Dance Assessment of our Small Group Choreography...

Last lesson, our teachers assessed our small group choreography. After many weeks of preparation, rehearsals and research, we finally completed our group pieces and performed them to the rest of the class and received feedback from our teachers on how to improve and develop our 2-3min pieces.

Feedback Sheet from our Teachers.

We were all given a  feedback sheet in order to help improve our pieces and also to develop them further.

Our piece is 2mins 30secs and we have successfully captured Myraims story and emphasised the doll prop, hugely since the last assessment of our group pieces.

Our teachers told us that we have to add 9secs worth of movement onto the end of our dance as the song that we are performing to is in fact 2mins 39secs - Heart Cry by Drehz.

Dance Sessions...

During my dance classes over these past few weeks, we have learnt 3 pieces for our show. The first one is a number called 'Refugee'. This piece is about fleeing from your home and trying to escape conflict, using a wide range of movements and choreographic devices.

The second dance is all about getting ready for a night out in South London. This piece is called 'Glam'. We use many different pieces of clothing to throw around and to put on. We haven't quite finished this piece yet but it shows all of the performers getting ready and trying on different outfits. Then we move into 2 lines at the front of the stage (girls) and act as though we were checking our makeup and outfits. After this, the boys do a small motif and then everyone runs back into a staggered formation to do a phrase in unison. There is then a gap which we haven't choreographed yet. Afterwards, we are in a compact formation doing the set piece which quickly turns into canon.

The third dance number that we have completed is all to do with packing up and getting ready to leave home but not wanting to go; overcoming obstacles as you try to flee. This is centred around a girl called Myriam. It is very busy yet beautifully choreographed. We use suitcases as props and to also show the stage of packing up and getting things together in order to leave. We use a range of devices during this piece and also use the amount of performers that we have, wisely. This means that we don't use all of the dancers at once; they come on in stages/ waves. This dance is to a very simple yet touching piece of music which doesn't over power the movement on stage. Some of the motifs are in silence without music; just the performers on stage and their use of breath.

The Brit School Video for War Child
http://www.warchild.org.uk/bright2015

War Child Presentation Information...

Notes on the inspiring presentation.

• Protection is something that we don't see or think about.
• 26th August 2014 - registered Syrian refugees (600,000) in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Republic of Congo.

Jordan

• Counselling, education, surrounding villages and towns are all things that are in Jordan.
• Zaatari Camp contains 116,000 refugees - this makes it the 2nd biggest camp.
• Free Syrian Army - recruitment of people to start fighting.
• Young girls are forced to marry a man, no matter their age.
• 7000 refugees no in the camp. 
• Most dangerous camp.
• 1/2 of the refugees are children.
• There are 4 schools for people to be educated in.

Iraq

• Education and supporting children's rights are the 2 main focuses.
• Who protects the children?

Afghanistan

• There are early childhood development centres.
• If a child runs away from home here and they are under the age of 18, then they will be sent to prison as it is classed as a crime.

Uganda

• Girls are forced to marry and get pregnant with older men and if they refuse then they die.

Other Notes

• Central African Republic - LRA (Lords Resistance Army)
• Advocacy - Raising awareness.
• Convention on the rights of the child - The US haven't signed this petition.

The 6 Grave Violations

• Killing and maiming of children.
• Recruitment or use of children as soldiers.
• Sexual violence against children.
• Attacks against schools or hospitals.
• Denial of humanitarian access for children.
• Abduction of children.

What can you do?

• You can fundraise.
• Spread the word.
• Donate.

The activities from War Child

• They get the children to communicate with others to build trust and allow them to work within a team and bond with other people.
• Interacting exercises with other children.
• Enabling the children to build friendships safely and easily.

"Work in an organized and active way towards your goal" - This applies to anything and everything.

• An unwanted truth report has come about due to someone making an effort to help and raise awareness.

