Unit 37 - Dance performance

Friday 18^th May

The performance

Today was the day of the final performance. The name of the performance is ‘Maleficent – hero or villain?’ The show tells the tale of the villain in Sleeping Beauty, although as the story is told, the audience finds out why Maleficent is evil but she is in fact a hero at the same time. We have edited the story to tell the tale of Maleficent through dance. The order of the show is as follows:

1. Welcome to the Moors (narration introduction)
2. A thousand years (Maleficent and Steffan growing up)
3. Happy (Maleficent is happy with her current life)
4. True loves kiss (Steffan steals Maleficent’s wings)
5. The Christening (falling through the trees)
6. Fairyland (the fairies look after Aurora)
7. Beautiful Trauma (Maleficent at the Christening)
8. Aurora in Faerieland (Aurora’s solo)
9. The curse won’t reverse (Aurora pricks finger)
10. Rise (battle for the wings)
11. Phillip’s kiss (Aurora wakes up)
12. This is me (Maleficent turns into nice)
13. The queen of Faerieland (final narration and bows)

As you can see from this list, we have used a combination of both pop songs and songs from the Maleficent soundtrack. 

Here is a link to a video of the full performance:
https://vimeo.com/272117833

I was extremely happy with how the show worked out in the end. It showed that all the hard work and stress had paid off. At the end of the performance, I was able to speak to audience about what they thought about the show. The audience for this show was very mixed - we had people from the college (staff and students), family and friends of the performers and also students from Laura’s dance school. From all of the people that I spoke to, they all loved the performance! This was such a great thing to hear because Laura and I have put in a lot of time and effort into this show. It was such a good audience because they gave such a great response to each routine and you could really feel the vibe from the audience when you were performing. 

The show started off with a narration introduction which then led into the dance ‘A thousand years’. The routine shows the effect of Maleficent and Steffan growing up over the years. The routine started with Aidan and Anna on stage. Originally, Anna was going to be the only one on stage but it made more sense to bring Aidan on from the beginning because this was explained in the narration before the routine started. This then led into Eve and Toby’s duet. I think that all of the children danced really well as they managed to remember all of the choreography and showed the effect of the characters growing up. Aidan did especially well considering we asked him to perform the start of the routine with Anna on the day of the show. They were able to apply all of the corrections that Laura and I gave to them to improve their performance. In my duet with Luke, Luke was slightly late for his cue and to begin with, I thought that he may miss his cue completely. However, I did manage to cover up my concern by improvising which is something that I wouldn’t have been able to do at the start of this course. The duet went really well despite having limited rehearsal time together with Laura. 

The next dance, ‘Happy’, went really well. This was a tap dance and possibly the hardest routine in the show in regards to stamina. One thing that I have been struggling with in rehearsals is to look happy during this routine. This is because I have been so focused on getting the steps right that I have forgotten to look happy. However, I managed to take on board my teacher’s comments and I smiled all the way through the routine. I also showed my feeling of happiness through my body language as there was never a moment during the song where I was stood doing nothing. Watching the video of the final performance back, I have realised how much this routine has improved since I first learnt it. 

The stealing of the wings scene came next and I had only taught Luke this bit on the day so I was hoping that he was going to remember it. I wasn’t able to see what he was doing during the performance but from watching the video back, I have seen that he did a really good job at stealing the wings. He acted the part out perfectly. The falling through the trees part which followed this also worked really well although I did have to improvise a little because the effect started before it was due to. This wasn’t a big problem though and still gave a really good effect. I also managed to apply one of Laura’s comments that she gave me in the rehearsal and this was to have more tension when I was falling to make the effect more realistic. 

The next part of the show that I was in was the dance ‘Beautiful trauma’. This dance went really well because I put a lot of emotion into it. This is the point in the story where Maleficent has turned into evil because she wasn’t invited to Aurora’s Christening. This was the first dance that we choreographed in preparation for this show so this routine has had the most practice. I think that this is the best time that I had ever danced it and after speaking to audience members, a lot of them said that this was their favourite routine. 

