Matilda Rehearsal Log

1. Matilda Rehearsal Log
The focus of this rehearsal was on the choreography and staging
more of the Revolting Children dance within the musical Matilda and
to also gather more of an understanding of the dance. Our target was on choreographing more of
the dance and to start establishing the characters and di
ff
erent ways in which we could embody
these characters while dancing. By starting the choreography early on it will help us as a class as
when we have the basic structure of the dance we can then work on the small perfections and
tweaks.
The SMART targets that I focused on in this rehearsal was
characterisation and timing of the
choreography. Characterisation is a key aspect of this dance as its main elements are that o
ff
rebellious children, which therefore challenges me as we not only have to learn the dance, we also
have to look into various di
ff
erent ways we can do it, in order to portray ourselves as little children.
It is also very important that I focus on my timing because as dance isn’t my main element as a
performer I
fi
nd it more di
ffi
cult to remember the di
ff
erent moves and to make sure that I do them
at the correct points of the song.
Matilda is set in the 1970s/80s. The themes of the musical are family, bullying and education.
Matilda is a book musical. In this scene we are all playing the characters o
ff
little children. The
children are standing up and revolting against their cruel principal Miss Trunchbull. ‘Revolting
children’ is what their headmistress had been calling them. Which leads to this scene where the
children are revolting and rede
fi
ning the insult in their own way. The characteristics of my
character are: rebellious, cheeky, loud, sassy and con
fi
dent. The relationships between the
children in this piece are very friendly and light hearted as they are all likeminded in the sense of,
they all are in agreement in their dislike for the principal and their reasons for revolting against her.
As a group we aim to show the children’s close relationships as a class in school.
In this scene the musical theatre elements are mainly dance with small parts of singing. However
in our production of the piece we did not include the singing and we instead mimed the singing
parts, and solely focused on the dance element. The main skills which are evident in this scene
are facial expressions, gestures, body language, spacial awareness, timing, proxemics, posture ,
weight placement, rhythm and tempo and relationships with other characters.
One strength I feel as if I showed during this rehearsal was my ability to pick up the choreography
and perform it with good timing. In certain parts of the rehearsal I helped one of my classmates
with the timing of some of the moves and what beats each move should be performed at. This not
only supported them but also supported me in remembering the choreography and its timing that
much more.
Some weakness I feel as if I showed during this rehearsal was my characterisation and my
alignment. Once we began staging the piece after learning more choreography I found myself
being directly aligned behind others in the group which meant that I was hidden from most of the
audiences view. Therefore this meant i found myself also lacking in characterisation as I knew I
could not be seen. I worked on this by moving slightly in these certain parts and then I also
worked on di
ff
erent ways in which I could embody the character of a rebellious child.
Within rehearsals we have been adding choreography and working on previous choreography that
we have added each time. The main focus for our whole group is remembering the choreography
and timing it right. However individually, my main focuses are my characterisation and the
sharpness of my movements as I am not struggling with remembering the choreography and the
timing of it as much. Whereas I am
fi
nding it challenging to perform these movements and
choreography with good characterisation and emphasis behind each movement. One way i am
working on this is by working on improving my stamina as I am
fi
nding myself becoming tired and
out of breathe which is making it more challenging for me in those aspects.
After reviewing my SMART targets I feel as if I achieved parts of it. I believe I was successful in my
timing as I am hitting the right movements at the right times within our rehearsals. However I am
still lacking in the characterisation aspect of the dance as I feel as if most of my focus has been
on timing and remembering my choreography which has left me lacking when it comes to

2. e
ff
ectively embodying my character. Therefore my target for next rehearsal this will be to
e
ff
ectively embody my character through good characterisation while also still being good with
my timing and choreography. This will be something I work on outside of rehearsals so that i am
more prepared for my next rehearsal and can therefore begin looking at di
ff
erent ways i can
improve.
Here you can see I am directly aligned behind
another member of the group, therefore I am
hidden from the view of the audience. I will
fi
x
this by moving a few steps over towards centre
stage left.
Here you can see I am performing this part of the
choreography at the perfect point in the song.
This part of the scene is going very fast and
therefore it is easier to miss hitting this pose on
the right beat as it also involves very quick
changed in body movement and choreography.
This is just one example of how my timing was
successful in this rehearsal.
Here you can see I am not embodying my
character and that I have lost all characterisation.
You can see I have done this as i am looking
back and facing the people behind me due to me
being more focused on what part of the
choreography comes next. To
fi
x this I will make
sure I know absolutely all of the choreography
and will also study di
ff
erent ways to embody my
character.