Town called malice
pencil full of lead
bus dance 1
zoo
bus dance 2
sweet shop
Ninja dance
beach
alone dance
dead in the water
roller-coaster of love
bus dance 3


The ZOO DANCE:

During this dance, the children visit the zoo and cause havoc by trying to steal all of the animals from the zoo, but in the end get caught and marched back to the bus. This dance is very fun, and as performers allows us to show our interaction with each other, as well as developing our technique reflecting on the different types of animals that we come into contact with at the zoo. The zoo dance is very different from the other dances, as it requires more characterisation due to the fact that it is not heavily choreography with dance movements.  This dance is to 'Animal march' from the tellitubbies, and this gives it a real childlike quality, and makes it very exciting for the audience to watch.


BUS DANCE 2

This dance is our transition from the sweetshop to the beach, however the choreography is not very different from the original bus dance, but some sections are developed and rearranged. In this dance, we begin to travel though the city, and the children start to get really excited. They begin to get agitated and start dancing around on the bus. However, Mr Briggs is sure to keep a close eye on all the children and their mischievous behaviour. Even though this dance is different from the other bus dances, the high level of characterisation is still required for it still to be enjoyable for the audience.

SWEET SHOP

This dance is all about the schools stop at a sweet store, and how the children see this as an opportunity to stock up for the journey ahead. They begin to start stealing sweets from the store, and still manage not to get caught by the shop owner or Mr Briggs. This dance is very upbeat and reflects the excitement of the children on their journey, and also this dance demonstrates a lot of jazz techniques and qualities.

NOT RELEVNT

Costume

For my characters costume, I want to reflect the idea of him being at school, however suggest the fact that he is quite rebellious. I will do this by wearing a standard school uniform as shown below, but wit subtle hints such as rolling up my blazer sleeves, and doing my tie  unneatly, these all suggest the idea of not sticking to the appropriate standard of school uniform.

However when thinking about my costume, I must still think about my manoeuvrability in the costume as I will still have to dance feely. I will have elasticated shorts to increase the amount of movement I can use and also by wearing shorts, my movement is not limited in any way.



JAZZ DANCE


Jazz dance is a classification shared by a broad range of dance styles. Before the 1950's, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. In the 1950's, a new genre of jazz dance — modern jazz dance — emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance. Every individual style of jazz dance has roots traceable to one of these two distinct origins. Jazz was a big hit in the early 50's and it is still a well loved style of dance all over the world. Moves Used In Jazz Dance include Jazz Hands, Kicks, Leaps, Sideways Shuffling, Rolled Shoulders, and Turned Knees.

The term "Jazz" was first applied to a style of music and dance during World War I.  Jazz in a dance form, however, originates from the vernacular dances of Africans when they were brought to the Americas on slave ships. This dance form developed alongside jazz music in New Orleans in the early 1900;s. Beginning in the 1930's and continuing through the 1960's, Jazz dance transformed from this vernacular form into a theatre-based performance form of dance that required a highly trained dancer. During this time, choreographers from the modern and ballet dance worlds experimented with the jazz dance style. This includes choreographers like George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Jack Cole, Hanya Holm, Helen Tamiris, Michael Kidd, Jerome Robbins, and Bob Fosse. All of these choreographers influenced jazz by requiring highly trained dancers to perform a specific set of movements, which differed greatly from the colloquial form of New Orleans in the 1900s.[3][4] Also during this time period (circa. 1950) jazz dance was profoundly influenced by Caribbean and other Latin American dance styles which were introduced by anthropologist and dancer Katherine Dunham. Jazz is also like choreography too.

Throughout its history, jazz dance has developed in parallel to popular music. This pattern of development has resulted in a few elements of movement key to the dance style, the most important being that jazz is they physical embodiment of the popular music of a given time. An example of this is that during a down time of jazz dancing from 1945–1954, when big bands and dance halls were declining, the vernacular of the dance followed less jazz music and leaned more toward rock and roll, creating moves like "The Monkey" and "The Jerk".
Syncopated rhythm is a common characteristic in jazz music that was adapted to jazz dance in the early twentieth century and has remained a significant characteristic.
Isolations are a quality of movement that were introduced to jazz dance by Katherine Dunham.
Improvisation was an important element in early forms of jazz dance, as it is an important element of jazz music.
A low centre of gravity and high level of energy are other important identifying characteristics of jazz dance. Other elements of jazz dance are less common and are the stylizations of their respective choreographers. One such example are the inverted limbs and hunched-over posture of Bob Fosse.

