Workshop 2

In this week, we used  musical statuses and pass the gurn again, I think these two games were very successful. Musical stastues was very good as it helped them to relax and have fun as well as showing off their ability. Furthermore, we used songs from different cultures. This was interesting as we could see how different people were proud of their culuture and wanted to explore this further. They would dance in different ways to music from different places which was very interesting. We could incoporate their movement into our performance. I think it would be great to base it around culuture as it gives a clear srtructure to our piece as well as a strong theme which they can relate to easily and enjoy. Pass the gurn was enjoyable and got the energy going, however they some of them did struglle to concentrate as they were laughing too much, this did dominate some of the session. More of the CDO group opened up a little more which was a nice surprise and made us all feel reassured.

Thriller

Originally, this game was going to be focused around the hakka, a series of moves used in rugby to intimidate the opposition. However, we felt like this may have given the wrong impression and it wasn't what we were aiming for. Instead, we changed it to a game based around Michael Jackson's song 'Thriller' as we know that many of them knew this song well and really like it. We passed around a Michael Jackson move/noise to the next person- similar to pass the gurn. I feel like they enjoyed this game because they like Michael Jackson and his dancing. However, this wasn't ery prodcutive as we got nothing out of it. Furthermore, it didn't allow them to use their imagination and creative side which we should defnitley encourage more.

Wave your flag

The session this week was about music and exploring what people's interests and trying new things. We played the song 'Wave your flag' and choreagraphed a dance to this sing with them. We started off by freestyle dancing and seeing which dance moves they liked and what they were capable of. We split off into smaller groups so that we could see what each individual wanted to do.Once we discovered an interesting or aesthetically pleasing move, we would all copy this move. We repseated this process until we came up with a short sequence of moves that we could use in our dance. This game was very succesful because it was enjoyable and productive. They has a lot of fun because they feel passionate about dancing. Furthermore, we created a series of moves that we will use in our final performance. However, this was quite challenging for some people as occasionally the moves were too complicated and they found it very difficult to copy or replicate them. This may have eknocked their confidence. However, I believe it made them feel more determined to push themselves and improve their ability. It is important not to underestimate them and to challenge them. I think this would have been easier if we choreagraped the dance ourselves as they mainly relied on us to create the movement and it was quite messy at times when we were trying to fin certain dance moves. I was working in a group with VJ and Errol, I noticed that they were doing very large and expressive dances. Daisy and I guided them in the direction to create some choreography which wroked really well. They danced with the flags that we made and were very happy to be given a flag which represented their culture.

Image theatre

In this game, we would walk around the room and then when something like 'shop/beach' etc. is said, everyone would create that image as a whole group. We hadn't yet tried acting or drama with this group. I think it is a good way to get their imaginations going. We do need to ensure that in we ask questions about it to get them talking and to get their imaginations motivated. This game was very fun and succesful. The group seemed to really enjoy it and I think it could be used easi;y in the performance. By asking CDO questions, we were able to establish what they liked to be, when we were in the jungle they all adapted to be their own favourite animal which was really nice and I think that we could use that later on in the final performance. All the images constarted each other well asnd were very interesting. I think that if we use this game too much, it would become tedious. On the last go of doing image theatre a few people did seem uninterested and wanted to move on. I believe this was succesful, however we should make our games more active as this is what they will enjoy more. Moreover, some of the members who were less vocal were unable to get their ideas across which may have frustrated them or made them feel left out.

Conclusion