Photojournalism 'The Past Reveals The Present' Brief Evaluation

So to conclude . . . Competitive Freestyle dancing originated from Old Time dancing, from as early as the Victorian times and the art forms major influence was from 1970's Disco. It is a type of dance that bears no rules and is for the dancer to find the beat to the music. Competitive dances have been held throughout the country for many years, most locally held in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

By 1919 after the Great World War, The Empress Ballroom staged its first Blackpool Dance Festival in Easter and apart from the 5 years during the Second World War has hosted many other dancing events and competitions to this present day.

http://www.wintergardensblackpool.co.uk/history_empress.htm

http://www.blackpooldancefestival.com/history.htm - This website clearly states the progression of dance forms and competitions held throughout the years. Unfortunately I am unable to add the images to my blog as they are protected by copyright therefore please view the website for a full breakdown into the history of dance held at the Winter Garden's, Empress Ballroom

Below are my final 8 images selected to tell my picture essay of contemporary and competitive freestyle dancing which originated from past dance forms

DANCE CLASS

The MUMS

Hair & Make-Up

GETTING READY

Competitor Number

WITHIN A FREESTYLE MOMENT

TROPHY'S & JUDGES

DANCERS & BEYOND

Beneath the dancer is still a child

To conclude my photo essay I wanted to capture images that displayed the children's lives outside of dancing, to show that after a dance class or competition that they are still children being children.

Below are my contact sheets of images I took of my daughter whilst she was playing at her friends house not long after leaving the dance school on a Saturday afternoon.

Below are my edited images

Pecha Kucha - Competitive Freestyle Dancing

"Presentation, presentation, presentation" . . . . . . again I was a little worried and anxious about standing up in front of my year group and presenting another Pecha Kucha in regards to my working progress on the 'photojournalism brief' , but after just a few tunings to my voice and great response I had from the group overall I'd say that it went very well.

Below you will find all the images I used to present my progress, some research and many of my own photographs which I feel that the majority will definitely be used as part of my hand in of the final 8 images needed to tell my picture story to convey "How competitive freestyle dancing originated from past dance forms"

SLIDE 1

COMPETITIVE FREESTYLE DANCING

My establishing shot above is an action shot of one of the freestyle dancers, at the freestyle dancing competition I photographed held at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on 10th October 2010.

I wanted to capture the beauty of the form of dance and believed that this image would be perfect to introduce my subject choice to the group.

SLIDE 2

OLD TIME DANCING

http://www.simplywhitstable.com/chat_cols/chat275a.htm

I included this photograph, sourced from the internet, to educate the group that Freestyle dancing originated from a type of dancing called Old Time. The photograph was taken at a dance competition held at Whitstable Castle in the 1950's. It was also clarified that this was one of Freestyle's origin's after interviewing the joint owner and dance teacher of Dance Force studio's in Lower Darwen, David Pollard.

He confirmed to me that " Freestyle competitive dancing's earliest origins are from Old Time Dancing, as early as the Victorian times in the court yards, then along the years came ballet, tap, theatre & jazz. Freestyle's major influence came in the 1970's when Disco dancing became the new modern major craze"

SLIDE 3

1970's DISCO

All of the images above were sourced from Google images and included in my presentation, on 1 slide, to remind of the major influences of 70's Disco through film media.

One of the most modern influential origins of dancing freestyle, a style which knows no rules and is about a dancer finding the beat to the music, began on the disco dance floor. It stepped onto the big screen in the late 1970s in the iconic disco steps of John Travolta in the dance hit sensations Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Staying Alive. The freestyle dance craze continued to grow with musical greats such as Footloose, Fame and Dirty Dancing. Moving with the times, freestyle evolved into the urban street dance styles of break-dancing and hip hop, shown in films like Save the Last Dance, Step Up and Stomp the Yard. http://www.ehow.com/about_5032937_history-freestyle-dancing.html

SLIDE 4

DANCE CLASS

ISO 3200 (50mm lens) f1.4 @ 1/60

I took this photograph at Dance Force Studio's during a freestyle dancing lesson. Due to the lighting being so low and the time of day being 18:45 and nearing the beginning of winter, this is one of the main reasoning's as to why I used such a slow ISO speed on my DSLR. I also did not want to disturb the mood by using flash photography. I took this photograph from a low viewpoint and waited on the passing of the dance teachers feet, within my framed shot, seen in the background of the image. I also took particular attention to the three main dancers in the middle of the frame and captured the sly interaction between the two younger dancers and the extreme facial expression of the older dancer concentrating hard within the foreground.

