This week we started to work on the choreography of Grease - Greased Lighting and Summer Nights. This is something that's very exciting to do but very difficult to write about, though I've tried to make some notes of my movements in the performance, but I think the most effective way of learning a choreography is to repeat it as many times as possible so that my body gets used to it. I have no previous experience in singing and dancing on stage using a pre-composed choreography, but the process of learning it must be kind of similar to learning a stage combat choreography.
Also, we practiced the Blood Brother scenes, and I think both my partner and I have improved a lot. I've already been off book for a while. I have enough experience in acting to know that, for me, the actions and visuals during the scenes are the most difficult things to memorise, so I normally try to learn all my scenes by heart as early as possible no matter the deadlines we're given, because it makes things easier if I don't have to hold a bunch of sheets in one hand.
For next week we got another song to learn, which is Journey - Don't Stop Believin'. I think we will start working on it next week. But I decided to spend a bit more time on the exam pieces that we already been working on for a while.
All That Jazz
We were told that the teachers will see our performance of the Chicago songs next time, so I took some time at home to listen to them a couple of times, because we had very little opportunity to practice them with the groups. This applies to All That Jazz, because we didn't really have time to do anything about it apart from spliting it into four parts and giving a solo part to every member of the group. At home, without the other three group members, I couldn't really do anything but do some research on the song itself.
It's the opening song of the musical Chicago. The set is a night club. The song is sung by Velma and a chorus of people - possibly the customers of the club. It is followed by the police arresting Velma for murder.
The story is set in the 1920s when jazz was a relatively new and quite provocative style of music (probably in a similar way to heavy metal in the '90s), and knowing this (and of course the fact that she murdered her own sister and her partner) already tells us a thing or two about Velma's character.
Just like Cell Block Tango, this song also has several different versions, the one used in the movie is quite different from the one in the musical.
This is the movie version:
These also gave me some ideas about the choreography, though we haven't had time to work that out with the group yet.
For next week we got another song to learn, which is Journey - Don't Stop Believin'. I think we will start working on it next week. But I decided to spend a bit more time on the exam pieces that we already been working on for a while.
All That Jazz
We were told that the teachers will see our performance of the Chicago songs next time, so I took some time at home to listen to them a couple of times, because we had very little opportunity to practice them with the groups. This applies to All That Jazz, because we didn't really have time to do anything about it apart from spliting it into four parts and giving a solo part to every member of the group. At home, without the other three group members, I couldn't really do anything but do some research on the song itself.
It's the opening song of the musical Chicago. The set is a night club. The song is sung by Velma and a chorus of people - possibly the customers of the club. It is followed by the police arresting Velma for murder.
The story is set in the 1920s when jazz was a relatively new and quite provocative style of music (probably in a similar way to heavy metal in the '90s), and knowing this (and of course the fact that she murdered her own sister and her partner) already tells us a thing or two about Velma's character.
Just like Cell Block Tango, this song also has several different versions, the one used in the movie is quite different from the one in the musical.
This is the movie version:
And some examples of the stage versions:
Performed by Jennifer Nettles and Carly Hughes, 2015
Performed by Amra-Faye Wright, 2014
These also gave me some ideas about the choreography, though we haven't had time to work that out with the group yet.
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