Future Development Plan

Future Development Plan

Completed Performance Tasks for Unit 13 & 14:

• Rock of Ages Performance November 2023
• Solo Dance Performance November 2023
• Contemporary Dance Performance March 2024
• Jazz Lyrical Mirror Dance March 2024
• Tap Dance Performance June 2024

TASK ONE: Progress

Stamina: One skill I would say that I have definitely made progress in is the 6 physical skill, Stamina. Before starting this course, my only source of exercise was my dance classes that I have once a week. When I first joined the course and we were beginning our rehearsals for our show, ‘Rock of Ages’, we were doing a lot of practical, almost every day. This was a struggle for me at the start as I got out of breath and worn out quickly and this in turn affected my dancing and held me back from being able to go full out in rehearsals. This also meant that on the days we didn’t have practical/dance, my body was really aching from the amount of exercise I was now doing during ‘Rock of Ages’. To help me improve in this area, I walked home every day from college, which is a good 45 minute walk, and sometimes walked to college. As I was doing this daily and I still continue to do this daily, I noticed an improvement in my stamina. During the rehearsals, I was able to dance for longer without becoming out of breath and the exercises, moves and dances we were doing became a lot physically easier for me. This skill was then developed further the more dance lessons I had and the more I walked home from college.

Expression: When it comes to performance skills, I made progress in my expression. During the development of our Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance, I really struggled with my expression as I wasn’t very confident with this dance style. It was very much out of my comfort zone and this lead me to struggle to express the emotion of the dance. I was very conscious on getting the movements right that I put all my focus into that instead of my expression. To help me to improve in this skill, I rehearsed the dance in my own time so that I could grow my confidence with it. Having more confidence would then allow me to focus on my expressive skills, especially my facial expressions, to tell the emotion of the dance as I would have more confidence to express myself while dancing. I listened more to the lyrics of the song so that I could understand the meaning of the song and the feeling I actually wanted to convey. I also reflected on the peer and teacher feedback given to me in relation to this skill to help to improve. This helped me a lot as it allowed me to recognise my improvement based on the feedback given.

Balance: Since March of this year, I have made progress in the physical skill, balance. In March, we began to choreograph our Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance. One key element to this dance, was to have god balance. In my duet section, I had to do a double pirouette and this requires god balance. At the start, I really struggled with my balance and barely managed a single pirouette. Instead of letting this get me down, I worked on my technique and vocalised the challenges I had when I was trying to do a pirouette, which then my teacher gave me an exercise to do to help me to develop my pirouettes. I did this exercise regularly and I also researched some of my own exercises to help me to improve, one of which being, standing on one leg for 30 seconds. I did this regularly but increased the time I stood on one leg for. This really helped me to develop my balance, particularly with pirouettes as I was able to complete a double pirouette. 

Tap: I feel that I have progressed in the dance style and technique, tap, the most. Previous to joining ONE, I have never tapped before. I began learning tap in class this month. At the beginning, I was very nervous as this is a completely new style with new techniques that I have never done before. I studied Ballet for 10 years and the techniques of tap do go against ballet which did raise some inner concerns about how well I’d do at tap. I persevered with tap as I was determined to be able to do it as it’s another dance style I can’t say I have explored. I learnt all the basic taps and how to put those into sequences and then join all these sequences together to then create a dance number. I learnt to do this all in 6 weeks and progressed from being a complete beginner to being able to do a dance number with some complicated sequences. 

TASK TWO: Improvement 

Flexibility: Since I’ve been at ONE, flexibility is definitely a skill I need to improve. When I first joined the course, my flexibility wasn’t very good and I really struggled with high kicks, leg extensions etc. This is something that I really noticed was a challenge for me when it came to the development of our Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance. In our Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance, our choreography included a lot of high kicks and leg extensions and I really struggled with doing them. When I raised my leg high, I wasn’t able to fully extend my leg. I soon realised that height doesn’t matter, it’s the preciseness of the leg that is key. I worked to my own abilities but I still wanted to push myself so I worked on my flexibility by asking my teacher for exercises I can do to help. I carried out these exercises as a part of my warmup every time effort I danced. I saw improvements in my flexibility as I felt I was able to raise my leg higher and I felt looser when it came to my leg extensions. When watching back videos from our rehearsals, I can see the improvement in my flexibility. 

