Unit 40 - Choreographing Skills: Rush

 Akram Khan's RUSH 

Rush Video Clip

Notes to think about when starting the review:

• India dance comptempary Kathak
•  -9 1/2 beats
• relation cannon changed of speed/temp retrograding
• blue wash/ plain
• repeating
• simple costumes
• options/backup
• star rating
• clips

My Review

Akram Khans’s Rush is in the style of contemporary dance, especially Kathak, which is a classical an Indian dance.

The dance is set as 9 1/2 beats and is performed in a trio. The stimulus for the dance and choreography is the idea of ‘free-falling’.

The lighting in Rush lit to be a blue wash and rather plain. This makes to stage look vey simple but shows bit of colour, maybe the lighting designer was trying to show some resemblance to the sky and link in with the stimulus and theme. The way the lighting has been done for this dance also makes it very easy to see the dancers and they do stand even when each dancer is wearing the same black costume on a black backdrop. I personally think the lighting is very effective. 

At the opening of the dance the lighting starts quite dark and brightens up as the pace of the music and movement picks up.

The music starts with the sound of swishing which connects and links with the movement. As the swishing noises increases and begins to sound like the wind you hear when you are going or jumping out of a plane, it matches in with the dances rotating their arms.

There are lot of choreographically devices used in Rush, for example ‘unison’. Unison is appears and is used in Rush when stillness and pauses happen, their left arms are in by the chest with the right arm extended out and stops. This use of union and pause creates an atmosphere of tension, very broken and being ‘on edge’.

The main device used in Rush is ‘cannon’, a lot of the time in this dance a short piece of movement is performed by one dancer and then is copied by the next straight after and so on again.

Akram Khan has tried to represent the movement when exiting a plane and starting the  ‘free-falling. He has done this by completely changing the dynamics of dance and especially by changing the speed and tempo. This is shown when the dancers perform their movements at a much faster pace, in unison as well, and begin to use a edge and slides of the stage and use the space a lot more effectively, just like having that space and freedom when jumping out of the plane. This shown very clearly to the audience and the audience can understand what is happening and going on. 

‘Repetition’ is another device used in Rush. This helps to highlight a specific and key movement, like when the dancers perform a motif when they are bent over with their arms spread horizontally. and os repeated. This movement  also reflects the mental and physical preparation a person think about and goes through in their mind before jumping out of the plane.

In conclusion to this review, I thought Akram Khans’ Rush was good. If I could change one thing it would be adding a few more dancers, I personally think this would be more beneficial as you could get separate different trio motifs and expand the cannons and unison parts of the dance too. This would bring a bit of more a visual aspect to the performance also.

Other peoples reviews - Professionals ones.

"he is classical and modern, earthy and mystical, sensuous and masculine, fluid and muscular and he embodies these dramatic opposites without any tensions." - anne sacks, london evening standard, 2 february 2001

(http://www.akramkhancompany.net/html/akram_production.php?productionid=15)

Rush is a new trio, and Khan’s first group choreography. The piece is stamped with Khan’s distinctive style of quickfire motion within fluctuating cycles of tension and reverberation, and while contemporary dancers Gwyn Emberton and Moya Michael suffer by the simple fact of not being Khan himself, they get impressively close to matching him.

The construction is tight and formal, phrases passed between the dancers, duets and trios splintering out of phase, interlocking and reforming. Yet in the end the work is more interesting for Khan’s idiosyncratic movement invention than for its composition. Perhaps this is only to be expected from his first ensemble piece – I’m reminded, for example, of Wayne McGregor’s initial forays into groupwork, similarly built around the highly distinctive idiom of their choreographer. McGregor has since considerably developed his compositional skills while maintaining his personal style, and I look forward to Khan’s future experiments in this direction.

Like the opening musical number, Rush is based around a nine-and-a-half beat time cycle (not that I could follow it). But by opening and closing in this way, the show suggests a journey away from kathak and a return to it, now intriguingly transformed. If kathak remains a source of inspiration and renewal for Khan, this programme also indicates that he’s gaining new ground with each loop of that creative spiral.

(http://sanjoyroy.net/2000/12/akram-khan-fix-rush/)

.

Week 2 

• I learnt the pharse from Rush and developed it wit Sophie. 
• We used canon, repetion, changes of tempo and exploring extremes of speed.

Week 1 

• 
  
• Improv dance and learning the phrase from Kat and Sophie.
• Background & Quick Notes of the performance of Rush.

Unit 12 - Classical Theatre Perfomance: Greek Theatre Research

Greek Theatre Research

The Greek Theatre

Most Greek cities had a theatre. It was in the open air, and was usually a bowl-shaped arena on a hillside. 
Some theatres were very big, with room for more than 15,000 people in the audience.

