Rehearsals

This week we rehearsed all of the beginning sequence and went through the promenade piece in  our minds. We also had a some time to teach and learn everybody else routines, so that we could synchronise them together towards the end. After this, we just rehearsed all of the different parts of the piece over and over again to all of the different music so we knew cues, marching etc.

2nd Lesson Back

For the first part of the lesson, we all talked about the monologues for everybody's auditions, after that our class went back down to the dance studio to rehearse what we had done the week before. Lining up, and going to the music in the background, doing a devised, no dialogue movement piece with the other 5. This week we rehearsed for a bit, and then taught all of the other groups our piece, by mirroring them and getting them to copy it. Firstly we are using levels, 3 of us go forward, and kneel on the floor pointing guns, after about 2 beats, the rest of us (3) walks to the same line they are in, but standing. After this, we swap, so they are standing and we are kneeling, then all get up and get shot one at a time. After teaching this to various different groups, we then learnt other groups, using the same mirroring method. We did this so we can all swap and know each others so it looks in time. We then went to watch a play called 'Advice for the young at heart'.

1st lesson back

In our first lesson back after half term, we sat as a whole group and talked about the performance, that will be in week 6! We talked about it being a promenade piece and closed our eyes and mapped it out in our heads. Firstly, we will start in the New Canteen, all doing the waltz, with parents joining people who aren't dancing in a horseshoe shape. We practised this over and over as our beginning piece. When all the couples in the middle are dancing, we, around the edges are 'drinking tea and eating cake' as if we are all at a tea dance. Then, when the boys are signalled off stage, to leave and start performing on the way to the space, through the corridors, all of the girls start dancing alone, waltzing around the space. Isabella starts slowly singing the beginning of 'pack up your troubles in your old kit bag' and we all eventually join in. All of the girls slow down and you start to see a sad and desperate look of realisation on our faces, whilst we are singing. When we have finished it first, we sing it again, but this time, to the parents in a more 'jolly' manner. When its finished, we all leave still singing, and make our way to the space. We then perform in two groups, our own 15 minute performances. Miss Goodhalls group went into one of the dance studio to rehearse it. We got into groups of six. Me, Ben, Tyler, Claudia, Ursula and Kim were all 'Frontline'.  We devised a piece, really focusing on the music and using levels. Half are up and half are down etc. Then you have the other groups behind us doing their own pieces. We go and find a place to sit down and take off our shoes and socks, and ring them out. Improvising by bandaging our foots, being sick etc. A really dull view on the trench life, to show what it was like.

Fourth Lesson

Firstly, we all learnt how to waltz with a partner. I was with Isabella because we are similar heights and Mrs.Niven was teaching up where to put our feet and how to use different movements. After doing this by ourselves and with partners, we all went down to the dance studio again and practised. After a while we came up with a beginning to our promenade piece. There would be a horseshoe with some of us and all of the audience, with a few couples dancing in the centre. All of the boys both in the centre dancing, and in the horseshoe would leave to one side, to give the idea that they were leaving for war. We then all learnt the song 'Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag' by Spike Jones (1942) that goes:

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile

While you've a Lucifer to light your fag

Smile boys that’s the style

What’s the use of worrying

It never was worthwhile

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile.

After the boys have left. All the girls are left dancing by themselves in the middle, whilst the remaining girls in the audience join them. Isabella then starts singing the first line of the song and everybody else then joins in. it was a productive lesson, and I can tell we will get a lot done now we have the beginning to our piece.

Third lesson..

In the third lesson, our class went down to one of the dance studios and watched everybody’s solo pieces. They were all so good and really showed people had put effort into them. I think personally that the pieces with two people in were a bit better, purely based on the connection that they had with each others. For example, Elouise & Pakize and Ben and Ella's really stood out for me. The reason being that they had obviously worked so hard, their choreography was amazing, and you could see the connection. but personally, I think the one that stood out the most for me was Ursula’s, as it really pushed the boundaries and spun the whole stimulus of 'world war 1' on its head by involving mental health into it. She used different props and put real effort into it.  Our whole lesson was taken up watching everybody’s but it was definitely worth it.

Second Lesson

In the second lesson, we watched the other class's groups perform what they had rehearsed the week before. They all got into little lines, made up of about 4 or 5 people and performed a synchronised piece about movement and physicality. There was no dialogue and we were told that it was all based on the queue to get the rations. I really like the levels in the other class's pieces as it was easy to see what was going on. We then split back into our own groups and got into groups of about and did this ourselves. Me, Ben, Tyler and Claudia were all in a group and came up with the concept of having different classes and different ages in the line. Tyler and Ben were business men, who looked down on Claudia, quite an older women and then there was me, who was a child. The piece was very much timed and every movement had to be over exaggerated. We did a piece that had a lot of movement in it; including me jumping over Claudia’s back! After we all went outside and put our groups in one big line in the basketball pitch. We performed it once or twice adding in a tap to the hand, as if it was our ration book. We did it to some music, which I really think gave it a bit more. at the end of the lesson, we were told that we had 10 minutes to prepare a solo piece that we would be doing next week, based not only on world war one but on movement as well. I came up with the idea of being a women pretending to be a man so she could participate in war. Over the week I practised it, to Rihanna’s song 'Fading' I did this, so that it also had a modern element to it, as it was quite a modern idea.

In the first lesson in theatre focusing on world war one, we looked at sequences and when we thought of war what words came to mind. After thinking of words, we had to make sequences or moving images on those words, and then make a group of four to mix them all together and make a final sequence. I worked with Tia, Eloise and George and we got into a circle and rotated our pieces between each other and then used more physical theatre elements to our piece by including lifts, moving around each other and even using floor movement. After performing these to the class and seeing various other pieces that were amazing, and really flowed and were in sync with each other, we got into pairs. Me and Tyler got into a pair and were told to be a couple and 'in love'. The drift of the story was that the husband was being sent off to war and it was their last moments together. Me and Tyler made ours very physical as we believed it would have a lot more effect to it and especially for the audience, as it would look like we were confident around each other and that shows a connection and emotion. I enjoyed doing something more personal as you got to work closely with others in the class. I think it was a good and productive lesson.