Well, for starters, lots of fun and hard work!
Theater One
We've been having a blast as we continue to bond and function as an ensemble. We still love Theater games but because we are focusing on improvisation (to create/make up a scene off of the top of your head, unscripted) right now it is only appropriate that those Theater games have an improvisational basis. The current favorite is called Party Quirks. If you are a fan of the tv show, Whose Line is it Anyway you may already be familiar with this game. In this game one party host and five party guests are selected to play/perform. The party guests work together to select 'identities' which the party host must guess once they arrive at the party. The selected identities at this time evolve around emotions (sad, happy, excited, depressed, etc...) and the host must guess correctly which emotion each guest demonstrates to win/complete the game.
In addition to emotions the students created improvisational scenes in which the players were influenced by environmental factors (temperature - hot and cold; status - rich or poor). The students selected various scenarios to improvise using temperature and status as a motivator. We had some really terrific scenes but the students who demonstrated the most growth with this exercise are Jonathan, Victoria, Taylor D and Stefany! Congrats you guys on a job well done!
Advanced Theater
This has to be one of the most creative, silly, motivated, crazy, enthusiastic and positive groups of kids I've ever had the pleasure to work with. They work hard, create cool material, cooperate and stay motivated even after I nit pick and disect every nook and cranny of their scenes. (Yeah, they don't call me Jonezilla for nothing...)
Unfortuneately, we've been so busy with character development we've had little time to play theater games but we have been very productive working as a unit in spite of this. Last week each student brainstormed physicality ideas for their character/s including a grand gesture/gestures and facial expressions. Before we worked these physical elements into our scenes we played around with them in improvisational scenes. This week we scanned our scripts for subtext (things a character implies rather than says) and performed exploratory scenes for this as well.
Finally, by week's end, we incorporated this work into our plays, The Frog Prince and This is a Test. The end result on Friday was rather successful. We made note of what worked well and what didn't, what needs further research/exploration and development and we spent a considerable amount of time polishing our rudimentary acting skills (voice, body and ensemble).
Everyone did a great job this week. I feel like the kids are really getting the hang of This is a Test quickly. My super stars for the week are Aleccia and Isaiah because they are already well on their way to having their lines memorized (which makes it so much easier for them to focus on their characterization and ensemble needs). You guys are awesome!
Advanced Dance
Advanced Dance has been busy brushing up on technique, studying choreographic manipulations (a way to create new movement by manipulating existing movement with a specific process) and learning and creating choreography.
Last week we focused on retrograde (to reverse the concepts of a dance phrase. fall, spin, hop = hop, spin, fall) and canon (to perform the same movement at different times... like Row, Row, Row Your Boat, except with movement). The students were introduced to these ideas with a modern/lyrical dance phrase I taught/demonstrated. After being guided through the process the students were split into groups to create their own phrases/manipulations using retrograde and canon.
This week we focused on chance method (to create a movement phrase by random chance using a number system), ABA and Sequential Phrasing (ABCD => DCBA). Again, the students were introduced to these ideas with a modern/lyrical dance phrase I taught/demonstrated. After being guided through the process the students were split into groups to create the own phrases/manipulations using chance method, ABA and Sequential Phrasing.
The students have been very successful. We have three solid choreographic works in progress. If you would like to see some of the projects the dance class has been working on please come out and see them perform at the Football game next Friday night at SCHS (September 23, 2011). Go Stallions!
Thank you to my team captains, Lauren, Rachel N, Katie and Chrisshonna for keeping your squads together and productive!
- Mrs. Amy Jones
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