Thursday 21st september

We started the lesson with a warm-up to prepare ourselves for further work on the pillow dance.
This was tiring but nothing compared to what we might get in the future, therefore its important to get used to them and to improve our fitness levels. After this we moved on to the chair pillow dance again, we learned the rest of the routine and practised it numerous times to make it easier to remember and perform. The routine involves three rows (first row starts, followed by the second then the third) , I am in row three which meant that after the second verse my row had to run on stage with the chairs to start the dance, yet this was hard as the music changes after the second verse therefore its hard to keep in time. We got into pairs to work on monologues, I went with Victoria who is doing a monologue from the play "DNA" by Dennis kelly, she performed hers first which was really good, she had allot of energy and character in the piece which made it comical and believable, yet I told her that although its great she could emphasise some of the words more to give it more effect. I did perform mine back yet I found it difficult to come up with blocking for the piece, therefore we decided to give ourselves some time to work alone on our characters and movement. The next part of the lesson consisted of focus games, improvisation and feedback. We were told to hide in the main section of the theatre which is basically an open space which made it hard!, everyone was found very quickly this time round. We were then told to hide again but this time to imagine that it was the worst thing in he world to be found, everybody was more creative with their hiding places, and I managed to find a much more inventive place than before, the point was that if you have a reason to do something its always easier and comes more naturally. The improvisation was unexpected to be honest, we were told that three people would come into the room of who we really wouldn't want there. but i wasn't exactly expecting a acted hostage like situation!. so my reaction sort of came naturally, me and Victoria were talking at the time and got a bit freaked out and sort of hid behind the curtains, which I think is what I would probably do if this situation actually happened but looking back I probably should of stayed and improvised properly. Finally we watched back some monologues and gave feedback, i didn't perform mine as i didn't feel ready and am still a bit nervous of the first years, but I aim to start pushing myself more this year so I will really try and volunteer next time.
Overall I believe I understand the dance moves much better, although theres still room for improvement!, I have thought about my characters further and have more experience in improvisation.