(IMAGES & TIMELINE)



SYNCOPATION

In music, syncopation involves a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected which make part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat. More simply, syncopation is a general term for "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of rhythm": a "placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn't normally occur."
Syncopation is used in many musical styles, and is fundamental in styles such as ragtime, jazz, jump blues, funk, reggae, hip hop, progressive electronic dance music, progressive rock, progressive metal, groove metal, break beat, drum'n'bass, samba, baião, ska, and dubstep. "All dance music makes use of syncopation and it's often a vital element that helps tie the whole track together". In the form of a back beat, syncopation is used in virtually all contemporary popular music.

Pucks Diary Entry

Dear Diary,

For goodness sake! I just can't take this any more! All I do is follow him around ALL DAY and still he does not give me his ultimate trust and respect. Oberon is such an imbecile. All I ever am is nice to him, and all he does is throw it back in my face! I never liked him anyway, and to be honest I think I would make a better sprite king than him any day. In all honesty I just think he jealous at the fact Titania thinks I am way better looking than he is. She has always preferred me, and I secretly think that he feels threatened by me. One day I will be king and I will send HIM flying round putting juice in people's eyes.. Oh and lets not forget the fact that he makes me fly half way around the world to get a bloody flower just to get back at Titania.

Today, he told me to put one drop in the eye of an Athenian lover.. and of course I did it wrong as I can never to anything right for that massive oath. WELL I AM SORRY BUT NEXT TIME BE MORE SPECIFIC TO WHICH ATHENIAN LOVER AS THERE IS FOUR OF THEM!! Sorry about the rant diary, I just need to cage up my anger towards him. This way I can continue tomorrow to follow him round and be the nice and friendly servant the he abuses and tortures with his ridiculous requests. I just want to drowned him in his own fairy dust, and then put the love juice in his eye and make him fall in love with a bloody watermelon!  what an idiot!

Anyway, less about that son of a peasant dog, and on to something more positive! Tomorrow, I have night off and i'm going to take that really hot fairy Flutterboom out for a drink or two. She seems really interested, and as Titania won't admit her feelings for me, Flutterboom is the next best thing! She even said she was up for a little fairy fun, and that is an offer no sprite could say no too. Any way, it's time I hit the pillow and get some rest so I am feeling fresh to take some more abuse from Oberon the goat! Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to push him off a cliff or something.. or maybe turn him into a donkey? To push or not to push,, that is the question? Goodnight diary.

Puck (Servant to Oberon the sprite king)

Stanivslaski Work

In order for us to look at our characters in a way that would help us 'become' our character, we had to look at the practitioner Stanivslaski and his idea of creating a high degree of physiological involvement with the character that you are playing. Stanislavski treated theatre-making as a serious endeavor, requiring dedication, discipline and integrity. Throughout his life, he subjected his own acting to a process of rigorous artistic self-analysis and reflection.

Konstantin Sergeievich Alekseiev (Benedetti, 1988, 3)  17 January [O.S. 5 January] 1863 – 7 August 1938) was a Russian actor and theatre director

"Stanivslaki created a system of training actors in a methodical way and is strongly associated with realistic theatre. This system was designed to create a high degree of psychological involvement of the actor with the role he or she is playing"

Magic if: Stanislavski believed that the truth that occurred onstage was different than that of real life, but that a 'scenic truth' could be achieved onstage. A performance should be believable for an audience so that they may appear to the audience as truth. One of Stanislavski's methods for achieving the truthful pursuit of a character's emotion was his 'magic if.' Actors were required to ask many questions of their characters and themselves. 

Objectives: The objective is a goal that a character wants to achieve. This is often worded in a question form as "What do I want?" An objective should be action-oriented, as opposed to an internal goal, to encourage character interaction onstage. The character doesn't necessarily have to achieve the objective, and the objective can be as simple as the script permits. For example, an objective for a particular character may simply be 'to pour a mug of tea.' For each scene, the actor must discover the character's objective. Every objective is different for each actor involved because they are based on the characters of the script.