The next part of the show was Aurora’s solo leading into the pricking of the finger. Sienna danced her solo beautifully. She was a bit behind on the timing but this didn’t really matter because the end of the dance only overlapped the narration a little bit. The pricking of the finger section was very powerful. I caught Sienna when she fell back and carried her off stage ready to start the dance ‘Rise’.

This dance was a very powerful one and is a major part of the storyline. What made this dance really special was the special effects that we had on the projector. We had a special effect of glass smashing whilst I was getting my wings back on. When I was putting my wings back on, I didn’t think that I was going to get them on in time but thankfully I did manage to get them on. The ending of the dance was also really powerful because when I stood on the blocks and lifted my wings up, this created a shadow on the back wall which really added to the routine. The shadows during the song were also really affective. 

Aurora waking up was the next part in the show. Sienna remembered everything that I told her in the rehearsal before the show.

The final song of the show was ‘This is me’. There were a lot of corrections and comments that I was given by Laura just before the show so there was a lot to consider for this dance. There was a part in the dance which I did have to improvise slightly because the time that was originally there for getting up onto the block was now free which meant that I had a bit of spare time. Although I improvised, I don’t think anyone noticed as it looked like it was part of the choreography. 

The show finished with some narration ending on the word ‘Maleficent’ which is when I took my bow. I then called the rest of the cast onto the stage to take their bow. 

There were so many positives from the show. I was feeling really cautious and nervous before the show because of the dress/tech rehearsal not going great. However, everyone seemed to step up their game for the final performance. During the rehearsal process, we have had a few problems along the way. 

One of the hardest things about putting this performance on has been relying on other people to commit their time to rehearsals. There were many things that we couldn’t do until the day of the show because we hadn’t had people in rehearsals to teach them their parts. Equally, we couldn’t really choreograph these parts until the week of the show because we weren’t sure on the exact order and placing of each narration part and song. We then had to ensure that all of the narration made sense so that the audience could follow the story. A main struggle during the rehearsal and preparation process has been trying to get Luke in for rehearsals. When we first proposed the idea of doing a duet within this show, he was all up for it and very keen. Dance teacher Emily then choreographed the duet piece for us. We were then able to practice on a Thursday evening every week however, Laura teaches at this time so wasn’t able to come and watch us rehearse. Luke then entered his exam period at school and couldn’t attend any extra rehearsals on the weekend or after school. Consequently this meant that the only time that we were able to practice the duet and show Laura for the first time was a couple of hours before the show was due to start. The original plan was for us to start a rehearsal with him at 5:30pm but he didn’t turn up until 6:15pm. This then meant that we couldn’t have a lift in the routine and just had to go with the choreography that we already had. I had to improvise a little towards the end of the duet part because there wasn’t really any time to choreography anything. Another consequence of him not being able to attend any of the rehearsals was that he did not know his cues. We taught him the part where he had to come and take my wings on the day of the show. This then caused major stress on the whole of the cast as I was beginning to get worried that he would not remember what he needed to do because he had very recently learnt it. Something that I would do differently if we were to do the show again would be to start this rehearsal process earlier so that we could have the part learnt and then we could just perfect it every week. I think I dealt with the situation as well as I could and did all I could to make sure everything was going to be fine but I know that I could only do so much to enable this to work out. 

Another problem that I had during the rehearsal process was that when I was learning the tap duet with Emily, she told me that she wouldn’t be able to perform in the show. The original plan was that Emily was going to play the part of Diaval who is Maleficent’s best friend. Because she couldn’t do the show, we had to change the narration to make sure that the story made sense without her being there. 
There were a few scenes during the performance which could have done with a bit more development if we had more time. Scenes such as Aurora waking up and the end of ‘A thousand years’. However, we didn’t have any more time to develop these scenes but if we were to do the show again, these scenes would be at the top of the priority list to look at and improve to make the show even better. 
Despite the problems that we have faced, the performance turned out to be a massive success in the end. Here are a few photos from the performance:

An ongoing target for me is to improve on my flexibility. I feel like I could have worked on my flexibility a bit more during the rehearsal process to make the lean in ‘A thousand years’ straighter. Flexibility is something that I am always working on but I feel like I could have put more effort into this during the rehearsal process. 

