Pilot Observation

My pilot observation, was tricky as its been Easter holidays. But I decided to observe an adult theatre rehearsal. The age range is from 18yrs - 55yrs and varies in level. There are dancers, actors, singers there that have been to vocational college and just go for more experience. There are adults that have always been part of local theatre companies and have many years of experience in amateur productions and then there are people that go for their love of theatre and love to be part of something. So the levels are vast.
I used to be part off this company but haven't been for a few years, so I few people from when i was part of it. From what the group was working on they had been split up into dancers, singers and actors. I decided to watch the dance part of this rehearsal. Within the dance group there was still a wide range of abilities. I was intrigued to how the teacher was going to deal with this. I had asked before hand if i could observe the lesson, but I didn't tell them what I was observing. The teacher seemed to have prepared for the lesson as in they had the music ready and knew the choreography that they wanted to teach. I don't feel the teacher had prepared the room ready as there was some chairs around the room, which if they had all been put to one side then would of cleared up the space a bit more. Although the teacher had prepared the choreography I feel that it wasn't suitable for all the learners. It was taught very fast and I felt if it had been slowed down then the more advanced dancers would have been cleaner in their choreography and the others would of know what they are doing and would have been more confident. Half way through teaching the dance, the teacher had missed out some music when planning the dance. When she got to this bit I could she was trying to think of something to put it but then just said "we'll sort that another time". I feel there wasn't a lot of feedback within the lesson, apart from general corrections. Apart from this they all seemed to enjoy the dance and you could clearly see from the way they interacted together that they all enjoyed each other company. After the lesson I spoke to the teacher and asked her if she had planned the lesson and how she feels the lesson went. she said " I don't always plan for my lessons, I normally have an idea of what I want to teach and then just see what comes to mind in the lesson." She also said that she doesn't mind if everyone doesn't get the dance just as long as they all have fun."
Advantages

• Everyone was helpful and happy to help with my observation
• The rehearsal happens weekly so easy to go back and observe again
• I could see hands on and problems that occurred
• I knew the teacher so could be quite honest with her
• Was good that I watched instead of joining in and observing and I manged to write down everything that I wanted to.

Disadvantages

• The teacher didn't have a written plan so I couldn't see if she had stuck to her plan
• Didn't want to upset any members of the class by observing
• Couldn't quite tell what the students were thinking by just observing
• As it was more of a light hearted class the teacher didn't really plan for all learner and abilities so couldn't see any inclusive teaching in place.