#serbian dancing lady explained

[daancienttime]

What Happened if Serbian Dancing Lady come to India

The Serbian Dancing Lady is a mysterious figure who has been the subject of many online videos and memes. The videos show a woman dancing in a strange and erratic way, often in the middle of the night. Some people believe that the Serbian Dancing Lady is a ghost, while others believe that she is simply a disturbed individual.

[thegreymoon]

Black Wedding

At episode 5 out of 10, this show is ridiculously good!! There has not been a single bland moment or stale character. Religious horror is right up my alley and I love what they are doing with this! I spent the whole day on edge, waiting for the evening so that I could continue watching, which is something I haven't had in a drama this entire year.

***

My guy, I love you, but this seems like a good way to get yourself cursed in life and in the afterlife 😬

Don't mess with the witch and people crazy enough to marry corpses, it won't end well.

***

OMG, they are doing a little dance at the grave.

***

LADY, YOU SCARED THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME!

He's a stronger man than I, I would have shit my pants on the spot.

But, yeah, of course it somehow ties back to his son. The plot is starting to lose me a little here. Too many coincidences.

***

Super creepy, but very beautiful.

***

These two scums 🤢🤮

I hope Baba Mikula eats them first.

***

Bitch, there is this little legal procedure in the 21 century fucking called a DIVORCE.

***

LOL and he punches her in the face because of course he does. Fuck off all the way you piece of shit, if you gave any fucks about your so-called "friend", you would not be fucking his wife 🤢🤮 Disgusted.

***

Charmed.

You can both go rot.

***

I just cannot with this entire scene and this entire shit pile of a man 🤣🤣

You are hitting and lecturing YOUR FUCKING MISTRESS on the morality of her cheating on her husband, really? 🤣🤣 The hypocrisy is staggering. Wow. So fucking low.

***

Ahahahaha, is he seriously going to try to murder the man possessed by the devil?

I can't wait. Yes, please, do try!

***

I am honestly low-key cheering for my queen Natasha to tear him to bits with her bare hands.

Yeah, logically, I know he wants to save her soul or whatever, and yeah, I love this show overall, but any plot that has grown men focusing on the state of a 13-year-old's vagina instantly gets -100000000000000000000000 points from me.

***

I mean, when you pick up a Serbian show, you have got to mentally prepare yourself for at least some misogyny and degradation of women, but at this point, I am honestly cheering for Baba Mikula to eat them all.

***

How about you go fuck yourself, you gross piece of shit.

***

Oh, joy, more gross men entering the scene to be gross.

***

LMAO, I love Petar 🤣🤣

Yes, please tell Natasha, a logical, practical non-believer, that some witch in the middle of nowhere is actually a colleague, it will definitely go over well 🤣🤣

***

Oh, so we're back in the 70s with this loser, who has, disappointingly, not been drowned in the pond by the Vlach witch.

***

The plot thickens 👀

***

The nanny is suspicious as fuck.

Just watch her be neck-deep in the black magic nonsense.

***

LMAO, I love Natasha more and more with every scene 👍

***

So, he just sat there, went on a theological monologue about angels and demons, explained NOTHING and now he has to go 🙄

I am with Natasha here, there are not enough eyerolls in the world.

***

I don't know what Baba Mikula is up to, but I'm on her side.

***

LMAO, OK 🤣🤣

So, I laughed. They had me on the bit when the witch took on her mother's face, but this is hilarious 🤣🤣 Every time they try to make evil look monstrous, I just nope out. Black Duke, indeed.

***

Poor Mikula.

***

Eh, expected.

He was never going to make it out of this show alive.

[cowgirlmilkers]

Session 9: The Blood Red Fez, Part 8

August 1893, on board the Orient Express...

The baron asks the party if they know anything about the Whispering Fez book. They all claim to not have it or have heard of it. He says he will speak to his contacts in Munich about the fez cultists who were arrested. After speaking with them for a while, the baron excused himself to the dining car. Saroch noticed that the Eastern lady at the bar was listening in on their conversation. The 5 investigators left to the sleeping car, and the baron spoke to them there, away from the Lady. He claimed that he recognized her, though was not certain where from. He asked that they remain with him, and they agreed. Saroch, Amelia, and Banks went to the salon car with him again for coffee. Professor Worth tried to make some sense of the Fez, using gloves to inspect it and try to figure it out a bit. Thanks to what he knows of the Mythos, he found that it referred, in some ancient language, to a 'Father of Sorcerers,' though was uncertain of the exact wording. He recalled that this was the term used for the deity Yog-Sothoth. Meanwhile, the baron excused himself to the water closet, secretly entering the cabin with Polat and Worth. The two of them had an argument with him, where he tried to get Worth to get the Fez for him and hand it over. He was clearly very agitated. Luckily, the Lady from earlier was listening in, and with the help of Banks, they got into the cabin. She jumped on the baron, putting a cloth over his nose and mouth and a hypodermic needle in his arm. He thrashed around, but eventually passed out onto the floor. Polat thanked her and went back to reading. She took off her disguise, revealing she was the woman who the baron was arguing with at Vienna station. She and Banks brought his body back to her cabin, where she settled him in. She explained that she was his daughter, Ilsa von Hofler, and had been worried about her father for a while. She said she would take him to the doctors, and help him to get better, as he was very erratic and insane.

With the baron out of the way, everyone went to bed. Saroch and Amelia, going to their cabins later, noticed that the lights across from the Myers cabin were flickering. In the morning, Saroch checked up on them, and Mrs. Myers explained she thought that the shadows were flickering or dancing, but she couldn't tell and it may have been the Fez or her imagination. Regardless, everyone went to breakfast. There, they had a Serbian breakfast, as the train had stopped in Belgrade earlier that morning. They ordered a platter of bacon for everyone, and the waiter brought out an insane amount for all of them. The Count left breakfast early, and in a bit the Countess approached, interrupting their conversation. She spoke about her lover becoming boorish and threatening, and wished for someone to intermediate between the two of them. Saroch seemed very angry at a woman cheating, and threatened to tell her husband, but was shut down by Amelia (for now). Amelia offered to be the one to mediate, and the Countess brought her over to Pytor, her lover. She explained that she wanted to end the relationship, regardless of the times they had together. He made to angrily stand up, but Amelia shoved him back into his seat (successful Intimidate roll), and made him silent as the Countess bid him goodbye.

