In this week's lessons and after school rehearsals we focussed entirely on Born to Handjive, specifically: complex formations, intense parter routines, cannons , and accumulation. When doing this I tried to focus on my facial expressions and posture to still represent my character throughout the dance. This means that I was working towards both of my targets at once as I was improving my Jazz Dance Technique and improving non-verbal communication skills at the same time.
In our first lesson of the week we started with some light stretching ahead of what was going to be a non-stop lesson. We stretched out each muscle group that we would be using, starting with our necks, then backs, hips, groins , glutes, hamstrings, and finally calves. Once fully warmed up we began to run what we could remember from last week. As we didn't have our specific parters with us for the routine, we decided to continue to focus our attention on at first polishing the dancing we did last week making all of our hand movements and footwork crisp and perfectly in time with the music. Last week i struggled with the fast-paced movements, however this week i started to find them easier which allowed me to add character to my dancing through facial expression.
Our next rehearsal was with the entire cast so we were able to add the complex formations and changes that we had wanted to do previously. Due to Danny being the lead of the show and a key dancer in this song, I was placed centre for the majority of this dance piece meaning it was vital to look confident in my dancing. This also included being at the front of many cannons for the whole chorus to follow - this was quite challenging because i really had to concentrate on counting the counts of 8 in my head. At first I really struggled with this because I couldn't remember which movement I was supposed to turn on in the cannon, however after repeating this section of the dance quite a few times, I managed to memorise the exact moment I would turn based on the timing of the music. As we had the entire cast, it also allowed us to start creating and learning our partner sections - as Danny and Cha Cha are supposed to win this dance contest, our dance has to be the most complicated and extravagant; this includes many lifts, fast hand movements and precise footwork. My partner taught me the first 6 counts of 8 that we would be using for a smaller performance in the next week meaning this had to be slick and precisely in time with the music. some examples of the lifts are: one where my partner would jump and wrap her legs around my hips, I would then swing down and then up with power and push her up from the waist with it - to maximise height and power with this, we realised I needed to swing low and fast to create momentum and push up from my waist on the way back up; another lift is the 'around the world' variation where my partner jumps up into my arms, and then whilst only holding onto my neck, swings back and around the back of my body and then back again and up into my arms. I noticed that all of these lifts required a lot of upper body strength but also core strength to remained balanced and so to help me improve with this I will work on my core strength outside of school.
Finally, we ran through the scenes we had looked at last week and continued to add further characterisation. As we only did tis very briefly, I decided to focus on the feedback I received last week which was to show more of a contrast in pitch and posture on the arrival of Sandy. I feel like I did this well as I went higher pitch very suddenly and also bouncy on posture to emulate an over-excited child: this completely contrasted the cool and calm character of Danny that had been portrayed previously. I had also decided to do some research in terms of watching some more performances and interpretations of my character and noticed that in every portrayal of Danny, he had specific handshakes/greetings with each member of the Tbirds and so I started to integrate this into my own performance when Danny sees his boys in Act 1 Scene 2.
Next week we will try to catch up more on my scenes and so will focus on Act 1 Scene 7, and Act 2 scene 2. I will also continue to practice my dances at home and work on my core strength to help improve my balance.
Tuesday, 5 November 2019
Monday, 14 October 2019
Week beginning - 9/9/19
In this week's lessons, we began to choreograph and in turn, learn "Born to Hand Jive" and "We Go Together" that we would perform in our school musical, 'Grease'. When doing this we thought about our emotions and facial expressions throughout the number, having the correct facial expressions will help the audience to follow the storyline and get immersed in the show. I also tried to focus on picking up some of the finer details when learning the choreo s this would help me improve my Jazz dance technique.
We started off the lesson with a short stretching warm up. During this warm up we stretched muscles such as the hamstrings, groin and hip flexers allowing them to become looser and flexible. After this we listened to the song 'Born To Handjive' so that we could get used to the rhythm and feel of the song. Knowing the feel of the song will allow us to start thinking about what facial expressions and emotions to use. This song is at the start of act 2 and is set in their prom and in this song they are taking part in a big dance competition. This means we have to use excited and competitive facial expressions as this is an enjoyable, fun number.
We then began to learn some of the partner work which we will perform at the beginning of the number. I found this difficult as the dance is very fast pace and involved intricate dance moves. This meant i spent most of the time thinking about getting the choreography right rather than my facial expressions. This is something that with time i think I will be able to overcome as once the moves are imbedded in my head I will then be able to start thinking about using my face. Therefore, although my target is to improve my jazz technique, I have made the decision to pick up choreography and basic moves first and then figure out the correct technique afterwards.