On reflection in terms of my technique, I think that I have improved since the beginning of the rehearsal process especially in the areas which I was not very confident with. When I first learnt ‘This is me’ I really struggled with the choreography and the style of the dance. However, I used any time that I had to practice over the different sequences in this routine and I managed to grasp the choreography and then had time to add emotion to it. The dance performance involved a lot of different dance styles including contemporary, commercial, tap, hiplet and ballet. This meant that I had to change from the different disciplines every time that I went on stage. I managed to do this by thinking about Maleficent was feeling and applying this to my dancing. Maleficent’s mood changed throughout the show significantly and I was able to add the emotion that she would be feeling to my dancing. This is something that I would have really struggled with at the start of the year but now it comes much more naturally because I have had a lot more practice. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Friday 18^th May

Today was the day of the dance show. I was in rehearsals from 10am to ensure that I was ready for the show tonight.

To start with, we had a full run-through of the show. We didn’t have time for this yesterday so this was the first thorough run-through that we have done. The aim of today is to have as many run-throughs as we can to make sure that we are ready for tonight. The more run-throughs we can do, the more practice that the tech team can get and the better the sound and lighting will be. 

After the run-through, I was given some notes form my dance lecturer, Laura. The main note that she gave me was that we needed to look at the last song ‘This is me’. This is the first time that I had practiced the full routine with the wings on. At the moment, the routine isn’t quite looking finished. Laura walked through the routine with me to change some of the moves slightly so that the routine worked better with the wings. We only got the wings on Wednesday so this is the first time that I have practiced this routine with the wings. When I learnt the routine, a lot of the moves included punches however we soon found that when I did this with the wings, it didn’t really work that well and that we needed to make some slight adjustments to the choreography. We did this by making the punching movements more fluent. For example, in one of the moves I originally snapped my arms in and out with my leg. But instead I am now flapping my arms in and out. This looks really affective with the wings and I will practice this a few times from now until the show tonight. Another point in the dance which needed changing slightly was the leap off the block. At the moment, I get up onto the block and then leap off it to travel diagonally downstage to the corner. However, when Laura gave me some feedback, this bit of the routine didn’t really work and she wondered what else we could put in its place. I tried out a few moves and I am now going to do a chasse into a leap. This should look better and will fit with the rest of the choreography. 

The other notes included some lighting/technical pieces and possible choreography for the duet with Luke.

After a lunch break, we carried out some admin tasks. This included making a list of all of the people that had reserved tickets. We have reserved 76 tickets which means there will only be 4 seats left for people who may turn up and haven’t recovered a ticket. We also printed off the tickets and made sure that these were all cut up and ready to be handed out tonight. The programmes were also printed. Here is a copy of the programme:

After carrying out all of these admin tasks, I went back into the performance studio to go over the running order of the show with Graham – the lighting/sound technician. He said to me that the more we can go through the order of the show, the better the technical elements of the show will be because he will know the cues better making the show flow better. This run through was very quick and just involved me walking through the show with Graham telling him which routine went where and what each cue was. This really helped both Graham and I because it was allowing me to rehearse over the order of the show and also it allowed Graham to become more familiar with the order and the lighting and sound elements. After this technical run-through, there was going to be a full tech/dress rehearsal with all of the cast at 6pm. This will allow us all to practice all of cues, costume changes and scene changes. 

In between the technical run and the children arriving, I began to get ready for the dress/tech run because I figured that I wouldn’t really have much time later on. 

