As improvising involves the trying out of ideas, adaptation of stimuli, and spontaneous response to stimuli, we experimented with our ideas and used the small amount of time we had to the best of our ability. Our ideas were written down onto a piece of paper and using our music and picture as stimuli we composed our motif. The title of the albums title was what inspired us to use different moods and emotions in our piece, we used boredom, anger, excitement, and happiness during our motif.
The choreography was composed using action and relationships, dynamics and space. As action is a movement component the six dance skills of travel, turn, elevation, stillness, gesture and fall, we decided to include as, many as possible.
As the piece begins I take the role of the teacher, the motif begins slowly and an arm glide is used followed by a bend at the waist, similar to a bow, this shows the class that they are dismissed. I then do I turning step, which rotates me, three-hundred-and sixty degrees ninety degrees at a time. This shows the teacher revelling in her delight that the day is over.
The students who begin sitting on the floor at the start then stretch out to the side and glide up their arms to opposite sides, this shows their excitement that they are allowed to go home. They then leapfrog one another and to the disgus0t of the teacher she stops one of the pupils. I then single out one of the pupils by pointing it him. Using this powerful gesture the power and importance returns to the teacher. I also use a flat palm to show that the teacher wants the student to stop; I then put my hand straight and lower it to show the student to sit. I then take 8 counts to walk over to him.
The other two students are out in the playground completing a motion which shows them skipping with a rope.
The teacher slashes her arms across the pupil who is sat on the floor, first to the left and then to the right and to the left again. As she does this, the student moves his head in the same direction as the teacher’s slashes. This shows the pupil being disciplined. The student then jumps to his feet and begins a tussle with the teacher, the student is trying to pass the teacher but the movement is bound by the teacher and they begin a series of forwards and backwards movements where the teacher is overpowered by the student and the teacher is eliminated as she falls to the floor.
The Student passes the teacher and joins the other students. They then pick up their school bags one at a time each a little differently to show they have different school bags. The students spin from their positions to stand in the middle one behind the other, the people at the front and the back then hops left to right, right to left, then left to right again, the person in the middle does the opposite to the other two. They spin to their position, the student at the back skips with a imaginary rope as the other two get even more excited about the end of school. Then the student skipping joins them in a circle and they spin clockwise for three steps and kick to the left, spins anti-clockwise for three steps and then kicks right and finally spins clockwise for three steps and kicks left.
One student then leaves and goes ‘home’. The other students excitably improvise as there parent walks through the middle checks their watch and claps twice above their head. This signals the children to come and they hold each side o her arm hop left, right, left, and finish.
We decided to improvise a small bit in the middle as a schoolyard would not have a se routine and would be messy.
Rehearsing helped combine our adaptation off the stimuli and helped us select some of the work we experimented with when we improvised. It allowed us to polish and refine a planned motif so we could perform it with confidence and ease. The rehearsal period lasted about a week and still involved a development of our idea, as we had to change the routine of the motif slightly to fit the music and to help one another reach positions easier.
The performance or end product seemed to go well. The whole motif went as planned except the ending, where we seemed to forget which way we were hopping and ended up giggling but other than that the dance was well constructed.
If we had longer to perfect it we would obviously practice the ending but as it was the mistake at the end seemed intentional, as a typical school day is full of fun and laughter.
With more time and rehearsals I would of liked to change some of the ways we travelled, it was mainly walking, then moving to our positions, perhaps we could of used different and more variations of movement.
On the whole the motif went well. It was fun and beneficial.
