In our first lesson of the week we were just going to recap all sections of hand jive and so made sure to do a thorough stretch before hand as we were no longer at the stage where we would keep stopping to learn new choreography, we would now be running the dance sections full out without stopping and would do so multiple times throughout the lesson. This included stretching of the neck, chest, back, abdominals, groins, hamstrings and calves. We ran through once full out still with Miss dancing in front of us just to remind us of any choreography we might have still been sticky on however after one run through, we felt comfortable enough to dance the whole way through independently. By this stage I felt more than ready to perform this dance whilst maintaining facial expressions, confidence and character.
Our next rehearsal was an after-school rehearsal where we were mainly self-led for the entire rehearsal due to the directors being preoccupied with a scene with only the Pink Ladies. Because of this, we decided we should take a look at Act 1 Scene 5 as except for a small section with Rizzo, this scene involved only the T-Birds and was the scene just before the infamous 'Grease Lightning' and therefore we wanted this scene to be slick and perfect so that it set ‘Grease Lightning’ up well. We made the decision that proxemics and use of stage space in this scene would be important to show contrast in status amongst the T-Birds – for example I chose for Danny to enter centre stage and walk down the middle of the stage compared to the other boys running across the stage ending up in corners and also chose for Danny to walk with almost a strut and head held high to show my confidence and also how I’m bragging about how easy stealing things from the car was – this is direct contrast to the other boys who are hunched over panting from running away in fear. During this scene I also made sure to have a relaxed pace and tone of voice to show that Danny is 'cool' in this situation.
Finally, to end the week we started to block Act 2 scene 2 where Danny has to show a different side of his character – not only does he first have to show himself as a track athlete whilst still having his own mannerisms but he also has to show a snap of aggression towards Sonny in this scene. To show how he keeps his mannerisms still as a track athlete I’ll make sure that on entrance to the stage, he will stop running and start to stretch but between stretches he keeps fixing his hair just as Danny does normally. Also, when he walks over to the T Birds, he will still do his iconic walk and his stance will still be relaxed until he starts to get annoyed with the boys for questioning his loyalty to the group. To show his authority hasn't disappeared, when Sonny makes a joke about Sandy, I will quickly walk backwards and grab him by the collar and go onto tip toes to completely dominate him physically whilst raising his voice but lowering his tone to sound more aggressive.
Overall, it was quite a successful week where I now feel extremely comfortable with Hand Jive and we are also starting to make progress with some scenes which was my worry as we hadn’t touched much on acting yet. Next week we are planning to look on blocking Act 1 Scene 7 and starting to learn choreography for High School Hop.
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