4.48 Psychosis was a British Play that we were using for our final project. The main requirements for this project was too make sure that we were taking different themes are certain ideas from the play and interpretating them into dances and forms of acting. I translated this into my final performance because I chose to interpret one of the scenes that uses numbers for my inspiration for my choreography. It also showed in my final performance because as well as choreographing a number with a main theme, I made sure that my facial expressions came from the idea of being scared and angry, which comes from feelings inside your head like someone in a mental psychotic episode may have been feeling. One requirement that we wanted to achieve was making the audience to feel uncomfortable and this I think I achieved in my final performance through my use of facial expressions as well as the power and the way I was dancing.

​

I used my research to develop my ideas by making sure that I researched the main theme of depression, and I did this because it is one of the main causes of mental illnesses and it would really help me to start understanding how Sarah Kane may have been feeling towards the end of her life. This research developed my performance because I was able to research different mental states and psychotic episodes which helped me to achieve my main facial expressions for the show. Therefore, I was able to reach the main requirement of making the audience feeling uncomfortable and feeling the pain that someone in a psychotic episode may have been going through. Another stage of my research was into the scenes, and this helped to develop my ideas especially for my choreography because I was able to see that the idea of the ‘serial sevens and the numbers was a major theme within the play which is why I decided to chose this as my routine and this was from my research. The power and strength that I was showing in my dancing in the final performance came from my research about Sarah Kane and her life and how she was feeling before she decided to commit suicide.

​

Throughout my schedule for my rehearsals, I feel like I kept to this schedule and my lesson plans as every week I kept on track for my routine and make sure that I was developing my choreography each week and adding into the routine each week to show that it was performance ready. However, even though I stayed on track with my schedule, I did have problems that I had to overcome, and this was ideas and creativity. Some weeks I was struggling with my ideas and new choreography, but I overcame this by taking a few days to let ideas come to mind rather than forcing ideas that weren’t working or didn’t fit the theme. I also had to overcome being a leader and taking charge within a lesson as some of the dancers wouldn’t focus in my lessons and I had to develop myself into becoming a leader that would get everyone to listen and focus for the whole time. The changes that I had to adapt to be the setup of the stage and how I would get the dancers ‘within’ the audience for the start of my routine. I was able to adapt to this and still get them engaging with the audience. I also had to adapt certain sections of my routine as the original idea didn’t work or didn’t fit the theme and I think I did this successfully before the final performance.

​

I think that the overall outcome of the performance in relation to the initial idea was extremely successful and this is because I feel like I was able to show in the performance my facial expressions which I was able to relate back to the initial idea of being in a mental psychotic episode. The choreography content was really high and I tried to make sure that the content of my routine and what I was performing was going back to the initial idea as I wanted to make sure that this was portrayed correctly and sensitively to the audience.

​

The two aspects that I would change from my final performance would have been that I wanted to make my routine more powerful and strong through more unique formations, but I was struggling to think of these so therefore I wish I was more creative with that aspect. Another aspect that I could have worked on more for my final performance is my stamina as I feel like this let me down as towards the end, I don’t feel like I was as strong and powerful as I was at the beginning of the performance. From my initial skills audit, I do feel like I have gained the skills that I wanted to during this project, and this is as a dancer as well as a choreographer and leader. I feel like I have gained them and now I can work on them even more for my next project. As a performer I have learnt that from this project that I am able to dance with power and strength and use my facial expressions in a different way and therefore I can take this through into my future assessment projects. As a choreographer, I have learnt from this project that I can teach and choreograph routines, but I have also learnt from this performance that it is okay to go more creative with my ideas and choose the ideas that maybe are a bit more daring and out there to highlight the idea a lot more of the project theme.

​

​