On Monday, a west end performer called Amanda Board Salmon came in to help us with our numbers for the show. We knew this would be really helpful because there were some numbers that were very flat and a lot of cast members with solos or duets had only had a couple of chances to sing them with our MD and as she played Sandy in a professional company years ago, but is now a director at BSPA she would be able to help us with our technique for singing and change bits of blocking within numbers so that they didn’t look flat. To make sure i was 100% ready to work with Amanda on my solos just to improve technique, as opposed to telling me my lyrics, pitch or tone was off, I decided to have a private singing lesson that morning before Amanda would come in so that not only was I already warmed up but that I was confident that I was singing the right tune and harmony lines in my songs. When Amanda arrived, we did a variety of warm-ups that she uses in her company and although I was already warmed up this helped a lot of us get focused. I managed to get the chance to sing her the 2 songs I was most worried about coming into the show – Sandy and You’re the One That I Want. Her feedback helped me tremendously: for Sandy (the one I as the most nervous about) she said she was incredibly impressed which filled me with confidence and her only advice was to not fear the higher notes and just belt them because I can hit them; for You’re the One That I Want her advice was to open my mouth as wide as possible for the 'chills' and 'loosing' parts at the very start as otherwise the notes sound forced instead of flowing. We then showed her Summer Nights where she made some small changes, for example although i was at the top of the bleachers initially to show status in the T Birds, Amanda suggested i break through the middle of them to come onto the stage in front of them so that i'm in the foreground and don't get lost amongst the other boys.
On Wednesday we choreographed the rest of 'You're the one that I want'. Rowan and I learnt the middle section that we didn't know which is when we walk forward whilst doing jazz hands and then spin around on the line 'I need a man'. Then we switch sides and look at each other before continuing with the dance we knew. We then added more choreography to the end where we put our hands on our hip bones and walk forwards together. Then I spin Rowan around and I spin before we do the same move towards each other. Then we shimmied and jumped to the side and back before turning our heads to face each other. After this dance we are going to all get into positions for a picture, however as we didn't have the rest of the cast, we chose not to do this as it would be easier to set later. It was important that I was really focusing on the smaller details of my footwork in this dance to help improve my Jazz Dance Technique.
Thursday was chorus day so we didn't get a lot of attention as the principles however it was a good chance to run through some of the bigger numbers when they were trying to fit chorus in around us. It gave me a good oppertunity to improve my dance technique by critiquing the chorus members when watching them as this made me aware of areas that maybe i should focus on too. That evening we did an older cast principles full dance rehearsal which was really good for tightening formations and lines especially in Grease is the Word and We Go Together - it highlighted that quite a few people had not been practicing and so this was frustrating as we all looked out of time with each other and soi think as a group we will organisesome independent rehearsal time to go over these dances.
No comments:
Post a Comment