. 

I think the cabaret theme worked really well, as it was a great way to link all the pieces together as one performance rather than a selection of pieces. The staging was effective with the audience at the tables and the stage at the back where each act was announced, they both created the perfect atmosphere. I think for the group pieces ‘All that jazz’ and ‘You can’t stop the beat’ were the right choice to go with as they have the energies that a cabaret should have, but when it comes to ‘Hard to say goodbye’ I feel like the song lacks impact as a finale number and I feel like it doesn’t match very well with the cabaret theme, however you can take it as if the nights coming to an end so it’s time to wind it down slightly, even though I think it didn’t fit that well, I feel that all the group pieces were successful. I don’t think we did enough research for the group pieces at the beginning, as once I had researched Bob Fosse and his style of dance, there was no clear reference in the previous choreography so I changed the choreography so it fit better, for ‘You can’t stop the beat’ the choreography could have been more exciting and more to the decade as we made slight references throughout the dance and for ‘hard to say goodbye’ it was hard to decide on how we were performing it and we kept changing it, from lots of choreography to none at all and then finally very minimal. I think if we had planned properly and researched more effectively before the making process, they would’ve been more effective. 

For the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ duets, I feel that these pieces don’t necessarily belong in a cabaret show, however when we added in the comedy element and running in and out of the audience it became more appropriate and successful for the theme of a cabaret. I think to get started I did an okay amount of research, but I think more research should’ve been completed during the developmental stages as it would’ve helped with characterisation and the story telling. 

When it comes to my solo it’s hard to know if the cabaret theme worked for this dance, as the audience was looking and learning from an outside perspective rather than going through the journey with me so I don’t think it was a great piece to choose to do for a cabaret. I do think that it was successful in getting the audience to interpret the piece in their own way about going on a journey. I did not do enough research initially about the game and how I could interpret it as I had changed the whole thing and added a focus later on, due to research I did later in the project. 

I think if I were to repeat a similar project, I would do more research in the planning stage, to be able to choreograph accurately to the themes/ stories of songs as this will create a more successful and effective performance. 

  

Research: 

Solo- for my solo I had to research the game ‘Contrast’, the story and the characters this is because I needed 

to have my own understanding of the game, in order to be inspired and create the choreography. I played the first chapter of the game and looked at the official website, what I learned from the game was that the main character has the ability to shift from being a 3D person into a 2D shadow, which became my main focus for my choreography. I brainstormed what came to mind when I thought about life and when I thought about shadows, this is because it pointed out emotions or relations to a specific theme; like danger, scary and sad or bouncy, bright and happy.This lead me to researching about how emotions can be portrayed through dance. Somewhere during the process, I hit a standstill and couldn’t figure out a narrative for the dance, so I researched more about the game looked at more videos and I realise that I shouldn’t base the choreography off of the emotions and the shadow and life, but what the character actually does.The character uses surrounding objects and nearby light sources to cast a shadow on the wall to get around, knowing this information I decided to research about parkour and using props in dance this helped me develop a narrative for my solo. The two research sources that I found the most helpful was the actual gameplay itself and the YouTube trailers as experiencing the game help me understand how the character moves and different ways to reach the next stage and the YouTube trailer is what made me realise that I was doing to the wrong narrative. I think I’ve spent too much focus on the emotions and shadow/life research, which delayed my progress on the choreography. There’s always room for more research and in the beginning, I don’t think I did enough, however right at this moment I feel I did enough to create a piece of work.  

Duets- With ‘Alice in Wonderland’ I researched the origin of the story, about the author and the relationship between Alice and the White Rabbit, this was to get some context of the story and to gain inspiration for the choreography especially for telling the story alongside playing a character, as playing a character, I needed to know what this character was like, how they acted by themselves or with another for example was the relationship between her and the White Rabbit a friendship, acquaintances or something in between. Watching one of the films adaptations the relationship starts off with the rabbit being annoyed at Alice, but as the film goes on they get closer and become friends, after learning that Marshall and I decided to create two parts to the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ duets as one will show them meeting and a distant relationship, and in the second it will show how they get closer and become friends. As the whole story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is bizzare, we decided that the choreography should replicate that for the first part, this is that us to researching the jive and a few simple steps from that dance style as it is very bouncy, we also wanted to add some comedy into the piece so we looked at the Mistake Waltz for inspiration of how we can use comedy in dance. After adding the comedy to the choreography it was easier to create the new choreography, as the dance became more of a character-based dance rather than a storytelling dance as it displays the relationship between the two characters. I think all the research I did was helpful in some way; I don’t think there was any unhelpful as I used bits and pieces of everything to make the piece.  I think what I could’ve done better was doing a little bit more research earlier on in the process as it would’ve helped me to understand the characters more, to make the choreography quicker so we had more time to clean and practice. 

