...understand the range and nature of arts in the community

What is community arts?

Arts in the community is the act of contributing an improvement to the lives of people in public social groups, such as the local community or in more controlled groups such as a prison, schools or groups of people in need/with disabilities.

''Community Arts is a way of describing creative activities that bring people together in their communities and that give people the opportunity to gain new skills and new opportunities. Community Arts works to nurture the potential that exists in all communities to be creative and to find a voice to express their concerns through and using the Arts.'' - Valley and Vale community arts

Examples of community arts projects around the world:

1. San Francisco, CA

• Creativity Explored, founded in 1995 by a group called Urban ArtWork who employ's, trains and mentors people with developmental disabilities in a non-profit visual arts centre where they can create, exhibit and sell art.

This is a clear example of the intentions of arts in the community, to inform, educate and overall involve groups or all of a community.

Other examples of arts in the community include:

• Street performance
• Busking
• Markets
• Fairs
• Flash mobs
• Charity events
• Art exhibitions
• Street Theatre performance (such as children's theatre)
• Choirs
• Gigs/Concerts/Festivals
• Open Air Theatres

Example of a Open air theatre production and a street performance

All these and many more are run to make an impact on the community, whether that is to create awareness, opportunities, entertain audiences or to raise money for charities.

They aim to focus on want potential clients would want/be a part of when it comes to community projects, examples of their potential demographic groups would be:

• Younger audiences such as Children (3-12) - Children's Theatre, younger activity based workshops such as performing arts, sport based activities
• Teenagers (13-17) -  Workshops from performing arts to health and social, sport based activities, fairs
• Young Adults (18-21) - Flash mobs, choirs, fairs, gigs, festivals, concerts
• Adults (22-59) - Workshops, social meetings
• OAP (60+) - Choirs, church meetings
• People with mental or psychical disabilities
• General public (when promoting awareness)
• Marginalised groups
• Ethnic Minority
• People in difficult situations (Prison, hospitalised, institutions, students, homeless people)

Arts in the community is different depending on the country, as each are going to be bringing different aspects of their culture or unique issues they face into account. An example of this is art and entertainment through awareness of an issue such as starving children or places where water is scarce, informing the public and then persuading them to donate. The location makes dependant the type of people you'll attract around certain community art projects. More people are going to be interested in art exhibitions to raise money for children with disabilities in a wealthy country than in a poorer country, whereas sand and ice sculpturing to raise money for a charity might be more popular in areas where the issues the charity is address are actually taking place as people feel a closer connection with the event, people involved and the intentions of the event/charity.

In the UK arts in the community is a popular project to promote charities, getting the community engaged. One way community arts projects help the community too is local independent/dependant shops such as cafés, bringing people in from all over the area to one location would definitely have a positive impact on the business there. An example of this is the Brighton Fringe Festival, drawing in people from all over the country to Brighton to showcase aspiring and popular artists/actors as well as promoting them. This is a massive event which will have an overwhelming positive effect on the business nearby.

A few UK based community art businesses:

• Art4Space: Is a Community Arts Organisation in the UK run by BBC Arts. They aim to enhance communities and assist local businesses, with their focus on visual arts. Working with housing operations they aim to create workshops to offer a wider range of once difficult opportunities available.
• Valley and Vale community arts aim to build confidence, enable self expression and to celebrate diversity, promoting respect for communities who welcome/create change. They offer workshops such as dance, drama, music and design. Giving chances to people who are marginalised through positive action of treating individuals equally.
• E-quip Community arts project focuses on using engaging activities such as performing arts from all ages to draw people together and provide opportunities that would have once been restricted from them, such as the chance to work and learn in a performing workshops

PDF EXAMPLES CONTINUES HERE.

Different community arts projects have different roles, some are for audience/public participation such as workshops, other are for entertainment such as busking or flash mobs and others are to make the community aware of an issue or a happening surrounding a subject which they could get involved in by contributing help, money or food.