SLIDE 5

SPINS

"Free styling - Is the mind and body connection . . . where you specifically employ the mind to use the body as an expressive instrument while simultaneously, receptively and effectively allowing the body to be responsive to the expressive mind"

http://www.dance.net/topic/2846764/1/Freestyle/freestyle-defined.html

SLIDE 6

BOX SPLIT JUMPS

All of the dance lesson photographs I included were to explain the importance of the necessity that to become a great dancer, even before considering to compete, that everyone needs to be educated on how to dance the style correctly :)

With any form of activity bringing children together within a fun but disciplined learning environment will hopefully aid them to a better start when becoming an adult.

SLIDE 7

The MUMS

SUSAN (far left) -"Gemma always wanted to dance . . . so I decided to bring her when a relative through marriage asked her to come along to her dance classes"

MANDY (right foreground) - "My mother believed our Olivia to have natural rhythm so I decided to start her dancing at 3. I used to do a little Ballroom myself, when I was younger of course, but I much preferred Roller Disco's instead"

Social gathering for the mums - rarely see dads at the dance school as it is more a mothers meeting . . . on occasions dads will come to competitions but gathering from the looks on their faces at the competitions, the majority would rather spend the day in the pub

SLIDE 8

ADFP - The Association of Dance & Freestyle Professionals

· Was established in 1981 by a group of innovative and forward thinking professional dance teachers

· Competitive Dancers have to be members to be able to dance at organised Dance comps via the A.D.F.P. held in the U.K. The annual membership fee is £10 . Tickets also have to be purchased per person for entry to the competitions which value between £9.50 to £15 a ticket!

SLIDE 9

The British Freestyle Championship held at Winter Gardens

This photograph was taken on my 35mm Yashica film camera shot on Ilford XP2 black and white film. I decided to incorporate some 35mm film photography as knowing that this has been the main and most commonly used medium by photojournalist and documentary photographers.

Unfortunately I had problems loading my film onto the reel in the darkroom and when developed this left many major faults on my negatives, however on a positive note the effect gained looked rewarding in the light that they had artistically added a olden worldly look and value to my scanned negative photographs, in a sense that they looked cinematic, like old film stills.

SLIDE 10

The Competitive Dance Floor

I used a slow shutter speed with the aid of a tripod to achieve the effect of the movements of the dancers on the dance floor and photographed from a high viewpoint on the balcony . I also wanted to show that the dancers dance in a circle to the near edge of the dance floor in front of the judges spaced around the outside.

SLIDE 11

Costumes

Dependant on the dancers section, they are required to wear a beautiful costume and accessories so that they stand out on the dance floor and gain the attention of the judges.

I therefore arranged the accessories from a dancer's costume and photographed this still life shot using natural lighting from the window at the top of the Winter Garden's Ballroom

SLIDE 12

Getting ready - Hair and Make-Up

To complete the dancers personal presentation before entering onto their competitive stage, as well as being fake tanned beforehand, their hair and make up is to be done.

I captured this image of a mother adding the finishing touches to her daughter's eye make-up with the use of a 50mm lens using a wide aperture.

SLIDE 13

Competitor Number

As the dancer's are competing against each other, to be distinguished they are registered with their own number. The numbers are pinned to the backs of the costumes so that the judges are able to mark their numbers in the placement of their choice i.e 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc

I took this close up detail shot whilst a mother was pinning their daughters number to her costume

SLIDE 14

Spectators

The competition wouldn't be much of a competition without family and friends cheering on their children and the other dancers.

This is another of one of my scanned negative photographs. Whilst standing between a crowd of people I waited for the right moment and captured a mother and daughter pep talk. My intention was also to allow my photograph to feel to the audience that they are a part of the crowd onlooking onto the dance floor.

SLIDE 15

Under 6 Beginner's Section

The competition starts . . . after the judges have been introduced by the event organiser . . . with the under 6 beginner section. After they have danced a set time, the next age group is then called to take to the dance floor. The age groups are danced as under 6's, under 8's, under 10's, under 12's, under 14's, under 16's, youth and adult. Dancing as a beginner they are not to wear fancy or stoned costumes.

I captured this photograph of a under 6 beginner, between moves on the dance floor, and incorporate the grand interior, judges and audience to give a greater depth into the surroundings of the dance floor.

SLIDE 16

Starter section

After all the beginner sections are danced the starter section begins. As a starter the dancer's are allowed to wear fancy costumes however they are not allowed to be stoned. To be able to dance as a starter the dancer must have lost all three of their lives on their beginner status card. To loose a life the dancer has been awarded with 1st place (dancing against 7 or more) 2nd Place (dancing against 14 or more) or 3rd place (dancing against 21 dancers or more) at previous competitions.