Group pieces- For ‘All that jazz’ I researched Bob Fosse and his style of dance and different versions of the ‘All that jazz’ choreography. I did this because as a group we had begun to choreograph for the ‘All that jazz’ piece, however I felt that it was lacking but I didn’t know how, so I researched and saw that the choreography that we made as a group wasn’t stylised enough to be related back to Fosse. This allowed me to create a more engaging choreography. I found watching the stage show of ‘All that jazz’ on YouTube to be the most helpful, as it allowed me to take repertoire from the Fosse style of dance and made it clear to me what characteristics of that dance style is. For ‘You can’t stop the beat’ and ’Hard to say goodbye’ I didn’t do as much research as I did at the beginning and it was harder to create choreography for them, as I didn’t research the style of dance in that decade.I think I could’ve done more research for the group pieces, as I think the process could’ve gone smoother and quicker and making the choreography easier to make as well. 

Planning and production: 

When it came to the organisation of how we were going to plan everything out and how to make the process effective, we had all taken on an additional role, I was choreographer and Marshall as rehearsal director. At the start we had made rehearsal timetable, that we followed initially, however as time went on some people didn’t exactly follow that timetable and prioritised other things and using the day ineffectively; as we spent a whole day working on one thing, when we could’ve accomplished many things in one day if we followed the timetable. We also had our production meetings with the tech students on Mondays, where we discussed our initial ideas for lighting, staging and the set, for example the tables that the audience were going to sit at and the small stage at the back centre of the main stage, for when the MC introduces the next act and where some songs were sung.  

We also discussed our ideas on our social media group chat, where we talked about what pieces we wanted to do, or what we were going to work on the next day, discussing improvements and targets for the next rehearsal. We had to use the studio space as effectively as we could, so we used the group chat to discuss the plans for the day in order to not waste the time we have to rehearse in the studio. We also used our phones to record the rehearsals, and using the group chat sent them to each other to give the chance to reflect. 

Using the videos of our rehearsals, helped me as a choreographer, as it allowed me to see any issues with spacing or if I needed to alter choreography for anyone; if I didn’t spot them during the studio rehearsal; an example would be spacing as it shows me if there’s uneven spacing or if you can't see everyone or if someone kept forgetting found a certain movement hard I would find a way to adapt the movement to be easier. I gave feedback to my peers in rehearsals, in the studio and at home, by doing this, developments were made and this made it easier to move on with the next section. Thanks to the videos, I made the decision to change the choreography for ‘All that jazz’ because when I reviewed them at home, it was clear to me something needed to be done to make the piece more stylised to Bob Fosse. Due to teacher feedback that I had gotten for my solo, I was able to notice the issues and move on and establishing a narrative. 

Unfortunately, we did not stick to the rehearsal schedule that Marshall had made, which made the progress stop and start, this was because Dylan and Savannah wanted to focus on the group pieces as they practice their solos at home. This made working on the duets with Marshall and even our solos harder, as we needed to prioritise the studio space, as we don’t have that kind of facility at home. As I had to change the whole concept of my solo I couldn’t stick to the timetabled plan from my proposal. Despite all the disorganisation and changing of the pieces, we decided to focus on one thing a day to sort out everything to ensure that at least, some progress was made. 

I have learned that planning everything is essential to having a good performance, as you could end up with nothing to show. I don’t think we were efficient at all in this process, due to other people’s aims and priorities. I would definitely take more time in the beginning to plan out everything before starting, as it’s easier to follow and it will ensure that you are making progress and there would be less stress to think about what you have to do next. 

