The Language of Performing Arts

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The Language of Performing Arts

When I initially decided to embark on the Performing Studies course I

knew that it would involve studying the three different disciplines,

Dance, Drama and Music. However I presumed that they would be taught

separately. Although we began by learning about each area individually

they were soon combined in order for us to create our own mini

project. The aim of the mini project was to demonstrate our new found

knowledge and ability in relation to Performance Studies.

In drama our theme revolved around 'The Fall of the House of Usher' by

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). We also studied Stanislavski's system as

he was our chosen practitioner for drama. Stanislavski invented

"method acting" if an actor uses Stanislavski system they would tune

into a past emotion experience to represent a naturalist effect on

stage. We began by reading the story, we then brain stormed ideas,

picked and allocated characters. My character was a normal young girl

of about 17 who was staying in a house with her friends, but was

scared of being alone. I chose to be this character because I thought

I could relate to her and was able to express her emotions, as I was

of a similar age and same gender. I attempted to remember particular

emotions I had felt when first going away without my family. I then

used these feels and emotions and incorporated them into our piece. We

started an improvisation, rehearsed over it and then selected the bits

that worked and rejected the pieces that didn't. We chose to perform

our piece in silence, we didn't want to use dialogue but rather focus

on our body language, our proxemics, our relationship to ...

... middle of paper ...

...e. I believe that it is a lot easier when

someone tells you a basic story and you continue from there, but when

you have to do all the work yourself, it is a lot harder. I find that

you have to spend a lot of time working and perfecting the performance

and concentrating in order to get it exactly how you want it. I spoke

to some of the audience prior to the performance and quizzed them on

their views and opinions. Most people said it was really effective and

it worked well. People seemed to like the fact that we used a dance to

represent the crash. Some of the audience said that the music we used

worked and went with the performance; they said that it was moving

towards the end when everyone was giving their story of what they had

seen. Overall I am happy with what the audience said and how they

thought it worked well.

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