Everybody successfully managed to finish up the platter of bacon, and none was left by the end. They all went to do various things on their own- reading, drinking, smoking, etc. In the evening, after a day of uneventfulness, they all gathered outside the Myers door in order to cast the necessary spell once more...

[elegantshapeshifter]

.:: Historically Attested Trance Techniques and Fairy Offerings in Traditional Witchcraft ::.

(From: Éva Pócs. Small Gods, Small Demons: Remnants of an Archaic Fairy Cult in Central and South-Eastern Europe.  In: Michael Ostling. Fairies, Demons, and Nature Spirits: Small Gods at the Margins of Christendom. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp. 255-276.)

“The rich wealth of narratives that surrounds the figure and activity of magicians consists of folklore motifs of learning and initiation. From time to time the fairies seize them and transport them to the otherworld, often starting in early childhood, and there teach them fairy knowledge—mostly the use of medicinal herbs. One common motif is a serious illness that the selected individual needs to undergo, as well as punishment by the fairies of any reluctant candidates. All of this is well known from the narrative repertoire of other magical-religious specialists, too. A unique characteristic of the initiation of fairy magicians is, however, that the fairies snatch them in a state of trance or dream induced by music and so transport them to their own golden, glorious other-world. 

How does all of this manifest in the actual living practice of magicians? Some Serbian reports speak of the trance-inducing role of music and dance actually used in “real-life” initiations. For instance, at a certain age a candidate for a fairy magician falls into a trance; that is, goes to the so-called fairy tree of the village in a semi-conscious state and begins to dance there. Or, quite simply, the person will commence an ecstatic dance which, according to one data item, lasted for nine days and nine nights. The initiates eventually become the professional healers of their community who pursue their activity with the patronage and assistance of the fairies. Some of them re-enter contact with the fairies from time to time. 

On the basis of field observations, Maria Vivod describes the practice of a Serbian “fairy seeing” healer from Voivodina. She explains that this woman was in constant communication with her fairy helpers who “sent her” the patient’s diagnosis and also explained to her how she could help the patient. She used the term fairy disease to refer to mental diseases and states of possession, and would offer healing and fortune telling.

An indispensable part of the healing activity of the fairy magicians of the Balkans was to present sacrifices—a practice prevalent in the Orthodox areas of the Balkans until quite recently. Healing and the offering of sacrifices would both take place in the distinctive space-time structure of the fairy world; in other words at the fairy spots which were, as we have mentioned, taboo at all other times. This could be a meadow, a spring, or an artificially created sacred space (e.g., a circle drawn around the sufferer). Most commonly, however, it was what they called a “fairy tree” (e.g., the hawthorn for the Serbs and a rose tree in Transylvania). Another common fairy spot was any location where the patient had become possessed by the fairies due to some breach of taboo—the point where they had been “struck” by the fairies. The time for healing was usually one of the fairy periods of the calendar year, such as Rusalia (Bulgarian rusalska sednitsa, Romanian rusalia, Serbian rusalje), the week before Pentecost. Alternately, it could take place during one of those “fairy times” that followed in cyclic repetition (1 week, 1 month or 1 year after the appearance of the disease). The sequence of sacrificial foods and drinks varied from place to place, but milk, honey, wine, bread or cake are part of the sequence in practically all data. The offering of sacrifices is often preceded or followed by a ritual invocation of the fairies in the presence of the sufferer (e.g., Albanian fairy healers dress the patient in white and make them sit in a quiet spot inside a circle that they draw themselves); Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian, Albanian and Croatian data testify to female magicians praying to the fairies in a whisper or reciting charming spells over them in a chanting voice and in a state of semi-trance, requesting that the fairies withdraw their harm-doing and restore the patient’s health in return for the offerings. The patient usually spends the night at the spot or, at other times, the healer will sleep at the location with the patient and an incubation dream takes place during which the patient recovers. 

The relation of fairy sacrifices to the cult of the dead was noticed quite early—Lawson claims that the offerings given to the nereids in Greece are actually the same as the Christian offering to the dead, the pomana, which is taken to the cemetery as an offering for the salvation of the souls of the dead. 

Fairy offerings presented by Romanians during Rusalia week are strongly influenced by the fact that this is also the week of sacrificial offerings to the dead. This again strongly underlines the close relationship between the realm of the dead and the fairy world of the Balkans. The relationship which Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek fairy magicians maintain with the fairies can in many cases be seen as verging on communication with the dead. For example, Romanian and Serbian female magicians who have “good fairy” patrons, called the saints, fall into a trance and communicate with the dead regularly at the time of the major Christian feasts of the dead; that is, at Easter, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday. We also know of magicians who, although fairy magicians by name (vilarka, vilevniak), mostly transmit messages of the dead to the living during their spontaneously induced states of trance. A certain process of “Christianization” may be observed along another line, too—besides fairies and the dead, Christian deities also functioned as communication partners to magicians. Fairies who punish taboo breakers and at the same time accept sacrifices and offer healing were replaced, on many occasions, by God or the Virgin Mary. People would pray to them while presenting their offerings. The role of helping or healing fairies is now sometimes filled in by angels.

As far as our data allow us to judge, the communication technique used in these cases was trance induced by way of concentration and meditation in quiet places at night, by saying prayers to oneself or, occasionally, by the rhythmical recitation of charms. Through trance (either with genuine or dramatically performed), these healers and their patients had visions or at least powerful fantasies about the fairies they had invoked and induced to “appear.” As mentioned earlier, oral folklore accounts are full of motifs of healers who were transported by music and dance and underwent initiation in a musical fairy heaven. Images of fairies making music and dancing also appear in the visions of patients or at least in their narratives. There are quite a few reports in which the ill- experienced incubation dreams in “fairy spots” and having visions of fairies making music and dancing: the belief in the remedial power of fairy music and fairy dance was prevalent all over the area under examination. This is no surprise, since they need to sleep alone, by the trees or on the clearings of fairies, and “they make sure they don’t fall asleep” so that they can hear what the samodiva decide regarding their recovery. They also believe that this is the spot where the samodiva gather in the night to dance the hora.”

