Willkommen - Rehearsals

I missed the first lesson of learning the choreo but I picked it up quickly. I decide to make my Emcee be cheeky because I felt that would be easiest for me to perform and I wouldn't feel so uncomfortable.
I enjoyed choreographing for the two Cabaret girls I had because I was able to make my character more emphasised with how I interacted with the Cabaret girls.
I find learning the spoken parts difficult as I'm not confident in my German accent.

Nothing Like a Dame - Final Performance

I had nearly lost my voice on the day of the final performance so my vocals were quieter than in previous rehearsals but I felt my dance performance was accurate and performed well. To improve I need to make my characterisation bigger and more animated to get across the fact that I was playing a jovial male.

Nothing Like a Dame - Rehearsals

We first began learning the song which was tricky as the range was so low so we had to change some of the notes to an octave above so we could project them enough. After this we choreographed three still positions that our characters would take. We then added interactions between the characters to make the performance more animated. Next we learned the group choreography and choreographed the very end of the song in other groups. I found this dance easier to learn than West Side Story.

Chicago Monologues - Final Performance

For the final performance of the monologues we were in groups. We were given the instruction to find a still position that your character would hold whilst each person performed their monologue. As a group we took the creative decision to all follow each speaker with just our heads, whilst still isolating the rest of our bodies and then on a specific word of each monologue we change our position slightly. This made the performance seem more intense and as well as unified.

Strengths:
- I remembered all of my lines and performed them with good characterisation and emphasis on certain words to add impact

Targets:
- Use physicality more to portray a stronger character and make the performance more engaging

Chicago Monologues - Rehearsals

The rehearsals of the monologues we were given were more independent and we were given the freedom of interpreting the character how we wanted so that we could put our own spin on it and make our Performacne more authentic.
I knew the context of these monologues and had seen many performances of them throughout my life so I was able to draw elements from other performances into mine as well as base my American accent off them.
I found the accent tricky to master as well as remembering not to rush my words as that doesn't make for a good performance.
Performing my monologue to people who had the same one as me was useful as I could compare our takes on it, get ideas from them and also get good peer feedback to improve my performance.

West Side Story - Final Performance

I believe that our final performance went really well overall.

My strengths:
- I was able to stay in time with the music throughout
- I demonstrated that I knew the choreography and was able to perform it well

My targets:
- In future performances I need to bring characterisation to the dance more to make it more interesting and engaging
- My movements should be more exaggerated to show confidence in my performance and so that the intention is clear

West Side Story - Rehearsals

Before learning the choreography that we were going to be performing, we watched the clip of the prologue from the film version of West Side Story. This was so we could understand the context of the dance, that it's meant to embody a terf war between the city's resident gang and the Puerto Rican gang that have just been moved to the city. Watching the video allowed us to notice the different dancing styles of the gangs; one was more turned out and unfolded/flicked their high kicks whereas the other gang was in parallel more of the time and their kicks were with straight legs.

After completing this research and analysis of the dance we began learning the two different choreographies. At first I found the choreo tricky to pick up as it was a fast tempo and some of the steps were on odd beats but I went through it slowly until I could get it right. When it came to learning the second gang's choreography, I picked it up much quicker as the moves were similar. The two rehearsal sessions saw immense improvement from start to finish.

Finally, in the first half of our lesson in which we did the final performance, we were given the task of choreographing a fight section with a partner as this was the climax of the dance and the intention was to have lots going on at once so that the busy feel mirrored the anger presented in the music at the time. I found it a little tricky to start off the choreography but as Ruby (my partner) and I continued it became easier and we were able to bounce ideas off each other and come up with an interesting set of steps.