Assignment #7 Attend A Dance

For the assignment to Attend A Dance, I decided to go back to my home town and watch a dance that some of my friends from school were in.

Describe: The dance performance was very entertaining. It had many different songs and many different classes of dancers throughout the performance. The dancers ranged from ages 3- 25. There were about 10 different songs performed in this performance and they all did a great job. The first group to perform was the middle aged class. They were dressed in little black and yellow collared outfits and looked very cute. I enjoyed watching them dance and try their hardest to do each of the moves right. After they performed, the toddlers came out for their performance. I have always enjoyed watching the toddlers the most. They are very entertaining and always have the cutest moves. They were great. Then there were many other groups to perform including the oldest group, some more younger girls, there were tappers, cloggers, ballet dancers, and many other dancers. They all did great and they put on a wonderful performance.

Analyze: While watching the performance I noticed who the strong dancers were in each group. It was very interesting to see how well the dancers all worked together no matter their age. For the younger groups, I noticed an instructor down in front that all of the dancers watched to know what move to do next. They did a great job of instructing and teaching these students all that they learned for this performance. I know it must be difficult teaching dance routines to such small children, but the instructors here did very well.


Interpret: The point of this performance was to show off to all the parents and family members how hard each child had worked to perform this performance. They all worked for months to get to where they were and it paid off. The dancers danced with great attitude and great skill. They all knew exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it. A few of the songs that they did were Christian songs and I believe that this was done because the dancers of these dances wanted to use their skill to dance for the Lord. They wanted to show the audience they loved the Lord and wanted to praise him with the amazing talent he had given them.

Evaluate: Overall I believe that this was a great performance. I think that the people who put it together did an amazing job and they all did a great job of making it all that it could be. There was much hard work and hours of dedication put into this one performance and it was very noticeable and I greatly enjoyed being able to take part in observing this amazing dance performance.

Assignment #10 Opera and Music

1) The opera Turandot was about a Princess, Princess Turandot, who would only marry a noble man who was able to solve her three enigmas. She has sworn this vow to everyone. The Princess doesn't find anyone worthy of her love. Every man whom she finds unworthy loses their head. She doesn't want to marry anyone who doesn't meet her approval. Finally she comes to the last one before she feels like giving up, and he pleas a bargain with her. He said that if she knows his name by morning he will allow her to chop his head off. The Princess searches all day and all night for this young man's name. Finally right before morning she discovers his name from one of the maids. She runs in front of the whole town and shouts that she knows his name. As the Princess says his name she says "his name is.... Love" for all along she had been in love with the man whom she had tried so hard to get killed.

2) Two operas done by Mozart: Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni

3)Discuss the difference between Opera and Light Opera:

Guys and Dolls is an example of a Light Opera.

The difference between Opera and Light Opera is that Light Opera is a less demanding form of opera. It is brings in more spoken words so that it is more of a play and an opera rather than just all singing like a normal Opera is. The songs used in light operas are more popular than those used in regular Operas and appeals to a broader audience. The regular Operas is a more highly elevated style of music and theater. They are both very good and appeal to different audiences and they both require good singing and operatic voices as well as a good orchestra to back the singers up.

This was my drawing from class last wednesday. Although it wasn't part of the assignment I remembered Professor Heid telling us to post it on our blog. I really enjoyed this class activity. It was fun to listen to music and try to see how we felt about it and what shapes and words came to mind. I really liked this because it isn't often that you actually get to sit back and really feel the music and draw or write how it makes you feel. I think that my picture turned out very interesting and I liked being able to look around at all the other picture in the classroom and see how everyone else interpreted the song. It was a very neat and fun activity.

Assignment # 8 Attend a Play

I attended the play Big Love on Wednesday November 17th.

Describe:
This play was done in a theater in the round in the Longstreet theater. It was about a family of girls who were being forced to marry their cousins.They did not want to marry them so they escaped. They escaped to a random house, the house of Piero. They tried to get Piero to save them but he ended up scheming against them and set up a marriage for them. The girls schemed again to kill all of the grooms. Everyone killed their fiances' except one of the girls. She ran off and saved him. They had great costumes and the actors and actresses were very good.

Interpret:
The actors and actresses in this play did a great job becoming real for the audience. I somehow had a bond with the characters just as I do sometimes when reading a novel or watching a movie. They did a great job of making their characters believable and real. I really enjoyed the way that the characters worked together and made the story come to life.

Analyze:
I think that the meaning of this play was to bring the audience a knowledge about the Greece and their ancient ways. It was about forced marriage and how the brides/grooms feel about this law. It was a great portrayal of this and the characters made it very realistic.

Evaluate:

I really enjoyed this play. Big Love was the first play I have seen since I became a student at USC and I really enjoyed being able to watch it. The actors and actresses did an amazing job in this play. They were very good at all that they did. I really had a great time watching it and recommended it to everyone who asked me about it.