[wingsy-keeper-of-songs]

a good time

I had Dusan’s dumb ass in mind for when I wrote this. And here you are, my lovelies. I promised Dusan fic, you will get Dusan fic. Enjoy! Downsizing is the property of Alexander Payne

Tim Curry once said "it's not easy having a good time," and Sara Dufresne, recently downsized and unceremoniously dumped afterwards, could very much relate. She stood in front of the rows of colors, trying to decide on which color she could use. She wasn't really paying much attention to her surroundings, so lost in her own little world, that she very well would have jumped out of her skin when someone asked her a question.

               "Er, I'm sorry?" She asked once her heart ceased trying to break out of her ribcage.

               "I was asking if you were all right," the man said sheepishly. "You looked kinda lost." Sara shrugged, stuffing her hands into her oversized olive green jacket.

               "I'm good," she replied, though not looking good at all. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

               "Are you new? I don't think we've seen you around here." The man continued awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, have you recently downsized?"

               "I've been here about four months," she said with a shrug. "My story's kind of a boring one."

               "I've got time. My wife is off looking at produce, she usually takes about twenty minutes judging the groceries before she buys anything." He said with a small chuckle. Sara gave him a sideways glance. He didn't seem all that intimidating. He was relatively average-looking and he seemed pretty normal. Nothing seemed off about him. Sara decided to put her trust in this painfully average person.

               "Well, my boyfriend and I were trying to raise enough money to get married." She started. "We agreed that downsizing would be the best way to go, so we got everything together, said our goodbyes to everyone and went through the process. At least, I thought he did until the prick called me and told me he wanted to see other people. And that he was still big." She sighed bitterly. The man raised his eyebrows, looking as if he'd heard this story before.

               "Sounds like me and my ex," he said sympathetically. "She backed out at the last minute too, though I never thought she'd be seeing someone else." Sara laughed, but there was no humor in her expression.

               "Yeah, turns out the asshole was dating some other girl while we were together anyways." She said as she picked up a color and examined it. "I mean, I went completely straight for this guy. I stopped with the partying, took out my piercings, settled down, that sort of thing. I gave up a life of fun for him because I thought I loved him and that he deserved better. Guess I was wrong."

               "How long were you two dating for?"

               "Two years," she sighed. "And it's two years of my life that I will never get back." He made a face.

               "Shit."

               "Yeah." There was a bit of a pause in the conversation as she put the dye back and took down another. "I've decided to just live life," she said. "I can do things I used to and don't have to worry about being judged for them. Like dying my hair blue." She turned to grin at him. "So, carpe diem." There was something about her grin that reminded the man of something or someone and he smiled back.

               "You know," he began. "Um, I'm not meaning to freak you out or anything, but a friend of mine is hosting a party later. Maybe you should go and meet some new people?" Sara raised an eyebrow.

               "Are you inviting me, or am I going to be crashing?" She asked. He laughed nervously.

               "I guess I'm inviting you," he said. "I don't really go to them anymore. Not after last time."

               "What happened last time?" Sara asked, interested.

               "Never mind that," he said hastily. "The point is, I think you might have some genuine fun there. And my friend is really accommodating. He's a pretty nice guy all things standing. I think he might be able to cheer you up. Here, I'll give you the address." He took out a little notebook and scribbled something on it before handing it to her. Sara thanked him and pocketed the little slip of paper.

               "Cool," she smiled. "Well, I should buy my dye now. I think I've stared at nothing and wallowed in self pity long enough. By the way, I never got your name. I'm Sara."

               "Paul," he smiled and shook her hand. "It was really nice to meet you, Sara."

               "Yeah, likewise." She said pleasantly. "I guess I'll see you around?" Paul nodded and headed to the produce aisle.

               "Sure, I'll see you." He replied with a wave. Sara beamed and headed for checkout while Paul caught up with his wife who was busy judging tomatoes.

               "What take so long?" She asked, eying him curiously. Paul shrugged.

               "I was just chatting with a newly shrunk," he replied. "She seemed kinda down, so I thought she could use a bit of cheering up. I invited her to Dusan's." Ngoc Lan raised an eyebrow.

               "You try to get her high?" She asked. Paul shook his head.

               "Well, no. But I think Dusan could cheer her up a little. She was recently dumped." He explained. "She's had it rough for the past few months, so I thought she might need a bit of fun." Ngoc Lan placed the tomatoes in the cart.

               "You invite her to Mister Dusan's, you set her up for more heartbreak." She replied sagely. "She gonna need Jesus." Paul laughed, but he couldn't help but disagree with her. Dusan was a bit wild, yes, but he had a pretty decent heart. As long as he didn't destroy it with narcotics.

xxxx

Sara stared at the door for a solid two minutes. She'd had an internal discussion with her feet about just heading in and pretending like she knew what she was doing, but it seemed as if she were frozen to the spot.

               "Ugh, this is such bullshit." She said to herself. "I mean, it's just a party. It's not like a ritual sacrifice or anything. There is no need to be this frickin' nervous." She stared at the door and took a deep breath. "Okay, I just need to knock and introduce myself as a friend of Paul's. Or acquaintance. Or whatever it is you call it when two people have a moment in a grocery store." She raised her fist. "Just knock." She kept telling herself. "Just knock." And she did. She was petrified beyond belief, but she did it. The door swung open and a very inebriated girl was standing in the doorway, looking confused and most likely high.

               "Uh," Sara started and smiled a bit awkwardly. "Hi there. Are you a friend of Dusan?" The girl stared at her for a moment before smiling syrupy sweet and pulling her in.

               "Ohmigawd, are you new here?" She asked, slurring her words all over the place. Sara could smell the fruity drinks on her breath.

               "Kinda. I'm a friend of Paul's." The girl didn't seem like she knew what she was talking about, but she was sweet enough and showed Sara around.

