Combined arts skills workshop 1- 06/09/21

 

Combined arts skills workshop 1

Focus- becoming a dance actor. In this workshop i explored the combination of dance and drama (characterisation and expression) in the style of Matthew Bourne.

Knowledge: 

I watched the openings of Act 1from the 2002 production of Nutcracker by sir Matthew Bourne OBE performed by his Adventures company.

Summary of the video:

One main skill i discovered was non verbal communication. For example, mime, gestures, facial expression and body language to get the story and narrative across. I explored a scene from Nutcracker where an orphan child, Clara, gets given a precious toy for the first time. i spent time coming up with 3 gestures that would communicate a greeting of me and the toy. i came up with hugging, making it wave at me, and kissing it.  I made sure the audience knew how special the the toy was to me by keeping my wide eyes glued to the toy in amazement during the sequence. I first developed my sequence by getting inspiration from the children's game of hop scotch. This was my idea behind the little dance i did with the toy. i made the dance airy and bouncy to demonstrate the child like qualities. i even make the toy pull me and turn me around, as if it had a life of its own to show the wild imagination of a child with their first toy. i then got into a sulky mood with the toy to show my age (8) and did this through a change of facial expressions (frustrated and upset) and body language (pulling my face away from the toy, holding it away from me). I achieved the pleasure and excitement throughout with high energy and big smiles. 

My interpretation of the way Clara meets her toy in this scene.

Matthews dance theatre style

The style of Matthew Bourne requires the performers to not only be dancers, but actors too. A performer has to take on a character as well as have good dance technique. the goal is to know the characters mood, emotion and intention through expression. I developed an understanding of this after watching the first scene in Nutcracker. Matthews dance theatre style s referred to as storytelling without words. I was inspired and motivated after watching the woman who played Clara to portray my orphan character as well as she did. it made me exaggerate my facial expressions and body language more than i would have.

Understanding

Like Sir Frederick Ashton and his works, ballet dancers also incorporated mime into their work to communicate key aspects of character and the plot. this is a practitioner that Matthew has been influenced by.