Looking to the future !

This year I have developed and grown in my confidence in choreography. Especially in hip hop. I am a proud member of dance squad and am proud of all the performances and competitions we have done this year. Our final competition finished the year of perfectly for me with us gaining 2^nd place in Advance Hip Hop at Northampton competition. In regards to my development with contemporary dance my chosen degree of choreography and dance has allowed me to explore and find new ideas I am interested. I never thought that I would take part in a flash mob or found a passion for screen dance. These are both things that I have developed this year that I will take on with me in my next year studying choreography and dance. My next step will be developing my EISP in which I have already been a part of another person’s and know the requirements.

As for my future career I am still unsure about where me path is taking me but as my granddad said “if you don’t know where you are going, any path will lead you there”. Dance squad has allowed me to keep my passion for hip hop current alongside my studies and I feel it all has influenced my choreography. Even my current studies in psychology have helped me look at the wider picture and explore thoughts and ideas that I might not have previously explored.  

I hope to continue on my choreographic development and possibly even take screen dance further next year with my EISP. I am happy with all progress made this year and I am sure I will continue on this path.

 

Screen dance

For semester 2 of my second year studying choreography and dance I decided that I would take the module screen dance. This would mean working on camera skills and dance in order to reach a final project which could showcase the skills learnt throughout that semester. Our original idea focused on restriction and we had planned to film the screen dance within a restricted object such as a box. This then developed once we found 5 wooden blocks. We played around with contemporary choreography which showed restriction of these 5 boxes. We considered our location of shooting and began the process of making our screen dance. The final screen dance which was submitted was called tectonic. I was so glad that I chose to do the screen dance module as I feel I have shown my abilities and also enjoyed the outcome. I had not explored the idea of dance on screen and i found it to be something i really enjoyed and would want to take further.

Flash mob

During the second semester, whist we are currently in the process of producing our screen dance, we were asked to take part in a flash mob in the middle of Winchester high street. A group of people mobilized by social media to meet in a public place for the purpose of doing an unusual or entertaining activity of short duration [dictionary]. A flash mob has to be thought of as it is giving the public a performance that they have no asked for. We had a day in which we were put into groups and given the location. My particular group were located next to a wall. We worked on ideas on how to integrate the wall into our piece and what possible obstacles might be in the way whilst we are performing the piece. When dancing and performing in public it is impossible to place our audience as we cannot control what they will do or how they will react. The flash mob went really well and this showed me something that I never thought I would get into or explore. People reacted well and I performed in a completely new way.

 Reference : dictionary.com- http://m.dictionary.com/definition/flashmob?linkid=nzemv7&srcpage=definition-spell [visited on 23/03/2014] 

Taking part in an FYP

 I was asked by two third years that were leaving if I could be in there EISP. Of course I was delighted and said yes. The original idea of the piece was that we were wives of men that had gone off in the war to fight in 1940. We played around with ideas around this and learnt some choreography to go alongside this. However after Christmas it was decided that the idea didn’t have enough substance to be able to give a 10-12 minute piece.


 So then a new idea was thought of and this idea was that there would be three mothers and me and another would play there children who had been taken off to war. The piece started through a strong stigma of listening to a speech that the queen had made in 1940. The speech is one she made on the radio explaining why the children had to be separated from their mothers and fathers. The piece used a lot of contact work and required a full embodiment of the role. For my particular role I had to ignore all the emotion and act confused to why I was leaving. One of the really striking moments about this piece was a section in which starts with the three mothers grieving and in anger and then me and another dancer would run on playing games. This was striking because it showed a contrast to how oblivious we were. I really enjoyed being part of someone’s EISP and it has shown me the organisation and processes that are needed to do this. The performance went really well and I was glad to be a part of such an amazing piece.






This is a link to one of the rehearsals : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro-oY-YHmQ4




This picture was take just before we went on stage.

Northampton university competition

We competed at Northampton competition with a completely new mix of songs and a new routine. As there were less boys competing with us we were able to perform more of a girly routine as a theme to the dance. Watching others at competition had shown us the standard that we needed to meet. We had practiced placing and smooth transitions and most of all performing with our face. Each section of our dance was choreographed by a different memeber of dance squad and so each section had to be performed uniquely and with a different feel to the movements. Even though we gained two parking tickets we placed 2^nd in advanced hip hop and were ecstatic with how it went.

My CV

This is my cv that I have made.