               "Ohmigawd, you have to tell me who did your hair!" She said, petting the blue strands carefully. "It's so vibrant!"

               "Uh, thanks. I did it myself." Sara said a little nervously.

               "Dusan is usually at the bar or on the dance floor." The girl continued. "I don't know, he's everywhere and nowhere. But you should totally meet him. He's like, super chill and cute." She giggled again. "Here, I'll get you a drink and you can like socialize or dance or whatever." Sara really wanted to know the drunk girl's name, but she slipped away before she could say anything.

               "Okay," she said to herself. "Welp, that was a bust. Now, where's the food?" She started looking around, trying not to bump into people until she inevitably did. "Oh fuck a duck!" She blurted out. "I'm sorry about that, man." The man she'd bumped into waved it off and grinned at her.

               "It's no problem," he replied in an accent that sounded Russian. "Hi there! You look new." She nodded.

               "Yeah, kinda. I mean, I was sort of invited here, I think? Guy's name was Paul." His eyes lit up.

               "Ah, you mean my neighbor!" He said with a grin. "Yeah, Paul told me he invited someone here. Failed to tell me she had blue fuckin' hair though." Sara smiled a little self-consciously.

               "Paul's your neighbor?" She asked. He nodded.

               "Yeah, nice guy. Funny, too." He shook his head. "Anyways, I'm Dusan." So this was the person Paul had mentioned, Sara thought. Well, he certainly seemed like a decent human being.

               "Sara," she replied. "So, this is your place?" He grinned wolfishly and nodded.

               "Sure is. Come on, we can get a drink. You look like you're about to pass out and not in the good way." She followed him through a throng of people greeting him rapidly. He seemed relatively cheerful and good-natured, and Sara found herself rather liking him a little. He got her a drink and they sat at the bar.

               "You were the one with relationship issues, right?" He asked bluntly. Sra blinked.

               "Uh, yeah." She replied, somewhat offended. It wasn't exactly her fault the relationship soured now, was it. "Yeah, you could say that."

               "American boys have no idea how to treat a lady," he said through a huff. "It's ridiculous." She shrugged.

               "I dunno, I mean I guess he was all right at first." She sipped her drink, feeling the burn. "Shit that's strong."

               "Pure Serbia, darling. That shit's the good shit." Dusan said, grinning wolfishly. "So, he just up and left you tiny, did he? What a dick."

               "Yeah, he was." Sara agreed. "So, you're Serbian, huh?" Dusan nodded.

               "Have been all my life."

               "Yeah, I was kinda wondering what the accent was." Sara said. "The more ya know. And knowing is half the battle." Dusan laughed and she found herself drawn to the line of his throat. Though that was most likely the vodka speaking.

               "So, why did you get small?" Dusan asked. She nearly choked on her shot.

               "Well, at first I wanted to get married to the prick who left me. Now I just live day to day, doing shit, getting paid to do shit, meandering through life like a slug." She shrugged. "Not exactly living, is it?"

               "I couldn't say," he replied. "But yeah, it sounds fuckin' terrible." She knocked back her shot.

               "It is. It's the worst." She sighed and put her chin on her arms. "Man, I need to get laid big time." Dusan tilted his head a little.

               "Yeah? Is that an invitation?" He asked, looking her over. Sara looked up at him. He was a good-looking son-of-a-bitch, she'd give him that. And he looked like he might be a good time. And he was being pretty chill with her and letting her vent her shit at him. Honestly, it wasn't a bad idea despite having just met the guy.

               "Maybe," she said with what she hoped was a flirtatious smile. "Or it could be the alcohol talking, I dunno." He shrugged.

               "Drunken words are sober thoughts," he pointed out with a bounce of his eyebrows and she had to laugh. "And you're pretty fuckin' cute, so that's a bonus." She felt color rush to her cheeks.

               "Haven't been called cute in a while," she said. "You wanna dance or something? Maybe we could see where the night goes afterwards?" He nodded and stood from the bar.

               "I think I could live with that."

xxx

That was the last thing Sara remembered. The next morning, she found herself in an unfamiliar room, still dressed and with a pounding headache. Her brain screamed at her for her stupidity and all she wanted was for the room to stop spinning. Someone knocked on the door and she groaned and hid under the pillows.

               "Why do you hate me, God?" She groaned softly.

               "You okay in there?" Dusan's voice came from the outside. He sounded pretty hungover himself. "I'm coming in. If you're naked, don't throw shit at me. I'm not awake enough to deflect it yet." He opened the door and gave her a tired smile. "Hi." He greeted. She groaned in response.

               "Fuck my life," she moaned into the pillows. "I am never drinking again."

               "I said the same thing a few months ago, it never stuck." He said as he sat next to her. "You, uh, you remember anything?" She shook her head. "Well, you drank me under the table." He said. "And, uh, you challenged me to a dance-off." She groaned.

               "Drunk Sara thinks she can dance," she said. "I bet she embarrassed the shit out of herself." He shook his head.

               "From what I can remember, you weren't half bad." He replied with a smile. "But you passed out halfway through and I had to carry you here."

               "Thanks for letting me stay the night," she said with a grateful, hungover smile. "It was really sweet of you." Dusan shrugged and ran a hand through his hair.

               "Friends don't let friends drink and drive," he replied. She finally sat up and rubbed at her eyes.

               "I'll be out of your hair in a minute," she informed him. "You know, until after the sunlight stops trying to kill me."

               "Understandable. If you can stomach it, I could make you breakfast." Dusan offered. At the look on her face, he laughed. "Only if you want though." She stood up a little shakily and ran a hand through her shock of blue hair.

               "Nah, it's all good son." She said with a wry grin. "I'll probably see you at your next party or whatever. Right now, I just need to go home and die a little." He nodded.

               "I'll show you out." He said as he headed out the door with her. It took her a little bit to process that he wasn't wearing very much outside of the blue robe...which he'd deliberately left open. 'Was he always that hot, or am I still drunk?' Sara wondered. She followed him to the door and they stood there for a second.

               "So...see you, I guess?" She ventured. He nodded, running a hand through his hair again.

