Change of plans...

This week I decided to slightly adjust my plans for my flashmob.

I decided that I wanted to do something that would benefit someone in some way. So I spent a while thinking of what I could do. One of my options would be to collect money from the flashmob for a charity, but given the nature of a flashmob this would be difficult to do, as all of the performers act as if nothing has happened after the performance.

I then thought about promoting something. My first thought would be a musical theatre production I am involved in, but then I realized it would not be my own choreography and that defeats the object of the challenge. So then I decided to promote a singer. His name is Elyar Fox. I first saw him supporting Union J at the start of this year. He is a singer that started off by doing covers of songs on youtube.His debut single "Do it all over again" was released on the 12th January 2014, reaching number 5 on the charts after just 18 hours. He performs "tweet and greets" that are all for free, where he plays his music in a public place and meets his fans.



I originally planned to promote acoustic singer Mike Dignam, but changed to Elyar as Mike's music is too hard to choreograph to. Since Mike is a very unknown artist, I wanted to do something to try and get his name out there. First off, I got in contact with his Cambridge Street Team, a group of girls that dedicate time to promoting Mike around the Cambridge area. They agreed to help me plan the flashmob, perform in it and then create leaflets to give out afterwards. I am yet to ask them to join the flashmob for Elyar.




Then I got in contact with the HMV store in Cambridge.. They agreed to help in any way possible once I have confirmed a date.They also informed me that although I cannot hold the flashmob in the store, they can assist me in finding dancers.

My next stages are to create/find suitable music for the flashmob, choreograph and get people involved. Once I have a finalized date, I am looking to try and get Elyar as well as his management involved.

My progression as a dancer

This post will track my progression since I began dancing in 2008, along with some of the performances I have taken part in to prove my progression.

The first dance I ever took part in was at the European Festival of Dance and Performing Arts in Disneyland Paris. This video is us performing this dance for the last time before we went to Paris. We came 2nd place at the competition

We then performed the same dance at a small charity event, with less people this time.

Next, in 2009 I performed at the Royal Albert Hall to Like a Boy - Ciara. I don't have a video of the dance, but  as a dancer I started to become a little more confident, but I still doubted myself.

My dance school now started to perform more frequently, no matter where the events were and who they were too. This is a video of  us performing at the local May Day celebration in 2009.

We then formed a new troupe, "Fracture." Our first main performance was at the St. Neots christmas light switch on in November 2009.

The year after, we went back to the European Festival of Dance and Performing Arts in Disneyland Paris with Fracture and came 1st place.

By now I was a lot more confident in myself, and decided to enter my very first ever solo to Huntingdon's Got Talent. I didn't get placed, but it was a huge milestone just deciding to enter.

Soon, I started to grow confidence in my ability to choreograph routines. So me and my younger sister Chloe joined up and created a duet, which we took to a dance competition in Alton Towers and won in our category. Here is us performing that duet at a huge dance convention, Move it. First on the freestyle stage where over 1000 people watched, and then at our dance school's very own stand for a competition we held.

Over the last year I have progressed even further as a dancer. This video that was shown at the end of my show this summer tracks this progress.

4th December 2013

This week I started to choreograph the routine for my flashmob. I have been planning th e orders I want people to join the dance, the styles of each section, the people I want to dance each section and the routine itself. By the end of the dance I am looking to include 50 dancers overall, taken from different dance schools and secondary schools around the St. Neots area.

This weekend I took my UDO Street Exams in grades 1 and 2.
UDO Street Syllabus
I believe this has allowed me to progress as a dancer as it is teaching me different styles and the foundations of how to choreograph and teach these styles to others.

I also took part in two shows, the St. Neots Christmas Lights switch on, and RTC ACT - A variety performance for World Aids Day.
Riverside Theatre Company - World Aids Day
These have helped me to further myself as a dancer by giving me more confidence in myself to perform infront of crowds, no matter how large or small.

Mixing the Music

When I decided to mix my music, I had troubles finding songs that fit together and aren't too different, as the music wouldn't sound right if the songs did not flow.



Then, once I had chosen the songs I would use, I decided to create a timeline of where I wanted each song to go, and how it would be mixed and choreographed.



I then used turntubelist.com to create a rough idea while I was in school of what I wanted the mix to eventually sound like.

Then finally, I created the mix on a programme called audacity and exported it onto my phone. This is so that I can always access the music wherever I am, and it is easy to choreography on the go.

