Chorus#1

Today we looked into the use of masks that was one of the key features in Greek theatre. Masks were an important element in worshipping the god 'Dionysus' (Bacchus is the Roman equivalent). They were usually used in ceremonial rites and celebrations.

We did an excercise while wearing masks of different faces/expressions. 

The rule of wearing the masks was no talking with the mask on. We then had to walk around the space acting out the expression on our mask's face. Mine was of someone with a raised brow, in my opinion portraying a sense of confusion. We had to heavily rely on our body language as our faces were hidden and our voices muted by the rule. Although the still faces gaave a vague idea of the emotion, it can vary. For example my face could be perceived as sarcastic over confused because of the raised brow and slight smirk.

We then paired up and picked a couple of lines from the first Chorus (we chose "Victory victory...") and used movement to match the words e.g "Victory" we projected loud above our heads with our arms wide open as if we were speaking/worshipping the gods, especially in "God of the dance". Our vocals are strong and exclaiming as we are celebrating that "war is dead" and Thebes (city in Athens) is "filled with joy". 

We then repeated with our masks on , which meant we now couldn't say our line but could only use our devised movement. We changed the way the lines were portrayed by incorporating more exaggerated expressions into our movement style. This was really beneficial as it gave us an idea of how much exaggeration was needed when wearing masks.

For the 'Victory victory' chorus we made up a beat consisting of body percussion (this includes hand claps and foot stamps), which intertwined with each other's rhythms