Phoenix Dance Residency 2

Phoenix Dance Theatre

Once again, the week has flown by and has been immense fun learning new techniques in film and visual art, which will connect to the dance component.

Monday 7th November
Pauline and I were supporting Lorraine as she worked with Phillip’s group on animation techniques, these would on the Thursday, be incorporated into creating different elements of the film that will be shown to parents on the performance day and used as a projection in Judith’s groups performance.

Students looked at
Thaumatropes (Toy of optical illusion)
Flip Books
Learnt about ‘persistence of vision’

Tuesday 8th November
An essential and helpful planning day with Lorraine, looking at developments in the children’s work and setting the format and content of Thursday’s session.

Wednesday 9th November
Pauline and I worked solely with Judith’s group establishing in the morning sessions a fun exercise where students became ‘detectives’ in ‘Kiveton Park Meadows Forensic Department’. The aim of this session was to find an engaging and interesting way for the students to explore the internal organs and skeletal structure of the human body and then develop this further by looking at the Jabberwocky.

The first part of the morning was spent in the ‘computer lab’ working with an interactive program on the BBC website, in teams of two students were asked to identify specific internal organs or parts of the skeleton when given clues by myself and Pauline. They then had to find the appropriate diagram rotate to the specific angle in appears in the body and fit it into the space.

Internal Organs
Brain
Heart
Lungs
Stomach
Voice Box
Kidneys

Skeleton
Ribs
Mandible
Femur
Metatarsals
Pivot Joint

After finding, these organs and bones / joints students were asked to fill in notes on their forensic sheets (see below).

On returning to the classroom students were then given the exercise of thinking what type of internal organs and skeletal structure the Jabberwocky might have, the following are descriptions and names given by the children.

The Jabberwocky
The jabberwocky has three sets of lungs:

SNORKEL PUMPERS – These are the Jabberwocky’s underwater lungs, so he came swim in the sea or the lakes without being seen (does the Lock Ness Monster have these?)

OXYBALLOONS – The Jabberwocky’s lungs that breath in Carbon Dioxide and out Oxygen, thus making our ’monster’ ecologically friendly to humans.

FLAMEFLATOR – The set of lungs that help the Jabberwocky breathe fire.

Two hearts:
The Jabberwocky has two hearts one for love which is very small and the other to pump its acid blood around his huge body.

LOVE SQUASHER – No love held in this heart.

SONIC BOOM – Makes loud beating noises

Spine:
BACK STACKER - The Jabberwocky’s spine is very long and mobile and has vertebrae like blocks that slot together.

After creating these organs and parts of the skeleton students were asked to write down on their forensic note sheets:
Name of the organ / bone / joint
The function of the organ / bone / joint
A diagram of the organ / bone / joint

In the afternoon, we began working with Terry to create a frame of circles that will form parts of the Jabberwocky’s body. Students were asked to work in groups and plait sections of withy’s together to make structurally sound circles.

Thursday 10th November
Working once more alongside Lorraine with Phillip’s group we began to film different ways of animating the students and artefacts.

Pauline warmed up the students and then taught them how to jump at the same time in small groups. The aim of this was to create a stop frame animation where the students would eventually look like they were flying on film. We varied pathways, jumps and arm movements from group to group to make their work more diverse and interesting.

Whilst Pauline and Lorraine continued to work with the majority of the group, I took small groups into the corridor to create a series of digital stills of letters created with leaves, footprints, twigs and other items. The purpose of this was to take roughly 25 individual shots of a letter, which was altered slightly at every digital photograph to run when played at a fast speed into a short animated film.

This idea was also continued using bodies either lying on the floor or standing to create the remaining letters that would eventually spell ‘Jabberwocky’.

J Conker tree helicopters
A Arch way of two standing bodies
B 3 bodies on the floor
B Leaves
E Fern
R Twigs
W Footprints
O Bodies
C Grapes
K Bodies on the floor
Y 2 Bodies standing

We also coordinated small groups to move in a circular pattern whilst standing or sitting, moving a quarter segment each time so when speeded up on camera it would look like they were spinning on the spot.

Further elements need to be created and we will hopefully work with this group again on the 13th of December.

Friday 11th November
The morning session was a continuation for Judith’s group of constructing the Jabberwocky, this time we added white lycra material onto the frame work, students connected this to the frames with string and glue to thoroughly secure it.

The afternoon session was led solely by myself and Pauline and we discussed how the Jabberwocky could move and how it is similar to the ‘Chinese Dragon’ used festival and processions. We also discussed how we could show the Jabberwocky’s internal organs and the students have decided to use cut out shapes, lighting gels and torches.

We held a short session in the hall where students were able to interact with and see the size of the Jabberwocky (the full length of the hall). This was followed by duet work focussing on walking at the same pace and rhythm as you partner using kinaesthetic awareness and peripheral vision. The aim of this was to enable students to work together in a cohesive manner but more importantly if they are to be under the Jabberwocky frame the need to be able to move as a group.

The final part of the session was again duet based but this time looked at how the lungs might move, whether the Snorkle Pumpers, The Flameflaters or Oxyballons. The students created short phrases of movement and then added sound effects that they thought suited the type of lung that they were trying to convey.


Further ideas and thoughts:
After another incredible week being inspired by both the students, teachers and other artists, Pauline and I began to piece together ways of crossing over elements of the Jabberwocky frame / Chinese dragon and using it in other pieces.

Sally’s group to use the tail of the Jabberwocky within their dance piece as a lantern that attracts the fantastic animals of the wood out from their hiding places.
Jennifer’s group to use the two neck sections as lanterns / nests, for the plants to grow around shrouding the light with their capes.
Rachel’s group to use Jabberwocky’s head within the narration and performance of Caroline’s story.
Philip’s group to create the film that is projected onto the Jabberwocky in the performance.
Judith’s group to form the Jabberwocky / Chinese dragon and lead the procession into the woods.

Jabberwocky Frame
Tail – using 3 hoops & connected together with a frame this section is fused and therefore not mobile. Completely covered with white lycra.

Abdomen – flexible & half - covered with white lycra to make it easy to insert bodies inside the stomach.

Thorax - flexible & half - covered with white lycra to make it easy to insert bodies inside to represent the internal organs.

Neck (two parts) – Static and completely covered in white lycra

Head – yet to be designed and created

Legs – made from wood with life like joints, to be covered in red material (these will be attached to both ends of the thorax and abdomen