Sarah Elizabeth Groves

Home Address:  2 Sedley Rise                                  

                         Loughton, Essex

                         IG10 1LT

 020 8508 2546

 

Current address:  166 Greenhill Road

                              Winchester, Hampshire

                              SO22 5DR

Mobile no. 07946519034

Date of birth: 20/07/1994

Nationality:  English

Height: 5ft 4in
Weight: 13 stone 5 pounds

E-mail: sarah.groves2@gmail.com

Previous Employment                                                                        Current Employment

Hotter Shoes                                                                                          JS Sainsburys
17 High St Winchester                                                         2 Middlebrook Street

SO23 9JX                                                                            Winchester
01962 843166                                                                SO23 8AQ

Since: October 2012- November 2013                     Since: January 2014- present

Education

May 1998 - July 2005                                      Staples Road School, Loughton

September 2005 – June 2010                         Roding Valley High School, Loughton

                                                                                              (Tel: 020 8508 1173)

Examination results                                        GCSE

                                                                        English Language        C

                                                                        English Literature       B

                                                                        Maths                          B

                                                                        Science                        C

                                                                        History                         C

                                                                        Performing Arts          A

                                                                        Art                               B

                                                                        Media Studies             B

                                                                     

                                                                        Duties undertaken– Prefect, Dance Ambassador

September 2010 – July 2012              West Hatch High School, Chigwell

                                                                                                 (Tel 020 8504 8216) 

As Levels – Year 12

                                                                       Media                          C

                                                                        Performing Arts          C

                                                                        Psychology                  D

A Levels – Year 13

                                                                        Psychology                  D

                                                                        Performing Arts          C

                                                                        Media Studies             C

Currently studying:

University of Winchester

BA (Hons) Choreography & Dance and Psychology – UCAS Code: CW85 – Faculty of Arts (started year 2012)

Duties undertaking: vice captain of dance squad

Work experience                                            Teaching Practice – Staples Road Junior School

                                                                                                            (Tel 020 8508 3567)

Hobbies / interests                                          Dance

Theatre productions – Stage One Theatre Production School and in school

Brownies and Guides

Duke of Edinburgh
Tennis – Buckhurst Hill Tennis Club

Personal qualities                                           Friendly, Approachable, Polite, Diligent, Enthusiastic

Dance achievements                                      Tap Grades 1,2,3,4,5 IDTA

Theatre experience

“And the beat goes on”          Barking Theatre          Stage one        2007

“Alice and wonderland”         Barking Theatre          Stage one        2008

“Stage one 20^th anniversary”  Millfield Theatre        Stage one        2009

“King of pop tribute”              Millfield Theatre         Stage one        201

“A life”                                                West Hatch High School                     2011

“Cats”                                      West Hatch High School                     201

“The Pillowman”                     West Hatch High School                     2012

Inspirations

Hip hop dance is a very popular and current style of dance. When I am looking for my inspirations it is easy for me to type into the search engine on YouTube and see millions of videos of people dancing.

Jasmine meakin

Jasmine meakin is an Australian dancer who has recently created her company mega jam. I absolutely adore her videos and have been such a fan of what she does. She changed pace and dynamics throughout her dances making them so interesting to watch. Her dances are clever and all the dancers that perform in her videos are in sync and the movement is clear and precise. I have actually found that her more recent videos have been the ones that I have liked the least. She did audition for Australia has got talent but didn’t make it all the way. I feel that her choreography has influenced my choreography as I now have come to realise how you can change the dynamics of a routine to make it more interesting. Dynamic qualitites are not meaningless but meaningful (V. Preston Dunlop,1998, p.118). Jasmine’s choreography has both fast and slow parts which diversify and add texture to a routine.  Dancers relieve the choreographer from the constraints of music matching (V.Preston Dunlop,1998, p.162). This is something I keep with me and add to the routines that this works with. This is an example of one of her routines that is one of my favourites.

Brian Puspos

When performing I always feel that an audience will react to an emotional piece more. One piece of choreography that has always stuck with me was Brian Puspos’ choreography to Acura Intergurl by Frank Ocean. This piece is proof that it is possible to show emotion through hip hop dance. The lyrics are powerful but the fluidity of his movements and the visual facial expressions are the parts that have stuck with me the most.

References : Preston-Dunlop, V (1998) looking at dances . Verve publishing 

BUCKS NEW UNI DANCE COMP !

We went to bucks new uni competition on the 22^nd of February with a routine that had a mix of the Justin Timberlake songs and a few other songs that we had decided to put in the mix. We had decided that for this competition, we would focus solely on the Advanced Hip hop and not compete in the other categories. We hoped this would push us to give a stronger hip hop performance. we didnt place in the competition as other groups were stronger but i was very proud of us as a team. i felt that this performance can now push us to be stronger and better and the feedback can be used towards the competition in Northampton.