Technical/Practical skills: 

To get started, I needed to be organised by doing the starting research, planning of pieces and their choreography. By doing a solo, duet and a group piece it allowed me to showcase that I can choreograph for any amount of people, and by doing that gave me more experience for choreographing for others. I needed to have leadership and teamworking skills for this project as my role of choreographer is dependent on them. I participated in the singing warmups, in order to prepare for this project as I had to sing as a chorus member, I continued to train my body in the ballet, jazz and Pilates classes working on stamina, strength, control and flexibility. I received feedback from my teachers to use my core and dispersing my energy out, in order to have more power in my moves and that using my core will help with stability and control. I feel that I have grown more confident in choreographing for others and also my singing, for example singing in ‘Hard to say goodbye’ with a mic. I think I could’ve worked on my stamina more, because during ‘You can’t stop the beat’ I was getting out of breath easily and I found it hard to sing loudly, if I controlled my breathing better the 

piece would’ve had more energy.  

I think I had a good approach to the rehearsal process, giving out feedback to the rest of the group, coming in with choreography and ideas, but there were times where I felt unmotivated and didn’t always come prepared. I think that I could’ve done more planning and more organisation when I wasn’t motivated to pull through and not get behind. As a group I think the work ethic of some people could’ve have been a lot better, such as sticking to the rehearsal schedule, listening and applying corrections, not letting personal feelings affect the rehearsals and using the time and studio space wisely. I think if these everyone did follow this way of working, we could’ve made progress a lot faster, leaving more time for the improvement stage, making an opportunity to create an even better performance. 

I’ve learned that choreographing for others is easier for me, but as I don’t know their full capabilities it’s hard when I have to alter the choreography without losing the effect I wanted. I think I've also become more open and stable when I'm dancing, however I still need a lot more improvements to be able to dance more efficiently and effectively. I want to improve to be able to choreograph more ensemble pieces for a future as a choreographer. 

Presentation: 

We established early on in the process the running order, and it wasn’t until around halfway we added the idea of someone introducing the next act. The pieces were ordered in a way that each act allowed time for costume changes and for the show to have a change of pace. The pieces were ordered in a way that symbolised the cabaret night, an example is ‘Alice in Wonderland’ part 1, where Alice and the Rabbit meet for the first time you could compare it to the audience and performers meeting, the next part you could say was my solo, you can say the journey we’ll take you on is only just starting.  then in the second half with ‘Alice in Wonderland’ part 2, the premise of that dance was that the time to leave is approaching and once again that connects to the audience, and finally the finale number ’Hard to say goodbye’  telling the audience thanks for coming. 

To make the setting as close to a real cabaret as we can, we had the audience sit at tables around the stage, during the intro of ‘All that jazz’ Marshall and I ‘set’ the tables with candles. We also had mocktails as an audience may be eating and drinking during a cabaret performance. The use of the old-style microphone on the small stage, which was used during the introductions and when the performers moved from the small stage down to the stage floor, addressing and creating a relationship with the audience; during ‘Alice in Wonderland’ when we ran throughout the audience, breaking the fourth wall. 

For my solo, I had to have very specific lighting as it was one of the main features to get the concept across. I needed a spotlight on the boxes at specific times, as the light acts as a guide for my character. I had to tell the technical director to have less sidelights to create a dim setting, as the spotlight had to be strong enough to give off the guide effect. For the first duet we had to have a gobo of leaves that is placed in the middle to show Alice is in the woods sleeping on the grass, for the second we had more colours as Wonderland is a crazy place and the variety of colours show that. 

Props were needed for my solo. To resemble parkour I had three white blocks that I used to dance with I link these to the games aspect of puzzle solving as I have them scattered around the space and during the pice I bring them together. When I was trying to find a narrative for my solo, I looked more into the game and saw that using objects around to create a path was a big part of the game, so to recreate that I thought of using blocks. At first, I was using the art departments’ showcase boxes however these were too heavy and hard to move around, so I had the tech team make me some new ones that were lighter, I had measured the stand in boxes and gave the measurements to the tech team in order for them to get started. 

I had to order most of my costume, for my solo and the two duets, as they had to be specific to the characters I was playing, but for all the other pieces I already had or I got from the costume closet. The costume for ‘All that jazz’ was based on a waiter as a way to symbolise a cabaret and break the fourth wall. 

