Dawn French, born 11th October 1957, is a English born actress, comedian and writer.

Dawn French www.bbc.co.uk

I have always adored Dawn French, from her role as Geraldine in The Vicar of Dibley, to her comedy sketches in French and Saunders. For me, she has always been a role model. She is a larger lady and she knows she is, and a lot of her stand up comedy consists of her joking about her weight. She also has a very clever delivery, pulling very animated facial expressions which encourages the audience to laugh further.

One of the main influences for my performance is in The Vicar of Dibley, where Geraldine performed The Mirror in a talent show. The Mirror consists of a ballerina performing in front of a mirror, to which Geraldine plays the reflection. This, for me, was the first time i had laugh at the fact that you can use your body size to make something funny and this is what I want from my performance. I want to portray a serious situation, but sugar coat it in comedy.

Another sketch that Dawn did with her comedy partner Jennifer Saunders, was French and Saunders Dancing Academy. In this sketch, Dawn is a ballet dancer who has fallen and grazed her knee and is unable to complete the rest of the choreography so they hire a professional dancer to fill in for Dawn. The comedy lies in Dawn’s dancing skills, and the complete contrast between the dancer and Dawn herself.

After this research, I would like to explore the idea of using dance in my performance. I’ve always wanted to dance as a child but was told that I was to big, and that I should focus on a proper career and not waste my time. The funny thing is, I’ve never been able to dance, so one is hoping this will only add to the comedy. But if I did dance, it would prove that no matter what your size, don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t do because of your size.

References

French & Saunders Dancing Academy with Darcey Bussell & Anthony Dowell – BBC Comedy 1993. (2012). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_tBnkUEsQg [Accessed 20 June 2015].

Edgar Degas. A French born artist who identified and engaged with paintings of dancers.

Below are some images of the paintings Martin told me to have a look at. These paintings are very traditional in reference to how a dancer should look like. After having a closer look at the paintings, the dancers look quite lonely, even though they are with other dancers. It makes you think about what life would be like as a professional dancer and how much work they have to put in to look  a certain way. They also look quite sad. None of the dancers look happy to be dancing. These paintings make you think  about the demands each dancer has to go through and makes me wonder about my developing idea of learning to dance.

References

Edgar-degas.org, (2015). The complete works – Edgar Degas – Page 1. [online] Available at: http://www.edgar-degas.org/the-complete-works.html [Accessed 22 Apr. 2015]. 

Marina Abramovic, born 30th November 1946. Became a visual artist within the performance art industry.

Marina Abramovic

Yesterday, in my Solo Performance class, a discussion arose regarding Abramovic. Is she really an artist performer?

Abramovic has been known for her shocking performances, such as Rhythm 10 (1973), where she took twenty knives and played rhythm roulette to Rhythm 0 (1974), where Abramovic stood in a room which had seventy-two objects that could induce pain or pleasure, and told the audience to choose.

This is where the discussion started to heat up. The question, is Abramovic’s work really art?

My argument was that yes, it was and still is. She uses her body as a piece of art. She pushes her art to the extreme which, understandably questions the artists works, but just because she is extreme doesn’t mean it is not art. For example, Rhythm 0. Abramovic stood in the room where the audience were participants. There was no influence for the audience to inflict pain, as they could of easily chose one of the seventy-two objects that didn’t inflict pain, however eighty percent of the audience chose to harm Abramovic. With no influence, they were becoming the extremist. Abramovic was the art and the audience the artist. This questions, is her work really extreme or are the audience the ones who push to the extreme.

You could also say that the real artwork of Abramovic is the discussion after her extreme performances. Years, even decades have passed and we are still discussing her work, and in my opinion, we still should.