Picture - Google Images/ www.resources.mhs.vic.edu.au 

All the actors were men or boys. 
Dancers and singers, called the chorus, performed on a flat area called the orchestra. Over time, solo actors also took part, and a raised stage became part of the theatre. 

 The actors changed costumes in a hut called the "skene". Painting the walls of the hut made the first scenery.

The plays were comedies or tragedies.

The 'Theatron' is the place where the audience and viewers of the play sat. The word 'Theatron; means ' viewing place' in ancient greek.

Source: Website

Date of Post published: -

Name of page: BBC

Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/arts_and_theatre/

Date Assessed on: 14th October 2014

*The Orchestra (1)-  The orchestra was in front of the auditorium. Behind the orchestra was the skene.

The Stage (2) -  This is where most of the plays were performed.

The Parodos (3) - The Parodoi was a side entrance, where the audience and actors entered and exited from.

The Altar (4) - The altar was located in the middle of the orchestra

The Skene (5) - The skene was not originally a permanent building. The Skene was usually a building behind the playing area the was a hut for the changing of mask and costumes,  emerged from it through a few doors. Later, the flat-roofed wooden skene provided an elevated performance surface, like the modern stage.

The Seating (6) -  The seats were arranged in curving tiers, so that the people in the rows above could see the action in the orchestra and on stage without their vision being obscured by the people beneath them.
The earliest Greeks who came to watched the  performances probably sat on the grass or stood on the hillside to watch. Soon there were wooden benches. Later, the audience sat on benches cut from the rock of the hillside or made of stone. 

There was a special block of seats reserved for members of the boulê, the 500-member Executive Council of the Assembly. Ordinary citizens might have been assigned seats.

Source: Website

Date of Post published: -

Name of page: About Education 

Available from: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/greektheater/ss/120109GreekTheater_2.htm

Date Assessed on: 14th October 2014

Picture - Google Images.

What were Greek plays like?

Greek actors wore masks, made from stiffened linen, with holes for eyes and mouth. 

Picture - Goggle Images.

Actors also wore wigs. They wore thick soled shoes too, to make them look taller, and padded costumes to make them look fatter or stronger. The masks showed the audience what kind of character an actor was playing (sad, angry or funny). Some masks had two sides, so the actor could turn them round to suit the mood for each scene.

The best actors and play writers were awarded prizes - a bit like the Hollywood Oscars and BAFTAs today. 

The most famous writers of plays were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides for tragedy and Aristophanes.

Source: Website

Date of Post published: -

Name of page: BBC

Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/arts_and_theatre/

Date Assessed on: 14th October 2014

Typical Structure of a Tragedy

1. Prologue: A monologue or dialogue preceding the entry of the chorus, which presents the tragedy's topic.
2. Parode (Entrance Ode): The entry chant of the chorus, marching rhythm . Generally, they remain on stage throughout the remainder of the play. Although they wear masks, their dancing is expressive, as conveyed by the hands, arms and body. 
3. Episode: There are several episodes (typically 3-5) in which one or two actors interact with the chorus. They are, at least in part, sung or chanted. 
4. Stasimon (Stationary Song)
5. Exode (Exit Ode): The exit song of the chorus after the last episode.

Picture - Google Images.

Typical Structure of a Comedy

The chorus in a COMEDY PLAY is also larger: 24 (as opposed to 12-15). 

1. Prologue: As in tragedies.
   
   
2. Parode (Entrance Ode): As in tragedies, but the chorus takes up a position either for or against the hero.
   
   
3. Agôn (Contest): Two speakers debate the issue  and the first speaker loses. Chorus songs may occur towards the end.
   
   
4. Parabasis (Coming Forward): After the other characters have left the stage, the chorus 
   
   
5. Episode: As in tragedies, but primarily elaborating on the outcome of the agon.
   
   
6. Exode (Exit Song): As in tragedy, but with a mood of celebration and possibly with a riotous revel (cômos), joyous marriage, or both.

Source: Website

Date of Post published: Tue Sep 14 14:32:07 EDT 1999

Name of page:  Typical Structure of a Greek Play, Bruce MacLennan

Available from: http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/Classes/US210/Greek-play.html

Date Assessed on: 14th October 2014



Unit 12 - Classical Theatre Performance - Electra

Electra
Performance Dates: 25th - 27th November 2014

Production Role - Marketing with Niamh

Programe:

Theme Colours: Orange, Brown, Burnt out shades.

• Name of performance: Electra 
• Sponsorship: £30 half page, £15 quarter
• Cast Photos: Done on Fridays PAB lessons - 24th Oct 2014
• Cast Name/Message: Sent to me or Niamh on Facebook/WhatsappGroup 
• Performance Information
• Dates: 26th - 28th November 2014
• Times: 26th Nov 6.00pm, 27th Nov 6.00pm & 2.15pm, 28th Nov 2.15pm
• Where: Sealight Theatre, Worthing College
• Ticket Price
• Many Thanks
• Photos
• Worthing College logo
• Performing Acts logo

Poster/Leaflet:

Theme Colours: Orange, Brown, Burnt out shades.