               "Yeah, I guess." They were awkwardly quiet for a minute as Sara's feet refused to carry her out the door again. She seemed to be making her mind up about something as she stared at Dusan for a solid ten seconds. Looking a little pale, she stood on her toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek before pulling back and blushing like she was 18 goddamn years old.

               "Thanks for letting me crash, and for the good time." She said a little shyly. He looked somewhat surprised, but before she could leave, he took her wrist and crashed his lips against hers. Sara's eyes went wide, but she definitely welcomed it. She grabbed hold of his robe and kissed him back eagerly. He pulled back to wink at her.

               "Until next time?" He asked. She nodded, head reeling a little.

               "Yeah...next time." She said, dazed. He waved at her as she turned and left with something of a bounce in her step that Paul would later ask her about the next time he saw her.

[gkelsey]

Unit 2: Review and reflect on development of skills and techniques for live performance

In this review, I am going to reflect and evaluate the application and development of performance skills and techniques during workshops and rehearsal and final performance. There are many skills that were used for the preparation with my performing arts class such as physical skills, vocal skills, interpretative skills and others. We did a play called Arms and The Man written by George Bernard Shaw, first produced on 21st April 1894 and published in 1898. This is a comedy and romantic play based on a place during 1885 in the Bulgaria war and one night a soldier who was in the servian Army, named Captain Bluntchli climbed into Raina’s bedroom balcony window and threatened to shoot her if Raina said a word about him being in her room. While he fell asleep, Catherine spotted him in the bedroom and went over to wake him up because he is not supposed to be in there and did not want him to get caught as the war is nearly over. Raina and Catherine lent Paul Petkoff’s old jacket to Captain Bluntchli and made sure he was gone before the war was over. In the middle of the play, Master Paul Petkoff returned from war and later followed by Major Sergius Saranoff. With the help of Louka and Nicola ensured that everything was told and in ordered. Later, in the play, Captain Bluntchli returned to give the coat to Catherine, but she didn’t want him to be caught in the house where she tried to get rid of him expeditiously but unfortunately Petkoff spotted him. Raina then saw Captain Bluntchli and accidently announce that she had met him before.

The characters in the is play are Catherine Petkoff who is the mother of Raina, in her 40s, looks and acts like a peasant who wears a fashionable dressing gowns and tea gowns, Raina Petkoff who is twenty-three, a daughter to Major Paul Petkoff and Catherine and a fiancé to Major Sergius Saranoff, Major Paul Petkoff who is a Bulgarian soldier, age fifty, a father of Raina and a husband to Catherine, Captain Bluntschli who is a soldier from Switzerland and serving in the Serbian army and in his early 30s, Major Sergius Saranoff who is known as a handsome young Bulgarian officer and Raina’s fiancé, Louka who is the Petkoff’s female servant, a young and physically attractive lady in her 20s and Nicola’s fiancé but in love with Major Sergius and lastly Nicola who is also the Petkoff’s servant but a male version who wants everything to be in order to keep his job and Louka’s fiancé. The showcase performance was a 45 minutes piece where we started off with an introduction by our tutor Conniba and then we started walking from the door to the stage with the war music to perform our first scene which was the fight scene. We did this by marching towards the stage then separating into two armies where one group lined up on stage right who were going to die and the other group lined up on stage left who were going to survive. We then entre the stage by walking around on and off stage using all the space around us, once Danny shouts “STOP”, we stopped and turned to look at the audience and after three counts we repeated the action two more times which then lead us to the fight scene that is leaded by me and Millie, once we start fighting everyone join their partner to fight. After a three-different fight moves one person from each partner died by falling to the ground and the other partner survive by exiting the stage. During this scene, we used many physical skills to able to manage timing, pace and spatial awareness such as communication skills, cooperating skills and focus skills. Before we move on to act 1 a poem by Nelson is been told about a war. This scene was based on Bulgarian war that is happening against Switzerland. After the poem is told, there is a blackout, then it is the four freeze frames which was played for act one, between each freeze frame there is a blackout to represent the next one showing. The first freeze frame was Captain Bluntchli threatening Raina to be quiet, the second freeze frame was where Raina gave Bluntchli chocolate, the third freeze frame was where Bluntchli fell asleep and Catherine wants to wake him up but Raina stopped her and the fourth freeze frame was where Raina and Catherine gave Bluntschli the coat. After the freeze frames, there is a blackout which leads to act 2 where it starts off with Louka setting up the scene which is set in a garden for breakfast; this act is based on Paul Petkoff and Major Sergius returning from war. Earlier in this act, Paul Petkoff arrived first to be pleased to see his wife and Raina then later Major Sergius arrived to see Raina but throughout this scene Sergius tells a story about a Servian escaping from the war and hid in a bedroom with two women. Catherine and Raina is shocked because the story that is been told is about them. After this scene, there is a blackout which leads to Act 3 which is based on Captain Bluntschli returning Paul Petkoff’s coat to Catherine.  This starts off with Catherine sitting on a chair center stage whilst focusing on her sowing when Louka entre stage right to tell Catherine that a gentleman called, who turns out to be Captain Bluntschli. Catherine got Louka running up and down changing her mind to find a way to get Captain Bluntschli to disappear before Major Paul Petkoff and Sergius Saranoff finds him here unfortunately it was too late and they both found him. Towards the end of act 3 Raina found Captain Bluntschli by shouting “my chocolate cream soldier” leaving her father and fiancé confused but Catherine annoyed because she does not want them to find out that the soldier in the story that was being told earlier was Captain Bluntschli. When the story of Arms and The Man ended there is a blackout and then everything is taken off stage which allow us to perform our devised piece where it started off with Sergius and Raina dancing together at a ball enjoying the time of their lives then Captain Bluntschli entered from stage left and distracted Raina leaving Sergius on his own then Louka entered stage right which caught Sergius eyes leading them to have a chat whilst Raina tells Captain Bluntschli to not leave her but he wants her to forgot about him. The whole scene froze then there is a blackout leading to a new story. Connor and Millie is two new characters where they are singing to Fairy tales of New York by Jem Finer and Shane McGowan which is based on a man dreaming about love and taking a woman’s dream from her, then it went into Connor and Danny’s improvisation based on two brothers where the youngest brother (Danny) is excited for Christmas but the older one (Connor) finds Christmas depressing. After their improvisation it goes back to us being the characters from Arms and the Man where Louka and Nicola does a improvisation based on Louka finally having time for herself but Nicola interrupted to asked what she wants for Christmas but it turns out that both start planning on stealing Christmas presents from Santa, which lead to Santa baby scene where Millie and Frankie is singing Santa baby by Ariana Grande whilst in background Louka and Nicola creeped behinds Millie and Frankie to steal the presents from upstage left where Santa was fast asleep, later on the song then changed to All I want for Christmas by Mariah Carey which involves signing in BSL (British Sign Language), singing, clapping and interacting with the audience. The performance ended with a bow, round of applause and a “Merry Christmas”.

