LO2: Skills Audit

 Skills Audit 

Name:  Kacie Everett

Unit 8: Performing Repertoire – Skills Audit Reflection – Sept 2024

Unit 8/P2	Apply existing skills to a repertoire
Unit 8/M1	Develop new skills in response to the demands of a repertoire

 

Use the following information for your ratings:

1	Weak (few strengths and many areas for development, inconsistent)
2	Fair (some strengths and some areas for development, mostly consistent)
3	Good (many strengths and few areas for development, consistent)
4	Excellent (no areas for development, fully consistent)

 

Copy and paste this tick to the appropriate box: ✔

Look back at your skills audit from September at the start of the unit to see how you rated your skills.

Now go through the skills again below and rate yourself at the end of this unit.

Skill/Technique	1	2	3	4	Comment on which skills you’ve improved on and the evidence that shows this e.g. videos.
Breath control			✔
Projection				✔	I think I improved on this skill a lot and rated it a 4 as in ‘Rock of Ages’ I had to ad-lib vocals underneath the ensemble singing the rest of the song during the number, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. I think I show good projection as you can still hear me clearly even though I’m singing over the top of 20 others. This was also the case when we sang this song again as a part of the Winter Concert. Rock of Ages - “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” Rock of Ages - “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” - Rehearsal
Diction and articulation		✔			Diction and articulation is something I struggle, in singing, with as I tend to blend phrases into one and my singing can become unclear to audiences. When singing, I particularly struggle with pronouncing my ‘t’s’ and words that start with ‘th’ as I pronounce it as an ‘f’ sound. When acting, I would say my diction is okay, but I could improve it further and I have a tendency to speak quite quickly so some of my diction is lost. A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Bottom and Titania A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Lysander and Hermia Rock of Ages - “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
Pitching				✔
Rhythm			✔
Timing (Dance, Music and Acting)			✔
Quality of tone			✔
Ability to remember dialogue/lyrics				✔	This is a personal strength of mine as I am able to memorise long monologues and scenes quickly even if the language isn’t even my own. When studying Shakespeare, even though the language is different to ours and confusing I was able to confidently learn Helena’s monologue from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Helena’s Monologue
Responding to direction				✔
Communication on stage			✔
Characterisation and body language				✔	I think I am good at this skill and have improved in it as I feel that I am able to successfully use characterisation to show an audience exactly the type of character I am. For my solo 1, I think I used body language and characterisation really well to portray her teenage crush and giggling/joyous personality. I could improve this skill further when I dance as I feel that I struggle with my body language and characterisation as dance is something I feel less confident in so I am more enclosed within myself. Solo 1 - “I Can Hear the Bells” - Final Video Jazz Lyrical Mirror Dance
Engagement with audience				✔
Confidence on stage			✔
Range of movement			✔
Co-ordination and balance			✔		Coordination and balance is a skill that I could improve further. I struggled with this skill the most during our rehearsals of a Jazz Lyrical Mirror Dance. The dance included many times where we had to balance and hold our balance for a few beats. I mainly struggle to balance for longer periods of time and this is evident in our Jazz Lyrical Dance as the music is slower, we were required to balance for longer than we would in an upbeat song. I need to improve this skill more by balancing for longer times. Jazz Lyrical Mirror Dance
Movement and muscle memory				✔
Understanding of physical capabilities			✔
Strength and core stability		✔
Posture and flexibility		✔			Posture and flexibility is something I struggle with mainly in dance. I specifically struggle with high kicks and leg extensions and this can be seen clearly in our Jazz Lyrical Mirror Dance. Part of this style is leg extensions and high kicks so it was out of my comfort zone. When it comes to posture, I am improving that skill in singing as when I sing, I make sure I have the correct singing posture when rehearsing and performing. Jazz Lyrical Mirror Dance
Use of space/stage				✔

 

 

 

In September you chose FIVE skills you needed to develop further in terms of performing repertoire (A Chorus Line):-

Skill 1:- Posture and Flexibility

How have you improved this skill:- ‘A Chorus Line’ includes many moments that required flexibility. There was a lot of high kicks within the choreography and leg extensions. I would say that I have massively improved in this skill compared from when we first started up until our last show. One key moment that I improved in was the Jazz split within the Jazz combination sequence that was in the opening number, ‘I Hope I Get It. When I was first taught it, I found it very challenging and hard to get into and out of. In general, the splits are something I cannot do so I knew this would be tricky for me. Another thing I struggled with was the main high kicks/jump kicks that were featured in the opening number. I found that I was surging to get my leg high up. Leg kicks were a challenge throughout the show and they are within the choreography throughout the whole show To improve these movements, I have been completing a daily stretch since we began the show. It’s purpose is to help you to gradually be able top get into the splits. This exercise has helped me to impress my flexibility and I really started to notice the difference throughout rehearsals. The leg kicks and Jazz split that started off as a challenge started to become a lot easier for me to do. I can see the improvement when I watch back early recordings of the number compared to more up-to-date ones. Practice and repetition was also key in my improvement with my flexibility. The repetition allowed my body to get more used to the movements and generally relax into them more and loosen up.  ‘I Hope I Get It’ - Rehearsal Recording 25/9/24 / Rehearsal Recording 1/10/24 In terms of my posture the noticeable points where my posture needed to be developed was whenever we were frozen facing the back or whenever we were dancing facing the back. I had to the tendency to forget that even through we are facing the back of the stage, we can still be fully seen. Key moments whee this occurred was during ‘Montage Part 3: Mother…’ just before Maggie’s part at the end of the song and also during ‘One Rehearsal’ when we dance facing the back. I improved a lot with my posture by really focusing on how I position myself and align my body. Focus was key with this as when I lost focus while facing the back, my posture dropped. It was important for me to remember that on stage we must still maintain our performance even if we are facing the back. Focusing and staying in character overall helped me improve my posture.  ‘Montage Part 3: Mother…’ - Rehearsal Recording 9/10/24

