Friday 6th February 2015 - Hairspray Dance Evaluation

Friday 6th February 2015
Hairspray Dance Evaluation

Hairspray Dance

Physical skills	Needs improvement	Satisfactory	Good	Very good	Excellent
Posture and alignment
Flexibility
Strength
Balance
Co-ordination
Use of extension
Ability to reproduce movement accurately
Interpretive skills	Needs Improvement	Satisfactory	Good	Very good	Excellent
Musicality
Facial expression
Projection
Focus-Eye-line
Dynamic variation

I thought that my physical skill strengths were my flexibility, this was especially kicking and doing the splits. This allowed me to find movements easier to complete as i have the flexibility to support them, my leg flexibility is better than my back flexibility. This was clear when we did the clicks in the chorus, other people in the class did a slight back bend when going back, this added more differentiation to the dance. However i didn't do this because i haven't developed my back flexibility enough. Although i thought that my flexibility was good i think that i can still improve this for any future dances that i am in. I am going to develop this by stretching daily to keep improving and gain more flexibility in my legs and back. I also thought that my ability to reproduce movements accurately was good. I found that in rehearsals i was able to pick up the choreography quickly, this meant that i was able to spend more time concentrating on he timing of the dance and my interpretive skills rather than learning the dance. 

I thought that my physical skill weaknesses were my posture and alignment, this is because when watching this back I noticed that when I am standing still in this dance I am slightly slouched and my left shoulder is higher than the other. I am going to work on this by using the mirrors in the dance studio more when in rehearsals to make sure that my body is upright and equal when dancing. Another one of my weaknesses was my extension, I noticed this most when we jumped at the beginning of the chorus, my arms were not fully extended and therefore this didn't look as good as it would have if my arm extension was better. To improve on this I am going to make sure that when I am dancing to make sure that my arms reach out as much as possible to allow each movement to look finished before moving on to another, this will also help improve my projection. Another way I am going to improve on this is when I am marking through the dance I am going to fully extend my arms and legs so that I have the correct muscle memory of the routine, for the final performance.

I noticed that my timing wasn't as good as in previous rehearsals, this was especially in the section before the last chorus where we had to roll and circular spring once we have come up. I got up too quickly and I jumped before the rest of the class, If I could do this performance again I would take longer when rolling so that when I jumped back up I would have been in time with the rest of the class. When we were doing the roll call the whole classes timing could have been improved, this is because in rehearsals we decided that each person was going to take two names each so that we would be able to go to the end person without any gaps. However we each only took one name each and therefore there was a big gap between the person before Emily and Emily. On the other hand I thought that my characterisation in this section was good, this is because I made sure that my pose was sharp. I did this because the character of Amber in Hairspray is very confident and always want to be the centre of attention, I wanted to show this in this section as much as possible. When Charley pushed me out of the way I wanted to look annoyed, looking back I could have developed this more to improve my performance. I thought that my special awareness was good throughout, except from the beginning of "You cant stop the beat" this Is because my group started too close to each other and therefore when we had to do the traveling motif we were all bumping into each other, this would have been better if we spread out a bit more. My special awareness could have also been improved in the beginning of "Nicest kids on town", because I nearly went into the wall when we were turning, this would have been better if I didn't travel as much when doing these.

My interpretive skill strengths were my projection, when watching back I noticed that this was better than in previous rehearsals. This is where the energy of the dance is transferred to the audience. Because the songs that we were dancing to was fast and had a high energy, it was important that the movements were big and over-the-top to make sure that the theme of the dance is transferred to the audience. Another one of my strengths was my eye-line, in previous rehearsals I noticed that I was looking down throughout the majority of the dance, however in this performance I had a level eye-line with the audience. This also contributed to my projection as well as looking as if I was confident to the audience, if I were looking down it would have made my performance look nervous and uncomfortable in this dance. I improved this by making sure that I was sure of all of the choreography during rehearsals to make sure that in this performance I could focus on my interpretive skills, such as my eye-line. I thought that when we did the roll call the whole classes characterisation was good as we all cheered when the last person was going, this added to the theme of the performance as it is supposed to be over the top and big. As well as this we all did simple choreography at the sides of the stage when we were not doing the main choreography. This added to the performance as if we were just standing there it would have looked boring and we could have lost energy, because we were still doing things we were able to keep the energy and therefore this added to the whole classes characterisation and musicality.

My interpretive skill weaknesses was my dynamic variation, for example in the beginning of you cant stop the beat the choreography is slower compared to the chorus of this song. To improve on this performance I could have created more of a variation between the two sections, when reflecting on this I didn't notice that much of a difference in the way that I danced these two parts. To improve on this I am going to make sure that I pay more attention to the music during rehearsals to make sure that I create a difference between dynamics. Another one of my weaknesses was that although my use of facial expressions was better than in rehearsals and previous dance rehearsals, they could have been developed more. This would have created more variation in the performance, to make sure that my next dance performance is better I am going to rehearse using the mirrors more, to ensure that I use facial expressions which are relevant to the theme of the dance. For example this dance was set in the 1960s and therefore was fast, high energy and cheesy, this meant that any facial expressions would be over the top and smiley.

My targets for the next performance are:

• Posture and alignment - This is important because when dancing, you are supposed to be upright (unless the choreography is otherwise) and equally balanced. I am going to improve this by using the mirrors when dancing to make sure that my body is in the right position.
• Extension - This is important so that each movement looks finished before moving on, I am going to improve on this when marking through choreography to fully extend all of my movements so that I have the right muscle memory for the routine that I am going to do in the performance.
• Musicality - This is important so that the music that is used to accompany the dance compliments the choreography. I am going to improve this by working on my timing so that I am moving in time with the music, as well as this making sure that I am fully aware of the theme of the music that is being used.
• Facial expressions - This is important so that the theme and mood of the dance is shown through the performers face as well as their movements. I am going to work on this by using the mirrors to be able to see if I am using facial expressions that are relevant to the performance whilst dancing.