Bon Voyage Journey.
- Mar 14, 2018
- 19 min read
Week commencing 1st Jan (closed 1st Jan):
Coming into this project I have been drawn to the idea behind Burlesque, I have researched into what type of burlesque I want to be involved in by watching the film “Burlesque” this has aided my work and devising practice by inspiring me to research further into the difference between modern American style Burlesque (I.e the film “Burlesque”) and French Burlesque. To my knowledge so far I am only aware of one difference and that is modern American Burlesque is more fast paced compared to French Burlesque which is slower and more facial expressions are involved. I will need to broaden my knowledge.
Based off our stimulus of the American film ‘Burlesque’ we have taken this forward to create our own Burlesque performance devised as a group. We started this by performing our own versions of Burlesque to the chosen song “Show me how you burlesque” by Christina Aguilera featured in the film “Burlesque”. Although this was a group piece and we all have had significant input I feel our commissioner would be Lee-ann because she has had the most experience in dancing an has helped others who have had lesser experience by teaching the routine. However I do feel that 90% of us have all inputted significantly also. We all have had turns to practice new material and have had many discussions based on if we are happy and comfortable with moves and if not we have worked together as a team to overcome challenges. For example Natalie did not feel comfortable jumping down from the chair because she felt she was too tall and it wasn’t working so we adapted the dance and made it so her and Lee-ann stayed up on the chairs for longer and got down differently, this made the piece better in my opinion, this meant that we all were doing different movements which was a nice contrast to the whole piece. We all had chances to input movements, one of mine was to travel behind the chair and create the movement of crouching down behind it. We all performed this and decided as a group if we liked it and wanted to use it, we did. We performed the dance from the beginning each time we had a new movement, this aided us to learn the dance more quickly and inspire us to create more material whilst also helping us iron out any problems with timing and clarity.
I have researched into a French Burlesque company Cabaret Versatile they are based in Los Angeles. Cabaret Versatile is the first company to represent the culture of French cabaret in California. As well as performing in public, the company offers high-class private entertainment for all kinds of special events. State of the art performers take the audience on a journey to France inviting them into a world of French Burlesque and Parisian Folies. Through a magical experience full of surprises, Cabaret Versatile creates unforgettable moments of sexiness and elegance.
I have also been working on my French song called 'Derniere Dance' By Indila. I have been exited to perform this song as it is a song I have enjoyed for a while and know most of the words already. I have researched into the English translation of the song to help me understand the meaning behind the song to add emotion for when I am performing it.
Oh my sweet torment,
No point in fighting, you start again
I'm just a worthless being
Without him I'm a bit troubled
I wander around alone on the subway
A last dance
To forget my great misery
I want to get away, everything to start again,
Oh my sweet torment
I stir the sky, the day, the night
I dance with the wind, the rain
A bit of love, a drop of honey
And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance
And in the noise, I run and I'm afraid
Is this my turn?
Here comes the pain
In all of Paris, I abandon myself
And away I fly, fly, fly, fly
Nothing but hope
On this road in your absence
Try as I might, without you my life is nothing but a meaningless shiny decor
I stir the sky, the day, the night
I dance with the wind, the rain
A bit of love, a drop of honey
And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance
And in the noise, I run and I'm afraid
Is this my turn?
Here comes the pain
In all of Paris, I abandon myself
And away I fly, fly, fly, fly
In this sweet torment
Whose offences I've paid in full
Listen to how great my heart is
I'm a child of the world
I stir the sky, the day, the night
I dance with the wind, the rain
A bit of love, a drop of honey
And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance
And in the noise, I run and I'm afraid
Is this my turn?
Here comes the pain
In all of Paris, I abandon myself
And away I fly, fly, fly, fly
I think it is important to understand what you are singing and apply the right emotion, it can be confusing for the audience if you are unsure yourself. This is a difficult song to perform this way as the track is very upbeat however, what she is singing isn't as upbeat as the instrumental, I feel this could hinder me because the audience won't know what I am singing because it is in French and it contrasts from the music, I will have to work on making my emotions clear.
Multilingual singing provides a space to celebrate and promote linguistic diversity through singing. Here you will find information about multilingual singing workshops and resources for singers. There is also a blog where you can read about singing events, resources and thoughts on singing, plurilingualism, and intercultural awareness.
I have also uploaded video footage to my youtube of the process of the burlesque dance.
Week commencing 8th Jan:
Me, Natalie and Tiffani have decided to take forward 2 trios, Habits by Tove Lo and and Dog days by Florence and the machine, both of these pieces fit into the Europe port of call. We all have had experience with these songs and have been working on harmonising. The harmonising has been quite difficult and our singing teacher had little input, so to try and amend this I have been practicing singing in a higher and lower tone. We were given feedback that we are missing a forth voice and should seek a soprano singer, but from asking we got nowhere. We will continue to work on this throughout other ports of call.
