April

26th April

Good Morning - Dance
You Were Meant For Me - Dance
Moses Supposes - Dance

Good Morning - Choreography
Upon arriving today, Tom (Cosmo), Chloe (Kathy) and myself (Don) met with the choreographer (Jamie Knights) to work on one of the most famous songs from the show, 'Good Morning'. Chloe expressed great affection towards this song throughout the rehearsal process so far, and all three of us agreed that this will be the song that people will remember that trio for, so therefore it needs to be extra special. Chloe has attended dance lessons for a good part of her life, and Tom has been attending lessons for around 2-3 years now. I felt bad as I have not attended any before other than those run by the choreographer himself. However, this did not prevent Jamie from constructing a challenging yet totally engaging dance to the song.

The choreography (known as a 'soft shoe shuffle') clearly establishes the partnership the trio share, and the strong friendships they will uphold throughout the narrative. This allows for the audience to align with these characters for the later events of the narrative, giving them a sort of 'good guy' persona each. With each dance we have learnt so far, and with this one in particular, character is the key ingredient to the performance. Without the presentation of our personalities, the song would then just be performance as if it was in a dance show, with the technique there and some performance, but the characters of Don, Kathy and Cosmo would not be present.


Here are the choreographers notes for the dance routine in the song:

 

You Were Meant For Me - Choreography

Jamie later asked Rebecca and Alex, two ex members of STS to choreograph the dance break in the love song 'You Were Meant For Me'. This dance, as shown above, was a challenge for me as I had just learnt the fast-paced and active 'Good Morning' routine, and I then had to slow down and be a gentle, less manic dancer. As I haven't previously had dance training, I realised I am not strong in changing dance styles immediately, however this will not pose a problem by the time of the show, as the dances that differ are clearly spaced apart!

When learning this dance, I had to change the style and approach compared to Good Morning. It was a much sweeter, more flowing piece of movement, that only worked when both myself and Chloe worked together. Even when we aren't dancing together, we have to mirror each others movement to ensure the piece looks professional. Throughout, once again, we are to sustain and illustrate our characters to make sure that the audience realise the relationship between the two on stage.

Moses Supposes - Dance
We had already choreographed the start to Moses Supposes, however we only had half an hour before having to leave the venue last time. So at the end of today's rehearsal, Jamie choreographed the ending of Moses Supposes with Tom and myself, and Jacob had earlier been taught a tap piece that is then spliced into the dance.

The dance has been cut to last just over a minute, to make space for other rehearsals to learn the rest of the show. I feel that the fact that we have a lot of dances as it is, that is a good idea to shorten this number. However I feel bad on Jacob, who has a dance solo but that is about it for this song. I wanted him to have more in the song, but he is in the middle of the trio, and at the front and therefore is given time to show off his skills and subsequently show up the cocky personas of Don and Cosmo.