The practitioner that we mainly used to develop this play was Stanislavski, who created a method acting based on the seven steps where the techniques were developed to allow actors to build a believable character and his method also related to the “Magic if” where the actors learn to put themselves into the character’s shoes. The seven steps are who am I, where am I, when is it, what do I want, why do I want it, how will I get it, and how do I need to overcome. Relating to the performance we used this practitioner to make our showcase Naturalistic where our characters were believable and the use of props, placement, staging, sound etc. For example, act 1 the setting was in the bedroom where there were four chairs positioned center stage together to represent the bed but in this scene the second freeze frame made it more realistic where Raina and Captain Bluntschli ate chocolate.

There are other skills that were used during the play relating to this method such as our physical skills where we would act out characters for instance, a soldier at the beginning of the play and our characters that are in the story of Arms and the Man. We have done a couple warm-ups and tasks to develop different characters for example, there was a warm up that our tutor gave us; we would walk around in the space and when our tutor called out a character, for example a “soldier” we would need to think about the posture, the gesture and the way they speak to be able to act it out, another example, she could shout out “the queen” and we would again think about her posture, gesture and the way she speaks. There was another way to develop our characterization in Arms and the Man where we did an inner monologue which is known as the inner voice and subtext where you deliver your lines from the scripts at the same time you show the audience what you want. And the way the characters are described. Referring to 23rd November 2016 on my logbook, this explained what an inner monologue is, which is known as a subtext and phrase as “what do I want”. Using Stanislavski’s method and the inner monologue was successful because it helps a lot with characteristics to allow us to make our character more believable to make the performance realistic. However, the seven steps were a bit difficult because at first I was not sure how to deliver my character which made it difficult for me to fill out the seven steps but the progress in development of the play did help me a lot on how to perform my role being Louka. The progress started off with a table read, where my class would come together and read the scripts from act 1 to act 3. Whilst we strolled along we picked out and highlighted the characters, settings and words/sentences we weren’t sure of. This was beneficial because it allows us to get a better picture of the settings and characters in the play of Arms and the Man.

The genre of this play is a comedy and romance, as we read went along, we could pick up the romance of the but the comedy we could not find what was funny about the scripts. We believed due to our age we wouldn’t understand the comedy that is being shown where adults may pick it up easier than us. We were given our characters and asked to write about it. For example, I was given Louka who was in her early 20s, fiancé to Nicola and in love with Sergius as I have already explained. Reading through the scripts again and again I had to ensure I knew what my character wanted and who she really is. Some of us could see that Louka brings in the comedy into the play in Act 3 because she dislikes her job, always moaning throughout her facial expressions and gets frustrated when Catherine keeps getting her and changing her mind; this made me more comfortable with the character I was given. Later, we shared our views on our characters and discuss if we agreed and if there is anything we should add to each of them to make sure that we all understood each character to allow us to react and interact with other people’s characters effectively.

We created freeze frames for act 1 where we needed to make sure that this act was covered and clear where we practice the timing, pace and how we would use the space to make the scene more realistic and understandable because it was not acted out. We started to set up the staging by collecting any useful props from the props cupboard, tables and chairs and other materials that would be in the play to set up the garden. For example, a vase with bunch of fake flowers that would be on the table to represent the garden, a tray that Louka and Nicolas would carry throughout the play. Throughout rehearsals there would be times where we would move the table from center stage to upstage to avoid the vase from blocking the characters, moving the chairs into a triangle shape to allow it to open up so all the characters who are sitting down be seen and to also avoid them blocking each other and working out the which directions that the characters would enter and exit the stage. For example, remembering that the house is on stage right and the gate to their garden is on stage left. This led us to spiking the stage (referring to 24th November 2016 logbook post is an example) where we would mark the chairs, tables and props to allow us to remember during the play where they are placed.

When our staging position was at a high standard, we knew where things were placed and knew our lines, we were told what costume was needed to be worn for the soldiers and our characters for Arms and the Man. For example, we would be dressed all black as soldiers and for my character in the play I would wear a skirt and an apron over my soldier’s costume but later during rehearsal, due to not having time to put on my skirt, I decided to just wear my apron. There were a few reasons why we did not have a soldier costume (Green blazer with green trouser and carrying a weapon). The reasons were, it may make the audience confuse and distracted due to the colour and a lot of walking around the space on stage which was not make the scene clear enough, and another reason is that due to just wearing black, it helps us be more prepare for our next costume which is for Arms and the Man where we do not have to remove anything (for example, if we were wearing a soldier costume) but place our costume on top of our black costume. It is also because we did not have wings off stage because the audience could see what we are doing.

After a couple dress rehearsals, we practice a run through with the music and lights to make sure that it matched to what we are doing such as the timing, make sure that the light does not blind the actors on stage whilst it is being turned on, and make sure that music is turned on or the light is up with a cue. What I mean by this is that when an actor gives a cue it makes it easier for the technician to know what they need to do next whether it is the lights or sounds. We later worked on Devised/improvisation piece to allow our play to be exact 45minutes. This involved a devised piece with Raina, Sergius, Bluntschli and Louka, an improve with Connor and Danny and a devised piece between Louka and Nicola. Also, we worked on how to end the play by gathering our skills for example, singing skills, signing skills, playing an instrument and other skills to allow us to sing a few songs. First, we planned what songs relate to Christmas and we got myself teaching some sign language for the last song, and others singing and came to the final songs that we most enjoyed and comfortable with which were Fairy tale of New York, Santa baby and All I want for Christmas. Lastly, we did a run through from top to bottom to time it for us to ensure that the performance piece is just behind or exactly 45 minutes and then after we reach that time we then did a speed run. The speed run was to ensure that we knew what was the transitions and where everything is positions.  

