Fourth rehearsal today and the last one before the holidays. 
What a great rehearsal yesterday. Many thanks to Alex, Sophie and Martha for all your hard work. With one rehearsal left before the Christmas break, and at least two more after, I'm very happy with the progress. Yesterday we worked on the beginning and a couple of linking sections and of course taught Martha the majority of the movement material, again thanks to Alex and Sophie for showing her some of this in their own time. My homework for the next week is to get the next section, which is the big chorus, choreographed ready for Sundays rehearsal and then we're nearly there. The ending will still need to be worked but I'm holding off until it is clear where everyone will be so that it is a natural ending. Location and spacing will have to wait until I have either more of the cast to work with at one time or are in the bigger studio, both would be preferable, but we'll see.
I was apprehensive about how this would go as I haven't been dancing all week but all was fine apart from forgetting I was bruised and demonstrating a roll up of the floor, ouch! There are now two sections of movement material choreographed with the aim to split up into smaller groups and work on the direction these will face. Charlie joined us for rehearsal and Sophie was away so I still had four lovely people to work with. Next week Martha will be coming along too so I am leaving teaching Charlie the whole of the first section until then so I can show them together. The beginning and middle parts of the video still have work to be done and the placing is no where near the finished product as there will be six bodies in the space. I am planning on videoing some of next weeks rehearsal with the aim to put this in the video to be projected on the back wall. Still need to check that the projector works and will work in the space. Looking forward to the next stage of this piece :)
With so many idea going through my head ready for rehearsal tomorrow I had to get some of them out. There are a few things not explored in this little taster which need more room so I'm hoping we are in the big studio tomorrow.
I haven't visited my Daft Punk Evolution project for a bit, while preparing for the start of rehearsals on Sunday. So today I popped the music on and see what just came to me. Here is a short excerpt from the 1960's section.
In keeping with my search for music for my piece for the January show, the list is getting quite long now, I asked the lovely Luna to play something for me. She is currently reteaching herself (got to love that) One Man's Dream by Yanni. The sound quality is a little poor from a recording point of view and the video a little dark but we had fun, all-be-it rushed. Hopefully there will be more like this in the future :)
Today feels like a breakthrough. All the little bits and pieces I've been throwing out over the last few weeks seem to have led to today. I want to do something beautiful for the January show and with my first official rehearsal on Sunday I am happy to take this along. Music is still a decision to make but today has helped.
Using the improved space as promised yesterday. It took some playing around with camera position in relation to the adjusted space. This has giving me a couple of ideas about how to improve the space even further and also made me aware of where the wobbly floorboards are!
Although I would like to use 'Smother' by Daughter for the January show I also want to prepare some alternative choices so that I can discuss these with my cast. It's ultimately my decision of course but I'd like to have their input.
OK so I had a mini fail this last week. My last post was on Tuesday and after that everything got a bit hectic with interviews, college and a masquerade ball including filming. So apologies to all, including myself. Onwards!
I have been thinking a lot about ideas for the 'Smother' piece. While listening to my housemate playing a beautiful improvised piece I came up with some interesting ideas for how to shape the whole piece with and without the use of film.
Today I wanted to play with the feel of the piece and add that into the melting pot of inspiration. This is one of the things I covered in my workshop last week; finding the flow through the music.
I've been working on my lesson plan for the workshop on Friday. To get as much creative work done as possible in the time I'm putting together a short continuous warm-up. 
With the prospective choreography for the January show in mind I had a dance in the studio after class today. I was also asked to teach the Friday workshop this week to work with the the first years, see who would like to be involved and what direction to take the piece in. Very much looking forward to this but lots of preparation to do; watch this space.
I thought I'd do some more towards my Daft Punk Evolution project today. I had a little search for some era specific music and got to Nirvana and stopped :)
