Hayley Izzard

The most significant difference for me this term is Ballet.  After not having done ballet since I was 14 or 15, I couldn't remember even the basics of discipline for moves and I noticed last term that, particularly, when plieing my lumbar vertebrae near my pelvis would collapse underneath me and I think that was because I was being too forceful in trying to get low to the floor. I appear to have corrected that hopefully. One of my personal goals was to try and learn to pirouette, as I love them :) Because of yoga and pilates, my hips and adductus longus muscles (inner top of leg) are so much more flexible and accessible that I can acheive the turnout that I want, rather than my legs caving in as i spin. I'm so happy with my progression. Video of progression coming up soon :)

To me, Improvisation is another word for 'childs play' and it's one of those theatrical areas I find most challenging. In Dance I have so much more creativity and freed up movement, but for some reason with theatre, I can't 'realism act' all that well and tend to go towards over exaggerative action which is more comfortable, but still awkward for me. After a few sessions of this, I've learnt that it's so simple to practice but such a hard art to grasp but can only be obtained and carried out through practice. OBJECT ACTIVITY CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP SCENARIO These are all the key components to grasping scenework, aswell as 'ALWAYS SAY YES!' when improvising a scene, as if you don't then that leaves the other person or people your working with stumped and there's no way the scene can carry on for much longer. The process is a matter of give and take. Personally, Improv is my weakest area (theatre wise) as I'm very much a pe...

I'd never been to, or experienced a production of a physical theatre nature before. In a way, Frantic Assembly could be interpreted as a Dance Theatre Company also, as there were some combined techniques in the performance, for example; some beautiful contact improvisation mixed with weight giving back and forth, simple exercises such as trust exercises and also continuing that fluidity of movement when in awkward positions such as giving your full weight in lifts. It was brilliant how they combined 'natural Stanislavskian acting', although slightly exaggerated, with little bursts of contact improvisation. They 'broke the fourth wall' when talking to the audience at the start, almost involving us as though we weren't an audience and we were taken along on the experience with them. There were points where I struggled to follow but then came to the conclusion that pieces are meant to be interpreted however you wish, there's no right or wrong answer, and so...

I feel confident when exploring with the floor more, but i did notice I was flitting in and out of focus. I want to work with letting myself 'give in to the floor more', as Kirsty puts it, and i agree with her to an extent. I do notice my head leaves the floor at times when it could stay perfectly happy on the floor. Andrea confirmed today that moving through the feet was heel to toe. This feels a really unnatural way for me to move. From the previous term, I've noticed massive improvements. These are videos of the same routine, work in progress. BEFORE AFTER My fluidity has improved dramatically from the start of term. I'm noticing alot of moments in my 'After'  routine where moves could be more articulated, rather than just performed for the sake of it. I think I was performing at a comfortable speed for me, performing with momentum. It could be argued that it was maybe too fast in places. To work on the aesthetics of how the moves are...

'Angel Against the Odds' This 20 minute piece, to me, was my favourite. I loved everything about it. The storyline was showing inside an insane persons head and how he thinks there's a 'bad angel' out to get him, and all unfortunate incidents happen along the way, which eventually leads to the main characters death. The transitions were superb, they were so quick.They could transition from scenes where they were expressing the emotional state of the main character, to the next bad thing to happen to him, ie: all of his hair disappearing due to no reason, or an 'accidental' fire starting with no clue as to what started it. I had genuine chills when watching it because it was very haunting. I was gripped throughout the piece. I can't believe such good work has come from Year 1 students in Term 1. (no name) This group was the 2nd piece that I saw, after 'Angel Against the Odds'. This was when i caught on that I think all of the pieces had a r...

Watching Influx Dance Company countless times was an interesting experience for me. In ways, the performance struck me more as art rather than a dance piece, which shows how inter-linked art is to dance, a cross art form. The artistic elements were: the repetitive and different pitched sounds as they were travelling around the room. There was alot of multi tasking involved where they had a sequence of interlinking actions, repetition and sequences with the stamping of feet. They even used dance in a way of showing teamwork for example, when helping each other to slide under the shelf in the art gallery. This reminded me of a movement you would see when army men help each other to protect each other from bombs and to travel in secret or confined spaces. There were a few mysterious elements which left me thinking: 'Why did they do that?', for example the jumping onto the gym mat in no particular way, what was the reason for it? I think it's good when a piece can leave you...