Individual Skills Audit
Existing skills before I started the course:
Before joining this course, my skills were always changing due to my lack of effort. I danced outside of secondary school my whole life, however I struggled to find a teacher that thoroughly explained technique to me and I have only realized that now since joining Stratford. Due to my lack of determination, I never completely knew I wanted to become a dancer or a performer at all and still I don't now, nonetheless that wasn't because of the fact I didn't love to dance. During my time at my previous school, I took dance as one of my GCSE's, which I got a distinction in proving I had the abilities to take this further in college to become a possible career. Within these lessons, I'd often take lead when teaching and learning choreography since I had the confidence to do so. My skills before the beginning of this course consisted of dancing at The Winter Gardens Blackpool, Saddlers Wells London, Birmingham Hippodrome and The Core in Solihull which gave me a taste to what it is like to dancer/performing arts in the industry, I went to those theatres with multiple different company's such as Harlequin School of Dance which I spent 4-5 years then I stopped dancing for around 2 years which made me loose a lot of flexibility and strength, however in 2018 I joined a new company that was every Wednesday and Thursday, this defiantly was a turning point for me as I fell back in love with dancing, however I still didn't like the performing side to the industry because every time I performed I got extremely anxious to the point that I'd forget choreography which always knocked my confidence. Whilst with Harlequin, I achieved multiple exams however since I was so young I can't recollect my levels but can still remember the technique we were taught within them,.
Skills I have developed and improved since starting the course:
Since starting Stratford, my confidence has gradually grown even though it hasn't been a full year yet. During the beginning of term where we targeted our technique, I discovered my main weaknesses as they were being shown off in most exercises. They were especially highlighted in Contemporary and Ballet due to them being the most technical out of my classes, separately we worked specifically on Leaps and Pirouettes training our legs continuously to get the positions to make up each technique as a whole, although in the beginning I was doubting what we were being taught eventually I could piece each exercise to a Leap or Pirouettes, after consistent training I could leap with straight legs and Pirouette 3 times on each leg. This type of teaching made me trust my teacher as she obviously knew what she was doing and cared enough to constantly work on it with is which was a first for me. After researching the 3 techniques we studied in contemporary, I saw a new side to the dance world that I hadn't before, seeing how everyday actions can become something so exotic and beautiful all through movement. For instance, Martha Graham took the ideology of using movement to recover nervous disorders (he was a psychiatrist) and created a technique consisting of Contraction, Release, Opposition, Shift of weight and Spirals. Due to the amount of time spent on our technique, I have incorporated small details that change my performance to a better level and am pleased I can recognize subtle changes I have made since studying these 4 techniques.
Skills I have newly learnt since starting the course:
From the beginning I have learnt a lot of skills, physically and mentally. Like i said previously, focusing on technique really brought a lot of weaknesses to my eyes such as my flexibility and strength. As a class, we conditioned everyday which really contributed to my core growth and strength growth. Due to our teacher being strict in the sense of encouraging us to do well for our own benefits, my mindset has completely changed within the past year on this course. I felt more confident within myself to do well and was determined to try my hardest even though I've struggled mentally to maintain that mindset. My knowledge has expanded massively since joining this course, Fosse's technique has taught me that insecurities of my own could create movement that no one has seem before, all of my project 1 techniques have shown me the history behind what I love to do and that anything can inspire movement and my new project 4.48 psychosis has illustrated a dark side to our industry and how it is important to show this side to it even in movement as sometimes it comes across as a more powerful that way.
Skills I would like to learn in this project?
During this project, I would like to improve my acting skills as this unit specifically needs more acting than I've done before. I would also like to broaden my choreography skills as it usually takes me a lot of time to choreograph a piece and I tend to lose interest or inspiration so I would like to try expand my knowledge on maintaining inspiration.