We have just been introduced to our Hip-Hop commercial dance routine, lead by Leroy. I have found the idea of doing commercial hip-hop to be daunting as I have had no experience in it whatsoever, but I strongly believe I should be testing myself in this unit and as we have time to create and polish before and after auditions I am not as worried I feel like this is a perfect time for me to jump out of my comfort zone, I am already doing this by engaging in singing in a different language. I have also had many ideas for other ports of call and would really like to test my ability as a performer.
After the session with Leroy, I feel more confident in commercial dance, there are still movements from todays session that I am not 100% with but I think it'll come over time, I will shortly be recording the routine, we have managed to produce 20 seconds so far after a vigorous warm up to introduce us to this unit. After this session I decided to look into different commercial dance companies and came across Mark summers which is an agency specialising in commercial dance but also cover various areas of voice work and even fashion. commercial refers to dancing done in concerts, live shows, music videos, movies, industrials, and, obviously, commercials. There are many different styles of dance that can be worked into the commercial category, such as hip hop, jazz, locking, popping, breakdancing, krumping, and more. Sometimes, you'll find ballet and ballroom thrown into the mix, although "street dance" is more common. Generally speaking, commercial dance is super sexy and super entertaining.
To move forward from the session with Leroy I have set targets to rehearse the routine ready for next Tuesday.
This week I have jotted down some ideas to audition for the show for our port of Europe including; Signing in French, frantic assembly ensemble, singing Adele's "one and only" and singing in Spanish with Ryan, so before I move forward to composing these pieces I have researched into the arts surrounding Europe and what other material I could look into. From my research I found that I could experiment in other forms of dance, including; ballroom dancing, tap, French Burlesque.
Me and Natalie would like to commission the frantic assembly piece together and have created a short chairs duet piece to teach to the rest of the group. I personally love this piece and I think once everyone understands what frantic assembly is then we can create a really strong ensemble piece.
Frantic assembly
Frantic Assembly creates thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Frantic Assembly's unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text.
Frantic Assembly is led by Artistic Director Scott Graham. Scott formed the company with Steven Hoggett and Vicki Middleton in 1994, and continues to collaborate with many of today's most inspiring artists. Having toured extensively throughout the UK, Frantic Assembly has built an enviable reputation as one of the most exciting companies in the country. The company has also performed, created and collaborated in 30 different countries across the world. In addition to its productions, Frantic Assembly operates an extensive learning and training programme, introducing 6,000 participants a year to the company's process of creating theatre, in a wide variety of settings. Frantic Assembly also delivers Ignition, an innovative vocational training project for young men, particularly targeting those with little previous experience of the arts.
Week commencing 15th Jan:
This week we have moved onto our port of South America and the pieces I will be completing to add to this port will be; salsa and tango. We have moved forward from the port of Europe, the acts I have involvement in are; French song, Adele, Despacito , Frantic assembly and Burlesque. These acts I will continue to work on and polish ensuring they are fresh for the auditions two weeks away.
In this port I have been specifically drawn the the idea of including Boal scenes.
Augusto Boal
Brazilian dramatist (born March 16, 1931, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.—died May 2, 2009, Rio de Janeiro), created the Theatre of the Oppressed, a form of interactive theatre intended to transform lives as spectators become performers, acting out solutions to social problems. Boal began his career with the Arena Theatre in São Paulo in 1956; he was its director until 1971, during which time he developed his theories. He was arrested in 1971 by the military junta then ruling Brazil and spent the next 15 years in exile. During this period he published Teatro del oprimido y otras poéticas políticas (1974; Theatre of the Oppressed), set up a centre for the practice of his theory in Paris, and organized international Theatre of the Oppressed festivals in the early to mid-1980s. Boal returned to Brazil in 1986 and established a Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro as well as several community theatres. In 1992 he published Jeux pour acteurs et non-acteurs (Games for Actors and Non-Actors), which describes techniques for putting his method into practice. He also organized international festivals for practitioners of his style of theatre.
We have just been introduced to our Tango piece lead by Nathan, this piece I have no partner currently, so I will be learning with Nathan, we have picked it up slowly because I find that the movements art all very similar which makes it hard for me because I kept going to do different movements to what was suppose to be happening, I found that many others have had the same problem. This piece we would like to include hymn hands and round-by-throughs to the beginning part of this routine but because I don't have a partner just yet I am yet to create the beginning. I am worried that I will have to teach this routine as I am not 100% confident with it myself, so as a target I will practice this routine on my own at home.
Our Salsa routine has been extremely fun, I felt I picked this up quickly. apart from the foot movement, which you will see in the video, I think this routine captures the diversity within dance, it is simple movements and is lively.
What is Salsa? Salsa is a dance for Salsa music created by Spanish-speaking people from the Caribbean. Salsa dancing mixes African and European dance influences through the music and dance fusions that are the roots of Salsa: Son, Guaguancó, Rumba, Boogaloo, Pachanga, Guaracha, Plena, Bomba. Salsa is normally a lead & follow (freestyle) partner dance, although there are other recognized forms. Today Salsa is a very modern dance that is infulenced by other up to date styles of dancing.