'West Side Story' - Chino ('America' ft. 'Mambo Dance')

In comparison to Rent, West Side Story includes more dance sections, such as the two I feature in as Chino, 'America' and the 'Mambo Dance'.

America

In this dance the male and female groups of Puerto Ricans rival out in a dance showcase as they express their love/hate for America. I played Chino, although my character doesn't have too much relevance to this scene besides participating in the 

Due to performing in this dance in my first year of college (2 years ago) I was familiar with the song and lyrics which gave me a boost to the people who had been learning the song since first receiving the script, it's a fast paced, fun song to sing and dance, I was especially looking forward to performing in it.

Jayde, a talent dancer was chief choreographer for the dance, when I joined the process 80% of the dance had been planned so I had little I could contribute too. The moves weren't too difficult to pick up, rehearsal after rehearsal, move after move I was picking it up. One immediate issue was dancing alongside the quick music, one move to another in a split second, it was challenging but it looked professional and had a strong visual impact on audiences, feedback had been addressed before I joined the group, but from what I heard there was little negative feedback since day 1.

The dialogue alongside the dance was tricky to sing well on half a breathe but I soon managed to get a hang on things, knowing most of the lyrics by heart anyway I could relate them to specific movements creating a mind based sequence between the two which really helped.

My initial impression was to put on as a group an entertaining performance for audiences, before changing and focusing on more of the characters goals of winning this debate, I think this would definitely produce a more thrilling and tension filled performance. 

Mambo Dance

This dance was probably one of the most challenging pieces of dance to learn and I'm not sure why, the music was slower than America, I had a partner and others around the room I could look too for support, even still I couldn't grasp it. This dance was the ball where Tony and Maria first met and sparked the rest of the narrative, this dance was important to set the scene and atmosphere for the audiences, engaging them in the dance whilst ensuring they understand whats happening in the story line.

In conclusion this dance was stressful for me to learn, eventually leaving me to skip past sections to make sure I stay in the loop of the routine.

'The Winter's Tale' Monologue - Devised Movement

After changing to a different stimulus of a monologue by Shakespeare 'The Winter's Tale' (portraying the character Leontes) due to difficulty of the other stimulus I quickly made progress and completed my movement.

The monologue is about a power King who's insecurities of the things he can't control such as his wife overwhelm him and he spirals down a paranoid jealous path, eventually concluding in him believing the child his wife bears isn't his.

Research into the emotion taught me that jealously can cause physical and emotional distress and a destructive attitude. I also learnt that communication is the key to overcoming the feeling, something this monologue lacks as it's supposed to be Leontes talking to his friend about his feelings.

I wanted to make the movement symbolic of his feelings, although jealously is a difficult emotion to portray through movement, let alone Shakespearian dialogue I experimented with a range of different movements, dynamics and choreographic devices to show distress and madness, the negative effects of jealousy.

A few choreographic devices I wanted to use was repetition and retrograde, showing slowly how he's going mad. I did incorporate these devices into the dance more and more through the monologue to show the character development from a King addressing his feelings, to a mad King who's insecurity of the things he can't control have taken over his mind.

The movement I created for the piece is over exaggerated movement by people in power, appropriate arm gestures, travelling in a high stride of status and strict direct movements to justify his power. These movements would develop into sloppier, lower (level) movements, showing his transformation into jealous madness.

One thing I was trying to be wary of whilst creating the sequence was not making him too 'crazy' in movements towards the end of the monologue to keep this variable realistic, jealousy is a build up and I wanted to show the steps of that in the monologue, with no apparent conclusion, just a steady path eventually getting steeper.

At first finding more gestures and newer creative approach's for the monologue became a struggle but with the use of repetition and retrograde I managed to further enhance my devised piece.

I think my ideas and intentions of the piece worked to an extent, without a knowing that it was about jealousy I think audiences would end up with a very different conclusion. I would be intrigued as to what others who didn't know the stimulus thought.

The feedback I did receive from my peers and teachers was mostly positive, 'good use of pace', but with good constructive criticism which I took into account such as greater use of levels which I added towards the end of the monologue.

