Professional Development

The Performing Arts! What is it and what do you need to do it?

The Performing Arts is a type of art form that has been around for millions of years and is performed to an audience, usually as Music, Theatre or Dance. There are many branches in the Performing Arts and each require specific skills to succeed in the industry, however, there are some key skills that are required from everyone who is involved in the industry: 

• Good communication skills- communication is key in any industry, but in the Performing Arts, communication is vital to the timeline and outcome of a production.

• Excellent Teamworking skills- creating a production is not just reliant on one person as It takes lots of people all working together. 

• Flexibility- Timelines of productions are often very short, you have a lot to do in not much time and so being flexible in not just your time but your actions is a must in order to meet tight deadlines.

• Stamina- Production days are often very long days, so being able to keep up is essential.

• Open minded- a Production is only set in stone when it is released, everything can change at any time, so being open minded is important to adjusting to these changes. 

• Good time management- in case it wasn't clear by now...TIMING IS EVERYTHING! The Performing Arts industry is a fast paced environment, where usually, not a lot of time is given to create the Production. Think about your favourite weekly show (Eastenders, Strictly come Dancing, Shameless etc). They have 1 week to learn the lines, film the scenes, edit the videos and finalise the entire thing (usually between 45 mins and 1 hour of footage) before its released, and then its repeated the next week. Films or movies are similar but on a much larger scale and with no guarantee of a profit. It generally takes between 1 and 2.5 years to go through the pre-production (finding the cast and crew, organising filming locations, sorting budgets etc), Production (creating the piece) and post production (editing, marketing and finalising the production) stages and then it is shown to an audience (if marketing have done their jobs right). All of these stages take a lot of time and effort to perfect and when there is very limited time, you have to use it as effectively as possible. 

• Good organisational skills- Production days are long and busy and so being able to organise yourself effectively makes the days flow easier and quicker and therefore time is used more effectively.

• Confidence- as a performer, having confidence in your ability's makes or breaks a show. There's nothing worse than watching someone who has no self-confidence perform on stage!

• Discipline- The ability to take orders and follow rules in crucial in this industry because they are put there for a reason. The production team wants to be as efficiant and safe as possible, so will give strict instructions on what to do, how to do it and when to do it and if those instructions are not followed it can delay or derail the entire production.

• Motivation- This is a very competative industry and unless you make it big big, likelyhood is you will have to find or make your own work. motivation to get up and persure leads takes alot, but it is that motivation that will make or break an artist.

• Resilience- This is a competative industry, with a small jobs market and a lot of potential artists wanting to fill those roles. Alot of the time artists will be rejected and so having the ability to brush rejection of and jump straight back in in key. 

• Independence- in this indusrty, most of the time, you will be on your own. you will have to fight for yourself, find jobs for youself, film yourself and generally support yourself in whichever area of the industry you go into. independance is important!

These are skills that are essential for everyone in the industry to have. But what about more specifically?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performing_arts 

http://www.musicalstages.co.uk/skills-needed-performing-arts-industry/ 

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/how-long-does-it-take-to-film-a-movie-76171/#:~:text=How%20long%20does%20it%20take%20to%20make%20a%20movie%3F,-Featureflash%20Photo%20Agency&text=Most%20movies%20take%20between%20one,from%20concept%20to%20finished%20product. 

I've been in the Performing arts industry since 2007 and have tried various performance styles and so picked up various technical skills along the way:

Dance: 2007-Present

• Ballet

• Tap

• Modern

• Jazz

• Lyrical

• Street

• Ballroom (Cha-Cha)

Singing: 2014-Present

• Alto

• Soprano

Acting: 2014-Present

• Stage Acting

• Acting for camera

But what skills do I actually need? 

I want to remain a triple threat (I've put in lots of work and it gives me the most chance for employment) but I want to expand into Directing, Producing and Voice work, so that would give me 6 specialisms...

The skills in RED are the ones I am going to be working on, so that would be...

• memorisation

• business savvy (awareness)

• gymnastics/martial arts

• flexibility

• proper body alignment and posture

• strength and endurance

• business skills

• technical know-how

• networking

• knowledge of theatre and target audience

• business management

• financial planning

• clean speech 

• technical basics

• connection and characterization

• good memory

• wide range

…and I've grouped these down further so they don't look quite so scary...

• Business (savvy, skills, awareness and management)

• Fitness (Physical)

• Acting skills

• Technology (directing and voice work)

• Vocal range

Business

The skills I need to work on business wise are my savvy-ness (awareness), general business skills and business management. Over the Summer of 2023, I took a level 2 course in Digital Marketing so hopefully have some basic business skills from that that I can transfer over and I've found a GCSE business revision book on amazon which hopefully will teach me everything I need to know!

The Plan!

