Children's Show- Songs and Music

Firstly this section was part of the original research but we wanted to use natural sound rather then having the input of technical involvement.
We listened to CD's of native music and broke it down to the native beat of the music.



One stage when we wanted the involvement of music we used the CD's then picked out the beat which gave us a start with the music.
Common musical instruments used was, sticks, drums, flute, and rattle. these instruments contributed well with the movement of the animals too.
Songs were written but needed the groups involvment whether the songs felt appropriate to the theme and style. Wr altered them in areas where it felt that the voice was too western and had that native vibe. Then devided the stanzas into sections to have the involvment of the movement.


Opening verse extract-

"Real dreams know the way, dreams gone foul get stuck and stay,
in that web shall be kept safe for dreamers as she slept,
Sweeter dream will pass on through til it finds the heart of you,
with you feathers it shall play til the joyful light of day"

Children's Show - Animal Research

Now that we have established the animals that are to be featured in the show, I have researched the animals that I am to be portraying.

Rabbit- HOW THE RABBIT LOST HER TAIL

In this story I will have to change the physicality of the rabbit, as the story progresses. During a run through of this story it was suggested that I need to highlight the change from the rabbit having her front legs to loosing them.
As the rabbit starts with a long tail I have this impression of the rabbit being rather fox like at the beginning.


Points taken from the fox picture:
- physicality from the body movement; emphasis of the tail
- creeping, the sensation of prowling, the lightness on the paws.

Once the rabbit looses her front paws and her tail I must adopt the characteristics how the rabbit is represented traditionally. I have researched the movement both during rehearsals and outside rehearsals, the rehearsals has brought in the outsider observation.


Points from the Pictures
- the movement of the hind legs
- the propulsion of the rabbit hop.
- the hesitation of the rabbit, checking the surroundings before proceeding

Horses- THE PIEGIAN WARRIOR


Wild Horses from BBC Wildlife (available bottom of page)

Points taken from the Video

The wild horses attitude to humans relates a lot to the piegian warrior story.
- the hesitation of the horses
- how the horses defend themselves, stepping out, leaping, change of pace, reaction to one another.
- the physicality of the horses, flicking of the head, shuffling of the hooves, grunting.
- the idea of using the head as a defence mechanism.

Children's Show - Exploring movement with physical theatre

Tree Physicality

Physical theatre to create the stories, in the Heron and the Hummingbird we have chosen to use physical theatre to create the surroundings so far we have experiemented with the physicality of the tree.

Method:One

This tree gave a great deal of height for the tree, however a block would be needed to evaluate the height. The need for the block would become an obstucle when there was a stage changed during the story.

Method: Two

This was easier to manouver but lost the height and the impression of the tree with the branches etc.

Method: Three

Out of all the methods this one proved the most creative, the disadvantage was the handstand as the speed of the change of movements may prove the handstand to be unsuccessful especially for the stands conditions.
We are experimenting further to continue the creativity of the movement but accomadating to the stage conditions.

The Warrior Physicality

We have established are opening scenes so far, which uses a lot of movement. As the opening scene many of us come out as Native American hunters, I have looked at the movement of native americans on the prowl, I have incorporated it into my native american hunter.

Image taken from (www.paganspace.net/profile/Brandon47)

From this I can judge the stance of the 'Hunter' as well as his movement and his approach to hunting, stalking your prey, light footsteps, using your weapon.

Jasmin Vardimon Workshop - 10 NOV 09

This workshop although a dance based workshop worked well with the movement experimentation side to the children's show. One of the exercises on the work shop was to imitate the movement of the snake with your hand but the involvment of the whole body. Although I do not play a snake character it did help alot with involvment of the whole body. Also gave a lot more confidence to just do the movement and see what happens.

ESTELLE MOVEMENT SESSION NOV 09

With the warrior movement we have worked with Estelle on a variety of movements in particular with the prowling and hunter presence worked well with the native theme. This session worked really well when incoporating the music into it as well. I learnt a lot from this session with the involvement of someone elses specialities and ideas. It provided a stepping stone to lead off from.