In the next lesson we began learning "We Go Together", thinking about our body language and facial expressions. When we started learning it we soon learnt that it was extremely fast meaning we had to concentrate more on the choreography we were learning rather than our expression. The majority of the choreography for this song was to do with accurate footwork and so to feel more confident I decided to just run through this song without to the upper body choreography until I no longer needed to concentrate as hard on my feet.
We also made a start on our first bits of acting: Act 1 Scene 2, and Act 2 Scene 5. Because it was our first time acting as a group in our characters , I decided to focus on my core aspects of my character, for example: the tone, tempo and accent that i spoke with - i decided to speak slightly slower than normal to portray how Danny is cool and calm, but also spoke confidently as he is the leader of the Tbirds; the posture and walk of my character was also essential to nail as it's the first thing that the audience sees and it has to be recognisable - I stand with one leg straight and one leg slightly bent in front, with my hands in pockets but stood up straight, i also walk with a slight bounce in my stride almost like strut to represent his cool persona( unfortunately the walk is harder that it sounds so I will try to focus on this in the coming weeks to help improve my non-verbal communication skills); finally i looked at the way i interacted with fellow characters but I struggled to find a way to show a difference in the way I greet characters so I will do some research to figure this out.
Later in the week we finished blocking both of the scenes we had looked at previously this included our character interactions, use of stage space and use of levels to represent our hierarchy within the Tbirds. Our director told me I needed to work on trying to show my change in personality when i first see Sandy to show the contrast and shock the audience to create comedy - to do this, i will work on using a higher pitch when speaking to her and act more bouncy to show excitement. This completely links to my target of improving non-verbal communication skills as although my pitch and pace will change, the comedy will come from my posture and body language.
Next week we are going to be intensively running and finishing Born to Handjive so that it is the best it can be for an upcoming performance - this will include more complex formations, new partner sections, increased pace, and running it without stopping.
We then began to learn some of the partner work which we will perform at the beginning of the number. I found this difficult as the dance is very fast pace and involved intricate dance moves. This meant i spent most of the time thinking about getting the choreography right rather than my facial expressions. This is something that with time i think I will be able to overcome as once the moves are imbedded in my head I will then be able to start thinking about using my face. Therefore, although my target is to improve my jazz technique, I have made the decision to pick up choreography and basic moves first and then figure out the correct technique afterwards.
In the next lesson we began learning "We Go Together", thinking about our body language and facial expressions. When we started learning it we soon learnt that it was extremely fast meaning we had to concentrate more on the choreography we were learning rather than our expression. The majority of the choreography for this song was to do with accurate footwork and so to feel more confident I decided to just run through this song without to the upper body choreography until I no longer needed to concentrate as hard on my feet.
We also made a start on our first bits of acting: Act 1 Scene 2, and Act 2 Scene 5. Because it was our first time acting as a group in our characters , I decided to focus on my core aspects of my character, for example: the tone, tempo and accent that i spoke with - i decided to speak slightly slower than normal to portray how Danny is cool and calm, but also spoke confidently as he is the leader of the Tbirds; the posture and walk of my character was also essential to nail as it's the first thing that the audience sees and it has to be recognisable - I stand with one leg straight and one leg slightly bent in front, with my hands in pockets but stood up straight, i also walk with a slight bounce in my stride almost like strut to represent his cool persona( unfortunately the walk is harder that it sounds so I will try to focus on this in the coming weeks to help improve my non-verbal communication skills); finally i looked at the way i interacted with fellow characters but I struggled to find a way to show a difference in the way I greet characters so I will do some research to figure this out.
Later in the week we finished blocking both of the scenes we had looked at previously this included our character interactions, use of stage space and use of levels to represent our hierarchy within the Tbirds. Our director told me I needed to work on trying to show my change in personality when i first see Sandy to show the contrast and shock the audience to create comedy - to do this, i will work on using a higher pitch when speaking to her and act more bouncy to show excitement. This completely links to my target of improving non-verbal communication skills as although my pitch and pace will change, the comedy will come from my posture and body language.
Next week we are going to be intensively running and finishing Born to Handjive so that it is the best it can be for an upcoming performance - this will include more complex formations, new partner sections, increased pace, and running it without stopping.
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