heh... sounds a lot like my school- what school you at...
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Don't stress.. we didnt touch Major or Core Appreciation till after hte actual Performacne HSC, and we all pulled it off...
For Rooster: I suggest you study background of hte Era.. the 1960's -- Rock and Roll, drugs , Feminist movement, the sexual revolution... and then pick parts of rooster say the music...
the music is composed by the Rolling stones, songs such as 'Ruby Tuesday' erm.... ' Paint It black ' and all the others... take them apart and look at the lyrics... Look at the relationship between lyrics and movement...
*tries to remember back to HSC last year*
The oNLY way you can do your Appreciation well is By wATCHING AND WATCHING AND WATCHING over and over and over again.. you need to pick up every aspect...
Study Christopher Bruce ( the composer of Rooster) and his background. .write bios and then when you watch the actual dance go from there, in the exam you will need a variety of resources studied in detail.
you can probably go to a video store and look for rooster, or ask your teacher Urgently for a copy... you can go to the Australian Ballet, and Dance COmpany and ask them for the video and copy it etc.
for rooster its rather detailed on specific movement in relation to the 'era' it was composed and performed in.
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Ochres:
You really need to watch this too ... the most important part... there are no lyrics or major songs you can take apart which will help for this.. its all visual based.
Research the Bangarra Dance Company for information on its Composers, and performers..(if they have a sydney performance comming up, go see it ^_^ )
there are 3 main composers for this piece - Dajakapurra Manyurran, Bernadette walong and Stephen Page.
check out there website for Bios etc
http://www.bangarra.com.au/
there is the Charles sturt University website which has the special HSC study reviews etc.. check that out.. (very usefull)
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/dance/
For Ochres look at the relationship between the meanings of the words that are shown at the beginning of each section and research them .. looking at teh relationship between them and the movement..... more specifically look up what 'ochres' means and find out (when watching) why they have used that..
Good Luck!
Dont stress, the exams not that bad... just concertrate on prac and you'll be fine!
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Practical exam Viva Voces performance and Compositioin
- You will need to discuss the following:
(depending on the question asked - and take your 5 mins reading time / working out time... you'll need it... dont worry about nerves.. Use it )
Atonomical structure... how your body was / is postioned throughout the dance and if you had to modify any movements to incorporate it into 'SAFE' dance. ( just say you show up to the exam, and you have a sore back.. or you have an overall back problem or leg problem ... discuss how you made your movements 'safe' )
How you warmed up- how you cool down.. Go through that process and DEMONSTRATE !!!!! *(they love that)* - Descirbe your processs for the warm ups and cool downs (as you have to do them in the exam) and say the correct muscle names and stretches ...
e.g "To Strech my External Obliques i did a range of stretches including '''' blah blah blah *insert stretch name here* or... to stretch my Rectus adominous i did this" ....
Injury Provention- How you take extra precortion to minimise risk of injury.. dont go in the exam doing extremely hard things which may cause injury. they will like it if you go into detail about this aspect
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COMPOSTION (CORE)
Viva voce
Again take all teh time given too you,
Specify your Stimulous and intent.. take time to describe this and explain why you choose your music and how it realtes to your concept/ intent. Give examples from your dance showing your concept/ intent, take it apart and show them. Dont get your dance to do this.. You should.
you may also be required to describe HOW you composed your dance, what steps you used.. How did you manipulate your original 'motif' into the phrases.. etc.
This one should be fairly simple if you know your compositon inside out/ as most do ^_^
Good Luck !