The children started arriving at 5:45pm. Sienna was the first to arrive so I spent some time with her, going over her solo part just to make sure that she was confident with it. I then worked with Molly and Sienna to go over the first part of this dance where Molly comes on and waves goodbye to Sienna. When we practiced this yesterday, there was a lot of time in between the small acting bit and the dance. I had a discussion with Laura and we decided to move the acting bit to further on in the track so now this will start about 30 seconds after it was originally meant to. When I had told Sienna and Molly the new timing and they adapted their part, it looked so much better as there was now no long pause in the middle of the track. After running the solo twice and with Molly’s part at the beginning, I moved on to teaching Sienna the other small bit that she will be in after the song ‘Rise’. This is the part where Aurora wakes up from her death-like sleep. Sienna will enter stage in blackout and lie on the blocks as if she is asleep. As the narration says, Aurora wakes up as Maleficent kisses her on the forehead. The 2 characters hug and then walk off stage in blackout. Sienna picked this bit up really well. 

Once I had finished teaching Sienna the extra bit, we were then able to teach Luke his extra bit. This involves him coming onto stage during the part of the narration which tells us how Steffan wanted to become king and comes to Maleficent to steal her wings. We didn’t have much time to practice this at all as we had to start the dress/tech rehearsal as soon as possible. 

In my opinion, I don’t think the tech/dress rehearsal went very well. A lot of things during the run-through went wrong which concerned me a little in the lead up to the final performance tonight. 

One of the major concerns during this rehearsal was that people did not know their cues. This made it difficult because it meant that it affected everyone else who was in that routine/section. The reason why people are missing their cues is because they haven’t been able to attend rehearsals. 

I am hoping that this rehearsal has made everyone think about their parts so that they can get it right for the performance tonight. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Thursday 17^th May

Today was the day of our tech/dress rehearsal. Starting at 1pm, we were working through to 5pm. During this time, different people were going to be arriving at different times to practice their parts for the show tomorrow. This is because there has not been a time where everyone has been free and able to attend the same rehearsal. This has made it difficult to rehearse routines such as duets because the children attend different schools, have exams and have other commitments. We are working around the times that everyone else is available to make sure that we can practice the routines when we can. 

At the beginning of this rehearsal, we helped Paul and Graham set the lights for the performance. We needed many different lights for several focus points throughout the show. We also needed the projector so we had to make sure that there weren’t any lights in front of that. We had 2 LED lights at the side of the seating – one was green and the other was green but with a slight red tint. When both of these lights were on and I was stood in front of them, they produced some really good shadows which is exactly what we wanted. 

Once the lights had been set up, we did a full run of the show. During this rehearsal, I got to practice my costume changes for the first time and we were also able to practice with the narration. This was our first full run-through of the show so I was still getting to grips with the order of the show. During this run-through, we also sorted out the cues for the music and narration. As we worked through some of the cues, we realised that some of the timings will not work because they do not leave enough time for me to get changed or for the blocks to be moved which meant that Paul had to cut some of the sound up. 

There was a lot of stopping and starting during this run through because we needed to adjust quite a few lights because they didn’t match up correctly with how the blocks were positioned. We also had to get a light for the spinning wheel which was stage right and up on the platform. We needed a light on this because it is a significant part of the story. We also had to test out the special effects as the timing had to be right. There are 2 special effects – falling through the trees and breaking glass. We spent a little while making sure these were in the right place and were timed right because they are both played when there is movement and music going on. 

Once we had completed this full run-through, the children started to arrive to practice their parts. Some of the children could only stay for a short amount of time so we had to prioritise what needed to be done first. To start with we practiced through Sienna’s solo. Molly and Sienna were also able to practice their part together at the very start of this dance. They practiced this and then it led into Sienna’s solo. This part is something that we need to look at tomorrow because the timing isn’t right at the moment and so we need to work on that tomorrow during the rehearsals. Sienna performed the solo really well. She was slightly ahead of the timing but it didn’t really matter too much as the track fades into narration. This then led into the pricking of the finger. For this part, Aurora walks over towards the spinning wheel and Maleficent is walking behind her trying to stop her. However, the curse is too much and when Aurora pricks her finger, she falls back into Maleficent’s arms into a death-like sleep. We practiced with Sienna falling back into my arms and this was perfect. We have worked out a signal that when I tap Sienna on the shoulder, she knows it’s ok for her to fall backwards. Before the show, this is something that I haven’t done before but with a few practises, it is starting to look much more natural. 

