Unit 50 - Baggy Trousers Variety Performance

What went well?•Stamina – this is a long piece, and requires energy throughout the whole thing to keep the audience interested. During rehearsals it was clear that we all lacked energy towards the end, but in the performance this was something I kept up throughout. For example, when Harry and Andy jump over Jennah and Meghan, and Valencia and Charlotte did their solo, I kept doing the scissor jump and high knee jumps with straight, jagged sharp actions, for about 8 bars. This meant that we weren’t just waiting around for their duets to be done, but kept the energy and interest up, smoothly moving into the next section.
•Commitment to Levels – From an audience point of view, looking at a group of people on stage can be boring or formulaic, (eg all in lines), but my use of levels during the piece in the choreographed and improvised sections give variety and depth to the piece. For example, Charlotte and I using piggy backs, and the staging a the back, doing large dynamic leaps, with all limbs stretched out and tensed, to ducking on the floor. It’s the shade and light, the contrast of how it looks ascetically which works. Furthermore, when we are in two lines, Valencia's and Charlotte’s, we do the our house march, ducking and then standing, by fully committing to this it gives a uniform look within our lines, with sharp pointed hands adding to the edge of the piece.
•Communicating the story and character – This was done from the type of movement we did, and how we executed it. For example, when we did high knees, not doing it in a uniform, sporty way. But in a messy, exaggerated fashion whereby we communicate a sense of carelessness, recklessness and other childlike traits. This can also be shown through how we interact with others. My rude and gestures and defensive body language with Charlotte further communicated the idea of childish adolescent banter that school kids have. Finally this can be shown through lack of communication with other characters, for example I blatantly ignored Raven, with the way my body was facing, my eye line and my facial expressions, showing that as a misbehaving student, I am ignoring a teacher
What we could have done better- Facial Expressions-  Whilst this is a key part of the four gestures at the start of the piece, I was aware that after this I lacked enthusiastic facial expressions, Through the loss of this, I didn’t communicate my characters emotions as well as I could, and to an audience member, could have seemed to be disengaged. An example of this is when Vicky and I do our duet, I ended up looking at my feet, instead of communicated the sassy attitude my character had at his particular moment. I think I didn’t look up because I wasn’t familiar with the routine as much as I’d have liked to be performing it live, so for next time will make sure I know it so that I can confidently look up and show the expressions of my character.- Precision of Movement during the Fight Duet -  I had missed the cue to this duet, which completely though me off. I didn’t show the sharpness of attitude with fully extended leg kicks, tight and tensed punches and big, reactive responses. In order to communicate this better I need to be more rigid about the movement, and react more quickly as if it was a real fight scene. At the end of the duet I kick charlotte away, but My kick was slow and soft (through not meaning to hurt her). To fix this I need to straighten my leg, and change the tempo of the kick from slow to suddenly fast with a sense of attack about it, pointed feet and kicking with intention.