Dance in 'Rent' - You'll See ft. Happy New Year B

My main character was Benny, the main antagonist of the musical with the intention to build a cyber studio after he attempts to move his ex-roommates Roger and Mark from their flat currently occupying plot for the cyber studio. This characters analysis of the first opening sequence can be found here.

My other character Mr Grey is the owner of CyberArts, and Benny's boss, similarly to Benny's movement and posture as they're both contrasting characters to the main set of protagonists but I'm going to make his movements more gently as I envisioned him as an older version of Benny.

My final character is a homeless person features when I'm in my Mr Grey cast, although this character is only featured at the start of the show in the opening song. His movements and character dance evaluation can be located here.

You'll See

Movement in this piece was important to show the relationships between the characters with Benny and the status of his character. In this song Benny says to Roger and Mark that he shall forget about their rent if they convince Maureen's to cancel her protest (SPOLIER: It doesn't work).

Entering from the entrance of the flat (up the scaffolding) presented a immediate high level in status, as Benny I tried owning the space by holding onto the scaffolding bar whilst speaking. Walking down the steps in Benny fashion I think had a really recognisable visual understanding of the status and 'importance' of this character for audience members.

Attempting to own the space again I walk around, going up to characters and interacting such as pulling my arm round them, pointing at things, trying to manipulate the other characters. My intentions were to make clear that this character thinks that he is the most influential and 'in control' in the room.

Moving around the space with my Benny stride (Walking chest first, slower movement) with the occasional change in levels demonstrate a wide variety of contrasting habits and flexibility around the space in comparison to the other characters.

A strength of my performance in 'You'll See' personally would be the balance between movement and singing as any more would take it's toll on my breathing for singing and any less might have looked too static and/or not reached my intentions of the song.

On the other hand a weakness of my movement in this song is trying to keep my eye-line with the character fixed, something I wanted Benny to use to exaggerate his status and 'power'.

One thing I improved upon in the movement was from audience feedback, my movement looked a little messy so I had to assign meanings into why I move somewhere, to argue, persuade or inform other characters in the space. Another piece of feedback was to interact with only Mark and Roger and ignore the others, showing that I'm a busy man and I'm only there to see and do business with them and leave; this I did incorporate into the movement of the song.

Happy New Year B

This viewing of Benny in the second act shows contrasting aspects to his first appearance in the flat in 'You'll See' as he's angry followed by a sense of forgiveness towards the end of the song. This second part of 'Happy New Year' shows relationships being destroyed and Benny entering and making things much worse unintentionally, accusing, getting pushed and disturbing what's left of the peace.

Positives lack when it comes to movement in this scene, movement was still and contrasted with the lyrics, weaknesses of this scene included the final set of 'It's gunna be a happy new year' being sung still facing in a circle.

Improvements would have been to contribute as a group movements for our characters or us all as a group to keep the tension going visually alongside the aural atmosphere.

Dance in 'Rent' - The Opening Sequence ft. La Vie Boheme (Benny ft. Mr Grey)

Dance in 'Rent' - Benny

My character Benny isn't featured much but creating movement for him wasn't too challenging and I quite enjoyed the process.

Quick Evaluation - La Vie Boheme

Before being allocated our character as a class we worked on La Vie Boheme one of the happier upbeat songs of the musical to give us an understanding of the dance rehearsal process. After completing the initial sequence of the song (before it being changed numerous times before the final performance) I received my character parts as Benny and Mr Grey, two characters who are featured in the song but are not involved in the happy atmosphere/dancing of the song; although the rest of the cast is there in celebration, Benny and Mr Grey are there in sorrow following the death of Akita, the family dog.

Although I could no long be in the song in either cast now, it did obviously allow me to understand the vibe of that song and how my character would respond to the dance/movements and lyrics.

