Unit 26 - Choreographing dance

Wednesday 2nd May

Today we were working on a lot of different things in preparation for the show.

Morning

The main aim of our morning session was to choreograph Aurora’s solo. This solo will come before the battle for the wings because it will lead into Aurora pricking her finger.

To start with, we mapped out the space so we knew where the dance was going to travel to. We did this by setting up some blocks randomly in the space and then worked around them. Aurora’s solo will involve Aurora dancing playfully around the space as if she is running through the fields and playing in the Moors. We took this into consideration when choreographing the dance because we want the audience to imagine that there are small creatures flying around her whilst she is playing/dancing. I worked with my teacher to choreograph the routine.

Aurora will start backstage right with Knotgrass (fairy). Knotgrass is telling Aurora to be careful when she is playing. Knotgrass then disappears and leaves Aurora to play in the Moors.

The routine starts by running around the back of the blocks and imagining as if she is putting her hand through long grass and flowers. Once she reaches stage left, she will then do 2 big sweeps taking the arms with it - one with the right and one with the left. Then, she runs over to the first block, where she kicks her leg over, sits down and looks up to the sky. She then crouches in front of the block and sweeps the floor with her hand looking at all the amazing creatures on the floor. Taking the arm up, she stand up to act as if she is following a butterfly which then leads into a hop and movement to the other block with is stage right. She’s stands up on the block and watches out over the audience. She then hops down and runs to the final block where she kneels as if she is at a ponds edge. She swishes the water with her right hand, left hand and then splashes her face with the water. She then sets off the block and runs down stage after doing 2 playful turns. She looks out into the audience and then crouches down to the floor to where she picks a flower. She sniffs it and then blows it. This choreography makes up Aurora’s solo. At this point, the music will change and Aurora will stand up slowly to and face towards the spinning wheel which will be downstage right. As Aurora walks over to the spinning wheel in a trance, Maleficent follows her trying to stop the curse but it’s too late as Aurora pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep. As Aurora falls back, Maleficent catches her.

I will be teaching this choreography to Sienna who will be playing the part of Aurora in the dance performance.

For the rest of the morning, we sorted out some times and dates of which I was going to be choreographing, teaching and rehearsing. We discussed about ordering costumes as soon as possible to make sure that they have all arrived in time for the show.

Afternoon

This afternoon we went back into the primary school to go over the choreography which I taught to the children before Christmas. We were meant to be working with both Eve and Toby but unfortunately Toby was on a school trip so was unable to make the rehearsal. Therefore we just worked with Eve to go over her solo and her part with Toby. I was very pleased with how much choreography Eve had remembered. It didn’t take us much time to go over the choreography.

After visiting the primary school, we headed back to college ready to teach Sienna her solo. We were also able to catch up with the making of the wings because these are being made by Sienna’s mum, Sadie.

We explained the story of Maleficent to Sienna and her mum because they are yet to see the film. We then went on to tell them which part of the story Sienna’s dance would come in and what we wanted her to perform like. We then moved on to teaching her the choreography. She was able to pick up the choreography really easily and moved really well with the choreography that we gave her. There were even some points of the choreography that she did so well , we asked her to repeat. She took on board the character and the situation really well and is perfect for the role of Aurora.

Looking back on the sessions that I have had today, we managed to get a lot done in preparation for the show. The date of the show is fast approaching and we still have quite a lot to do. However, if we can work like we have today, there should be no problem in getting all of the work down in time.