In previous Silversmith work characters have been developed from the movement material. For this project I wanted to take a different approach. The first day of the R&D intensive was dedicated to group bonding and developing individual characters. Each performer created a character profile of a 9-10yr old girl, including name, description, personality, history and relationships.
Current character profiles:
Name:Violet
Personality: Goodie-two-shoes, mini adult, precocious and manipulative
History: Only child, family is from new money (very snobby), parents both high achievers
Relationships: wants to be like her mother (who has moulded her into a mini-version of herself), parents both pushy, only has friends she can manipulate
Disco status: Current free-style champion
Name: Paris
Personality: Has a tendency to overreact to things diva-style, perfectionist, very insecure and prone to jealousy and panic attacks. Loves to dance (when no-one is watching)
History: has a brother (London, 12yrs) and sister (Milan, 14yrs), parents separated, lives with his mother (common, but rich from the divorce), father lives with his new family (19 yr old step mother).
Relationships: very pushy mother: tells Paris she is the best, but also criticises when she doesn’t dance well. Non-existent relationships with siblings. Yearns for her father to show an interest in her. Not many friends. Quite lonely.
Disco status: Wins all the smaller local competitions, but freezes in major championships.
Name: Stella
Personality: care-free, cheeky, destined to be a leader, quite worldly
History: Only child. Originally from Italy. Lives in the English country-side, mother very attractive, father works away from home a lot.
Relationships: Mother and father both leave Stella to her own devices. Mother isn’t into the disco scene but takes Stella out of motherly duty. Stella likes to dress up as her mother a lot. Stella has a handful of very close friends.
Disco status: new to the scene not danced in a major competition (only started disco to get closer to a boy she has a crush on)
Name: Mimi
Personality: bright, very sociable, loves attention and talking. The cute child.
History: Only child, mother is Japanese (house wife) and father is American. Rich family that moves around the world for father’s high-profile job. Has lots of hobbies that she excels at.
Relationships: Best friend is pet dog Mini. Parents are over-protective and won’t let her socialise/befriend children below her class status. Mimi doesn’t understand why. Wishes she could spend more time playing with other children (lonely), although most children tend to ignore her.
Disco status: New to the British dance scene (ranked 3rd in Japan)
Name: Kristál (prefers Kris)
Personality: Sweet, friendly and happy. Still has puppy fat. Prefers to be on her own a lot. Knows she isn’t the best at anything, but still loves to dance.
History: Older brother (18yrs) who lives away from home. Working class family. Mother is a ‘stay at home mum’ who loves fake designer products, father works away a lot.
Relationships: mother is pushy but still has a good relationship with daughter. Wants her to be more girly, and is more into the disco scene than daughter is. No real relationship with brother or father. Has some friends.
Disco status: Danced for a few years. 1st time qualifying for a major championships.
The group interviewed each character to find deeper nuisances, insecurities and how each character felt about free-style disco. These interviews highlighted many character subtleties, intent and potential relationships.
We ended the day with character improvisations and exploring movement that embodied the essence of the characters.
This initial character work has been an extremely useful way into the project theme, and I believe this work has created a strong base for the performers to delve deeper into the world of free-style disco and 10 year old girls. These characters will definitely be the driving force behind the material created during the intensive.
Silversmith Dance Theatre 
The task of defining a character profile was a challenge, as the world of Disco Dancing and competition is unknown territory. Although, I can identify with the discipline and ambition to be a good dancer, I myself have not felt like a competitor and not felt the pressures from those around me to be any more than I am capable of being. I wanted to go to the extreme and imagine a young girl which has pressure from her parents, her teachers, to be the best and how this may affect the child physically, emotionally, mentally and socially.