Directional Focus: Directional focus is definitely something that I need to make improvements on. When I am out of my comfort zone I have more of a tendency to look at the floor. This happened when we were doing Jazz Lyrical Mirror and Tap. With the Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance, our spacing was quite tricky to get into and when I did certain movements, I forgot to raise my eye line. I wasn’t very confident with this dance style so I did look at the floor. The same happened with Tap. When we were doing tap, some sequences I had raised eye line and was really confident with and others I was much less confident with so my focus was at the floor. This was subconscious as I am a beginner and it’s common for beginners to look at their feet. I can improve with my eye line and directional focus by going over the choreography more to boost my confidence with it. 

Balance: Balance in the context of pirouettes was an area where I made progress but in the context of relevé, this is an area I need to improve on. During our Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance, we required balance a lot throughout the dance particularly with relevé. I really struggled with remaining balanced while doing this move. My focus played a massive part in this as I was thinking about my facial expressions more than my technique so forgot tat I needed to spot somewhere around the room to help me to remain balanced. To improve, I can research exercises to do to help me with my balance and practice spotting to help me to remain upright. I also need to remember to focus while dancing so that my technique doesn’t slip. 

Strength: Strength is something I need to improve. For me it ties hand-in-hand with balance. I need to improve my core strength to help me to balance. Going back to the relevé in the Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance, I didn’t engage my core strength enough and that is key to keeping balanced. Strength isn’t my strong point not just with balance but also with the way I hold positions. Strength is key when dancing as it makes your movements look strong. In our Jazz Lyrical Mirror dance, there were movements that were done slowly. When I did I these moves, I didn’t move with a lot of strength. I made the mistake that slow movements need to be done with less strength. No matter the tempo, our movements and arms should be strong as it makes the dance look better and makes it look like I am putting effort into it. To improve my core strength, I need to find exercises I can do. When it comes to improving the strength of my movements, I can watch performers and see how they hold themselves with strength when they dance. 

TASK THREE: OPPORTUNITIES 

1. Rock of Ages - Playing the Character of Justice Charlier 

Unit 13 & 14 gave me the opportunity to learn about my own body’s development as the rehearsals and show itself as it was very physically demanding for me. This was my introduction to the course, as a whole, and at the start my stamina was a weakness of mine. Unit 13 & 14 gave me a chance to up my stamina so that I am now able to dance for long period of times. I developed my technique in dance as I was working on the 6 physical skills a lot throughout this time and trying to develop them as best as I could. I improved in coordination and stamina. These skills are key to have as I can now dance for longer periods of time and my coordination allows me to do more complicated moves at once and expands what I can do as a dancer. It also gave me the chance to work on my performance skills alongside my dance skills as I had to dance as my character so had to also piracy that through my facial expressions as this show was musical theatre. 

2. Solo Dance Performance - ‘America’, West Side Story

This gave me the opportunity to perform by myself and work on my performance as an individual performer/dancer. It helped me massively boost my confidence as I had to perform alone in front of people. It also gave me a chance to learn how to positively respond to feedback as we received feedback after the performance to help us to develop further. Taking in feedback is key so we can improve which is why this was important for me to be able to do. I worked on my solo often which in turn developed my stamina even more. It also helped me with my flexibility as this dance number includes many high kicks. My flexibility is a struggle of mine and I was glad to have this opportunity as it allowed me to work in this area. 

3. Jazz Lyrical - Mirror Dance

This number gave me the opportunity to receive regular feedback, verbal and written, by both my peers and teacher. Receiving regular feedback was very helpful as it helped make me aware of what I needed to improve on and what I was doing well. This was very helpful as this was out of my comfort zone so it allowed me to hear positive feedback which boosted my confidence. It also gave me a chance to try a new dance style, particularly one that I am not comfortable with as it pushed me to develop my dancing. 

4. Tap Number - Spotlight 

Learning Tap was a brilliant opportunity for me as a dancer, as it allowed me to develop my versatility as a dancer and performer and gives me the chance to learn a whole new dance style and the skills that come with it. I’ve had no previous experience with this dance style so was very apprehensive at first but learning this dance style has added to my own personal repertoire and will give me more dancing opportunities and audition opportunities as I have added a new dance style to my skill set. I also had the chance to develop my technique within this dance style. I asked my teacher for feedback which then resulted in my teacher focusing on technique to make sure I was developing my skills and making it as technically accurate as possible. 