Assignment #12 Music

-What is the time for this music? 4/4

-How many beats does the solid green G get? 1

-How many beats does the open green G get? 2

-What is one dark vertical line to one dark vertical line called? A measure

-What song is this? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

-Who wrote Peter and the Wolf? Peter and the Wolf was written in 1936 by Sergey Prokofiev.

- What instrument is played as Peter? The strings were played as the voice of peter. The strings included the violin, viola, string bass, and cello.

- What instrument is played as the wolf? The french horn was used for the wolf.

- What instrument is played as the Grandfather, Duck, bird, and alligator? 

        * The instrument used for the Grandfather was the bassoon.

        * The instrument used for the Duck was the oboe.

        * The instrument used for the Bird was the flute.

        * The instrument used for the hunters was the timpani.

I enjoyed watching this movie and it was very fun to watch. It was a sad movie but the use of music was very interesting. It made it more meaningful because you had the ability to make up what you thought they were saying rather than hearing it.

Assignment #9 Attend A Concert

I attended the World Symphonic Jazz Orchestra at USC on Tuesday November 9th, 2010. The concert was at the Center for Contemporary Art.

Describe: The concert I saw was of the Jazz Symphonic Orchestra of USC. It consisted of 18 band members and 1 director. It was a rather large band and their sound was very loud. They sounded very good together and it was obvious that they had put a lot of work into this performance. They performed songs by David Cutler, Gerson Garcia, Sonia Jacobson, Makhail Alperin, Aziz Sahmaoui, Jimmy Bosch, and Antoine Herve. The insturments played in this performance were flute, tenor, soprano,and alto saxaphones, trumpets, trombones, a tuba, a guitar, piano, percussion, drums, violin, viola, cello, and bass. During one of the songs there was a belly dancer that came into the room. It was very interesting and kind of awkward but she did a good job.

Analyze: Being in band throughout high school and middle school I have heard my fair share of bands. I believe that this one sounded very good. It could have possibly been one of the best Jazz performances I have heard. The songs that they played seemed very difficult and they all played them with ease. There were many solo performances througout the concert and they all played them very well.

Interpret: The purpose of this concert was to take you on a journey around the world. It was the World Symphonic Jazz Orchestra. They played songs from different parts of the world. They brought in the belly dancer to make the atmosphere more like the area that the song was from. At the end of the performance the director said "I hope that you have enjoyed our trip around the world" and that made me understand that was the purpose.

Evaluate: I greatly enjoyed this concert. The songs were all very catchy and fun to listen to. They performed six songs. My favorite song was Unisons by Makhail Alperin. This song had a very difficult guitar solo that was played very well. The rest of the song was very good also the entire band played well together and they did an amazing job on all of the songs. If I had the chance I would go back and watch this Orchestra play again, I really enjoyed it.

Assignment #11 Phantom of The Opera

The movie Phantom of The Opera was a very good movie and I enjoyed watching it in class. There were many art disciplines in this movie. The ones I noticed as most present were dance, music, performing arts, theatre, and film. Dance is in this film many times. Most of the actors and performers dance throughout the entire movie. Music is presented in this movie as well. There are many different songs that are sang by the different performers in this movie. Each person sang very well and made the movie great. Performing arts is shown throughout the movie because each person in the movie performs in some way or another. Theater is shown in this performance because they are doing a play for an audience. Film is a part of this movie because their performance is recorded and made into a movie. I really enjoyed watching this movie in class and it was a very fun and entertaining movie.

A) Describe what the life of a ballerina would have been like at the Paris Opera House in the late 19th Century:

     Life for a ballerina at the Paris Opera House in the late 19th century would have been very strenuous. Each ballerina has many years of practice and hard work that goes into each performance that they have. This is when women received the privilege of dancing on stage. For a long time, men would dance women's parts, women did not have the rights to dance. But during the late 19th century in Paris, there was a decline in male ballet dancers. They had to work hard to keep their skill up and their bodies in shape. They work hard to try to be the best dancers that they can be. The ballerinas in Phantom of the Opera do an amazing job at what they do and you can tell that much hard work went into their performance. Many ballerinas during this time worked very hard and long hours and many years to acquire the great skill they have acquired. After they worked hard to develop their technique, they were eventually ready to perform on stage.

Assignment #6 Theater

The theater I see in this picture is an apron stage theater. It is an apron stage because it has a portion of the stage that goes out past the main curtain and the proscenium. It is a small portion of the stage that comes out unlike the thrust stage's large protrusion.

The item numbered 1 is the proscenium. This is the outer rim of the stage that allows the actors to be kind of behind a window.

The item numberd 3 is off stage. This is where the actors prepare to go on stage and where everyone who works behind the scenes can be found.

