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Authenticity

I have been thinking back to the authenticity seminar with Sophie and Joe and how that relates to our project. I think our project was totally authentic as we came up with an original idea and performed it for the ‘first time’; which I believe to be key. We did take rhythmic ideas from a range of tunes (different styles), but we changed them and put our spin on them. We weren’t trying to  recreate any past performance. Also, using the dancers was a big element in our performance and because they did their own choreography, it was also authentic. 

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Future Projects

I would like to use the skills that I have learnt on this project, to help make a future project a success. Time management and organisation is a key element in making things work well. I would love to collaborate with some dancers again as I had never done it prior to this project. The management skills I have learnt in this module will also help me with things like practising my instrument and doing other work in the industry.

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The Project

If i did a project like this again I would really push for rehearsals with my fellow musicians and the dancers to ensure a slick performance. Personally, I would research even further into Latin rhythms from different areas (It was difficult this time with the time constraint). 

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Performance

Given the time frame we were working in, I think we did well. Because of dropouts, one of our dancers only had 1 lesson with us so had to do a lot of improvisation. I personally would have liked to rehearse more with the musicians as well, which we couldn’t do as people kept cancelling rehearsals. 

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Our class performance

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Sophie Fuller delivering a lecture on Authenticity as part of Research Lab. We defined authenticity, listened to a single tune covered by multiple artists and then split into groups to talk about the ‘authenticity’ of each piece. We then told the whole group what we thought and listened to other people’s opinions. 

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Rehearsing for the performance

We have found it very difficult to organise rehearsals with the group as people keep cancelling last minute. I’m very concerned with it being so close to the performance. I have been practising the rhythmic percussion parts on congas, Shakers, Claves etc. I took the rhythms from the four different songs and added my own twist on them, ad libbing different sections.

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Collaborating

We have had a lot of issues collaborating with the dancers throughout this process. We wanted 3 musicians to play live percussion for a more contemporary dancer and another dancer (more classical) to perform to a classical music recording. The two were going to merge together to form one big performance. However, our 2nd dancer pulled out and we were struggling to find another one. We then managed to find another, but she has had to miss the main rehearsal for personal reasons, so we are hoping she will be available on the performance day. 

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Transcribed rhythms from 4 Latin tunes

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I transcribed the rhythms used in Fiesta De La Rumba, El Pescador, El Carretero and Ochun. I then recorded them using various percussion and merged them into one song.

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Trying out some rhythms with one of the dancers

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Myself and Nia researched some African rhythms and found the following book very useful – African Rhythms and Independence for Drumset. We were particularly interested by the rhythms above called Bikutsi. These are written for a drum kit and being a kit player i tried them out. We then used various percussion to play each line, which created a good effect.

We thought of a narrative for the project. We will have 2 children (portrayed by the dancers). Child 1 is a very traditional dancer (perhaps ballet) and he/she will be dancing to classical music e.g. Tchaikovsky. Child 1 is trying to show child 2 how to dance but he/she cannot do it and eventually gets angry and bashes their feet. This is a very key moment as they feel the rhythm. Child 2 springs to life and performs a more contemporary dance accompanied by us (3 live musicians) on various percussion. It is very rhythmic and challenges the idea that classical music is more important than for example African or Colombian which is more rhythmic. The two children eventually begin working together and create something very beautiful and rhythmic.

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We got together in our group lesson (3 musicians and 1 dancer). We are hoping to get one more dancer involved with the project. We listened to a tune called El Pescador; which is a Colombian tune and tried to imitate the music. We then played some music for our dancer who did some Colombian dancing.

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Research Lab

WELCOME! This is my very first post! I will be posting about my research lab collaborative project.