As Benny I had to enter the stage, sit down, occasionally stand up and then leave through the song. Due to being the main antagonist character in the musical my movement and posture was crucial in keeping the audience aware of the relationship and differences of the characters in comparison to Benny, similarly to Mr Grey who has zero dialogue which meant his visual impact alongside Benny needed to have a powerful presence.

Using techniques listed below* I was able to effectively portray my status to the audience as said by feedback in the initial run-throughs.

The Opening Sequence

Unlike my homeless character, Benny doesn't have many dancing opportunities which meant I could further focus on movement for my character. In the opening sequence movement is restricted as I'm standing on scaffolding at the top of the stage and also only spotlighted during my solo lines 'Draw a line in the sand, and then make a stand'. My posture though was important and movement into this space too; using the technique of changing three things of each my posture and movement I managed to create the visual aspects of Benny:

*Posture

1. Stood straight (considers himself the most powerful and influence in the room)
2. Lowered shoulders
3. Fixed eye-line
   

*Movement

1. Walking chest first (Shows confidence and power)
2. Habits such as pushing up glasses, itching face etc. whilst walking
3. Slower movement to show importance

The Beginning

Although I wasn't featured in the beginning of the song, I did have to stand in darkness ready to be spotlighted for the rest of the song and to sing my solo lines.
Being 'in the wings' but also in faint view of the audience I had to remain in character and the song playing allowed me to grasp a rhythm for my lyrics. Stood with a straight but calm posture I waited.

The Middle and End

The core of the song featured me walking into place and singing my two lines. Having to remain there for the rest of the song. By slighting my movements into 3 positions I managed to rotate between them at random orders to continue to show character.

1. Holding onto the scaffolding bars
2. Folded arms
3. Neutral Benny standing position
   

In conclusion although little movement was incorporated I did try to contribute as much focus as I did on my homeless character. Overall I wanted to communicate with my movement and posture, a sense of status and power amongst the other characters, the use of a high level greatly supported my movement to achieve this.

Dance in 'Rent' - The Opening Sequence (Homeless character)

I didn't expect the extent of how much dance we wanted to incorporate into the Musical until beginning our first rehearsal on the opening sequence.

The Opening Sequence

The song 'RENT' introduces the atmosphere and scene of the musical, so it was crucial that this came across in our dance through dynamics and choreographic devices. Focusing on pedestrian stylised movements, more specifically homeless stylised movements, we began movement by movement devising the piece as a class.

Developing a strong character background and persona for my character was important to maintain that level of realism in the movements of my character. A few ways I did this was deciding what it was which meant I ended up as a homeless person on the streets on New York Cities East Village. Research being the first key to creating anything I turned to Google. I then discovered a selection of the main issues which cause homelessness (Source):

1. Personal causes such as individual factors (lack of qualifications, no social support, debts, poor mental/physical health, crime or relationship breakdowns); family background (family breakdowns/fights, pervious experience of parents with alcoholic, drug or homeless issues or sexual/physical abuse in their childhood); an institutional background (being sent to prison, being in care or having been in the armed forces).
2. Structural causes such unemployment, poverty, lack of support or closure from long-stay psychiatric hospitals.

Due to the nature of the musical I decided my characters history would include being overrun with debt (rent) and gave up everything to try to pay it off, next step was to use the drama movement technique to change 3 things about my current posture and movement to become my homeless character.

Posture

1. More shrugged over, less straight standing
2. Bigger surface area, further leg gap and pushed back elbows
3. Steady eye-line
   

Movement

1. Walk leading with the head
2. More exaggerated movements
3. Larger height when stepping

The dance was slowly pieced together through many rehearses in Dance lessons, due to the song being long and including a wide variety of tempo changes and numerous song climaxes it took us all a great deal of time to master.

The Beginning

The start of the song had us all in our everyday homeless lives, drinking, sleeping, eating or trying to keep warm scattered under scaffolding and on staging around the stage. When the music starts we burst into the 6th state of tension from our original 3rd or 4th and begin to get into a rhythm.

My character starts asleep spooning another homeless member (trying to keep warm), before springing up, sharing a drink with another homeless and starting to mime eat something out of a plant pot.

