This week in Dance and Theater Arts!

My class room was a very busy and engaging place to be this week (as usual). Here's the scoop!

Theater One

I first would just like to say that my Theater One class this semester at South Columbus is awesome. You guys and gals totally rock! This week in class we continued to develop our sense of unity as a class, establish trust with one another and delve into the art of improvisation.

Class unity, team work, or ensemble, as we Thespians (Thespians are people who participate in or possess an appreciation for the art of Theater Arts) like to call it, is a number one priority in the TA class room. We develop this skill by playing Theater games. Theater games are designed to encourage cooperation, concentration and focus. Some of our favorite games right now are:
Kitty in the Corner
Juggle
What? You haven't heard of these games? Just ask a Theater One student. They can tell you all about it.

Trust - At the beginning of the week we performed trust exercises (catching each other, guiding one another blind folded) to increase our sense of trust in one another. Some students felt more at ease with this than others and this is typical. All of my students did a great job. I was very proud!

Improvisation - When you improvise you make something up off of the top of your head with out any prior preparation. We used improvistation starters as a structure for this activity. I gave my students three categories to choose from:
1 - Teen/Parent Conflict
2 - Teacher?Teen Conflict
3 - Peer Relationship Conflict
By weeks end each student in the class improvised a scene with a partner and was evaluated by myself and their peers. Great job everyone. I saw some really great scenes this week. I especially enjoyed Mariah and DaShaun's scene.

Advanced Theater Arts

My veterans are back and ready to blow your mind, dazzle your soul and tickle your heart with their mad skills on stage. This week we've been developing ensemble with Theater games (Ultimate Ninja is a favorite) and collaborative activities. We finished reading and discussing our scripts for Play Festival (The Frog Prince and This is a Test). We discussed the social, emotional and physical aspects of each play and character and selected roles for auditioning/casting. Each student was permitted to audition for 3 roles from each play (cast lists will be posted soon). By week's end we cast both plays and began brainstorming about physicality (gestures, movement, body language).

Congrats to this class for a successful week! I especially enjoyed Lantz's performance of the voice and Maxine's performance of Solitaire.

Don't forget to turn in your resumes and head shots!

Advanced Dance

This dynamic group of dancers really impressed me this week. We focused on jazz technique and interpretive movement this week. In the beginning of the week I taught them a technical jazz dance combination. The last phrase in the combination would vary depending on skill level. The first combination was the most difficult and worth 3 points. The second was somewhere in the middle in terms of difficulty and was worth 2 points. The third combination was the least difficult and was worth only one point. I allowed the students to select the last phrase for performance. I was pleasantly surprised when none of them chose the 'easy' combination. Already they are challenging themselves and I was tickled pink.

We also focused on interpretive movement. The students were assigned a group project. This was there assignment:
A
1 - describe yourself with 3 adjectives
2 - create 3 movements to represent your 3 adjectives
3 - piece the 3 movements together into a short dance phrase
B
Incorporate your phrase with another student's work
C
Incorporate your new phrase (created with your partner) with another partnership

By week's end my students had choreographed and polished their work for presentation/assessment. Everyone did a fine job! I especially enjoyed the work created/performed by:
Rachel, Desiree, Kaitlynn, Jordan, Sarah, Shonna and Destiny.

~ Mrs. Amy Jones