Mondays-  In college

Tuesdays- 30 mins of workbook

Wednesdays- 30 mins of workbook

Thursdays- 30 mins of workbook

Fridays- In college

Saturdays- OFF

Sundays- OFF

https://www.londontfe.com/blog/5-top-tips-on-how-to-improve-business-savvy 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/GCSE-Business-Edexcel-Revision-Guide/dp/178294690X/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3NRB4MB9YJAYE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3HHaNrpzn_FVGsGMeHdXw8gUxDyuUDKR-typOpPjhx9yyhv3Kb1269ZDCmJsdTqfBxjt0LLOo3vZDzJh3JTJ-fBo_MFQBHOg7Qn6fzPaiO3yL9j7SndVQ8wKI_onPkp_yaGZqsAjZX8gvsbEeYPsdFG44UAZYiw2RkViN_uuf7qxxqKHtHnYAaUsrY8mQ4HEjp_BW1NYTGQPYuzpqVKIATX9b_rQUwWy7nXG4eIHMb4.6hejoIoGrbUmImR5YzE2VuupttfA3MDpbN0WJCa8tpM&dib_tag=se&keywords=business+studies+gcse+textbook&qid=1715620747&sprefix=business+textbook%2Caps%2C85&sr=8-4 

Fitness

I've been worried about my physical fitness for a few years now (written in 2024), since my medical problems started back in ~2019. Since having movement issues with my back, abdomen and now overall body (CRPS, Endometriosis and Fibromyalgia to thank for that!) I've lost a lot of muscle strength and they have also atrophied. I also cannot do as intense exercise as I used to do and often worry that I will cause myself pain during exercise, so am having to adjust to a new way of exercising. 

Currently I walk the dogs, try to eat healthy and do hydrotherapy lessons 1x week which adds up to about 1.5-2 hours each week of exercise. But I want to start getting more flexible and stronger, and so want to take up Tai-chi once a week (its been recommended for mental health benefits and strengthening muscles) and do some gentle stretches or Yoga 2x week (flexibility and strength). These, along with hydro, walking the dogs at LEAST 3x week and eating healthily and drinking plenty should help my overall fitness. 

The Plan!

Mondays- Yoga/Stretches for 20 mins

Tuesdays- Walk Dogs for at least 20 mins (usually out for 30-45 mins depending on which furry friends we meet!)

Wednesdays- Hydrotherapy for 30 mins

Thursdays- Walk dogs for at least 20 mins 

Fridays- Yoga/Stretches

Saturdays- Walk Dogs for at least 20 mins

Sundays- Tai-Chi for 20 minutes

https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/symptoms/muscle-atrophy#:~:text=Muscular%20atrophy%20is%20the%20decrease,their%20strength%20as%20they%20age. 

Acting skills

I am currently doing the Acting 1 unit, so am hoping that alot of the skills I need to practice will co-inside nicely with this unit. I need to have 'knowledge of theatre and target audience', so my plan is to research different theatre styles and types and the different types of production. Once I've done that i can match up the apprioriate styles to types. My memorisation will improve as I learn lines and songs etc for this unit, Clean speech should improve along with my pronunciation when reading lines and the techniques will be learnt in the acting 1 unit. 

The Plan!

Mondays- College to rehearse 'A-Minisummers Nights Dream' 

Tuesdays- knowledge of theatre and target audience

Wednesdays- Acting Techniques

Thursdays- OFF

Fridays- College to rehearse 'A Minisummers Nights Dream'

Saturday- OFF

Sundays- OFF

Technology

As far as Technology is concerned...im pretty useless. I need to know the technical know-how of being a director. I'm assuming that involves everything that the director is involved with...sound, lighting, cameras and recording equipment at least, so my plan is to research what technical things a director needs to know...and then teach myself. As far as the sound and lighting goes though, I will ask Spike (technician at college) to give me a crash course. I also need to know the technical basics of voicework, which includes a recording studio and booth. I'm going to research recording studios and booths and see if I can arrange a "lesson" with Steve (another technician) who can teach me how it works (or at least the basics). 

The Plan!

Mondays- Technical lessons with technician

Tuesdays- Research directing technicals

Wednesdays- Research Voicework technicals

Thursdays- OFF

Fridays- Technical lessons with technician

Saturdays- OFF

Sundays- OFF

Vocal range

My vocal range has defiantly decreased since I stopped doing regular exercise and singing lessons so I really want to work on getting the strength and range that I used to have. To work on the range I can do things like scales and warm-ups to train my voice and regular exercises will strengthen my vocal muscles and therefore voice. I'm going to aim to do vocal exercises 5x a week for 20 minutes. 

The Plan!

Mondays- Vocal routine for 20 minutes

Tuesdays- Vocal routine for 20 minutes

Wednesdays- Vocal routine for 20 minutes

Thursdays- Vocal routine for 20 minutes

Fridays- Vocal routine for 20 minutes

Saturdays- OFF

Sundays- OFF

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-vocal-techniques-expand-your-range-sing-higher-lower-cari-cole-qq6tc 

Business development:

This was another one of those areas where I put too much on my plate at once and didn't manage to complete it all. I completed a Level 2 digital marketing course in the summer of 2023 and purchased a GCSE revision Business guide from amazon and the two seem to be very linked together (which makes sense, a successful business has to market itself to get successful). I found that during the Level 2 course it took a long time for me to wrap my head around the concepts and remember all the metric types and names and the business revision guide refers to these concepts a lot so I need to re-familiarise myself with what they all mean before I can start to understand how it works. 

Fitness development: 

I have defiantly noticed my body has become stronger over the last 6 weeks. Walking more frequently and continuously doing hydrotherapy and strengthening exercises has helped get some strength back in my abdomen (I can actually hold myself from a bar now instead of letting go immediately) and dancing at college (credit to Elijah's dances) has forced me to do warm ups and stretches which has helped improve my flexibility. Im anxious about how i will maintain the habit of fitness over the summer but by putting routines in place i should be ok.