2. The focus within today’s rehearsal is to fully choreograph ‘You’re the One that I Want’
whilst including lyrics and characterisation skills.
Therefore my target for this lesson is to make sure that my timing and rhythm is accurate
throughout the rehearsal. Additionally consider my spatial awareness so that I am able to
be seen by the audience.
At the start of today’s rehearsal the dance director lead a warm up which involved cardio exercises
and stretches to ensure I was ready to learn the choreography for ‘You’re the One that I Want’ and
prevent any injury. Similarly to ‘Summer Nights’ the company had a meeting to decide which version
of ‘You’re the one that I Want’ we would like to use. Concluding the meeting the decision made was
the 2010 Grease cast on tour(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8nf106mUZI). I chose one dancer
from the video to focus on and mirror so that I could fully comprehend the choreography. The first
section of the choreography was very easy to pick up as it was sharp repetitive movements of clicking,
this was in unison with other cast members and looked effective to audience. As the dance progressed
I struggled to process some of the choreography made for partner work. I was able to understand the
first eight counts of my partner work but, when it came to unison choreography with the cast I
struggled to understand footwork and arms. The movements are right foot with right hand and left
foot with left hand, however I was doing the opposite foot with the opposite arm. Eventually I was
able to correctly perform the dance section. Due to the last section that I used to struggle with, it
throw me and my partner off from aligning ourselves with the other cast members. This was an issue
as the audience members were unable to see me and my partner on stage. The dance director came
to the conclusion to place me and my partner on a raised platform at the back of the stage so we
were able to be seen by the audience at all times. After several rehearsals I was confidently able to
perform the whole of ‘You’re the One that I Want’. This meant I was able to focus on characterisation
throughout the dance by reacting to Danny and Sandy. Overall, the dance needs a lot of rehearsal time
to polish it up as alignment is still an issue which creates a messy formation. Not only this but energy
is lacking throughout the performance.
3. A strength throughout this rehearsal was my ability to pick up the choreography quickly
and apply it to my partner. I helped my partner understand the choreography and aided
them to fully understand the movements to make sure the choreography flowed. I did this
by going step by step through the choreography to ensure that myself and my partner knew
the ensemble work correctly.
A weakness within this rehearsal was my alignment throughout the dance. Once my
partner and I had moved into our positions to dance to the chorus, we began to align
ourselves with Sandy and Danny which meant we were blocked from the audience’s
sight. As a result I decided to take little steps as we moved to make sure we did not
end up exactly aligned with the characters in front. Another weakness that occurred
was that not every member of the cast were there. This was a problem as some
dancers were not able to rehearse with a partner and struggled to understand the
choreography because there was no partner to complete the dance with.
Review of my target: my target for this lesson is to make sure that my timing and
rhythm is accurate throughout the rehearsal. Additionally consider my spatial
awareness so that I am able to be seen by the audience.
Unfortunately I did not complete my target for today’s lesson as my alignment
throughout the dance was incorrect and kept blocking myself from the audiences view.
I eventually was able to make sure my timing and rhythm was accurate however this
took the majority of the rehearsal. My target for next lesson is to clean up the
formation of the dance so that everyone is seen equally. This would be needed within
the musical industry as once the choreography has been taught you are expected to
know it and stay in a clean tidy formation.
4. This choreography was the sharp repetitive movements of clicking, at first
each individual member was doing a different hand actions, but after
repeating the actions carefully together we all decided on a specific hand
gesture.
Within this image my arm position is wrong, it should
have been the same leg and same arm. After many
rehearsals I managed to get my movements correct.
That is evident in the photo below, however, as
alignment was an issue throughout many rehearsals I am
unable to be seen doing the choreography at all.
