Unit 1: Physical Theatre Evaluations

1. Evaluate the following:

• Self-Management – In lessons I think I have a openly extremely eager/nervous attitude during preparations because I'm determined to put my hundred percent commitment into the final results, and another thing I agree is that my punctuality and attendance is really up to standards and satisfactory because I'm always in class early or on time because I believe that its really important to have everyone there because no-one loses any vital details for future lessons or performances as every individual is a necessity to any performance or lessons.
• Participation – I believe I convey sufficient ideas in groupwork, maybe not as much as I like, because sometimes I 'm afraid that I'm too articulate and offer too many ideas that people can feel like they can't say their ideas or I put too much effort or imagination into the piece, particularly when it involves movement as it's very fascinating about what the body can make, since I've been inspired by DV8's pieces that we have learnt so far in practical lessons and previous experiences involving some ideas from a theatre company group called Frantic assembly.
•  Responding positively to direction and corrections – I am very open-minded when seeking constructive criticism input from peers and teachers because I respect the perspectives of others and how they observe my performance so that I can develop my abilities as a performer whether or not I represent the role appropriately so that the audience has a better understanding of my performances as a whole solo and group work. As I really appreciate the feedback, I ideally want to be able to see a change in my performance skills in the future, which I ideally I will hopefully achieve in the future.
•  Confident with clear stylistic quality in performance – In specific to DV8, I think my modifications to various styles when we learn how they articulate the theme through very exaggerated body movement and facial expressions as I'm very open and interested in improving and extending my style movement limitation. As I had to build a performance in a group that was influenced by two of DV8 's performances, I also think my performance gives a decent consistent stylistic quality.

2.Compare the two works you have been studying:

The DV8 professional work we've been looking at so far is 'The Cost Of Living' and 'Strange Fish' as well as learning.

The definition of The Cost of Living is focused on how an individual within society may or may not be recognised as 'natural.' It focuses on coping with prejudices and rotating problems, clearly addressing many factors that currently influence how others view their appearance or character through social status. DV8 successfully illustrates this idea through musical theatre and dance, influencing the feelings / emotions of an individual in all forms of relationships.

https://www.dv8.co.uk/

Evaluation:

There are many themes in the piece, and the movement was strongly influenced by the theme during this time. For instance, the effects of alcohol and substance abuse in social settings such as clubs and parties were demonstrated by a part of the dance (which was in a club setting). In this scene, the movement was not so much dancing, but more movement that represented drunk and errant behaviour under the influence. In particular, I observed the repetitive repetition of jerking head movements. It seemed that the character was dancing to music. The movement of his arms and head was very specific to how he might have felt. The movement was also quite stereotypical in the sense that it would be assumed that his actions would occur in a party setting. It seemed that the character was dancing to music. The movement of his arms and head was very specific to how he might have felt. The movement was also quite stereotypical in the sense that it would be assumed that his actions would occur in a party setting. 

Strange Fish:

Strange Fish is all about couples and couples, but just regular and heterosexual ones. It focuses on the female part of the union, the women who scare and scare the boys and lead them astray-sirens, Mary Magdalene's and scarlet women. Much of the same dancers jumping on one another, climbing ropes and dropping on the ground were involved in earlier DV8 bits. This work is more than acrobatics, theatre, relationship therapy and pop psychology.

Evaluation:

The crucifixion, along with flirting and kissing, gives way to a coupling / uncoupling and the beginning of the hop, all of which ends with Wendy Houstoun as the standing alone. She tries harder and harder to seduce a person in her desperation, attempting to sever other relationships that culminate in a scene.

With some worn-out conclusions about female sexuality, Odd Fish finishes. The girls who get the boys are less self-possessed or floppy altogether. Good girls do not move from one boy to another, while at least one boy seems to have an extra-relationship-relationship, and the siren ends up very alone. The female does not provide enough for everything, unlike the loaves and fish, but rather provides too much, sacrificing herself in the process.

Similarities between the pieces:

• In particular from the male actors, both performances discuss the theme relationship equally the same as they were both presented to see the women as objects and from the viewpoint of women they would almost lose who they were and what they were able to do.
• Both pieces involved loads of exaggerated movements, and 'The Cost of Living' demonstrates this through musical theatre and dance, and so does Strange Fish because of this DV8 clearly shows that this concept effectively affects a person's feelings/emotions in all types of relationships.
• Each performance uses the dialogue limitation to help empathise with the point they are attempting to convey because 'Strange Fish' is attempting to demonstrate how physical toll relationships take on a person and how it can make people respond differently while 'The Cost of Living' uses more dialogue as there are a number of themes displayed throughout the piece and the dialogue helps to build a consistent understanding

Choreography process:

• He felt that containing audiences about the depth of what was being presented was the majority of the work he had been dancing in. He started to explore the idea of physical theatre, which he saw as encouraging him to use any means possible to find the most suitable way to express something in looking for a way to challenge the limitations of dance. He subsequently founded DV8 Physical Theatre in 1986.
• He also felt that words were often not really the only thing the audience can use to help interpret the plot, so he felt that excessive body activity would generate a clearer interpretation of what's going on during the performance.
• In all of this, he was able to accomplish his goal of visually transmitting the audience in body gestures rather than relaying dialogue.

Your critical opinion:

I believe in my opinion that DV8 clearly displayed the characterised and the ability to communicate ideas and feelings with a focus on socio-political issues because their well-thought-out pieces really show the strong understanding and growth of how each subject advances in the two-professional work. As the piece 'The Cost Of Living' was so great, I was so intrigued by how clearly all the themes were displayed, even though the amount of dialogue was limited than the body movement and yet it was still portrayed to where the audience was able to uncover the storyline that was set.

In addition, the other piece from DV8 was 'Strange Fish' this piece was a very interesting performance because the plot is very complicated and a little confused because I didn't understand what happened during the film, it was only when I did more research about what it was that it became simple and meaningful then. But the idea was very well creative and thorough, as at the beginning there was a crucifixion and the actress' expressions and actions were precise and exquisite.

SMART target: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwr34j6/revision/3

The need for me to improve my performance skills is to have a radically different attitude about myself as I fail to see my achievement, however my next performance will become better than the next because I'm currently doing awful and absolutely not reaching the expectations I want and I think it's extremely necessary to be able to demonstrate a change throughout. As I need to be able to avoid being comfortable and breaching the barriers I have built to become more positive as I completely fail on that level, as it is an important key factor because that would be a challenge to show my abilities to others without it which wouldn't allow them to understand my full potential. As I need to further study how a person can expand on style, voice and body movement and gain a great understanding of  knowledge and how to be able to apply that to my performance and when in group work as DV8 has provided a brilliant example through their extremely clever pieces of moving art performances, which I use for inspiration. To ensure that I make this realistic, I will ensure that there is a practise rehearsal time at home so that I can make an even greater progress, ideally, and also build a good time schedule and stick to it as much as possible, so at least I know that I am expanding my performance skills every day, including my knowledge of physical theatre since I believe I can develop it much more further. Hopefully, I hope that my performance ability will improve in the next few months because my present bad acting ability will not be acceptable and it needs to change before the exam time as something that I constantly worry about failing performing arts.