Once we had practiced Sienna’s solo and she was happy with it, we moved onto ‘A thousand years’. This song involves all the different ages of Maleficents and Steffans. Today we were able to practice with most of the children in this dance. The only person that wasn’t able to make this rehearsal was Luke. This didn’t affect anyone in the routine apart from myself so we will have to work before the show tomorrow on our duet piece. For now, we were focusing on the parts that we could do which involved Anna and Aidan’s duet and Eve and Toby’s duet. We walked through the dance without the music to begin with so that the children could get used to the space and their cues. We also went over the choreography for Anna’s part because she only learnt this last week and she couldn’t remember it very well. Once we had run through it, we ran the dance a few times with the music to check that everyone was happy with their parts and that the routine flowed well. The more we practiced this, the better it became and hopefully the children have now had enough practice before the rehearsal tomorrow where they will get a chance to rehearse it a few more times. 

I am very happy with how this routine is looking. The only bit that I do have a little concern about is the very start where Anna is on by herself. She is still struggling to remember the choreography. After a discussion with my dance teacher after the rehearsal, we have decided that Aidan will also join Anna on stage from the very start to help her with the choreography. Aidan knows the choreography and will give Anna a helping hand if she forgets a move. Making this change also fits the story better because the narration mentions Steffan before the routine starts. We will go over the choreography with Aidan tomorrow but he will be fine with it and will be able to perform it.

The rehearsal today went really quickly. We haven’t been able to do a full run-through without any stops. Hopefully we will be able to do as many run-throughs as possible tomorrow so that I can get used to the order and help all of the other performers so they know what they are doing. Before the show tomorrow, we will have all of the performers so that we can have a full dress/tech rehearsal. We will also have the chance to go over any other bits and pieces which we need to teach the other performers. So, to ensure that we get everything done in time, we will start rehearsal tomorrow at 10am and will work throughout the day up until the time of the show with breaks throughout the day. The children should start to arrive at 5:45pm to start a full rehearsal at 6/6:15pm. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Wednesday 16th May

On Monday we recorded the voiceovers for the performance. These voiceovers will be played in between the songs to help tell the story of Maleficent. These are currently in the process of being edited by Paul and will be ready for us to use in the tech/dress rehearsal.

We have had a few extra rehearsals throughout the past week to ensure that everything is ready in time for the show.

Today we were having an extra rehearsal to make sure that I knew all of the choreography in time for the show. The rehearsal today involved going through all of the dances in the order that they will be performed with the main focus on ‘This is me’. This is because I only learnt this dance last week and I am still struggling to remember it. I think this is because it is a different style of dance which I am used to and am still working on the choreography. After working on this routine for some time, I finally managed to get the choreography and now need to work on perfecting it before the tech/dress rehearsal tomorrow.

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Saturday 12^th May

Today we were having an extra dance rehearsal for the dance show next week. The aim of this rehearsal was to go through all of the parts that the children were in so that they have a better idea of what they will be doing on the night of the show. Also, for some of the children, this was their first time in the performance studio so it gave them a chance to get familiar with the space.

We started the rehearsal by going over the part that Sienna will be performing. She will be playing the part of Aurora and we worked with her last week to create her solo piece. In her solo, she moves around the space and uses several different blocks as they act as toadstools. The first time Sienna practiced this dance, she went ahead of the timing a little and therefore was left at the end of the piece of the music waiting for quite a long time. I then told her to take it a bit slower and to exaggerate the movements. The second time rehearsing this, she danced it a lot better, taking her time with the choreography and finished a lot later in the music. I think this may have been slightly tricky for Sienna because the piece of music that she is dancing to has no words or a beat so every time she performs it, it is slightly different. However, this doesn’t really matter because the aim of this dance is to show that Aurora is playful.

After practicing this with Sienna, we moved on to practicing the first dance in the show. Unfortunately we were missing 3 people who will also be in this dance but we practiced as best we could without them. I was able to stand in for Anna and Eve so that Aidan and Toby could get a feel for what the routine was going to be like in this space.