TASK FOUR: Future Progression Plan: LEVEL 1

My future development plan begins with completing my current course, Level 3 Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma in Performing Arts with a grade D*/D*/D*. To help prepare myself for working as a Dancer in the Performing Arts sector, I will continue attending my local theatre group, TheatreTrain, outside of my Cambridge Technical course to develop my skills as a performer. With them I do regular dance shows and musical theatre. Recently, I took part in ‘Elf: The Musical’ playing the role of Buddy the Elf and I also had the opportunity to perform in the Royal Albert Hall, London. I have explored other opportunities by attending auditions for other local theatre groups to help me to get used to and learn how to prepare for the auditioning process and to gain hands-on experience in this sector. This will also help me to increase my contacts within in this industry which will help me to gain more experience and explore pathways into this sector. 

To help to inspire myself, I watch other theatre company’s perform shows at local theatres, for example, IODS Theatre Company’s, Sweeney Todd and I recently watched Matthew Bourne’s, Edward Scissorhands. I was particularly inspired by the way Bourne reinterpreted the classic story from the movie and the way the  Actor dancers tell the story without words. I make sure to attend as many shows as possible so that I can explore different performance and dance styles to help to develop my skills to give myself versatility as a performer. When attending these shows, I collect programmes so I can research the pathways of the performers on stage and the companies they have been apart of. In relation to my course, I recently studied Tap and I really enjoyed doing so, so I aim to take up lessons in Tap to further develop my skills. I like to get involved with local productions so recently attended an audition and became a member to Co-op Juniors and I am gaining the opportunity to perform at the New Wolsey, Ipswich as well as a chance to work with new people in this sector.

TASK FOUR: Future Progression Plan: LEVEL 2

Researched Performing Arts Colleges/Schools and Course I’m Interested In:

• Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts: 3 Years Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre
• Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts: BA (Hons) Musical Theatre
• Emil Dale Academy: BA (Hons) Musical Theatre
• Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance: BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance
• Bird College Conservatoire for Dance and Musical Theatre: BA (Hons) in Professional Dance and Musical Theatre
• Performers College: BA (Hons) Musical Theatre and Dance

I plan to complete my pre-professional training at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts where I would gaining either BA (Hons) in Musical Theatre or a 3 Years Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre. Very similar course but one is a degree and the other is a diploma. The reason I have chosen this institution is because it is one of the leading Performing Arts institutions in the country. It has an outstanding international reputation. It has relatively small student numbers meaning tat students get high levels of contact with staff. In the actual school, there are 24 rehearsal studios, a theatre, TV & Film suites, recording struggled and one-to-one coaching rooms. Each studio has really good equipment for example, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, harlequin sprung floors and black metal ballet bars. I also am really interested in this course as it has 2 pathways within it, one for triple theatre and the other helps you to work on dance performance to ensure you are a triple threat. I also like how all students get signed o an agent at the end of the course, this will help me to gain employment within the industry and increase my chances of getting auditions. 

The reputation of this school is excellent and the alumni of Italia Conti is very successful for sample, Cherece Richards played the role of ‘Dragon’ in the UK and Ireland tour of ‘Shrek the Musical’, April 2024. Declan Spaine will be taking over the part of Alexander Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London from the 19th of June. John McCrea received an Olivier Award for the role, Jamie New in ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ and also played the role of ‘Artie’ in 2021 in the 2021 movie, ‘Cruella’. Layton Williams also attended Italia Conti and has had a very successful career in both theatre and TV and continues to be successful. The highly successful alumni of Italia Conti is was inspires me to want to complete my pre-professional training with Italia Conti. Amy-Jo Summer (current student at Italia Conti) said “The course is allowing me to reflect on my past practice, current position, and future endeavours. I really enjoy how flexible the course is, with regards to being able to tailor my studies to my own practice, enabling me to maximise the benefits of this on my future career. I expect my professional development to be impacted exponentially and I am excited to continue!” (Amy-Jo Summers, Class of July 2024)