Southampton competition

On the 8th of February Winchester dance squad performed the routine that we had been working on for many weeks. The routine consisted of a mix of Justin Timberlake songs and as it was choreographed by many members it had a mixture of individual’s styles. We competed in advanced contemporary, advanced jazz and advanced hip hop. Throughout the day we were able to watch the other universities perform. It was a really good time to be able to see what the main components that make a dance.  Watching other people perform I could see that synchronicity and timing were key and that if a dancer really performs through their face it can make such a difference.

Pictures:

 

I felt that the competition went really well and the performance was well recieved overall. at the end we are able to collect feedback written by the judges of the competition.

Possible dance pathways

When looking into what exactly I wanted to pursue after university, there has been choices which have been presented in the dance subject such as a choreographer or a teacher which I haven’t found interest in. As the course I am taking at university is choreography and dance and psychology the most obvious career destination involving both those subject would be dance therapy. I have thought hard about this and have thought that it’s not possibly something that I wish to pursue with after university. On the side of my degree I am also the vice-captain for the university’s dance squad. Hip hop has been a huge passion for me for many years and something that I have loved and something that I am constantly developing through my academic studies. This blog will follow me through my development in hip hop and my general choreographic development that can influence on my choices in hip hop and possible guiding me into a future career. I am currently being influenced through other styles and my experiences throughout my time at university.

My degree

At the moment I have no idea about what I want to pursue after my career. I am currently studying choreography, dance and psychology. In many ways both these subjects have interlocked and I have found the throughout my dance degree so far psychology and knowledge and understanding have helped. I felt this particularly when studying dance contexts. For this topic I had to explore different ways of looking at a dance and allow my mind to psychologically explore. I found it interesting and it definitely gave me more techniques that can develop my choreography.

Dance squad

Once I started university I decided that I definitely wanted to join a society. I came across dance squad at the fresher’s fair and decided to go for auditions. Dance squad are hip hop based group that compete across England representing the university. In the first round of auditions we were taught a routine and then we had to perform it back to them in groups of around 5 people. The second round consisted of being taught a routine and then making up the next few counts of 8. I received a call after getting through both rounds that I had got in. We performed all year and I had such a brilliant time competing with them. I had choreographic input into each performance and I was able to reflect of others chorography and adjust to styles that I wouldn’t normally do. This year I have taken up the role of vice-captain of dance squad and we are now preparing for three competitions Southampton competition, bucks new university competition and Northampton university competition.

Christmas Performance

When making a group performance for dance squad we split into groups and choose songs and then choreograph to them. We were asked again after the Halloween performance to perform at the student union but for the Christmas flirt. The Christmas performance was about that everyone had their input into the final performance. We wanted to make the Christmas performance all about the end of 2013 as this would be our last performance in this year. Each group chose a popular song from 2013 and we performed a mash up of them all. Our groups dance had a particularly slow beat and so we found it difficult to choreograph too. After finally getting together our routine we taught it to each other. We performed at the student union and it was well received by everyone. I felt my input into this routine was one that I particularly struggled with. I found it difficult choreographing to a slower songs as I am used to the fast rhythms.

 

Hip hop or contemporary

I have always felt that I wanted to keep both my passion for contemporary and hip hop running throughout what I choose to do. Before coming to university I was unsure on whether or not choosing choreography and dance was the best option for me. I enjoyed contemporary dance at sixth form but has done little exploration into different ideas and concepts. In a way I was performing contemporary dances that had little meaning. The thrill and adrenaline that I feel after a performance in hip hop I have never felt before in contemporary. During my first year of university contemporary dance became a legre part of my life and I learnt more about it than I ever thought I would. I am so glad I chose to do this degree and wouldn’t change it for the world but my heart still lies with hip hop dance with contemporary in a close second which I never thought would happen as musch as it has. 

 

Past reflection

Hip hop has been a big part of my life and has been something that developed from classes in Jazz and production shows performed in when growing up. Learning many different peoples choreography has shaped the way I dance into my own individual style. I have previously choreographed and taught classes which has probably reached me to make the decision that I do not want to be a dance teacher. During my time at sixth form I was made a dance ambassador and helped with the production of the schools dance show. The dance shows consisted of a range of styles but the dances which I choreographed were hip hop. I didn’t explore the idea of playing with concepts in a dance until I reached university and so the dances that I choreographed did not have an idea or theme behind them it was literally just dance for the sake of dance. All the choreographic decisions made in the past have led me to where I am now building up further.

Dance Squad halloween performance

For Halloween dance squad are asked to perform at the Halloween flirt at the student union. Once we start back after summer this is the first project we focus on. We choreographed strong and scary routines in full costume and make up. For me I feel this is one of the best to choreograph as it has a set theme running through.