The item numbered 4 is the curtain. The curtain is used to hide things before they are meant to be displayed to the audience. They can be opened and closed during different times of the play.

The item numbered 5 is the apron. This is the portion of the stage closest to the audience. This part of the stage protrudes past the curtain.

The item numbered 6 is the auditorium. This is the area where the audience sits to watch the performance.

The item numbered 7 is the border. This is used to cover up the stage lights from the view of the audience.

All of these things are very important to each performance in a stage like this.

They all play their own role and make the play be everything that it is. Without each of them, the play would not be able to work as well as it should.

Assignment #5

1.)  Why do people dance?      
      I believe there are a lot of reasons for people to dance.  Some people dance as a fun activity.  Some people dance because it's their job, such as a professional dancer or a dance teacher.  Other people dance to stay fit.  The popularity of fitness dance classes has increased greatly in the past few years.  There are classes such as Zumba, hip-hop, and belly dancing that many people are choosing to take part in to stay fit.  Another reason some people dance is to express their feelings.  The different movements can be ways of expression for many dancers.
2.)  Why do you dance or not dance?
       I enjoy dancing, although I am not a very good dancer.  I dance because it usually involves my friends and/or boyfriend and it is fun for me.  I enjoy the movement as well as the exercise I get. Many Thursday nights, my friends and I go to Jillians in the Vista and shag. It is a lot of fun and I enjoy dancing with everyone. Staying in shape is very important to me and I enjoy dancing to help with that.

3.) When you see someone on the stage or a dance floor who is really good, what goes through your mind?
        When I see a good dancer on stage or a dance floor many things go through my mind. First, I think about how long it took them to become that good of a dancer. I think about how much time, hard work, and dedication they must put in for this one performance. Growing up, my best friend was a dancer and I attended many great dance recitals with her and watched many great dancers preform. When I watched, I used to wish that I could dance as well as they do, I wished I could move like that, and have the form that they have. I was a dancer when I was very young but it did not last long, I soon turned into a baseball player but always wished I was able to dance well.

4.) What makes dance good?
     I believe that everyone has different opinions on what makes dance good. In my opinion dance is good when the dancers are all in sync When all of them seem to be making all the same motions at the same time. When the dancers perform many difficult moves, and perform them well, I see them as good dancers. I enjoy watching people dance because I like watching people have fun and as long as you are having fun dancing, you are a good dancer in my eyes.

Assignment #4

Part 1: As I walked around the horseshoe, many different elements stood out to me as beautiful, but the one I chose to elaborate on was the columns outside of the old library on the horseshoe. These columns stood out to me because unlike most of the columns in the horseshoe, these are very plain. Many of the other columns I saw were very elaborate and decorated. Many of them were Corinthian columns. But, these are Doric columns and they are very large columns. They make the library look larger than it really is and it is a very neat part of the architecture of the building. 
Part 2: The film I chose go to see at the Nickelodeon was Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. The movie began really well. There was a very unique and eye-catching beginning. The director, I believe, wanted to get the viewers very interested from the beginning. It was a hypnotizing formation of different colors and shapes all moving around, eventually panning into the beginning scene. The movie was about the famous composer Igor Stravinsky and the famous fashion designer Coco Chanel. Igor had a bad spell in his career and lost his reputation after a very controversial ballet. Trying to get his career back to it's original state, he runs into Coco Chanel, who loved Stravinsky's work. She offers to help him and allows him and his family to move into her house. He begins to write music and prepare for his next performance all the while falling in love with Coco Chanel. Stravinsky and Chanel have an affair while Stravinsky's family is staying in the same house. In the end, Stravinsky's family leaves Coco Chanel's house and Stravinsky stays there to finish his composing. He composes his ballet and everyone loves it. He and Coco both end up old and alone at the finish of the movie.
One form of filming technique that I noticed right away was the use of different camera angles. The camera angles made different parts of the film more interesting. The cameras showed different perspectives of the different characters in the movie. While showing the ballet, camera angles switched between the view of Stravinsky from the audience and then Stravinsky's view of the ballet. The director did a great job of using camera angles to make this film the best it could be.

Assignment #3

As I walked into the McMaster Art Gallery I noticed right away that this place was beautiful. All of the art that was there was amazing to admire. I noticed that the masterpieces were in different categories. When you first walk in, looking to the right, you see the art of shapes. Different shapes are drawn and painted in these works of art. As you continue around the gallery you see how the different themes of shapes, animals and nature, people, and movement are portrayed around the walls of the gallery. There are paintings and drawings of trees, women, and dancers as well. I really enjoyed looking at all the different works of art done by many different people.