I wasn’t able to practice my duet with Luke because he was unable to make it to the rehearsal today and probably won’t be able to make it to the rehearsal on Thursday either. The only time that we will be able to rehearse the duet is on the day of the show. I am slightly wary about this because Laura is yet to see our duet part and there will be hardly any time to change it if there are any major concerns.

I think that this rehearsal really helped the children to grasp a better idea of what the space is going to be like when they perform. There will be a tech/dress rehearsal on Thursday next week where we will hopefully have everyone who is in the show to practice their parts. They will then arrive early on the day of the shoe to have a full run through of the show.

By helping the children to improve their technique and performance, I was able to improve my own at the same time. I did this by taking the improvements that I was giving them and then making sure that I had applied these to the dances that I was performing. At the start of this academic year, I really lacked confidence with teaching dance to small children. However, over the course of the year I have been able to improve on my teaching technique by observing other dance teachers and how they teach and then applying this to my own teaching style. I have shown this through teaching at the primary school and also teaching my own dance class on a Saturday morning to 7 to 12 year olds.

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Wednesday 25^th April

To begin the session, we carried out a warmup to ensure that all of the muscles in our body were warm.

We then ran through the routines in the order of which they will be performed. We have started to do this so that we can get used to the order and see how long we will have in between the songs to do any costume or scene changes. 

In my time outside of these lessons, I have started to learn a tap dance which will also be in the performance. We are not too sure where this song will go yet because we need to make sure that I have enough time to put my tap shoes on in between the dances. I was able to show Laura this routine today because she hasn’t seen it yet. I will carry on working on this routine next week with my dance teacher, Emily. 

After rehearsing all of the routines which we have already choreographed, I had a discussion with Laura about the music for some of the other routines which we still have to choreograph and teach. Next week we will be working with Sienna who will be playing the part of Aurora in the performance. Laura and I will choreograph the routine in our session in the morning and then we will be teaching it to her in the afternoon after we have been back into the primary school to go over choreography with Eve, Toby, Anna and Aidan. 

We have discovered that there are lots of things to do in such a short space of time but all of the things left to do are quite small so hopefully we should get all of them done in time for the performance. 

Last Friday, I went into the recording studio to record the narrator voiceover which will be played throughout the performance at different moments. However, we having a discussion today and seeing when routines are going to start and finish, we have come to the realisation that we will probably need to record this again because we need to make quite a lot of amendments to the script and we also need to indicate when songs are going to start/end and when there is going to be an overlap of music and voiceover. Hopefully we can work to get this script sorted by the end of next week so it gives us time to record it and edit it before the show.

Costumes are also in preparation too. I will be having some wings made for me. I was measured for these this afternoon and hopefully I will have them very soon so that I can start to practice in them so that I can get used to them in time for the show. We also need to order the remaining costumes for the children. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Wednesday 18^th April

Today, we were working on preparing for the dance performance in May.

Laura and I had a discussion about what we still have left to do for the dance performance. We put together a list of things that we needed to do in the weeks running up to the show. One of the things to do is to go back into the primary school to recap over the choreography which I taught Eve and Toby a while ago. We have scheduled in 2 weeks where we will go into the school to go over the choreography so they are prepared for the show. We also need to order the remaining costumes so that we can practice in them and also try them on for measurements for other possible parts of costume.

Once we had done all of the admin tasks that we had to do, we moved on to some practical work. I carried out a full body warmup to ensure that I was fully stretches so that I could run through all of my dances. My warmup involved a pulse raiser, some stretches standing up and some stretches sitting down. Once I had finished my comprehensive warmup, we moved on to going through all of the dances.

We went through the dances for the show in the order of which they will be performed. This meant we started with ‘A thousand years’ then on to ‘Beautiful trauma’ and ‘Rise’. There are still a few dances to choreograph such as the finale and the tap routine however, I am able to pick up choreography quite quickly so this shouldn’t be an issue. Molly also has her routine which she will perform in the show.