Skill 2:- Coordination and Balance

How have you improved this skill:- When it comes to this skill, I would say that I made some noticeable improvements. I improved my coordination during our rehearsals by breaking down the movements to make sure I had the correct leg and arms in dances and making sure I am in time with myself and everyone else. My coordination within the group improved. As rehearsals went on we became more coordinated with one another as we practiced and rehearsed more. Going through numbers and repeating them a lot helped with muscle memory which in turn helped me to improve and develop my coordination. I had many opportunities to go over the numbers to make sure I was well coordinated. We had several cleanup rehearsals which allowed me to check over my movements. Half-way through rehearsals I noticed that I had been doing the wrong arms and legs in ‘Montage Part 4: Gimme the Ball’ but I quickly corrected that once I realised. This ability to correct myself allowed my coordination to be developed further. he example of where I went wrong in ‘Montage 4’ was at the lyric, “the yearbook was filled with my picture” and onwards. I kept getting my feet mixed up.  ‘Montage Part 4: Gimme the Ball…’ - Rehearsal Recording - 10/10/24 / Rehearsal Recording - 11/11/24 When it comes to my balance, I struggled with it in the beginning, particularly in ‘At the Ballet’ during the little ballet section I do when Bebe is singing. We balanced on one leg during that sequence and I did find it hard to remain balanced. One of the reasons for this was that I was doing ballet in my trainers as that is what I planned to wear for Val. I’m very used to being able to flex my feet more during ballet due to wearing the correct dance shoes. Another thing was that I wasn’t engaging my core strength enough to help me to be balanced. As I got more used to dancing in my trainers and more familiar with the dance section, my balance began to improve. In our first rehearsals of this number, I was wearing foot thongs so my balance is better but still has room for improvements but the shock of the trainers knocked my ability in this skill down. This meant I had to work hard to build my balance back up again.  ‘At the Ballet’ - Rehearsal Recording - 2/10/24 / Rehearsal Recording - 15/11/24

Skill 3:- Diction and Articulation

How have you improved this skill:- In previous shows and performances I have done, one of my personal biggest challenges is my diction and articulation. I sometimes struggle to properly pronounce my ‘t’s’ and ‘th’ sounds, particularly when singing. This is due to my Suffolk upbringing and having a heavy Suffolk accent. I sometimes also struggle to make my words clear when I’m speaking sentences. I find this a particularly noticeable challenge for me when it comes to speaking big chunks of words at once. his is something I needed to work on and overcome as I had a monologue in ‘A Chorus Line’. Just before my number, Val has a huge monologue describing her life and it had music underneath it. This meant that I needed to match the pace of my monologue to the pace of the music underneath it, meaning I couldn’t take my time with it. With monologues, I am always conscious of forgetting my next sentence so I end up subconsciously speeding through it. Because of this, my diction is slightly lost and my words become unclear. In terms of singing, my diction wasn’t as clear in the beginning as I was doing an American accent so this meant my diction was lost at times. To help me to develop and improve my diction and articulation, before each rehearsal we had a vocal warmup which included tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are really good with improving diction and articulation. We also went through them in an American accent as the show I set in America. This helped us get used to pronouncing our words properly and making what we are saying clear and concise while doing an American accent. Examples of the tongue twisters we did include:  “Unique New York, New York Unique” “I’m not a pheasant plucker, I’m a pheasant pluckers son.” “Sally shines shoes in a shoe shine shop, she sits and shines and shines and sits and sits and shines and sits.” Doing these tongue twisters really helped me to improve my diction. I also broke down my monologue working on its pronunciation.  Val monologue into ‘Dance: Ten; Looks: Three’ - Rehearsal Recording - 26/9/24 / Rehearsal Recording - 14/11/24