Even after planning the music and thinking I had everything worked out, I still had to change the list of music I chose. This is because one of the songs, Party Rock Anthem, would be too hard to choreograph, and did not run smoothly with the rest of the music.

Furthering as a Choreographer

Before I choreograph the full flashmob, I decided to take the opportunity to further my skills as a choreographer. I set myself a small challenge of choosing a set dance style that I do not normally do: Lyrical Hip Hop, research this style and choreograph a 30-90 second routine in this style during my free times and sessions over the next few weeks. The plan of this task is to get more confident in my own choreography and remove myself from my comfort zone, so that when it comes to choreographing the flashmob in a style I will be more comfortable with I will be confident in myself.

Lyrical hip hop dance is a recent development to the hip hop genre. Some people call it a different style completely, but most refer to it as a sub-style of hip hop dance.

My first task was to watch videos of Lyrical Hip Hop choreography online, to see what the style is like.
These are some of the clips I watched:

Bethany Rose and Israel
Charlie and Drew
Maddie and Marko
Mark and Lizzie

Encore 2013 - Live Arts Event

This weekend I attended Encore, a two day dance experience with workshops and competitions in all dance styles. I went with two of the troupes from my dance school SJ School of Dance, Equilibrium and Warning. We drove to the venue, Pontins in Burnham-on-Sea on Friday the 8th November, where we spent the night as well as attending the opening Fancy Dress Party in the main hall.

Then, on Saturday, we all woke up and prepared for the competition. We entered 8 dances across the three categories.These included:

• Equilibrium - Over 14's Street, Jazz, Modern and Cheer
• Warning - Under 14's Street, Jazz, Modern and Cheer
• SJ Junior Modern - Under 14's Contemporary and Ballet 
• SJ Senior Modern - Over 14's Contemporary and Ballet  
• SJ Ballet - Over 14's Contemporary and Ballet  
• Contemporary Company - Over 14's Contemporary and Ballet  
• SJ Musical Stars - Under 14's Musical Theatre and Tap
• SJ Tappers - Over 14's Musical Theatre and Tap

I was in the dances in bold.After all of the performances, we then took part in the duo competition, where one of the 6 pairs we entered got placed in 5th in the finals. We then got told that all of our dances apart from Contemporary and Ballet had got into the finals the next  day.

After the finals, we took part in workshops with the judges. Some of the judges that we learnt from and spoke to over the weekend included:

Lizzie Gough
Chuck
Turbo
Jeffrey Felicisimo
Lucas McFarlane 

Each of the judges took a workshop in their chosen style, including hip-hop,  contemporary, musical theatre and jazz. Unfortunately, due to an injury I could not take part in the workshops, but I watched a few of them in order to learn from the professionals involved.

Then there was an awards ceremony for the group dances. Here is where we placed:

•  Equilibrium - 5th Place
• Warning - 2nd Place
• SJ Junior Modern - 1st Place
• SJ Senior Modern - 7th Place
• SJ Musical Stars - 2nd Place
• SJ Tappers - 3rd place

Overall the weekend was an amazing experience that as a dance school we learnt a lot from. We learnt the basics as new styles such as Jazz and got inspirations for new creations within our dance school. I believe this competition has made a huge difference to my creativity and technique as a choreographer as it has given me new ideas for the dance movements themselves and the music I will use.

"How to plan a flashmob"

How To Organize a Flash Mob
I found this website that gives step by step guides on how to plan a flashmob. This has been useful in my planning as it has given me guidance and so that I'm not just planning with no goal. These are the steps on the website.

1. Understand the purpose of a flash mob.
2. Decide what you're going to do for your flash mob occasion.
3. Watch previous flash mob events on YouTube.
4. Organize your flash mob
5. Provide clear instructions to your group of people.
6. Arrange any props or costumes needed
7. Know the limitations of your location.
8. Organize quality videography for the event
9. Let go.
10. Finish as if nothing ever happened.

Dance Flashmob:

1.  Choose a song

. Do you want it to be something up-tempo or more mellow? Do you want something well known or something that displays a certain style of music, such as opera?

Find someone able to choreograph. If this is you, great. If not, get someone who knows how to help turn a group dance into something spectacular.

Choose your spot for the dance. A park in a major city is a great spot, especially during lunch hour or after work when everyone is heading home.

Gather a group of dancers. Flash mob dances can be any number of people but try to aim for at least 50-75. It may sound like a lot to arrange but the more people you have, the more effective the flash mob dance becomes.

