It starts off with all of us running onstage to random spots with chairs. This was effective as the stage space goes from having only two actors to around 20 in a matter of moments. It creates a hectic busy atmosphere which is ideal when trying to portray an end of year school scene.
The four movement motif is effective as it introduces the audience to our characters and allows there to be movement but nothing too distracting to take away focus from Reecey and Joe. I thought I performed these moves well as I did this with while pulling funny facial expressions which linked to the movement. In one of the performances Megan accidently hit me in the face as we placed ourselves a little too close to each other. Therefore, for that movement I scrunched up my face which made a few people laugh.
Moving into the two lines was done very smoothly and without much difficulty. This meant that everyone was in time and ready for the next movement. When half of us stood up and half swung chairs. During this part I believe my movements were sufficient to those of a school child. As I almost jumped up and looked around innocently as if I had done nothing wrong. I believe that in order to improve I could have varied my facial expressions and possibly interacted with other people to make it look even more natural. But, all in all I am happy with how I performed this motif.
Our freestyle movement phrase after we shout 'freedom' could of had even higher energy levels throughout the performance. As because some parts were choreographed we were focusing on timing meaning at times facial expressions could be lost. It gained energy the more shows we did but I felt it could have been expressed better and performed even better. For example, we could have made banners and signs about the end of school and the about the school year and stuff. Adding in a visual Brechtian technique. However, I believe we all did a very good performance.
I believe the choir motif was effective as it broke up a lot of the busy ensemble choreography and gave the audience a fixed point to focus on for a little while. For example, we were all clumped together in a spotlight then broke out ready to play 'tug of war' with the head teacher. I thought this was very smooth and visually pleasing as we very quick and efficiently got in clumped to 'pull' the head teacher then snaked around circling them. A part from after the freedom motif this was when the adlibbing started to become more prominent. For example, people were cheering and shouting.
I believe on both nights our duet fight piece was slightly out of time with one another as people forgot to watch Megan and Valencia who were the time keepers for that particular part of the dance. However, that could be seen as effective as one by one we were kicked to the other side of the stage and formed the two groups/gangs.
My little motif with Megan went fairly well I thought as it was only a simple filler movement. For example, we came into the space then did a little jump each side of the audience then ran crossovers before curling into a ball for the boys to jump over. This kept pace as our little motif started fairly slow but gained speed as we progress. I.E we ran to curl into balls where at the start we half walked/jogged to our first positions. Even though this was a small motif it was crucial to the performance as it was familiarising the audience with our characters and foreshadowing our involvement in the rest of the show.
The next part was when we all split into two groups but formed four lines flowing into our finale motif. At first it was just Valencia/Fran and Charlotte/Nathan. They would start by walking slowly with sharp arms and legs towards each other but crossing paths to start creating a vertical line going from downstage to upstage. After Valencia/Fran and Charlotte/Nathan had crossed paths the rest of us would start our slow sharp walking movements. This was effective as it was gradually building up and creating tensions/pace as the finale of the piece was nearing. I believe that my movements were strong and sharp creating a jerky and a staccato dynamic of movement. Once we were in lines we then quicked our steps going forward and backwards whilst the main two ran around reading to walk down the centre ilse. If done right this would be visually effective as it would be a line of dancers in unison performing a fast movement piece. On both nights this was successful and raised the energy between us onstage and for the auidnece. Whilst doing this I added in some of my own characterisaiton by looking at certain characters i.e. Billie (sister) and pulling funny faces whilst singing 'Baggy Trousers...temptations on his way'. This would then create a more hyped energetic performance.
The finale of the dance was our running downstage and falling into a clump on the floor. Cheering and wooping celebrating the end of the school year. This was effective as it can be connected with memories of at school and school leavers as well as sort of showing our journey of 'being at school, getting the end of term, then finishing. In each show the positions at the end would change depending on how people landed/slid but this made it more uniwue and fresh. As then we could naturally fall into a positon and have more fun rather than try to focus of choregraphing it and looking disorientated and distracted if we couldn't get into that position for then end of the song. This was a more enjoyable ending for us as performers and the audience watching as it looked like we were having fun and enjoying ourselves meaning they would feel relaxed and do the same.
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