Strengths and Weaknesses (Contemporary Technique) - 24/09/15

Strengths and Weaknesses in Contemporary:

In todays Contemporary lesson, we only had Josie. In this lesson we cleaned up the opening routine and created a brand new routine. This routine was more Jazz based, however it did have elements of Contemporary. Because of the fact I only did a little bit of Contemporary, I will only say two weaknesses and two strengths. I have found that during the lesson, some of my strengths and weaknesses have stayed the same and some of them have changed. In this blog post, I will talk about which strengths and weaknesses have changed and how I will improve my weaknesses.

Strengths:

• The first strength I noticed in todays lesson was that my spacing has continued to improve. This is because I was able to stay in my place throughout the whole routine without moving into a different gap/position. This is a strength for any dancer as it means you can be confident with your moves, without worrying about moving from your place. I will now continue to focus on this to always make sure that this is a strength of mine. 
• A weakness from last lesson has now become a strength of mine. This is the transitions between my moves. This is because I focused on it since last lesson to make sure that this lesson it looked clean and precise. I am happy with the transitions between each move in the Contemporary dances I have learnt so far. To continue to make sure this is a strength, I will make sure I focus on it and practice at home and in the studio.

Weaknesses:

• The first weakness I found in my Contemporary lesson was my performance skills. This is because I had to act like some characters during my class. For example, at one point I had to be a Witch and use facial expressions which they would use. I found this challenging as I could not stay in role for long periods of time. Also, I sometimes felt a little unconfident with the role. To improve this, I need to start performing every routine I do, whether its a rehearsal or actual performance.
• Another weakness which I have noticed again in Contemporary is my placement of my arms. This is because occasionally they are not in the right place and so consequently look strange and out of line. This means that people may think I do not know where my arms should be. To become stronger at this, I will need to now focus on my arms and where to place them during parts of the routine. I can do this by dancing in front of a mirror to see what my arms look like or filming where they should be in comparison to where mine are.