BUSY BUSY BUSY

Hi all,

I cannot express how packed my schedule has been the last month or so.. so massive apologies for no blog update!

I have only just returned from Birmingham where I was performing at The Clothes Show live. This was an amazing experience and I have not done anything like it in the past. It was not til I arrived at the venue that I actually realised how big of an event I was performing at.

It was at the NEC and my dance group performed along side Flawless dance crew, Kimberly Wyatt from the Pussy cat dolls, X factor finalists The Risk, Kele Le Roc and more.

You can imagine how much hard work was put into this, and endless rehearsals. We spent up to the day before we went up there, rehearsing! We was on stage 3 times a day for 3 days and our call times were very early in the morning until late evening.
It was a very draining three days but such an exciting experience knowing that it was such a huge event.

Reflecting back, I would definately go back and do it again but having said that, had I known that it was such a big event I think the build up of excitement would  have been alot more.

First uni assignment is due in January 9th although I think it is too late now for me to e-mail it my adviser for feedback as I am still working on it as I have been majorly busy with work etc. But this is certainly now my priority until it is complete. I have contacted some collegues in my class asking what kind of feedback they got so it can give me a rough idea of where I am heading with this piece of work as I most likely will not be able to receive any feedback personally.

Tomorrow is my dance group's 2nd to last rehearsal/session til the new year so I am currently in the middle of planning the session as our creative director has asked me to teach the session tomorrow.

Hope to hear from you all soon.
Rozana

Maryland Studioz: Dance / Fitness / Holistic

Are any of you looking for dance and fitness classes to join or perhaps you want to hire space?

Maryland Studioz is a local studio based in East london, the heart of Stratford.
Only a 10 minute walk from the soon to be Olympic stadium.

With three state of the art equipped studios, we hold regular classes available for all. Here at Maryland Studioz, we provide a warm and friendly environment.

Check out our website for more information on classes/timetables, teachers or hiring space.

www.marylandstudioz.com

Also, follow us on twitter to find out about more upcoming things that will be taking place here @MarylandStudioz

Campus session 09/11/2011: The Networked Professional

Today session was one of my favourites so far. I was really intrigued as to how important not only is it to reflect but do the right networking. Before this session, I had no idea actually how wide my networking range is. Today made me realise that I didn’t actually see this until it was written and mapped out on paper:

General professional networking is:

• Potential business partners / customers
• Advertising yourself
• People on the same course as you whilst studying (BAPP)
• Collaborating
• Meeting people with similar interests to you
• People who may be learning
• Google! (type in your specific field)
• Promoting
• Developing your connections with people
• Recommendations 

Soon after discussing this, our task was to in groups make a networking map. I thought this was going to prove to be hard but as soon as I started to write stuff down, it was almost like my hand I was writing with took control.

My personal map was as follows:

         

ROZANA:

*         UNI >> BAPP (course)

                             >> Degree

                             >> Peers>>blogs>>modules

                             >> Academic advisers

*         SOCIAL MEDIA >> Technology

                                >> professional networking websites

                                >> Advertising yourself

                                >> Promoting

                                >> Google your field>>research>>find potential links

                                >> Youtube>>showreels>>performances>>feedback

                                >> Finding new connections

*         DANCE >> Auditions>>meeting new people

                   >> Choreographers/choregraphing>>meeting new dancers

                   >> Performance opportunities>>networking with audience

                                   >>Teaching assisting>>experience>>leading my dance group

                   >> Becoming more capable of widening my network

*        ACTING >> Theatre

                    >> Looking out for potential agencies to be a part of

                    >> Training and gaining more experience

                    >> Previous theatre school and uni performances>>networking

*         WORK >> Student’s parent’s

                  >> Customers (you never know who you are speaking to)

*         FAMILY >> Media and Marketing (elder brother)

 
After this session, I believe I felt so much more confident to continue to network using these different ways we discussed. I am not sure if I can speak for all my collegues, but I found this session extremely helpful and beneficial.

News.

Hey everyone, hope all is well!

I am currently sat at work not so busy today so thought I'd better update my blog and share something with you.