Relating this to Interpretative skills I did my secondary research on Arms and the Man which were on YouTube (Arms and the Man 1989, 2015) and different websites that was useful. I believe by researching this play independently gave me a better understanding of the play, how my character is played and along with other characters to which allow me to help my class to develop their characters better if needed. Watching the play on YouTube was very helpful because at first I had no idea what the play was about and I thought watching the play was give me a complete understanding on what message they were to come across and what was funny about the story.

I was also not sure how my character was played whilst I read the scripts and the description on Louka, I pictured her as posh, liking her job and seemed like she gets along with the Petkoff family well. However, watching the clips it shows me that she disliked her job and finds it frustrating. Again, watching the clip it gave me a good enough picture on how I could act out Louka by allowing me to pick out a couple of skills from my character and use in our performance to make my character more believable. Also, another reason to watching this play is because I could listen out for the laughers which was in the background and see if I found it funny but also discuss it with my class in to how we could understand the play more to get the reaction we need from the audience. It also helps me learn how to deliver my lines a bit better, how Louka moves around and focus on her body language and facial expressions. The other physical skills were used throughout to develop the performance piece such as the fight scene, our main characters and the devised pieces. We developed the fight scene by pairing up into twos and creating three different fighting moves, for example, a punch, a kick or headbutt. We started off in a slow motion without physical contact throughout, we then were asked to pick up the pace of the movement up to a 5 and then bring it up to a 10. Speeding up the pace of the movement made it more realistic and believable even though we were not making any physical contact, we were able to express the facial expressions more and react to the hit we were given. An example shown from my logbook post on 2nd November 2016 shows a gif of me working with my partner Nelson. We had to make sure that the timing was practice to allow it to flow with music and lighting to make the fighting to look real.

The strengths of this is that we would able to perform as soldiers where I explained earlier that we needed to focus on the posture and gesture of the character. We would able to allow the audience to know that we were soldier by the way we marched and prepared for the fight. However, there were times where we had to swap partners or someone had dropped out which led to difficulties to develop a new scene again and due to this problem, we did not have enough time to rehearse with the new partners which made them repeat the same movement. For example, punching their partner in the same direction/place. As it is mentioned earlier about the warm-up that was given to develop the character of being soldiers; we were soldiers before the fight scene where we would march towards the stage, throughout the progress in rehearsals we practice how to do the posture where our back is straight and shoulders down.

This was successful because it allows us to be prepared for our Arms and the Man characters as some of the characters are from upper class and they need to focus on their posture by sitting up and back straight. Relating to my character, I would act sloppy because I do not want to be here and work but when I am around Catherine, Raina, Petkoff and Sergius I should ensure that my back is straight and approach them with a good manner. There are many ways we have used our vocal skills during rehearsals and final performance where we need to be able to project our voice, control our breathing and pronounce our words whilst we are delivering our lines. There were a few vocal warm-ups we have done during rehearsals such as controlling our breathing where we would breathe in for four, hold for four and breathe out for four; this will be repeated and the counts will go up maybe to 8. This helps us know where our diaphragm is so that when it comes to projecting we know where to go from and not from the throat. The other warm-ups were knowing how to use tongue twister where it helps us pronounce our words. Our tutor Conniba, gave us a phew words for example "Unique New York, New York is unique" where we would walk around saying it either we project it by being loud or whispering but sometimes she would give a character to be able to play with the voices, pitch, pace, volume and the body language to make easier for us to project and deliver. For example, she may give us a child that is running around in the playground; we would run around in the space and say the phrase with a high piece voice and speak a lot with a mouth wide where it helps us pronounce the words properly whilst having a high energy. Another example, a person that is showing a customer around a new house; we would go for a low voice with slow pace and pouncing every word by pointing or showing them around. The strength of doing this it to allow the audience who may be sitting at the back to hear us and hear every word that is been said.

Developing this skill helps, when our tutor Conniba sat at the back row and watched the play and if she cannot hear us, she would gesture with her hand to tell us to project our voice. This was useful because once I speak up I know what level I need to project my voice to and allow me to ensure it is projected from my diaphragm and not my throat. I had difficulties pronouncing and projecting at the beginning of Act 3 where I walk in from stage right to tell Catherine that Captain Bluntschli had called where I would walk in and my first line would be “Ma’am”. At first I was not sure if I was saying it right which made me lose my confident and not projecting my voice properly to allow the audience to hear what I was saying because I was not sure if the audience would understand what I am saying. During rehearsals, I would be given feedback from my peers and tutor on what is needed improving or what am I doing well. I used my feedback widely to develop my characteristics and show the class the improvement I made and see if it is better than before. For example, for act 3 there is a part where me as Louka and Catherine who was played Millie, was having a conversation. Due to Louka being fed up and not bothered about her job, she kept being called back and forth by Catherine telling her to do this and do that but because of this, I need to show frustration. At first, I did not show how frustrated I was because I just exited the stage naturally, but I was stopped by one of my peers by saying “I don’t believe you”. I was confused to why they did not believe me and their reply was that I needed to show more frustration into my character due to be called back many times where I would roll my eyes, interact with the audience and moan then turn to Catherine in good manner. I used that feedback and change from being natural when coming off stage to being really annoyed. Also, another feedback was to project my voice and I believed that everyone needed that as their feedback too. Giving feedback overall is very important for us because it allow us to take it away and improve each time to make the overall piece better and more creative to perform at a high level. Also, receiving feedback allow us to develop new skills or learn something new from others for example, a peer may give another peer feedback on their acting skills that they have not used before which then they may find it useful and use it later in the future in other performances or give that feedback to someone else to allow that person to develop their characterisation.

