Hayley Izzard

'The traces left behind' - Fiona Jackson  A movement exploration looking into the different ways we imprint ourselves onto our surroundings in our day-today lives. I really liked this piece as I was fascinated with the collages in the gallery space of handprints smudged across the pages on the wall, seeing all the the delicate markings of the feet. On one of them there was a 'Start' and 'Finish' where she'd journeyed across the paper, and seeing the comparisons of the traces. The feel of the piece reminded me very much like it was an art exhibition. As I was witnessing Fiona drawing circular patterns with chalk, I saw in the process her foot went through the chalk line and the chalk scattered far over the page, which was interesting. A phrase stood out to me,'The movement is fleeting, the marks remain'. This phrase interests me as it says to me even though as humans were constantly progressing, travelling, moving forwards with our lives, ther...

Free Writing: Can't explain the words, but I was trying to write without thinking which was really hard. The colours are how I see these words. Lesson Picked 3 objects, put them together with other objects. Rearranged these objects in groups. Put all objects together, started changing around and manipulating the objects to make them into our massive art piece. Picked an object and explored all if its possibilities, the way it moved, the way it can be manipulated. Feedback At the start I was bored with just rearranging the objects. We found we ended up putting things in similar places and my attention span quickly faded. Although it is interesting to see how objects can look in different ways, and how they have endless possibilities on how to rearrange them. Creating our massive art piece was really interesting, loved it. When we focused on one object I was wrapping it around me, letting it float, even dancing alongside it. It has a million and ...

In Improvisation with Amy, I find that I shock myself with how creative I can be with what I write without thinking. Here are a few verses that I've wrote over 2 sessions in my artist journal: "When I am part of a group, I feel the freedom to create what I want, it's a pleasure to work with others. We dance together, it works. We create together, it works. I like to share the spotlight, aswell as to have it." "A constellation of dance can be in all shapes; horizontal, vertical, sideways. Shapes - hearts, stars, squares, triangles, ovals. Patterns in the floor Patterns in the air Group patterns are so effective, working closely together." "Between people there is a natural bond, used through dance and real life. There is a deep connection expressed practically and silently, working in harmony, working as one. Broken bonds are with people who struggle to let go, struggle to breathe, struggle to see."

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...

'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...

I arranged my Siobhan Davis scrapbook looking through each decade of her pieces, choosing one i liked out of each of the decades. I chose these on certain aspects that stood out, for example, 'Bird Song' performed in 2004 caught my attention for its structure. It was originally choreographed for an audience to be 'in a round', and then it was later choreographed for the audience to sit in the traditional 'proscenium march'. Analysing it closely, they used alot of repetitive movements, keeping in a tight group constantly, improvising while separating and joining together again to repeat the previous movements again. In my opinion, this was so simple but effective. The lighting effects that they used compliments the moves they do on the floor, for example, at one point on the floor they're performing circular movements, to compliment this, the lighting projected on the floor is a patterned circular floor effect. Aongside this, the way they incorporate count...

Blogging is an amazing tool, useful for all kinds of things: Networking - getting your name out there to companies and potential casting people. It's an aid to monitor progress of your development as a dancer/actor or artiste, physically and mentally. Reflection is key in order to learn how your body works and copes with tasks - also to see progress. When made public, anyone interested in your work can have a look and learn from your video's/photos also.

Dance makes me feel like anything is capable. There are some technicalities to it, but I love to create, I love to improvise. It's a natural instinct for me to want to move to a rhythmic beat. Hayley x