About a week ago, I was busy rehearsing at the studio with my dance group. Our main director and choreographer of the group was paying our cost of studio hire to the gentleman who's studio it was. He'd addressed her asking if he could have 2 or 3 of her dancers for a show.

A few days ago me and two others were told that he wanted us to go to Birmingham at the beginning of December to perform at an event called 'The Clothes Show.' I was surprised as I normally tend to see this broadcasted on television, so never thought I would actually be asked to be part of it.

I am looking forward to this but it also means alot of extra rehearsals as well as my normal schedule, as we only have a few weeks to go, but I am sure it will all be very worth it.

I will be sure to post during the process and not forgetting also to post on our performances as it will be for 3 days :-)

Group Rehearsal/Class

Last Tuesday, I was told that this was the day I would be taking/leading rehearsals but this time as we have just done a show and didn’t have anything coming up just yet, my creative director and I thought it would be a good idea if for today we should make our groups rehearsal into a one off open class so anybody could just turn up.

I spent a couple of days in advance choreographing around four to five eights of a routine so that I could teach it. I decided that I’m not only teaching a routine but passing on my knowledge of what I know and have learnt in dance so far. Instead of teaching at the pace that people are used to, I wanted to make it a little bit of a challenge and tried to get through more in the space of one hour than we would normally do.

Reflecting back on this session, I think it went quite well as I got a lot of positive feedback and many of them told me they loved my routine because it was slightly different. I was happy about this because when teaching a class not only do you want them to learn but it is also nice if they actually enjoy it and come out of the session feeling good. I will definitely be doing this again.

But for now, no time to waste- ITS ON TO CHOREOGRAPHING THE NEXT ROUTINE!

Task 1a- Rewritten CV

TRAINING

1999-2007        Rascals Theatre School

2005-2007        GCSE Drama- Grade B                  Valentines High School

2007-2009                 BTEC National Diploma                  Barking College                   

                         in Performing Arts

2009-2011                 Foundation Degree                         Middlesex Univiersity

in Drama and Theatre

production

THEATRE CREDITS

2002

December      Her Majesty’s Theatre (Dance)        Rascals Theatre School

2003

October          Sadlers Wells Theatre (Dance)        Rascals Theatre School

2004

October          The Royal Albert Hall (Dance)         Rascals Theatre School

2005

September      The Royal Albert Hall (Dance)         Rascals Theatre School

2006

January           Sadlers Wells Theatre (Dance)       Rascals Theatre School

2007

November       T.I.E (Theatre in Education)            Barking College

                         Directed by Mark Civil                    

2008

February         Bites                                                Barking College

                         Written and Directed                      The Broadway Theatre

                         by Kay Adshead

May                 Stuffed                                             Barking College

                        Written and Directed                       The Broadway Theatre

                        by Kay Adshead

November       War Song                                        Barking College

                         Written and Directed                      The Broadway Theatre

                         by Kay Adshead

2009                 Squash                                            Barking College

May                  Directed by Mark Civil                     The Broadway Theatre

2009                The Crucible (Mary Warren)             Middlesex University

November       Directed by Siobhan Dunne             The Arts Depot

2010                 Tens

June                 Written and Directed by                   Middlesex University                                                                                                  

                         Student at Mdx. Uni.                         The Arts Depot

                

OTHER CREDITS

1999-2007               Variety shows once a year in various theatres with Rascals Theatre School (The Broadway,Theatre, Stratford Circus Theatre, Thameside Theatre, The Kenneth More Theatre)

2007-2008       A part of the front of house team at The Broadway Theatre.

May 2010      National Movie awards (Crowd dancer) The Royal Festival Hall

                       ITV 1 Live

July 2011       Extra in the movie Street Dance 2 3D

                

SKILLS

Street dance, very good at reading and script learning

2nd Uni session

on 18/10/11, the session at uni was very interesting. We discussed how important it is to be reflective on yourself, especially being somebody who is practicing a profession.

These are the 2 main things that today was based on:

-          noticing

-          knowledge

As discussed, noticing can mean more than one thing; looking at yourself through someone else’s eyes and how other people see you and your responsibilities. Also, this quote was mentioned to us: “See the familiar unfamiliarly and unfamiliar as familiar”- I am still trying to find a clearer way of defining what that means, although I do understand it somewhere in the back of my head, I just cant find the words to explain it.