Next week we will start to choreography the finale piece which will be to the song ‘This is me’. At some point during the next week, I will record the narrator speech in the recording studio. This will give Paul a chance to edit it and then we can listen to it to see whether we want to change anything or add anything in.

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Wednesday 28^th March

The main aim of the session today was to run through all of the choreography that we have learnt so far.

We started off the lesson with a warmup which I led. This involved several different stretches both standing up and sitting down. We then moved onto going through the choreography in the order that it will be performed.

The first routine will be ‘A Thousand Years’. We didn’t have any of the children in the lesson today who are performing in this song so I just marked through their bits. I was also able to show Laura the choreography which I have been learning with Luke on a Thursday night. We ran this routine a few times and then we moved onto the next routine which was ‘Beautiful Trauma’. I am very happy and confident with this choreography as I have been practicing it over the weeks to ensure that I will remember it for the show. Next was Molly’s movement piece. We had to spend a good bit of time working on this piece because Molly had forgotten most of it so we therefore spent some time going over the choreography. To finish off I practiced the song ‘Rise’. This is the routine which we started choreographing a few weeks ago and will be continuing to choreograph today. We managed to add quite a bit of choreography onto what we already had. This routine is beginning to take shape and we will finish the choreography for this after the Easter holidays. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Wednesday 21^stMarch

Today we were beginning to write the script for the narrator which will be used throughout the show. The narrator part will help tell the story and will also give some time in between the dances for any scene or costume changes. 

During the half term holiday a few weeks ago, I found a narrator script which had been taken from the film ‘Maleficent’. I managed to find this in my documents this morning so Molly and I went through the whole script and adapted it to what we wanted. Below is a copy of what we have been working on:

“Once upon a time there were 2 kingdoms who were the worst of neighbours. So vast was the discord between them, that it was said that only a great hero or a terrible villain might bring them together. In a great tree on a great cliff in the Moors, lived one such spirit. You might take her for a girl. But she was not just any girl. She was a fairy. And her name was Maleficent.”

“Stefan and Maleficent became the most unlikely of friends. As it will, friendship slowly turned into something else. And on her 16^th birthday, Stefan gave Maleficent a gift. He told her it was a true love’s kiss. After all this time, Stefan’s ambition called him away. The king of the other kingdom wanted to kill Maleficent and the gift was to be the next king.”

“Stefan was confused. He came to Maleficent and treated her. He couldn’t kill Maleficent. So, he took something very precious away from her.”

“Stefan became king and had a child with the Queen. Maleficent was mad. Her revenge was so high and so she planned something for Stefan.”

“A grand celebration in the other kingdom for a new-born baby. All fairies were invited except Maleficent. The fairies would give gifts to the baby. A lot of people came to the kingdom. Maleficent and Diaval entered too.”

“King Stefan ordered his servants to seize every spinning wheel in the kingdom by throwing them in the deepest dungeon in the castle. King Stefan sent Aurora away to be raised by the fairies.”

“Aurora grew up into a beautiful girl. Maleficent slowly turned into nice. She took care Aurora with Diaval. Maleficent loved Aurora but her curse to Aurora would be forever although Maleficent tried to save Aurora. Aurora wanted to live in the Moors with Maleficent. So, she talked with the fairies.”

“Aurora met Maleficent and asked her about the curse. Maleficent was sad. Aurora left Maleficent and went to King Stefan’s kingdom.”

“Aurora went to the King but he was focused on killing Maleficent. So, Aurora was placed in a secret room where, there in the corner, stood a spinning wheel. She put her finger on the needle and pricked it. She fell into sleep like death.”

“Maleficent was angry for what she had done. A Prince kissed Aurora in the attempt to wake her but she lay still. Maleficent stayed with Aurora and kissed her on the forehead. Suddenly, she began to awaken.”

“Aurora and Maleficent left the castle. But on exiting, Maleficent wanted her wings back.” 