Given Circumstance: The term given circumstances is applied to the total set of environmental and situation conditions which influence the actions that a character in a drama undertakes. Although a character may make such choices unconsciously, the actor playing the character is aware of such conditions on a conscious level to help him or her deepen his or her understanding of the motivation behind the character's actions.

The Units: In order for Stanislavski to effectively create this map, or method, of physical actions, he created and defined acting units. In a foundation sense, a unit is any portion of a scene that an objective is established for an actor. In any given scene, there may be a single unit or multiple units.

Selected character: Puck

Objective: Puck wants to gain respect from oberon, and for him to gain the ultimate level of trust.

Through Objective: Puck wants to be the most important of all the sprites, and he does this by working his way up the ladder of heirachy by gaining respect from Oberon.

Stanislavski Fact File

• The Russian actor and director Constantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938) originated a system of acting.
• He was a co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre, where his productions achieved the zenith in 20th-century naturalism.
• Constantin Stanislavsky was born Constantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev on Jan. 18, 1863, in Moscow.
• His stage name, Stanislavsky, was taken from an actor whom he met in amateur theatricals. 
• Stanislavsky's excellent classical education included singing, ballet, and acting lessons as well as regular visits to the opera and theatre.
• By the age of 14 he was acting in performances at the family estate, where his father had built a theatre.
• After completing his formal education, Stanislavsky entered the family business, enthusiastically devoting himself at the same time to a career in semi-professional theatre.
• Beginning in 1888 he directed and acted in performances for the Society of Art and Literature, which he had founded, and he continued these productions until 1897 under the sponsorship of the Hunting Club.
• He developed a performance process known as method acting, allowing actors to use their personal histories to express authentic emotion and create rich characters. 
• He died in Moscow in 1938.
• In June 1897, he and playwright/director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko decided to open the Moscow Art Theatre, which would be an alternative to standard theatrical aesthetics of the day.
• In 1912, Stanislavski created First Studio, which served as a training ground for young Thespians.
• Stanislavski worked on providing a guiding structure for actors to consistently achieve deep, meaningful and disciplined performances.
• He believed that actors needed to inhabit authentic emotion while on stage and, to do so, they could draw upon feelings they'd experienced in their own lives.
• Stanislavski also developed exercises that encouraged actors to explore character motivations, giving performances depth and an unassuming naturalism while still paying attention to the parameters of the production.
• In 1917 Stanislavski faced some criticism for not producing communist works, yet he was able to maintain his company's unique perspective and not contend with an imposed artistic vision
• .During a performance to commemorate the Moscow Art Theatre's 30th anniversary, Stanislavski suffered a heart attack. 
• Stanislavski spent his later years focusing on his writing, directing and teaching. He died on August 7, 1938, in the city of his birth.
• Stanislavski treated theatre-making as a serious endeavour, requiring dedication, discipline and integrity. 
• Stanislavski's work was as important to the development of socialist realism in the Soviet Union as it was to that of Physiological realism in the United States.

Character analysis

Though there is little character development in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and no true protagonist, I believe Puck is the most important character in the play. He is portrayed as being mischievous and  quick-witted. He is important as his action set many of the play’s events in motion with his magic, by means of both deliberate pranks on the human characters (transforming Bottom’s head into that of an ass) and unfortunate mistakes (smearing the love potion on Lysander’s eyelids instead of Demetrius’s).

 Puck’s childish spirit, magical fancy, fun-loving humour, and lovely personality, evocative language adds to the atmosphere of the play. With contrasts, such as the  comparison between the rough, dirty male sprites and the delicate fairies. Puck seems to illustrate many of these contrasts within his own character: he is graceful but not too overpowering as Oberon is always watching him. he is given  a certain mischievousness, which leads him to transform Bottom’s head into that of an ass merely for the sake of enjoyment. He is good-hearted but capable of cruel tricks. Finally, whereas most of the fairies are beautiful, Puck is often portrayed as somewhat bizarre looking. Indeed, another fairy mentions that some call Puck a “hobgoblin,” a term whose connotes are decidedly less glamorous than those of “fairy”.

Photographs from Rachel's lesson