Moving onto what we discussed about knowledge; this word consists of various things and some people believe that knowledge is only their own perception, which I believe may be incorrect because in order to gain knowledge it may be possible to learn something knew. If not, then knowledge is only the amount you’re able to see in something.

Continuing onto reflection, I think that what ever positive or negative or negative the situation, you should always reflect and look at how you can learn more. For example, we did an exercise where we partnered up balancing cane sticks with each other using only our index fingers, we then did it in groups of four and afterwards reflected on how we felt, what we could have done better and what skills we already had and used.

An interesting thing I definitely took in from today was form the spiral we were told about. Above, below and both sides of the spiral contained what you did or your level of reflection. The top was Concrete Experience meaning doing or having experience, right side was Reflective Observation which was reviewing or reflecting on the experience.

Below at the bottom of the spiral said Abstract Conceptualisation which basically means to conclude and learn from the experience; the left side was Active Experiment which meant planning and trying out what you have learn. I believe that personally for me in that particular exercise I would say that reflective observation and active experiment most related to me; as the second time we did it in groups of four I had more of an understanding of the required task as we had just done it previously in pairs. By quickly reflecting, I briefly knew what I should and shouldn’t do the next time round. This was just a small example of reflection, but its definitely made me realise exactly how you should reflect on as much as you can for your own benefit.

I felt more comfortable in this session as faces were more familiar and I think by being more comfortable with each other certainly makes things more understandable within the course.

Evaluation of performance

On Friday 14th Oct my dance group and I had a performance at a show in Chelsea Theatre. As it was quite a journey away, we all decided to go through some last minute notes whilst on the train.
 
The only part of our set which I was slightly concerned about was the finale routine which was a short 'house' style piece. The girls in the group are developing dancers so are still gaining knowledge within different street styles. Having said that, I do think they have developed hugely throughout the last two years.
 
When we arrived at the venue in Chelsea, it was not at all what we had expected. We was going to be performing in a very intimate space. I think it only sat between 90-100 seats. At thus point we were extremely eager to get up and rehearse in the space which was not a proper stage. I believe we all enjoyed watching everyone's techs as we were able to see the different talent; and for me personally, it made me feel as though we had to step up our game and train harder.
 
I must admit that after changing into our costumes we looked more like a group and after our tech was when I started to feel more confident. I decided for this show's costumes to be blue jeans, black blazers, white top, and white trainers. It looked really good.
 
Whilst waiting in the wings to go on, I felt my nerves kicking in! We had rehearsed enough but the girls still panic before going on stage and I certainly could not allow my nerves to show that they were getting the better of me or else would throw the rest of the group off. Some were still asking last minute questions, which I didn't appreciate because this was also the time where I would concentrate on myself.
 
Coming off stage was a relieve as it went well although I feel it could have been better as their were a couple of mistakes, but watching it back it actually looked much better on camera than I thought it was. Now its time to reflect back and see what things we can work harder.
 
Straight onto our next set!! As we may have a couple Christmas shows coming up!

No Laptop!

I am currently writing this on my phone as I will not have access to a laptop for maybe the next few days! I have a performance with a dance group tomorrow in Chelsea so have been rehearsing nearly every day this week. I have to point out how strict rehearsals can be when it’s close to show day; really we should just be running routines at this point and not going over choreography over and over again. Some of the girls you can see they really practice in their own time but others just expect it to be easy when they do not take it seriously! (Especially as we are trying to make this group better) In order for the group to improve and develop, we film us at the end of each rehearsal and post it on our closed facebook page so members only can see. Here, we can watch ourselves and see where we go wrong or what looks good and what doesn't; we will then use next rehearsal to fix it.
 
I hope tomorrows show goes well and hopefully it will get filmed so I can post it up!
 
In the meantime I have been finishing working on a video clip which was a uni task; but as mentioned I have no access to laptop or pc at the moment so this is the link if you would like to watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuAL2X3hiX0
 
Please leave a comment and tell me what you think!