• Name of performance: Electra
• Dates: 25th - 27th November 2014
• Times: 25th Nov 6.00pm, 26th Nov 6.00pm & 2.15pm, 27th Nov 2.15pm
• Where: Sealight Theatre, Worthing College
• Ticket Price: 
• Worthing College logo
• Performing Acts logo

Advertisement:

• Advertise on the Worthing College Facebook and Twitter
• Leaflets
• Poster

Performance Role - Sister of Electra, Chrysothemis

• Rehearsals 1 - Read Through with All Cast: 17th Oct 2014

Strengths of Todays Rehearsals:

Particular ways your Character has devopled:

Weakness of Todays Rehearsals:

Particular areas your Character needs to develop:
-> Understanding dialogue
-> Pronunciation
-> Character development

• Rehearsals 2 - Blocking: 21st Oct 2014

Strengths of Todays Rehearsals: Understanding where i am standing and facing toward in Act 1 and beginning to create a voice/accent for my character. This helps me when learning my lines in the half term as i can practise the way i prudence my words and lines.

Particular ways your Character has developed:
I have started to create a sarcastic tone and mood to my character. The tone is towards Electra and the idea of her friends being true.

Weakness of Todays Rehearsals:
Pronuncing, delivering and understand my lines. i will need to look further into what i lines mean and how some of the words are said.

Particular areas your Character needs to develop:
-> Understanding dialogue
-> Pronunciation
-> Character development

• Rehearsals 4 - : 14th Nov 2014

Strengths of Todays Rehearsals:

Knowing where I now am and blocking, stage presents and how I should act.

Particular ways your Character has developed:

Now has a beginning a personality

Weakness of Todays Rehearsals:

Remembering lines

Particular areas your Character needs to develop:
-> Understanding dialogue
-> Pronunciation
-> Character development

Artistic Policies - Assignment 2

Companies Artistic Policy's 

What is an Artistic Policys?

A written statement about the aims of the theatre and the type of work that goes on.

1.  DV8 Artistic Policy

DV8's Artistic Policy speaks a lot about what they offer and what their company is about. They state that they are largely accessible to all audiences and touch on wide range of topics and communicating ideas and feelings. I personally feel that this Artistic Policy is heavily focusing on what their company is about and what they create and ho whey communicate their ideas as a company. They don't suggest so much as to what their target audience is however the idea I get is that it is for a general all age audience as I personally believe that it would specifically state appropriate age ranges and target audiences if was specifically for children or most definitely for 18+ etc.

2. 1927 Artistic Policy

Employment in Performing Arts Mindmap - Assignment 2

Employment in Performing Arts Mindmap

Unit 12 - Classical Theatre Performance - Dr. Faustus

Picture - http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_tragica_storia_del_Dottor_Faust

Dr. Faustus

*Doctor Faustus; a play by Christopher Marlowe.The play was based on a story Faustus, which was a German story. 
The story is about a man who sell his soul to the devil. He does this for power and control over what he wants. The play was set in the 1580's and was set in Europe, specially Italy and Germany. The play was also set and acted out in the Elizabethan period.Elizabethan theatre was performed by only male actors as females were not allowed to act. The plays were rarely performed two days in a row and the plays had a political message involved.  They would also use masks just like Ancient Greek theatre but these mask had attached hair. This showed the audience if they were playing a female character or not.

* Character List for Dr. Faustus;

Faustus  -  The protagonist. Faustus is a brilliant sixteenth-century scholar from Wittenberg, Germany, whose ambition for knowledge, wealth, and worldly might makes him willing to pay the ultimate price—his soul—to Lucifer in exchange for supernatural powers. Faustus’s initial tragic grandeur is diminished by the fact that he never seems completely sure of the decision to forfeit his soul and constantly wavers about whether or not to repent. His ambition is admirable and initially awesome, yet he ultimately lacks a certain inner strength. He is unable to embrace his dark path wholeheartedly but is also unwilling to admit his mistake.

Picture - http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/larsonmarlowe.htm

Mephastophilis  -  A devil whom Faustus summons with his initial magical experiments. Mephastophilis’s motivations are ambiguous: on the one hand, his oft-expressed goal is to catch Faustus’s soul and carry it off to hell; on the other hand, he actively attempts to dissuade Faustus from making a deal with Lucifer by warning him about the horrors of hell. Mephastophilis is ultimately as tragic a figure as Faustus, with his moving, regretful accounts of what the devils have lost in their eternal separation from God and his repeated reflections on the pain that comes with damnation.