"The children we work with have already lived lives of extreme violence and hardship. We admire their strength and use money raised to fund our projects and give these children the support they need to rewrite their own future" - War Child.

Small Group Choreography...

Dance Feedback Sheet - Small Group Piece.

Within my small group, we have created a 2 minute piece of choreography that can be used in our show TORN. I have contributed many ideas and have also created and developed some motifs that we have incorporated into our dance piece.
 
We have used levels, fragmentation, a variation in directions as well as a wide range of dynamics. The piece portrays the emotions of someone experiencing a bombing and is trying to find their toy/possession. We have used many choreographic devices to portray this traumatic experience. I think that my small group and I have created a complex yet interesting dance piece.



Small Group Piece.

However I do feel that it could be even better if we developed some of the motifs by using a range of speeds as well as contrasting movements. Andrea gave s some feedback after watching our dance piece and said that in order to develop it further, we should think about trying to make more emphasis on the doll and the girl. She said that we can also do this by using highlights and a climax within our dance or small sections.

My Production Role...

My production role in the show TORN, is being a makeup artist. This involves applying the makeup to the performers as well as creating mood boards for each look or colour scheme.
 
I have created a mood board for the Syrian performers. This shows a colour scheme and a variety of makeup looks/ideas.

I have designed dark neutral looks (eyes) as the children in Syria would not have bright and vivid coloured eye makeup. These dark colours also represent the dust and dirt that falls onto their faces and body. By choosing to avoid the use of bright colours, I think gives a truthful representation on the way the children and people look in Syria.  

War Child Part 1...

    In our dance class today, we were lucky enough to have a representative from the charity War Child, come in and do a presentation for us. This charity was founded in 1993 by two film-makers David Wilson and Bill Leeson. This charity provides life-changing support to the most vulnerable children whose families, communities and schools have been torn apart by war.  They mainly focus on protection, education, livelihood and also advocacy of the children suffering due to war.

      During this wonderful yet saddening presentation, we were shown two video clips that have been made to help raise awareness. These clips were very emotional, because the first one was about a girl called Alice who had been a victim of conflict. She was a happy 8 year old girl until war started in her country. It destroyed everything she loved and cared about such as her family, friends, toys, school and her house. She was at daily risk of being shot at, abducted, raped, tortured and killed. This little story made everyone go silent and look at each other with such sad faces. But that wasn't the worst or even the most emotional story that we were shown.

     Just when we thought that life in these places wasn't bad, we had to think again because this next video was horrific. This video clip was about the story of a girl named Juliet. Her real name is Pauline but her identity was hidden for the sake of the video. She was a former child solider in Uganda. She came to London to share her experiences to the Government; how girls and children are being affected by war in the northern part of Uganda. She asked them to support children who are affected by war, to help them go back to education. She said that she saw young girls being forced into sexual relationships with older men as well as seeing people die and others telling the women not to cry for their children. They didn't have a house to sleep in so they slept in the rain or in a bush. Life was not good for her at all during this time. At the age of only 12 years old in 2002, Juliet was abducted from her village by rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda (north). She was beaten with a gun and forced to walk a far distance. She could not escape as she was surrounded by the soldiers. On this same day, the rebels killed a man right in front of her (he was her neighbour).

    As Juliet and her friends were running from an attack, one of them was shot dead. She was forced to become what they call a rebels 'wife'. She was threatened by the other rebels. They told her that if she didn't become the rebels wife then she would be killed. She became pregnant with his child at a very young age. But unfortunately, because she was so young, the baby died and Juliet had developed a health problem and so she needed an operation. Therefore Juliet was taken to Nairobi. This is where she managed to escape. A nurse that was working there was able to help free her.

She returned to Uganda and was happily reunited with her family - Her life had changed again.
     
Links
War Child Website - http://www.warchild.org.uk/
Their Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/warchilduk
Their Twitter Page - https://twitter.com/warchilduk
Alice's Story - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nTh3VtnKTQ
Juliet's Story - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mj2ooJJD3A