I took this action shot of one of the starter dancers uses a 200mm telephoto lens

SLIDE 17

Intermediate > Champ > Premier Champ Section's

As a intermediate, champ or premier champ dancer you can wear stoned costumes which really stand out on the dance floor. Again lives must be lost on the dancers' status cards before they change sections. The different types of dancing sections are to ensure that the dancers are dancing against others of equal capability, stamina and speed.

Again using the 200mm telephoto lens I captured this moment before the music is about to start and the dancers begin to dance the under 8 intermediate section. They are smiling, giving eye-contact directly for the attention of one of the judges so that they watch and follow them around the dance floor.

SLIDE 18

Within a Freestyle moment

I took this action shot of the same intermediate dancer whilst she was in the middle of one of her dance moves, called a bridge. I wanted to capture a close up shot to show the concentration on her face, I also captured the delicate beauty of the reflection of her foot via the shine of the dance floor

SLIDE 19

Trophy's & Judges

Being a competition the aim for the dancers is to make it to the finals knowing that they will be presented with a trophy. The trophies differ in size and the largest trophy is presented for the best dancer of their section.

As well as capturing the huge display of trophies the judge in the middle of the frame captured my attention whilst looking through the viewfinder. It was her passive expression, not noticing the dancer in front of her, similarly like the majority of the panel of judges don't notice her! Their attention is clearly elsewhere on the dance floor.

SLIDE 20

Award Ceremony

And the Winner of the Great British Freestyle Championship Under 8 intermediate section is . . . . .

Dance Class at Dance Force Studios

Dance Force Studios is a dance school in Lower Darwen, where the teachers are qualified to teach a many different styles and types of dancing. The owner of the school is David Pollard who actively takes classes in all forms of dance.

David Pollard

(The above photograph and advertisement for the Dance School were kindly supplied to me from David Pollard)

Whilst I was at the school I asked David to participate in a small interview with myself in aid for my research into the beginnings of freestyle dancing. He kindly agreed and below are the questions I asked and his replies given during the interview;

Q1 What types of dancing have you personally participated in?

DAVID: "Old Time Dancing, Ballroom, Latin American, Salsa, Sequence, Argentine Tango, Freestyle, Rock and Roll and Slow dance"

Q2 What age did you start to dance and what was the reason for your interest?

DAVID: "I started to dance when I was 8. I was playing out with a female friend as a child, whose mother took her to dancing, she suggested that I go along with her. So I did and have been dancing ever since"

Q3 Are you aware when freestyle dancing became a recognised form of dance?

DAVID " Freestyle competitive dancing's earliest origins are from Old Time Dancing, as early as the Victorian times in the court yards, then along the years came ballet, tap, theatre & jazz. Freestyle's major influence came in the 1970's when Disco dancing became the new modern major craze"

Q4 How has dancing had a personal effect on your life?

DAVID "It is my life. All I have known to do is dance from an early age and as soon as I left school I began to teach"

Below are my contact sheets from my photo shoot at the Dance School. I took photographs of the waiting area in which the mothers of the children are patiently waiting for their children to finish their private or group dance class. I also documented the last 15 minutes of a group freestyle dance class.

Below are a selection of my edited images

As well as interviewing David I also asked a couple of the mums their reasoning's for getting their children into dancing and whether or not this was due to them having an interest in the art form.

SUSAN (far left) -"Gemma always wanted to dance . . . so I decided to bring her when a relative through marriage asked her to come along to her dance classes"

MANDY (right foreground) - "My mother believed our Olivia to have natural rhythm so I decided to start her dancing at 3. I used to do a little Ballroom myself, when I was younger of course, but I much preferred Roller Disco's instead"

Dance Class Images

What are the benefits of dance education?

"There are so many. Lots of studies show positive correlations between higher physical activity and higher school performance. There are other studies that show dance students with greater flexibility, endurance, and Cardio-vascular health – which is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and some of your best defences against disease. Dance education often improves one’s social skills. And since dance has been so popular all over the world for a long time, there is definitely a component that prepares today’s students for our global economy. Dance makes you much more open to new cultures and new experiences.

However, at its most primitive level, a good dance curriculum can inspire students to dance for their entire lives. As long as you dance, you can have lifelong fitness. That is our primary goal – to encourage children to find a physical activity they can do for a lifetime."

http://ncaahperdblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/the-importance-of-dance-education-qa-with-the-dancing-man/