reflection

RITUAL PERFORMANCE REFLECTION

Alvina 8.3

Friday, February 24, 2012

INTRODUCTION

What was this drama rotation’s focus?

This time’s drama rotation focus is RITUAL. We as a class learned different rituals and what ritual is. Most important of all, we learned the skill of using movement, choral speaking and use of symbolic objects in a ritual. In the end of our Ritual unit, we were asked to create a ritual of our own and performed it.


INTRODUCTION

In this reflection I will talk about the ritual my group and I performed last week. Our group ritual is to celebrate the transition of seasons (spring and rainy seasons). The celebration is very important for our clan since our clan believe that the transition between the two seasons is when the crops will grow fast. The celebration/ritual marked the significance of this transition to us by worshipping two goddesses (the rain goddess and spring goddess).


THE RITUALThe girls are divided to two groups. When the carrier (who stands in the middle between the two groups) hits the gong, the two groups come together to form a circle and walk around the circle. The rain goddess walk into the center of the circle and the carrier walks into the circle and hits the gong. The dancers stops walk around, and two of the dancers dress the rain goddess. While doing this so, the other dancers along with the carrier and the spring goddess, starts clapping. After dressing the rain goddess the two dancers join the others to clap (while the rain goddess walks around and pour water from a jug to a bowl that is being passed around). The dancers take turns to bow and the carrier hits the gong for once more and all bow to the goddess.


THE RITUALIt’s the turn to call the spring goddess and all except the rain goddess and spring goddess (who are in the center of the circle) circling around the rain goddess shouting pluvia (the Latin word for rain) and tialog in turns to call the spring goddess. At the same time, the rain goddess dress the spring goddess. By the time they’re ready, the rain goddess join the circle and we all bow to the spring goddess (who is in the center of the circle) then we took off the sarongs we are all wearing then wave them in the air and shouting pluvia several times. We stood up and circling the circle once more holding the sarongs and shouting finita and gracias (Latin word for thanks). The gong is being hit once more and all of us holding each other’s sarongs and one by one we drop the sarongs.


THE GROUPOur group worked well together. Each member of our group contributed significantly to the ritual, especially the ones who played the role of the two goddesses. The ones who played the role of the two goddesses (Do Young and Eun Ah) contributed by leading the ceremony to the end. The carrier (Do Yeon) contributed by helping the leaders to lead the ceremony at the beginning and guide the dancers (by hitting the gong; the dancers relied on the gong’s sound to lead them). The dancers (Alvina, Jenny, Jessica and Candice) contributed by working together to celebrate the ritual. Without the dancers, there will be no ritual.


DIFFICULTIES

The group encountered difficulties before putting up the performance pieces together. At the very beginning, we had some difficulties putting up the performance pieces together since we ran out of ideas. But we solved it after all later by trying to think up of ideas and found one. We also had problems with the chanting and keeping the circle together. We solved it after wards by trying our best to chant louder and keeping the circle together.


USE OF DRAMA SKILLS

Movement: We used movement during the whole ritual. Movement is really important for our ritual since to worship the goddesses our clan have to move around to show our respect.

Choral speaking: Choral speaking is used several times in the ritual. It is essential for our ritual to respect the goddesses and calling the goddesses.

Use of symbolic objects(jar, bowl, gong, basket, cloth/sarong): Each of these symbolic objects are used once at the ritual. Each symbolizes something important.


ORDER OF RITUALGet in to positions (a group led by the rain goddess on the the left side, the carrier with the gong in the middle, a group led by the spring goddess on the right side) The ritual is going to start

The carrier hits the gong Start of ritual

Two groups come together and go around in a circle Getting ready for the ritual

The rain goddess get into the middle of the circle and the carrier joins the circle The rain goddess has come


ORDER OF RITUAL

The group circling around the rain goddess Welcoming the rain goddess

Carrier hits the gong and two dancers dress the rain goddess (honoring rain goddess) and all of us starts clapping and bow in turns Honoring the rain goddess

Rain goddess come around the circle and give each one of us a bowl to pour water from the jug (The rain goddess is blessing the people)


ORDER OF RITUAL

Gong is being hit and all of us bow Saying thank you to the goddess for the blessing

All of us stand up and shout (pluvia and finita) and turns around the circle Giving the goddess final respect before calling the spring goddess

All of us took off our sarongs and wave them in the air while chanting (pluvia and tialog) Calling the spring goddess


ORDER OF RITUALWhen the spring goddess came, all of us bow Welcoming the goddess

All stand up, go around the circle and waving their sarongs in the air while chanting (tialog and gracias) Honoring the goddess and thanking her for her blessing

All of us stops, took each other’s sarongs and bow while saying gracias together Giving final respect for the goddess

All drops sarong one by one End of ritual


REFLECTIONOur group’s performance was really satisfying because all of us performed well than we expected. Everything was done well and we hardly made a mistake. Concentration was really good and none of us laughed during the performance. Our performance was really successful. The feedback that we used was the feedback from Mr. Geoffrey about the ending (how we drop the sarong one by one at the end) because we were really confused about the ending. The thing I will change if I have the chance to do it all over again was maybe to have more time practicing.


DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PLAY AND A RITUAL

What is the difference between a play and a ritual?

A play is a drama act which took place in a theatre and actors/actresses act from the script and a play is usually about one or more than one hour.

A ritual is a ceremony to mark something important. It is not based on a script. Movement, choral speaking and use of symbolic objects are important elements of it. Ritual usually take no more than one hour.


reflection

Documents

rain goddess

spring goddess

group ritual

ritual unit

circle circling

dancers alvina

transition of seasons

carrier walks