01/05/12. PROJECT DEADLINE.

I have completed the final project essay as well as my project book to document my progress and have printed a copy of this blog, just in time for my deadline.

I’m proud of what I’ve achieved from my project overall. I feel I have completed the aim that I set out to complete and I’ve finished in time for the deadline. If I had more time and if i did not have exam pressures, I would have liked to possibly look at globalisation of the arts, not only of Kathak to Flamenco from East to West, but also other styles of dance, like possible ballet, salsa and hip hop dance. An alternate idea would have been to create a DVD of my dance performance to insert in my book to accompany the images, as the dance is best experienced visually and audibly, however, it would be quite expensive in the long run.

I exceeded my own expectations and I have learnt valuable skills of dance and photography that I will continue to use in the future.

25/04/12. THE DANCE

My performance of dance was today. I danced in front of my friends and teacher, to whom I’d advertised to to come to the presentation.It all went well and I have posted a video below that my friends took of the performance.

Afterwards, my friends were keen to learn the style of dance, so after the performance, I gave them all a class in some of the movements of Kathak dance, highlighting which gestures were similar to Flamenco, such as ‘alapadma’. I have some pictures below of the teaching.

My project book from Albelli is going to arrive tomorrow hopefully. I have ordered 2 books, one for my project, and one that the school is keen to buy for a future resource.

I asked some of the audience to give a review after of what they thought o the performance, and the video of these are also posted below. I thought that it was necessary to ask them straight after the performance by video, rather than giving them a questionnaire after which they’d have to fill in during their free time, and may forget what they’d learnt or thought.

I’ve also showed my Albelli book to my teacher via the computer, as it has not arrived yet. My teacher liked the book and I am also pleased with how its turned out.

09/04/12. FINISHED!

I have finished my photobook and have ordered two copies of the book. I’ve tried to vary the layouts of each page, such as keeping symmetry, changing photo border, different editing techniques such as black and white, varying where I place light and dark images, and where I place the writing.

I wanted to add pages with both writing and images, so my project aim and research was fully highlighted, and so the reader would be able to understand the history behind the dance before the pictures were shown.

The last page features my two favourite photos, as I feel they represent the two styles of dance best, with its emotion, depth in colour, costume, make up and expression. I was going to put these pictures on the book cover, but I decided against this. I also decided to keep the cover on the outside of the book plain linen black, rather than having pictures, because I want the book to have more impact when it is opened, and the pictures to me strong and almost surprising to the reader.

I have created some pages with over-edited pictures to emphasize certain emotions and expression of the dance, such as the example below.

On this page below, I wanted to vary the pages so decided to show the ‘pirhouette’ of both the kathak and flamenco dancer by saturating the images, as the dancer turns.

25/03/12. Forms!

Today, I completed all my project forms, such as the risk assessment form, candidate record form, mid project- review, and other forms.

18/03/12. COSTUME AND STAGING

After looking at kathak and flamenco costume and staging from performances,  was inspired to perform on the school stage with lighting and full costume and sound. However, after thinking about the logistics, it would be very hard for me to control lighting, sound system, book the school stage and bring a full flamenco/kathak costume to school. Instead , I am going to wear an indian-style top with Flamenco-style flared floaty sleeves, in bold magenta. I will dance in the school dance studio and use an ipod dock to play my music from, as I don’t need full lighting and sound or a stage, with it just being a small performance to friends and teachers.

11/03/12. ADVERTISING THE PERFORMANCE

Today I sent an email to some friends, via the internet advertising my performance and inviting them to watch. I sent them a picture of each type of dance, one kathak and one flamenco, from the images I took earlier in the year. I will send some messages either by school-message ‘memos’ or by school email to some teachers, to invite them to come and view my short dance performance.

25/02/12. PHOTOBOOK DEVELOPMENTS

I’ve had some difficulties in producing my photobook on Albelli. When I was completing my book at school, I found that the pictures did not properly save within the time of the 1-hour lesson, so I found that when I re-opened the book at home, nothing had saved. So I’ve had to restart the book.

I am nearly finished and am writing and filling in information and the descriptions of the images into the book. I am using information from the research I found online. I have inserted below all the links of web sources for my information. Some of the information in my book is from my Kathak dance teacher and from my own knowledge from studying the art.

Links of web sources used in my project information:

http://www.ranjanaphadke.com/history.htm

http://www.shamaadance.co.uk/about-kathak.php

http://www.gaurijog.com/history-and-gharanas.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/313194/kathak

http://www.spanish-fiestas.com/flamenco/

http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/flamenco_history.htm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/209402/flamenco

http://www.seville-traveller.com/history-of-flamenco-dancing.html

http://www.studioflamenco.com/Class%20Handouts/About%20Flamenco%20Dance.pdf

http://onlinebharatanatyam.com/2007/09/alapadma-hand-gesture-mudra/

21/02/12. DEVELOPING THE CHOREOGRAPHY

I have choreographed a piece which is mainly of Kathak with sections of , but I have now found a better song I could dance to from the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ called ‘Mausam&Escape’. It starts with a soft, delicate beginning which suddenly changes to passion, speed, and fierceness, and has elements of both styles of dance in.

I have been practising my dance in the school dance studio, as I’ve found it useful using a mirror to dance in front of, as I’ve found it useful using a mirror to dance in front of and it has helped me to recreate certain movements that are pictured in my images. I have learnt some Flamenco moves from videos on Youtube and have incorporated some of thee movements into my own choreography.

 

10/02/12. EXPERIENCING THE DANCE

I am now developing my Photobook on Albelli.com. It have drawn a rough layout of how I’d like the pictures to turn out on the page including shape. I have found a new tool on Albelli, that allows you to add how many pictures you’d like on a page, then it finds a suitable template for you. If I am stuck for ideas to layout, I will use this.

After further thought on whether to drop my dance performance, I have decided to still do the performance as well as the photobook. The photobook will allow description and information about my project, as well as emotion portrayed through images. The dance can only truly be experienced if it is watched or performed, and so my performance will be used to compliment the book.

07/02/12. STARTING MY PHOTOBOOK

I have now signed up with Albelli photobooks and am going to create it online. I have uploaded my images to it and practised using it today, by making a ‘mock up’ page, to see how my images look next to each other in a different format.