Emotional Connection To Songs

During today's dance lesson, we worked on improving our contractions. Contractions begin from the pelvis and travel up the spine, lengthening the space between each vertebra, up to the neck and head, which remain in line with the spine. Each contraction is accompanied with an exhalation of breath. Then we practised lifts and counterbalancing (one or more dancers combing their weight in stillness or in motion to achieve a movement or design that is interdependent) in pairs. My partner and I managed to execute our lifts successfully and to incorporated transitions (the way in which you move in and out of a movements, phrases or sections of the dance). Afterwards we had to get into groups of two or three, in which we had to choreograph short routines of eight counts. The routine was to be part of the introduction to 'When I Grow Up' and so it had to be childlike. I was in a group of two. Our first attempt at choreographing for the dance needed to be a lot more child-like, so we adapted it by swapping the splits with a backwards roley-poly and by swinging our arms etc.

During our singing lesson we were asked to listen to a few emotionally charged songs and then we had to pick a song that we felt most connected to. I couldn't pick the song that I felt most emotionally connected with because I knew that I wouldn't be able to perform it. I chose 'As Long As Your Mine' from Wicked, as it is more to do with the situation I was in during time that I first heard it, rather than the actual lyrics. When I was practising singing it alone, I sang it exactly how I wanted it to be sang. However when performing to the class I purposely thought of the sad situation and I let my emotions and nerves get the better of me and I could not perform it all the way through without getting emotional and singing flat. I need to remember to keep control of my emotions and nerves when performing such songs. I also need to make sure that I don't always 'look out' when singing, but instead I need to make eye contact with the audience so that they don't loose connection. This is a bad habit I've picked up from years of performing in children's plays when your told to 'look up and not at the audience'. I need to break out of this habit, so that the audience doesn't loose interest. Therefore, for my next performance (singing, acting or dancing), I am setting myself the target of making sure that I look at the audience.

This image shows that I remembered to look at the audience and that I demonstrated a happy emotional connection to the song.