“Maleficent returned to the Moors with Aurora and Aurora was crowned Queen of the Moors.“

“So you see, the story is not quite as you were told, and I should know, for I was the one they called Sleeping Beauty. In the end, my kingdom was united not by a hero or a villain, as legend had predicted, but by one who was both hero and villain. And her name was Maleficent.”

At some point in the near future, I will record these lines in the recording studio. They can then be edited and ready in time for the show in May.

For the rest of the session, I went over the choreography which I have already learnt. This meant that I was able to have a refresher of the choreography because I haven’t done it for a few weeks. I had also had a bit of time to start to think about what choreography could come next for the routine that we are currently working on. This routine is to the song ‘Rise’ by Katy Perry and will represent Maleficent fighting for her wings back. The routine is in the style of hiplet (fusion of hip hop and ballet) so is something that I have never choreographed in before so I found it quite difficult to come up with some moves. 

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Wednesday 7^th March

Today we have been discussing when we are going to be ordering the costumes for the end of year dance performance. We need to order these soon because the girls will all need to be measured for wings which will go over the original costume.

I have written some emails to the school which are asking what size the children will require for the costumes. We are asking Toby, Aidan and Luke to provide their own costume because they will just be wearing a plain white top and plain black bottoms. Here are copies of the emails which I have written to the school:

Email to Eve, Anna and parents:

Dear parents and pupils,

As you may know the performance that your daughter will be participating in, is fast approaching. In the lead up to the performance, we are looking to order the costumes as soon as possible. This is so that we can ensure that everything is ready in time for the show. Also, your daughter may need to measured for other parts of costume which will go on top of the main costume.

Below is a link to the costume which we will be ordering. Please could you let us know which size your daughter will require for the costume:

https://www.dancedepot.co.uk/3968c-empire-dress-1

The children’s sizes are as follows:

Small, intermediate, medium, large

There is an option for you to keep the dress if you wish to purchase it yourself or the costume can be purchased through the college. However, this means that you will not be able to keep the costume after the performance.

The date for the performance is Friday 18^th May at 7pm and we would like to invite you to come and watch the performance. It will be performed at RNC The Chapel’s Dance Studio. We hope to see you there.

King regards,

Charlotte Milburn

Email to Toby and parents:

Dear parents and pupils,

As you may know the performance that your son will be participating in, is fast approaching. In the lead up to the performance, we are in the process of ensuring that all costumes are ready.

Please would you be able to provide the following items for your son’s costume:

·     Plain white t shirt (no logos)

·     Plain black trousers (no logos)

All items should be comfortable to move in.

The date for the performance is Friday 18^th May at 7pm and we would like to invite you to come and watch the performance. It will be performed at RNC The Chapel’s Dance Studio. We hope to see you there.

King regards,

Charlotte Milburn

Unit 37 - Dance performance

Wednesday 7^th February

We spent this morning going over the schedule that we had created to make sure that we will get everything done in time for the dance show. I also wrote some dates in my dairy of when we will be choreographing new material and some other important dates. Some of the important things that we discussed and decided when we were going to complete were:

·     Going back into the primary school to go over the routine with Eve and Toby

·     Teaching the younger children

·     Finding someone to play the role of Aurora

·     Learning choreography

·     Finding tracks

·     Technical elements

We then went through the running order of the show to see what we still need to choreograph. We still need to choreograph quite a lot of routines so we then planned accordingly to choreograph and learn these routines in time for the show.

We then also discussed about finding a male dancer to be involved in the show. We have asked Luke if he is able to play the part but he hasn’t been sure if he is able to do it. I will get in contact with him within the next week and we can hopefully start choreography as soon as possible if he is able and agrees to be in the show.

We then moved on to talking about costumes. We have seen some costumes on the internet which we think will be very suitable for the show and we now just need to order them. However, we need to get in contact with the children and their parents to find out what sizes they will need for the costumes and if they would like pay for them and then keep them after the show.

We also need to trial hair and makeup too before the show. We have got some big ideas for hair and makeup and we are hoping for this to look as realistic as possible. We are aiming to make Maleficent’s horns out of hair by using a headband and wrapping the hair around the horns which will be attached to the headband.