Unit 1, Arts Challenge, Plan, do and review your challenge.

31st January 2012

Today I have been researching slack line walking and some of the tricks that are possible on them. My first stop was wikipedia! I chose this site because it is written by the people for the people, I also like that it can be edited by others so the information you get from it is usually fairly up to date and very useful. Here is the Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slack_line  I was very interested to find out about the six different styles of slack lining and hope to use tricklining as my base type of slack lining and then also incorporate elements of freestyle slack lining and perhaps some poses from the yoga slacklining.

After looking at wikipedia and having thought a little bit about my routine I have decided I would like to  have a go at some of the following tricks:

• Turns; this is mostly because with support I am already capable of them.. so hopefully I will be able to master them independently in a short space of time. 
• Bounce walking; a slackline is like a very thin trampoline... and for my audience to apprieciate this I would like to master this skill. 
• Sit start; as of yet I have struggled to find an elegant way of starting my piece... I feel that this sitting start will add an extra level of class to my performance. However wikipedia lists this as an intermediate skill... so I am fully aware that this may take some time and a lot of effort to master. 
• Swinging; although my slack line will be fairly taught, unlike a freestyle slack line, I still feel that I can experiment with swinging from it and using it in different ways other than just the generic walking along it.

I also looked to youtube for inspiration and even tutorials for some of the tricks I expressed and interest in mastering. I couldn't however find any overly choreographed routines like the one I hope to create.. meaning what I do will be even more truly original!

Turns and backwards walking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4_51p0LT6o

Sitting start: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh_nJXiQOYs

I couldn't find any videos of 'bounce walking' alone however I understand what I need to do in order to be able to master this skill. The second video below contains some bounce walking though, I just don't want mine to be as extreme! I did however find some useful and extremely inspirational videos.. here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8v4_4eJaz4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8v4_4eJaz4&feature=related

My research took me around an hour... so my total amount of hours spent on my challenge so far is two and a half.