As the music continues I begin to have a fight over a bottle of (probably) vodka with someone which causes them to fall into the main stage and start a devised battle with another homeless member from the other side of the stage. We had to show conflict between the homeless characters to allow audiences to imagine the lives we faced and to gently immerse them into the world of Rent.

The Middle

The core duo/trio pieces were included in the middle of the song. Numerous fights break out amongst groups of homeless people. Initially I devised a sequence with two others where I would purchase drugs from a duo of suppliers before being beaten up and stolen from by the same people; although after the character list was released we realised this would have to be changed. Instead I took it in turn with my double casted character to participate in a duo fight with Sophie whilst homeless and swapping whilst I played my main character of Benny.

A fight scene with Sophie wasn't too difficult as she's a talented dancer and the moves (stunts) were already devised, it was just a case of making sure I didn't make a mistake. The movements included rolling over the back of Sophie, throwing a few punches and kicks and movement on the floor, I think overall the fight sequence was effective.

The End

To end the entire cast of homeless persons came into the centre into a purposefully messy circle facing outwards as we sung 'How we gunna pay, how we gunna pay, this years rent, last years rent, next years rent, rent (x6)'. Luckily the lack of movement (walking backwards in character) alongside the homeless persona and singing wasn't too difficult to perform.

In conclusion the whole performance contained a balance between homeless (pedestrian) stylised movement, dance and a clear understanding of the characters/situations around the characters through the movement. I found this beginning sequence especially difficult to grasp but once learnt, quickly managed to incorporate my characters movements.

Guernica Review

Guernica - By Pablo Picasso

Created by Pablo Picasso in June 1937, Guernica's stimulus is thought to be in relation with the bombing of Guernica, a village North of Spain, in which the Basque government reported that 1,654 people had been killed.

Further research into the painting saw that the picture is a representation of the havoc and death the bombing has brought for the men, women, children and livestock of Guernica.

The picture is a set of symbolic pieces telling the story of the bombings of Guernica, for example, the light blub at the top of the painting, in Spanish is 'bombilla' which has similarities to the word 'bomba', the Spanish word for bomb.

Before devising a sequence, we first had to think about emotional words to describe the happenings in the picture (Chaos, fear, pain) whilst also selecting what different dynamics we could use to portray these emotions (Heavy/light, repetitive, change of speed).

Creating a movement from the stimulus wasn't too difficult as the representations of the people suffering in the painting was exaggerated to a point that the still images could all be linked together. Creating 4 initial still frames as a class to base our piece on, we then separated to create solo performances before merging them with 3 other peoples into one unique sequence of movements.

The 4 initial still frames:

• Bent legs, reaching up to the sky with head upwards
• Leaning up from the floor, pushing with your hands
• Leaning forward whilst are arms are positioned wrapped up over our heads
• Positioned on the floor with our waist in the air with our arms angled like a 'V'

I found working on this task independently was a struggle, although the stills were set postures, it was the travelling to and from them as well as trying to incorporate dynamics into the piece to create a stronger meaning and a better sense of emotion. An area of improvement would be focused on my specific posture of the 4 still images as I felt my lack of dancing experience in comparison to others was clearly visible.

After forming a group, we used our movements alongside some choreographic devices to devise a more powerful performance. I felt like the group performance was much more successful as when we were each freezing in 1 of the 4 different postures it created the chaos and havoc feel, I felt the picture was trying to portray; whereas a solo performance wouldn't be able to capture the full extent of the emotion and 'voice' behind the painting.

A few ideas I contributed to the group was the use of canon at certain times with different movements to show that every one person had their own experience of the suffering, but I also suggested a sequence at the beginning were we could perform the movement all at the same time to represent the unity and strength of the village before the havoc drove them apart. Another suggestion which didn't make the final piece was the use of slower speeds at the start of the piece followed by speeding up to portray a sense of tension for the audience watching.
Feedback after the performance was mostly positive with criticism towards timing, something continuous practice would fix.