Teach them all the dance in smaller groups of 4-30

. This way you don't have to get too many people in the same room or area at once and they can also entertain the crowd from different perspectives. This is good for people who can't see the whole scene in front of them.

Choose a flash mob leader. This will be the best dancer in the group, the person who sets the beat and provides a following point for the remaining dancers. The leader can start the routine with a solo dance move, then attract the next group of 9 to 15 dancers who join in with the next move. Then, double the group's size with 16 to 30 dancers joining in. The trick to a good flash mob is to gradually get all of the dancers involved in the routine. Get the rest of them to join in in the last part of the song so that the entire group is finally involved.

Pretend as if nothing has happened. As soon as the song has finished, the dancers must disperse as normal members of the crowd to act as if nothing has happened.

Flashmob Challenge - The Venue

To host a flashmob, first you have to have a venue to perform it in. I decided to go with a nearby area to make it more possible for people to make it thee. I then googled the three main cities nearby: Cambridge, Peteborough and Bedford. My criteria for the venue is for it to be a large space where a lot of people are. Using this I narrowed my choices down to two shopping centres. Queensgate in Peteborough and the Grafton Centre in Cambridge. I then looked for as many different images of these venues as possible. These are the images of the Grafton Centre I found.

I liked this venue as it has a large open space, as well as the escalators which could be featured in the flashmob. The centre also has multiple layers, meaning we could base people who do not want to be used in the dance as much on higher levels. Also, I've done a flashmob in this space before, so contacts may be easier and I know we can get the music fed through.

Then there is Queensgate in Peteborough.

                                          
I like this area as it has a big open space, as well as having multiple levels and an escalator. Also I go to Peteborough a lot so it would be fairly easy to travel to as a large group. I am aquainted well with the area and the dimentions of space avaliable.

To decide a venue for certain, I will need to make contacts with both centers and get permission to perform the flashmob there. Then I will have to discuss a date. I am aiming to perform the flashmob around easter/summer, as although the christmas period is usually the busiest and would attract the most attention, this does not give me a lot of time to choreograph and teach to perfection a full flashmob, especially as I am looking to include local dance companies I am involved in. Also, during the christmas period there are usually large christmas trees and santa's grottos which could decrease the amount of space avaliabe.

Choreography - Stage 1

Shout - Glee Version

In my first choreography rehearsal of the flashmob, I began to work out the first section. I decided that a good song to start with from the list would be Shout, as it begins with no music and just a vocal riff. Then, when I was looking for a version of a track to choreograph to, I found the glee version, sung mainly by Darren Criss and Heather Morris. I decided that this song would be good to use as it is very bouncy and fun. I created the first section and designed who will be coming into the performing area when.

Introduction to Arts Award

DIVERSITY FLASHMOB
For my Silver arts award I aspire to put together and present a dance flashmob, isnpired by those done by Diversity and T-Mobile.

A flashmob is defined as: "A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression"

I have chosen to do a flashmob for my challenge as putting together the dance would be a great opportunity for me to further my skills in leadership, choreography and mixing music. I chose to take a lot of inspiration form Diversity, as they so driven by what they do and what they stand for. I have been taught by two of the members, Perri and Warren, as well as people who work in their studio such as Warren. I also take inspiration from Twist and Pulse, as they are my inspirations. I have also been taught by them, and they are behind me in my flashmob plans.

The first stage of creating my flashmob is to create the music. These are the first few songs I have decided to try and use for my flashmob. These are only initial ideas and may change as I get to making the mix.
I got a lot of inspiration for my flashmob from dance troupe Diversity. I followed the theme of songs they have danced to throught my ideas.
War
Applause
Shout
Scream and Shout
They don't care about us
Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough
Hero
My Heart Will Go On
Low

The next thing I will have to do is choreograph the routine. This is the main part of planning the flashmob as this is the part that people actually see, so the choreography has to be to a high level. It will be difficult to create this dance as there will be different levels of ability, meaning that the choreography has to be accesible to all levels.

Then I have to find a suitable area for the flashmob to be held in, and contact them to organise a date. I'm looking at performing the flashmob in the Easter term as it will be fairly busy, and also in this term I can incooperate classes from the dance schools I teach in, as they do not start to work towards anything in particular until the summer term.

I then have to organise the people that will be involved, teach them the dance and put the whole flashmob together. This will be by far the hardest stage of the planning and creation as I will have to find a way to get people involved, and get them all together for at least one rehearsal.