Unit 1, arts challenge, Plan, do and review your challenge!

So here's the plan! :D


Describe your arts challenge
My arts challenge involves me bettering my skills on the slackrope, which is something I have wanted to do for some time now;  perhaps even learning a trick to do on it. I also will be choreographing  a routine which I can perform to others. I would like to draw upon my art and creativity skills and produce a small backdrop for my routine. I will also attempt to incorporate a little bit of gymnastics into my slackrope piece, gymnastics is something I very much enjoy, so I don't think I should find this too difficult. I have already done a little slackrope... here are some pictures:

With Brian helping me :)

Getting a feel for it

Woahh... wobbly, but on my own all the same!

This isn't however what I had always intended to do.... In the begining I would have liked to have drawn upon my aerialist skills and learnt and performed a piece on aerialist silks.. I even went along to a few lessons. However, the lessons were in Nottingham and the cost of lessons and train fair were becoming a little pricey, and the possibilty of me performing was getting slimmer and slimmer as I couldn't have performed where I trained and we didn't have the facilities closer to home. The biggest thing in stopping me from pursuing this challenge however was the fact that I have a very weak ankle and always have done. The basis for most moves is called a foot lock, however this put awful amounts of pressure on my ankle, meaning that this challenge became unfeasable for me to undertake. I did have some photo's taken of me though and here they are below:

My first climbs :)

straddle climb :)

splits in silks!

Having trouble with my ankle :(

Explain why you set this challenge
I set this challenge as I feel that it will draw upon my strengths and also allow me to develop some of my weaker skills.( I also know that this one won't injure me ;p) The strengths that I feel completing this challenge will draw upon are as follows:

1. Drama. I feel that completing this challenge will allow me to futher develop my drama skills which I haven't visited since GCSE. I feel that it will do this as I want there to be a theme to my routine that I wish to portray to the audience. 
2. Dancing. This challenge will definitely draw upon my skills to dance as i would like much of the routine to be on the floor with perhaps the slackrope as a special element.
3. Performance. I will have to ensure that throughout the routine I engage the audience by staying in character, even when things go wrong! Which of course is the key to a good performer. 
4. Gymnastics. I hope to be able to incorporate some basic gymnastics skills into my routine, such as splits and handstands, I will work on these skills whilst I am training with my gymnastics club.
5. Physical strength. I know that this performance and the work up to it is going to be extremely physically demanding, especially if I choose to learn a difficult trick, or incorporate something which requires a lot of strength and determination. 
6. Balance. Need I say anything? I must ensure that I am able to stay on the slackrope without fail.
7. Art - drawing/painting. I hope to make a little bit of set for my performance, which will definitely draw upon these skills. 
8. Creativity. I will need to be extremely creative in order to incorporate dance and gymnastics into what I hope will be more of a slackrope based piece. 
9. Good communicator. I will need to use my communication skills well in order to be able to get access to the things I need and to be able to work with with others, including those that I need help from.

I also feel that undertaking this challenge will allow me to work upon those skills that I want to develop, including bettering my skills on slackrope, becoming more flexible and working on my choreography and art skills.

I hope to be able to use this challenge to become excellent in the areas of slackrope and dance. In the future, if I apply to a circus school I will be able to use these skills that I have gained in the auditions... or perhaps even in performance!


Create a timetable
I think that this challenge will take me 16 sessions of training  because each session is 1.5 hours long, this will bring me up to 24 hours worth of practice, by which point I should be ready to perform! I hope however that if I work some weekends on things such as the backdrop I will be able to perform the routine sooner, I will record any work that I do for this challenge, even if it is outside of the hours I have written down. This of course should enable me to complete the challenge earlier than expected. I cannot however plan for which weekends I will work on this challenge as other commitments such as college work could take priority. So in theory I will be working towards my challenge every Thursday for 1.5 hours from the 19th of January 2012 to 3rd of May 2012. Of course I hope to work on the occasional weekend which may enable me to finish just before May.

Check your progress.

One target I would like to meet is spending five hours on the 'open/focus day' which the club may be holding (Wednesday 11th April) on consolidating my ideas for the piece and perhaps even using that time to practice my routine then use that evening as the evening of my performance and complete the challenge a little early.

Another target I would like to meet is that by  the fifth week I would like to know the theme fo rmy performance and have some costume and music ideas in mind. (16th Feb)

By the 7th week, (8th March) I would like to be comfident performing the trick I will have learnt for the slackrope.

Resources
I will need lots of different people to help me acheive my challenge. I will need Brian, to help me to learn the tricks on the slackrope. I will need Sally and Helena, to help mw with the choreography of the piece and costume choices. I will need  Christine (a volunteer at the 101 performing arts group), to help me with making the set and the backdrop, I will need my close friends for support and motivation and to take photo's and video's for me.

I will need to have access to the mission hut so that I can practice and I will also need to have use of Brian's slackrope and fixtures, a costume, facepaint, and art materials.

Record your progress.
I hope to record my progress through a variety of different media's, such as photo's, video's ( I got a video camera for Christams! Yayy!!) and written reports  on this blog of how I feel my session went.

Review
I hope to ask my friends and those people who are helping me to review my work, this could be in a written or audio format. Afetr the performance I also hope to collect feedback from the audience by handing out questionairres asking questions such as: what did you like and why? What do you think could be improved next time? and more.