Unit 25 - Dance improvisation

Wednesday 7^th June

Today we had a tech and dress rehearsal for our dance performance which we will perform tomorrow.

In the session on Monday, we all brought in our costumes which we thought that we could wear for the dance show which would fit in with the theme and our characters.

We started the rehearsal by getting into our first costumes and setting any costumes or props that we would be using throughout the show. For my first costume, I was wearing my leggings and checked shirt. Under this, I had to wear my leotard and tights because in the show I have a quick change in and out of the costume which I will be wearing for my pointe solo. On top of the leotard, I will be wearing a ballet wrap skirt. Also for the solo, I will be dancing with a suitcase. Charlotte and I choreographed the dance around the suitcase because I need to put it down and pick it up. The suitcase symbolises my character leaving the town as I become upset with Callum as I see him dancing with my sister.

We ran through the show but stopped after every dance because we needed to sort out and decide what we were going to do for each transition. For the transition after 'Tennessee Waltz' going into 'Shape of you', we will use improvised movement. We were given a brief instruction from our lecturer but weren't told what to specicially do. We had to think carefully about what to do for this transition as we had to make sure that it fitted in with the story. We improvised the transition to make it look more natural. 
We also had to stop because Laura, our dance lecturer, had to tell the lighting and sound team what sort of lights she wanted for the next dance. She also had to give them the cues for the sound.

One thing that we needed to finish off today was the ending of mine and Callum’s duet. Laura wanted us to finish the duet on the floor so Callum and I came up with a way that we would end up on the floor. We decided to stand side by side and then bend both knees to end kneeling on the floor facing each other. We then ended in a hug.

Once we had finished the run-through, we had a group discussion about what we were going to do with the group dance – ‘Turn around’. Danielle has only just learnt the choreography to this routine this week and is currently struggling with it. Emily and Angel learnt the choreography before the half term break but they are also struggling remembering it. Originally, the dance started with an argument between Angel, Emily and Callum. They are arguing about me leaving the town (part of the story). It then went into me coming on to stage and Callum, Angel, Danielle and Emily following me. We would then dance through the choreographed sequence twice together. After this, Angel, Emily and Danielle would leave the stage and would just leave Callum and me on the stage dancing through the sequence twice. We have now changed the routine so that Danielle, Emily and Angel don't come on stage for the dance and the dance is now a duet. At the start of the dance, I come on to stage and improvise walking across the stage and act like I am debating whether or not to leave the town. This then goes into a choreographed sequence. When Callum enters the stage, this part of the routine is also improvised but then goes into choreographed moves. 

I think this rehearsal went very well as we managed to have a full run-through of all of the show and tidied up some of the loose ends that we had. We managed to give the sound and lighting team the suitable cues and information that they will need. They will be coming into the rehearsal tomorrow as well so we can have another few tech/dress run before the show tomorrow night. We also managed to decide and practice the transitions between the dances. We will have to practice these tomorrow but we should be able to remember them. I am only in one of the transitions between the dances because I am mostly getting changed into my next costume. It also wouldn’t fit in with the storyline if I was to come on during the transitions. We also decided on what we were going to do for the 'Turn around' dance because in the rehearsal, it didn't work very well. Therefore we improvised and the routine now works a lot better than it did before. 

Tomorrow we will be having another tech and dress rehearsal. Hopefully, we will be able to have a few run-throughs of the show tomorrow so that we are able to see how long the show runs for and I will be able to see how long I have to change in between the dances and to see if I will be able to change in the time that I currently have.

Later on in the evening, I sent out a student notice to everyone in the college. The email was inviting people to come and see the show. The description of the show reads:

Madame Brewster and her 3 daughters have been running a quiet little bar tucked away in an uneventful corner of Tennessee.  Famous for its laid back and monotonous ways, where nothing unexpected seems to happen is just the way Madame Brewster likes to keep it since the heart-breaking death of her husband.

But as we see...It only takes a tall stranger to set the cat amongst the pigeons.