Setting the scene and atmosphere of a cabaret was successful as we connected with the audience directly and indirectly; the introductions communicating to the audience. 

Problem solving: 

The first thing to do was make sure that the theme of a cabaret suited best for this project, and the fact that a cabaret style is the best way to perform various acts in a performance, that connects all of them. However, having the space laid out the way it was, made me be more careful about choreography, having to think about moving further forward and taking the small stage into account during ‘All that jazz’. 

The problems that I expected, was the making of the blocks for my solo piece, the fact that the stand-in boxes I was using were so heavy, the question was how to make boxes that are lighter but was strong enough to be able to stand on them, so I handed that task to the tech team. One other thing with the boxes was moving them not only were they too heavy but there was no way to pick them up so I also asked the tech team to add cut out handles. 

Another problem was the singing overall, originally Marshall and I had solo parts in the songs, however due to the fact that we are not strong singers, we shouldn’t have solo parts that we’d be judged on. On the other hand, that didn’t mean that we shouldn’t sing at all, but as the ensemble/chorus, as there were only four of us; this was another problem because during ’You can’t stop the beat’ the song is a high energy song which needs to be sung full out but because of the lack of people it sounded empty. So, we solved that by making a backing vocal track with us singing the chorus which made it seem like more people were singing. We also had to use the handheld mics during ‘Hard to say goodbye’ which took time getting used to. 

We had the problem of time for costume/makeup changes, as the small number of performers didn’t cover enough, so in order to fix that we came up with the solution of a MC introducing the next act, this helped as it gave an extra minute for the next performer to get changed, it also helped establish the relationship to the audience and reinforced the setting of a cabaret. During the show I had a costume malfunction with the bow for ‘Alice in Wonderland’ where it began to fall off my head, so instead of just letting it fall I pulled it down to my neck, and when I got to the side of the stage in the next section of the choreography I threw it off to the side as if Alice was angry, because in the choreography it looks like the Rabbit just threw Alice to the side as a way to get rid of her, but as a way to not make it obvious I stayed in character and acted as if that was meant to happen and by still being ‘angry’ in the next few movements 

There were many times where choreography was a major problem that needed to be fixed, an example would be the ‘All that jazz’ and the ‘Hard to say goodbye’ choreography. When it came to ‘All that jazz’ it wasn’t only the choreography that was a problem, it was also the responses of the others, that came up as a problem. As choreographer I made the decision after discussing it with Marshall, to alter the choreography so it fit the style of Bob Fosse better and was more captivating, despite it being a change for the better, some people were more receptive of this reasoning. When I tried to teach the new choreography, I was met with people not going full out, not listening to directions, being on their phones instead of listening, trying to correct me on the choreography when I was explaining it to another and a lack of communication. This was solved when we had a talk about why it was changed as they found out I was being marked on choreography and that the original choreography lacked the style. The ‘Hard to say goodbye’ choreography changed many times during the process from being mainly a dance, to sitting on stools to having some choreography. We finally came to a conclusion that it shouldn’t contain much movement at all as the song is a personal song that movement would take the effect away from the song. 

I also had a problem during my solo, where I had to change the music as it no longer fitted what my solo was. I began searching for a song that I could relate to the game and the narrative of the dance and I came across ‘Shine a light- BANNERS', I thought this was suitable as in the game you can manipulate light sources that cast shadows which then create a path for the character. Some of the lyrics “Light will lead the way” “Shine a light on me” were the selling point of choosing the song. 

Even though it was challenging to deal with, without them the show wouldn’t have improved as it did. 

Overall, I think the choice of a cabaret show worked well for this type of performance, and for the amount of people we had to work with. It shows that planning and research is important for creating a piece and that at some point we needed more of it. The attitude towards rehearsals have a great impact on how smoothly the show will go, because if you are late or aren’t putting in the effort nothing will work. I think the evening performance went well as by that time we had fully grasped what a cabaret was and how it should be.   

In both rehearsals and performance as a group I think that they were times that we could’ve had more energy and focus but everyone did the choreography correctly. Individually I think I had a great performance, as I feel I was more open and extended, although there was a time where I slipped on the stage, I didn’t let that affect the rest of the performance alongside the bow mishap.