Skill 4:- Stamina

How have you improved this skill:- When it comes to stamina, I have always struggled with it in terms of dancing. I find myself getting out of breath rather quickly in dances and If we dance for long periods of time I lose my mental and physical energy quite quickly. Due to this, the amount of dance involved in this show did worry me. As not only are we doing big dance numbers that are high energy, we are also singing in them. When we first began rehearsing for ‘A Chorus Line’, we started with the big main number, ‘I Hope I Get It’. This number is probably one of the longest in the show and has the most dance breaks featured. When we were first learning the choreography, I found myself getting very worn out after doing it once, I was really red in the face, tired and getting out of breath quickly. I would say this is the most dance intense show I have done before so my body wasn’t used to this much movement. I felt that I couldn’t go over the choreography a lot and repeat the number over and over.  As rehearsals went on, my stamina improved massively. As I was dancing and exercising daily due to show rehearsals, my body was adapting to the dances a lot more. I found myself struggling less in rehearsals and found that I could dance for longer without feeling as tired. I felt that I could do the dances with a lot more ease. I noticed this as I had enough breath after dancing to still be able to go straight into singing after the dance sections within the opening number, ‘I Hope I Get It’. By the time of the show, I was able to just do the numbers without being that out of breath and was still able to continue dancing throughout the day without being massively exhausted.  ‘I Hope I Get It’ - Rehearsal Recording - 17/9/24 / Rehearsal Recording - 1/10/24

Skill 5:-  Strength and Core Stability

How have you improved this skill:- I’ve improved in this skill over the course of the rehearsal and show process as my movements became stronger as the rehearsals went. This skill links in with the skill Balance as you need strength and core stability in order to have good balance. Strength and Core stability is something that I did struggle with to begin with. Firstly, in ‘At the Ballet’, the movements are slow, precise and delicate. Even though they are slow they still need to be strong. ‘At the Ballet’ includes movements when we are on our tip-toes in a relevé position. To begin with I found it hard to stay stable, especially in my trainers (shoes for Val). I improved in this skill by engaging my core strength. Doing this allowed me to remain stable for certain movements in ‘At the Ballet’.  Another number that required me to improve my strength and core stability is ‘One Rehearsal’ and ‘One Bows’. These numbers are stylised and the movements need to be strong. When we first learnt the choreography, I wasn’t performing my movements very strong. This was because I was still getting used to the style of the number. Both numbers are also quite long so it was a lot of choreography to het into our heads. As these numbers are quite complicated, we had several rehearsals and went over them a lot in our rehearsal time. My strength and core stability weakened as I was getting tired in rehearsals. This improved as my stamina started to improve to. As my stamina improved I had more energy to improve my strength and ensure that my movements are strong.  ‘One Rehearsal’ - Rehearsal Recording - 15/10/24 / Rehearsal Recording - 5/11/24 ‘One Bows’ - Rehearsal Recording - 9/10/24 / Rehearsal Recording - 8/11/24

 

Now evaluate the two targets you set at the start of the unit:-  You created a Technical target to focus on and one wider Performance target.

Technique target –

Flexibility

How do you know you have improved this technique? Can you include any video clips to show how you’ve improved on this and comment upon them. E.g. an early video against a video just before the production.

Our choreography had a jazz split, a lot of high kicks and leg extensions. I would say that I have massively improved in this skill compared from when we first started up until our last show. One key moment that I improved in was the Jazz split within the Jazz combination sequence that was in the opening number, ‘I Hope I Get It. When I was first taught it, I found it very challenging and hard to get into and out of. In general, the splits are something I cannot do so I knew this would be tricky for me. Another thing I struggled with was the main high kicks/jump kicks that were featured in the opening number. I found that I was surging to get my leg high up. Leg kicks were a challenge throughout the show and they are within the choreography throughout the whole show. As rehearsals went on the split became gradually easier for me to get into and I found that my leg kicks were getting higher and     I could do them with more ease. I can see the improvement when I watch back early recordings of the number compared to more up-to-date ones.  ‘I Hope I Get It’ - Rehearsal Recording 25/9/24 / Rehearsal Recording 1/10/24

 

Performance target –

Characterisation When Dancing

How do you know you have improved this technique? Can you include any video clips to show how you’ve improved on this and comment upon them. E.g. an early video against a video just before the production.

In previous dance units I’ve studied at college, I have struggled to characterise when dancing, particularly if I’m not confident with the dance style for example when we did Jazz lyrical/contemporary I found it really hard to characterise the dance. For that dance style, we didn’t have a specific character like you would if you were in a musical. I find it a lot easier to characterise when dancing when I have a certain character I am playing. When we were first learning the choreography for each number, I found it challenging to bring my character out straight away as I was still in the learning process and I was still getting an understand of my character Val. I improved in this technique as the rehearsals went on as when I watch back videos of our rehearsals (particularly ‘I Hope I Get It’) I can seen a big development in my characterisation. I improved in my characterisation as I gradually became more comfortable with the choreography. The more confidence I had in the movements, the more free I felt to be able to start characterising. Across all the numbers, I improved in my characterisation when I learnt This also was the case with my monologue and my number. It wasn’t until I became incident with choreography and lyrics until I was blue to improve in the skill ‘characterisation when dancing’.  ‘I Hope I Get It’ - Rehearsal Recording 25/9/24 / Rehearsal Recording 1/10/24 Val monologue into ‘Dance: Ten; Looks: Three’ - Rehearsal Recording - 26/9/24 / Rehearsal Recording - 14/11/24