Describe: The piece of art that I chose to elaborate on was You Know Me Better Than I Know Myself:Removed But Still There By Melissa Cooke. This was a masterpiece of powdered graphite on paper. It came from Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles in 2009. I chose to elaborate on this artwork because the second I saw it, it stood out to me. It had a feel to it that none of the other artworks did. It was a very large piece of art and took up most of the wall space from top to bottom. The colors were simple nothing bright just black, white, and a bit of grey shadowing. This piece of art was a photo of a young woman's face. Her hair and makeup is done as if for a big show or a party of some sort. She looks as though she is getting ready to go somewhere important.

Analyze: Melissa Cooke uses lines to make this artwork seem more real to life. She uses lines in the body to give the woman figure and lines in her lips to give them life. The lines of her collarbone and shoulders makes the woman seem fragile which adds much meaning to the life of the artwork. Cooke uses shape to make the eyes of the woman pop. By making them so round and large they seem to draw the attention of the viewer. Space is another important element in this work of art. Melissa Cooke uses space to make the woman seem very large. There is not much space around her and she takes up majority of the space in the mural. Texture is displayed in this artwork in the woman's hair, face, and shoulders. The artist uses texture to make her seem much more realistic. The principal of design, balance, was used in this artwork because the woman was off centered in the piece of work. Many artists use this as a key element of their artwork. The emphasis that Cooke uses is to bring the attention to the woman's face and eyes in this artwork.

Interpret: When I first looked at this artwork, it caught my attention. The girl seems to be looking for something. My attention is brought straight to her eyes. I think that she is getting dressed to go somewhere important but somewhere she isn't sure she wants to be. I feel that the girl in the artwork may not like the person she is becoming or the person she may be forced to be. I think she may have gotten herself into a relationship she doesn't like and now she is somehow forced to live a life that is not hers.She looks for something better and longs for it. The part of the title, Removed But Still There, makes you believe that she doesn't have what she wants. She has been removed from the world that she desires but still longs to be there.

Evaluate: I think that this is a beautiful piece of art. The artist did a wonderful job using the powdered graphite to make this the masterpiece that it is. I like how every little detail was carefully displayed. I think that Melissa Cooke is a great artist and I think that her ability to use only powdered graphite to shade and outline this girl to be so detailed is amazing. This was a beautiful piece of artwork and I am glad that I chose to elaborate on it.

Assignment #2: Aesthetics

       In my opinion aesthetics is seeing things as beautiful. It is about studying everything that we see and describing it as beauty. The four domains of creativity are fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.

These four domains all have different meanings and ideas. The domain fluency is having the ability to think of lots of different ideas. If you have fluency in a certain category, you are good at coming up with many different things or activities to do in that category. Flexibility is being able to move quickly from one idea to the next. In the classroom setting, a teacher must help children to become flexible because subjects taught change throughout each day. The third domain of creativity is originality. Originality is being about to be original and having an idea that is your own. In the real world, originality comes in handy. No one wants to be just like everyone else around them, they want to be original. The final domain of creativity is elaboration. Elaboration is being able to add ideas. Adding ideas to any group setting such as teaching, planning church events, or just working on a group project is vital to success.
       Practical Experience: Watching someone jump into the lake
       Aesthetic Experience: Sitting down into my chair as it surrounds me with comfort I look off to my left and see a large man running towards the lake I am admiring. As I watch the man run quickly, his feet beginning to leave the ground higher and higher with each step, the water looks calm below him. The gap between the water and the man begins to get smaller. Until the gap is gone and suddenly the man and water are one. As the man sinks further the water splashes higher until there is no difference between the man and the water. Soon the water calms and settles back down just as the man's head bursts out of the surface.

Assignment 1

My name is Patricia Tyson and I am an Early Childhood Education major. I enjoy art, but I am not very good at it, but I wish I was. I enjoy watching people paint and draw, it amazes me. I have tried drawing and painting things but they never turn out how I would like them to. I have been to the Columbia Museum of Art a few times and I loved it. I enjoy looking at different masterpieces and trying to decide what the artists were thinking. I have been to plays and I have also been in plays at my church and at school. Although they were not anything with a large audience, it was very fun to do. I am not a dancer but I have been going to dance recitals since I was a small child. I learn best by watching and experiencing things rather than just hearing about what they are. Going to the different plays and recitals is going to be a great part of this semester for me. I am very excited to not only learn about all the different types of art in these things but also see what all different types of art this area has to offer. I signed up for this class because it is required for my major but I am very excited about doing the different things this class offers. I am inspired by the people around me and my faith in the Lord. I do think that movies are a form of art but, I don't so much believe that video games, comics, and television are. Movies are a form of art because they are an outlet for expression and creativity, whereas comics and video games are more for just fun. I enjoy music that lifts me up rather than music that bores me or makes me angry. I listen to music such as Christian, pop, and country. I am very excited about being in this class and learning about all the different arts.