Jazz Lyrical Mirror Dance - Week 7 [28/2/24]

    Jazz Lyrical Mirror Dance 

DANCE DEVELOPMENT

Our Jazz Lyrical Dance - Progress

• This lesson/rehearsal's aim was to go through the dance, clean it up, make it neater and more precise. We went through the dance multiple times as a group then Rob (our dance teacher) worked with the individual duet/group of 3 sections to refine them. In my personal duet section, we cleaned up the movements one of which being the beginning pose. We now position our arms differently by having our inside arm be up and at the back and our outside arm to be in front. This opens up our position a lot more to the audience. Another key change we made was that we do an obvious movement that prepares us for a pirouette. This is good technique but does make the dance predictable as it's obvious that our next movement would be a turn. To add some surprise, we made the movement before our turn a "behind, side, front". This movement is much more visually interesting and doesn't make our dance predictable. After refining our separate sections, we then worked as a group focusing and recapping on the improvements from our last lesson/rehearsal.

 VIDEOS OF THE DANCE

27/2/24 - Final Take

What Went Well?

• Final Take: When it comes to my partner and I's duet section, we are well coordinated with one another. There are points where my partner is deliberately going at a different speed to me but we are still coordinated when it comes to hitting the movements. For example, when we are laying on the floor on our backs with one hand reaching to the ceiling, we both hit the floor at the same time and raised and lowered our arms at the same time despite our timing changes. My partner lengthens the phrase/movement longer than I do yet we were still in unison. In past lessons/rehearsals, we have, as a pair, struggled to do the jump at 2 minutes 30 seconds in the video above in unison but one success of this lesson/rehearsal was that when I watched the video back I could see that we completed the jump in complete coordination with one another. When it comes to the group dance break section, we are mostly coordinated, there is just a couple of movements where we lose our sense of unity and it looks out of time or messy. We just need to go over these movements in relation to the timing in the music to push us further and make us more 'as a team' with our coordination.

Even Better If?

• Final Take: I personally think our dance would be even better if we, as a group, worked on our facial expressions more. This rehearsal was mainly all about our physicality and how we are expressing the dance with our bodies. We were concentrating a lot during this rehearsal as we were making little changes to the dance which did in turn lead us to forgetting to express the emotion of the dance through our faces. Once we get used to the new changes and development to the dance, we will be able to focus on our facial expression a lot more. As a group, we need to work on the cross - spacing as we aren't resembling a perfect cross shape. We also need to work on our timing with our arms as we are moving on the wrong counts at times so instead of creating a cannon like movement it's more of juts of big arm movement which isn't as effective. A personal thing that I want to work on and that is something to make my duet section better is to make my first pirouette a double instead of a single. I have time to do a double but they are a challenge for me. Over the last few lessons/rehearsals I have been working on my double pirouettes. I would like to be able to do one during my duet section before the actual performance as I will be adding more technique to the duet. 

AREAS OF SUCCESS - 6 Physical Skills 

1. Stamina - I think stamina was an area of success for us, as a group, as we went through the dance many times and we all managed to maintain physical and mental stamina. This is evident through the video above as it was recorded at the end of the lesson/rehearsal and in the video we are still dancing, moving and holding our positions with a lot of strength. 
2. Strength - Strength is one of our areas of success and one that applies to everyone as a group. I feel that we are holding our positions with a lot of strength and I think we are really using our core strength for when we do big positions for example the beginning pose we all hold before the dance break section.  
3. Coordination - As a whole, I think we are all so much more coordinated with one another. It's definitely stronger when we are in our pairs/group of 3 as it's easier to be coordinated with fewer people as instead of being completely in-sync with 8 other people, it's only 1 or 2. We are well coordinated in our pairs and that is evident through the video. I feel hat my partner and I are very much well coordinated. As a group, we are mostly coordinated there's just a couple of movements where we loose that sense of unity but this can be tidied up. 

AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT -6 Physical Skills 

1. Balance - I think this is more of a personal area for development. Throughout the lesson/rehearsal, I was a bit unbalanced during my pirouette as I have been trying to do a double pirouette. As they are currently not my strong point, I am still unbalanced but with practice and engaging my core strength even more I will be able to be balanced with my pirouettes. I also can see when I watched the video above back hat I am slightly unbalanced during my relevé. I need to find a spot on the wall to focus on to help with my balance. 
2. Flexibility - I have noticed that my flexibility is improving and I am continuing to develop it but I still wouldn't that it is an area of success for me. I am getting gradually more flexible as when I do my stretches during our warmup, I can really feel and notice a difference and that I'm getting more flexible. I will continue to work with my flexibility as I am happy with the progress I am making with my flexibility.
3. Posture & Alignment - I think this skill is an area for development as when I am holding certain poses my alignment could be better. When I am focusing on my expression through my face and my body I also need to make sure I am still being technically accurate when it comes to my posture and alignment. The main area where this is an area for development is the beginning position to the dance break section. I would say when watching back the video above this does apply with all of us in the group. Our backs aren't completely in line with our back foot. Over the next 2 rehearsals before the actual performance, we just need to pay attention to detail and properly refine our movements.