Dance Settling in Evening 16/10/13

Wednesday the 16^th of October was settling in evening, this was the first time my parents saw me dance at The Brit School. In Dance we have been having Jazz and Contemporary lessons. Everything we have learnt in term one was building up to settling in evening, to show our parents how much we had already improved and learnt about our self. We have been working on a number of exercises including Pliés, jumps, leaps, and sequences, which will help improve out technique as dancers. We showed both styles of dance to our parents, and performed exercises like pliés, and small sequences which included step ball changes at different heights and turns, as well as dance routines, to show what we had learnt during this first term.

The things I think I could have improved on in the performance were; that I didn’t fully extend my leg in the contemporary turn and I didn’t start on time on the step hop exercise, but overall I think I did well and I feel my timing has got a lot better over the last term. I think practising in smaller groups has been one of the reasons my timing has improved.

My targets for the next term were:

1. To improve my core so I can engage my abdominals when dancing.

2. Not to hold any tension in my arms or lift shoulders up.

3. To hold my turn out and Glut muscles for a stronger more stable body.

Using my targets while performing

I have learnt a lot about myself in dance this term, and I tried to apply my targets to the performance to show my understanding. To try and improve my posture when doing all the routines I stood with my weight on the balls of my feet and stomach tightened, this also helped me when finishing the step ball change sequence in a jazz fourth because I didn’t wobble. Tightening my core allowed me to jump and land easily and to move more elegantly.

I tried to relax my arms while dancing and make sure no tension was held there or in my shoulders. This made my dancing look better and more effortless. Also when performing the arm movement in the swing exercise, it helped make my fluidity better.

I held my turn out in the swing exercise, and pulled up my glut muscles, this meant I could feel the turn out and stretches. I pulled my stomach in to make it tighter and this helped me not to lose my balance.

Performing

When we were performing I kept the same amount of energy the whole way through and used all the energy I had. I tried so hard to extend every movement, using my kinesphere and using my facial expressions to the best of my ability. Having an audience kept me and the rest of dance strand motivated and energetic to carry on even though we had had a long day and rehearsal beforehand which had made us tired.