Task 1: evaluation of process and performance of SIX

This blog is about my evaluation on my progress of Six and my strengths and weaknesses. 

Strengths

One area that I feel I have improved on is my characterization throughout the songs to communicate the meaning behind every number. All numbers were completely different therefore I had to be able to change my characterization for each number which I was on. For example in 'Get Down' I had to be sassy and own every move with power like an independent woman. Whereas in 'Heart of Stone' we had to all put ourselves in Jane Seymore's shoes and imagine that we had died and not been able our first and only child. I believe that I was able to achieve this through my facial expression  and body language as people can tell a lot from the way you portray yourself on stage. This helps break that barrier between the audience and the performers and create a connection where everyone is feeling the emotion. 

Another area in which I feel I improved on was my timing especially in the dance breaks. For example in the first dance break in 'Ex Wives', I leant it in one of the first weeks but it took me all the weeks up until one of the last weeks to perfectly get the timing as I was always slightly out. To help myself with this, I made sure I was going over the dance break in my own time with the dance captains to make sure I fully understood and got the timing of the dance breaks. I made sure I was finishing every move and not rushing the to make sure they were in time with everyone else. 

Another area I feel I improved on was my strength with each movement. For example in the beginning of 'Ex Wives', we did four strong positions for 'Divorced, Beheaded, Died and Survived. I feel that for the first few weeks, the positions were not as strong and powerful as they could have been therefor I worked on pushing all those positions to the fullest I could and give them my all to ensure the movements were strong and worked perfectly with the 'dun's' in the music. 

Another area I feel I had improved in was my stamina throughout the whole performance. In the first few weeks,  I was giving both the dancing and singing my all yet the singing was quiet and breathy. For this, I worked on vocal and physical warm ups which I feel really helped me contain and spread out my stamina throughout the whole performance to give it my all. 

A final area I feel I improved on was my confidence in all the numbers. Looking back at when I had first leant the dance, I was not very confident with the moves and didn't give a lot of character to them as I felt unsure of what I was doing. However, when I was certain of the dance moves, I started to add a little pizazz and make it my own by showing my confidence through my body language and facial expressions. For example in 'Get Down', without realizing, I kept making a really sassy look with my lips pursed and my eyes squinted slightly. I was doing this because I felt confident with what I was doing which really showed. 

Weaknesses 

One weakness of mine was coordination, I feel that in the 'Ex Wives' dance break, I found it difficult to pick up the arms moving simultaneously with my legs. I will need to work on those individually and master that then work on those simultaneously together. 

Another weakness I feel I need to improve in is flexibility as I feel in the 'House of Holbein', we had do lean left and right diagonally with our arms out in a V shape. However, I feel I could have been more flexible and leaned deeper than I did to really emphasise the move. For this to improve, I can do stretches every day to help with my flexibility and containing it. 

Control of my movements is something I need to work on as I feel when dancing I don't fully control my movements for example in 'Heart of Stone' when we did the move for 'Unbreakable' I feel that I didn't have control when clasping my hands together. I feel I could have used a lot more power to emphasis that movement. To improve on this, I can work on making sure every part of my body is fully captivated by the movement and giving all I can. 

Another weakness I feel I need to improve on is my balance. On a general note, I feel that my balance when dancing needs to bee improved as I feel that when holding positions for a period of time, I can't keep still and end up loosing focus then come out of the position. A area where this happened in the show was at the end of 'House of Holbein', myself and Robyn get into this ending position where we are facing each other with our hands touching and one of our legs flicked up behind us. I fell that I get into this position so quickly that I don't even focus on balancing which makes me loose balance and come our of the position too quickly. To improve this I need to work on holding positions and focus on holding them for a period of time and try not to fall or come out of the position. 

A final weakness I need to work on is my spatial awareness. In the dance break for 'Ex Wives', I always forget to move over and this makes other people out of place, this is a problem as the positioning all looks wrong and off centre just because I didn't focus on moving over into the space. I need to work on this by focusing on what is around me and making sure I have the same space either side of me rather than being off centre and having loads of space to the left of me and no space to the right of me. 

Overall, I am proud of how I have improved over the weeks we have been working on SIX, however I now feel I need to push myself to turn my weaknesses into improvements.