My personal management and discipline was to ensure that I was on time and always go to lessons and rehearsals, being able to learn my lines, welling to help others and practice not to break out of character which I did. When a rehearsal was taken place after college, I would go to it and help run through the play and learn my scripts or practice a specific movement that I need to go over. I could help others to make sure that they understood something, wasn’t sure of something, give them feedback on what they need to improve on or if they missed a rehearsal; they have the chance of myself explain and fill them in and update them on any changes that have been made. Management and discipline is very important because it allows the performance to standout knowing that mistakes will not be made where we know we will not mess up on our lines, do the wrong thing or not bring on the right props and not coming out of character during the play. This also prepare us for the future for those who are going on to drama schools and theatres, being discipline is important because there will be times where you would have to be at every rehearsal and be on time, help others and be able to learn your lines in less than one week. Relating to management, I was given responsibility to teach, choreograph and arrange placement for the last song (All I want for Christmas by Mariah Carey). Refereeing to my logbook post on 3rd December 2016; this was challenging because I could not sing and I had to ensure that those who were singing sang the song right and would able to sing the parts that was given to them. I also taught my class basic sign language relating to the song such as Christmas tree, presents, socking, and other to allow them to have the chance to do something on stage instead of just standing there if they don’t want to sing. However, it was frustrating at teaching a big number of group and some of my peers didn’t feel confident in signing to some of the words in the song because they felt that they would forget the sign for the word and did not want to mess it up. Due to this, rehearsals were very important because the more I practiced with them, the more confident they would be to remember some of the basic signs to the song.

My Long-term goal is to become a community worker because I like helping others achieve their dreams and encouraging them by sharing experiences and to this I will go to university in 2017. Throughout the workshops, rehearsals and final performance I realised their skills, warm-ups, tasks, workshops that I can take away with me and use in the future. For example, to break the ice (Icebreaker) I can use any of the tasks that was given to develop a creative piece of community art to have a successful workshop. I could be able to set this up as my action and target where during lessons I can come up with a workshop or a warm-up for the class to allow myself to build up my confident in showing instructions and making them do it in the way I have explained it in. Also, preparing myself for workshops I need to be organise; relating this to being responsible for the song at the end of the performance, I was organised and knew what was needed to be done first, and knowing what was taking place at what time and practicing my pronunciation and my projection was beneficial because it would help me when it comes to leading workshops. Another long-term goal, is to prepare myself for auditions for future reference that might be taken place during university or when applying for a job; I would need to prepare myself by doing both classical and contemporary monologues such as the ones I have done in class (logbook post on 16th September 2016 and 22nd February 2017). Comparing the first monologue I did which was on the 16th September to the two monologues I did on the 22nd February, it shows a big improvement towards my physical and vocal skills where I was able to deliver my characterisation more effectively in February than September, had a better picture of the characters as well as the spacing around me to how I can use it and imagine someone is in the room with me and developed on how to use my projection and pronunciation better in February. Alongside this, it helps me create a believable character, therefore allow me to get used to getting to character quicker on my feet.

My main short-term goals are to ensure that I do not break out of character, I pronounce my words clearly and project my voice; I found this aspect of this unit particularly difficult because there were words in the scripts that I have not come across and it is harder when practicing with full amount of audience. I believe that I should set this as my action and target because I would need us a lot of this when performing in later shows or doing a task that is given during lessons etc. This would help me by trying to do different warm-ups where we focus on something particularly and try and not break out of character. For example, doing something funny but trying not to laugh.

In conclusion, workshops were successful where it allows us to develop the characteristics and new skills and doing rehearsals increased the development of the characterisation to allow the play to be more naturalistic. Relating to the final performance the overall progress came out successfully due to how well our performance went which was outstanding because of the feedback that was given from the audience at the end of the show such as “well done, I really enjoyed it and “your character was funny” and the reaction that we wanted from the audience was received. The timing was spot on because we were given instructions to what time we need to ‘get out’ venue and our play was fluid and finished right on time due to a lot of practice on the timing etc.

References Arms and the Man 1989. (2015, June 13). Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4XbMLNMt7g&t=3279s BTEC Level 3 Performing Arts. (2016 - 17). Retrieved from Tumblr : https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gkelsey Shaw, G. B. (Director). (1958). Arms and the Man [Motion Picture]. 8

[daancienttime]

Serbian Dancing Lady Come to India on a Budget: Our Best Money-Saving Tips

The Serbian Dancing Lady is a mysterious figure who has been the subject of many online videos and memes. The videos show a woman dancing in a strange and erratic way, often in the middle of the night. Some people believe that the Serbian Dancing Lady is a ghost, while others believe that she is simply a disturbed individual.

If the Serbian Dancing Lady were to come to India, it is likely that she would cause a great deal of excitement and fear. Her strange dancing would likely be interpreted as a sign of something supernatural, and she would likely be the subject of many stories and legends. It is also possible that she would attract the attention of paranormal investigators, who would try to figure out who she is and what she wants.

Of course, it is also possible that the Serbian Dancing Lady is not real at all. She could simply be a hoax, or a character created for online entertainment. If this is the case, then her arrival in India would likely be met with confusion and disappointment.

Here are some possible scenarios of what might happen if the Serbian Dancing Lady came to India:

She would be hailed as a spiritual leader or a goddess by some people. She would be feared and avoided by others. She would be the subject of intense media coverage. She would be studied by paranormal investigators. She would become a popular meme or internet joke. Ultimately, what would happen if the Serbian Dancing Lady came to India is anyone's guess. However, it is sure to be a strange and memorable event.

Here are some additional thoughts on the matter:

The Serbian Dancing Lady would likely be seen as a symbol of mystery and wonder by many Indians. She would also be seen as a symbol of the supernatural, which is often a part of Indian culture. Her arrival in India could lead to a renewed interest in spirituality and mysticism. She could also help to break down some of the barriers between different cultures. Of course, there are also some potential negative consequences of the Serbian Dancing Lady's arrival in India. For example, she could be exploited by people who are looking to make money off of her. She could also be seen as a threat by some people, and she could even be harmed or killed.