Old Girls Award

OGA - The Mask

For my OGA project I want to explore and highlight through the medium of dance, some of the challenging experiences teenagers face in the 21st century. Principally, to demonstrate the way many young people hide their individuality to conform to society’s norms.

My interest in this topic was first sparked through my study of two of my GCSE courses: Drama and RMP which explored the topics of exclusion, identity and cultural beliefs. In addition I wanted to combine it with my passion for dance.

To develop my general ‘vision’, I want my dance to highlight the pressures and challenges young people face today and the expectations they have to fulfil either at school or in a social context. This has been worsened due to Covid19. Moreover, I want to explore the extent to which people fit in by consequently putting on an exaggerated front.

Through my movement I will demonstrate that it appears the only way to be accepted by society is to camouflage your individuality. This is achieved by continually pretending to be someone you are not as we all wear a mask of one type to conceal who we truly are. In recent times we have all been forced to wear a Covid mask in certain places and situations. This adds yet another dimension and layer to my piece. More generally, in order to fit in, teenagers tend to feel compelled to wear a mask which is in effect hiding their individuality. Thus the aim of my dance is to explore this concept of society expecting us to act and look a certain way.

I directed my research towards songs and poems whose underlying rhythm I wanted to incorporate into my dance. I chose the poem ‘We Wear The Mask’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar as it really mirrors the theme of having to hide your individuality and please society. This poem (and its words and rhythm) strongly influenced the movement of my piece, each movement having a set purpose with the ultimate aim for the audience to understand the pressure many young people feel today. My dance is structured by a range of motif, the purpose of which is to demonstrate the struggle and fight against society’s expectations.

I have used embellishment to develop my motif to convey my dancer’s courage to be who she truly is. Embellishment is a choreographic device where detail is added to a move, such as a hand gesture or an arm movement. Music is also a key influence - I used a vocal recording of ‘We Wear The Mask’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar. This creates an eerie and almost sinister tone as Dunbar’s voice is the only sound, and highlights the theme of society being a powerful force with its expectations being the only ‘voice’. In comparison, I have also used an instrumental piece of music which has sudden sharp moments to reinforce the restrictions the dancer wants to leave behind. The piece is titled “Margins” which reflects the idea of people having to fit into one image that is deemed correct. This music is free and lively contradicting the title and shows you do not have to fit into margins to be accepted.

I used a mask as a the main prop for my dance. I wanted to convey the idea that we are expected to wear a mask and are expecting others to wear one but this generates a sense of feeling trapped. It also creates a vicious circle which I want my audience to reflect on. In order to successfully convey this, I will utilize a mask to add emphasis to my dancer’s inability to be an individual but instead have to fulfil society’s

desire to conceal their true self. I incorporated the use of a mask to initially shock the audience, however, in reality this is not surprising. For example many people pose as something they are not on social media. Although my dancer is seemingly eager to please society by dancing with the restrictive mask, they desperately want to escape from these confining ‘margins’ and be free to move with fluidity.

This corresponds to everyone always wanting to fit in and be on top of the latest fashion trends. Furthermore, we have all become very familiar with wearing a mask through the Covid-19 pandemic. It has become a sort of ‘uniform’ in which most people conform to.

The mask would be used at the beginning and at the end to emphasize the power society can hold over us. Consequently, this leads to my character having to put on the mask at the end to be accepted but hopefully prompt the audience to reflect on their own lives and to consider if they are wearing a mask.

Finally, in terms of costume I wanted to portray the theme of rejecting society’s expectations and being true to yourself. I have chosen to add a twist to the more traditional dance leotard by combining it with footless tights and black contemporary socks. Moreover, the colour was significant as black symbolises power and strength which my character obtains once removing the mask. In addition, I will have red handprints on my waist to signify society continuing to pulling my character back and not allowing her to be herself.

In conclusion, I have found this project to be very beneficial and rewarding on a number of fronts. Firstly, my research pulled together cross curricular aspects of my schoolwork, and has enhanced my general research and study skills. Deciding to demonstrate my findings through the medium of dance has taught me so much about creativity and has allowed me the freedom to fine tune my choreography skills. It has challenged me to explore all aspects of theatre: music, movement, costume, props and audience.

I learnt that choreography is a work in progress and has to adapt and change as you start to work on a piece. As I got more familiar with my choreography I could go into more detail about the emotion behind each movement and think about the message I wanted to highlight to the audience through facial expression and performance technique. I wanted to feel the emotion and through understanding and practice, this would allow it to be conveyed to the audience. Lily U6