Chorus  -  A character who stands outside the story, providing narration and commentary. The Chorus was customary in Greek tragedy.

Old Man  -  An enigmatic figure who appears in the final scene. The old man urges Faustus to repent and to ask God for mercy. He seems to replace the good and evil angels, who, in the first scene, try to influence Faustus’s behavior.

Good Angel  -  A spirit that urges Faustus to repent for his pact with Lucifer and return to God. Along with the old man and the bad angel, the good angel represents, in many ways, Faustus’s conscience and divided will between good and evil.

Evil Angel  -  A spirit that serves as the counterpart to the good angel and provides Faustus with reasons not to repent for sins against God. The evil angel represents the evil half of Faustus’s conscience.

Lucifer  -  The prince of devils, the ruler of hell, and Mephastophilis’s master.

Wagner  -  Faustus’s servant. Wagner uses his master’s books to learn how to summon devils and work magic.

Clown  -  A clown who becomes Wagner’s servant. The clown’s antics provide comic relief; he is a ridiculous character, and his absurd behavior initially contrasts with Faustus’s grandeur. As the play goes on, though, Faustus’s behavior comes to resemble that of the clown.

Robin  -  An ostler, or innkeeper, who, like the clown, provides a comic contrast to Faustus. Robin and his friend Rafe learn some basic conjuring, demonstrating that even the least scholarly can possess skill in magic. Marlowe includes Robin and Rafe to illustrate Faustus’s degradation as he submits to simple trickery such as theirs.

Rafe  -  An ostler, and a friend of Robin. Rafe appears as Dick (Robin’s friend and a clown) in B-text editions of Doctor Faustus.

Valdes and Cornelius  -  Two friends of Faustus, both magicians, who teach him the art of black magic.
Horse-courser  -  A horse-trader who buys a horse from Faustus, which vanishes after the horse-courser rides it into the water, leading him to seek revenge.
The Scholars  -  Faustus’s colleagues at the University of Wittenberg. Loyal to Faustus, the scholars appear at the beginning and end of the play to express dismay at the turn Faustus’s studies have taken, to marvel at his achievements, and then to hear his agonized confession of his pact with Lucifer.
The pope  -  The head of the Roman Catholic Church and a powerful political figure in the Europe of Faustus’s day. The pope serves as both a source of amusement for the play’s Protestant audience and a symbol of the religious faith that Faustus has rejected.

Emperor Charles V  -  The most powerful monarch in Europe, whose court Faustus visits.

Knight  -  A German nobleman at the emperor’s court. The knight is skeptical of Faustus’s power, and Faustus makes antlers sprout from his head to teach him a lesson. The knight is further developed and known as Benvolio in B-text versions ofDoctor Faustus; Benvolio seeks revenge on Faustus and plans to murder him.
Bruno  -  A candidate for the papacy, supported by the emperor. Bruno is captured by the pope and freed by Faustus. Bruno appears only in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus.

Duke of Vanholt  -  A German nobleman whom Faustus visits.

Martino and Frederick  -  Friends of Benvolio who reluctantly join his attempt to kill Faustus. Martino and Frederick appear only in B-text versions of Doctor Faustus.

Source: Website

Date of Post published: - Edited on 27th January 2014

Name of page: Wikipedia

Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust

Date Assessed on: 2nd October 2014

Source: Website

Date of Post published: -

Name of page: Spark Notes

Available from: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/doctorfaustus/characters.html

Date Assessed on: 2nd October 2014

Picture - Sealight Theatre.

Learning the Script:

Learning the script was tricky because the language was what i was used and the words were hard to produce and say.The language of the text was hard to understand at first but when I started to act it out with directions for the director I started to learn my role a lot more.The rhythm of which the text was written and meant to spoken in was iambic pentameter.Overall i found learning and remembering the script got easier as it went along and i knew what i was saying and i understood what i was acting out and trying to portray.



Character One - PrideVery confident character, very loud and proud.


Evaluating the Final Performance:The staging look like this...

SELF - EVALUATION
Strengths	Weakness
Use of volume in my voice in both scenes.	Remembering the lines/text.
Staying focus throughout the whole performance.	Mining in the beginning section - could of had more of a structure/blocking.
Carried on with the performance when problems accrued in scene playing the Pope.	Could of been more confident when delivering lanes.
Covering up any mistakes in the scene playing the Pope.
Ending i completing got into the character of the Angry Sin.

OTHERS - EVALUATION
Strengths	Weakness
Sophie - Use of changes in the volume of her voice.	Sax - Forgetting her lines! Bless her!!
Cat, Beth, John & Josh - Use of physical theatre .	Sax - Forgetting the movement.
Ellie - Use of pauses in her voice.	Natalie - lack of volume in her voice.

Our Faustus Performance