We have worked on staging for this piece, because we are working in such a small space and the audience will be placed around us we have decided to walk in-between the audience members to the stage. I think we still should angle our performance more outwards so all audience members would be able to see.
We also discussed ideas around limbo and involving the audience members, however because the audience members would have been eating, we felt this would not be a effective as a piece.
This week I also went over despacito with Ryan, I am picking up the vocabulary faster than I anticipated, I am hopeful this will be a strong piece.
We have been working on our group song 'Baba Yetu' with our singing teacher, this has been a slow process, but we are slowly getting there after Nathan went through the pronunciation of the words in Swahili.
Week commencing the 22nd Jan:
This week we have moved on to the port of Asia, me and Natalie have decided to create a Yoga adapted to dance routine, to ensure we can complete this we completed an hours session on yoga to warm our bodies up, it is essential to make sure we are able to complete the movements safely. Me and Natalie are both equal commissioners to this piece and are both very familiar to yoga, we practice this at home separately an have had previous conversations about being yoga partners outside of our studies. I feel it is very important to be close to your yoga partner because it is a sport that you have to be very close and in eachother's personal space. After completing our session with yoga we then set ourselves onto the yoga challenge.
After this we searched up couples yoga positions and gave them all a go to create a bases for our routine.
After researching into our positions we then worked on a stimulus and we chose; the seven stages of life. We decided that we would class ourselves as mother and daughter and me being the daughter grew up without a father figure. After setting our stimulus we asked Ryan if he would be interested in playing my father that leaves, we then worked on this piece for around 2 hours and had a solid start to our routine.
We also went through the Oceania port this week, Me and Natalie have decided to complete a duet for Sia's Chandelier, I personally love this song and I feel that this song complements our voices together, we both can hit the higher notes and are very familiar with the song, all that is left to do for this piece is to adapt our voices to the backing track ready for auditions.
Week commencing the 29th Jan:
This is our final week before auditions and we have moved on to the port of North America and we are also covering the port of Africa with Leroy. The Africa port has been weak so me and Trya decided to learn a dance that I really enjoyed from youtube called the "Pana Dance"
We have started creating our own version of the dance but because this is a last minute addition we have decided not to audition it as it won't be ready but rather present it as an idea to the panel as the African port is short. Also for the African port we have began working on a African Dancehall piece with Leroy, which again is another piece I have really enjoyed as I feel like it tests my ability but also, it is a dance I have always found interest in.
We have also been working on our Commercial Hip Hop piece which has seen many improvements, only I am still struggling with some of the foot work.
And we also have made amendments to our Burlesque piece ready for auditions
For our North America piece I have decided I want to create a duet with Ryan playing the guitar for a piece I hold close to my heart and that is Daddy Lessons by Beyonce. This song has followed me for years on an emotional level because the lyrics of the song fall into place with my life after my father left me my sister and my mother. I feel this song suits the port well as it is very southern which is a big contrast to other performances within this port. It has been hard for me to blend my voice with the guitar and to adapt to music that has less instruments involved. We decided to cut it down shorter and slow it down. I have had to be mindful of my accent and to adapt to a southern voice for singing, this hasn't been to difficult and is another one of my favourite pieces to put forward for the show.
I love the idea of Disney and I have done some research into the Disney company to support my song of 'Colours of the wind' from Pocahontas.
Walt disney Company
The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world.
Colours of the wind has been slightly neglected because I feel very confident with the song and have performed it beforehand prior to the show, so I have briefly gone over it ready for auditions.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Written for the movie The Wizard Of Oz, this song was used early in the film when Dorothy (played by Judy Garland) longs to escape her dreary life on the farm in Kansas. A deeper interpretation can have Dorothy longing for heaven.
The music was written by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Yip Harburg. They were asked to write this based on their previous hits, "It's Only A Paper Moon," "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime," and "Lydia The Tattooed Lady."
Arlen came up with the melody while sitting in his car in front of the original Schwab's Drug Store in Hollywood. Harburg hated it at first because he thought it was too slow. After Arlen consulted with Ira Gershwin, he sped up the tempo and Harburg came up with the words.
Me and Natalie have decided to perform somewhere over the rainbow the Judy Garland version. We have had some issues with the the backing track as we struggled to find one that was good quality.
During this week we have also added a new addition to the South American port by adding 'Hot Hot Hot' a dance salsa piece to the song 'Feeling hot' we choreographed this similarly to the burlesque piece where Lee-ann was the main commissioner but we all managed to input creatively. Because we have limited space to perform in we have as a group limited our movements so our target is to work on extension and not being afraid of the spacing we have been given.
Tyra has asked me to be involved in her comedy North American sketch 'is you ok' produced by a youtuber called Golzell, I have agreed because I feel the sketch is funny and I am in nothing acting based or script wise. I haven't had long to prepare for this piece because I have been so focused on other pieces and I was given my script quite late leaving me no time to be off script.
Another piece I have been involved in is called 'Move your body' a promotional dance video put together by Beyonce to help reduce child obesity in America
This piece I am also familiar with as I have performed it before. Everyone picked up the routine fast and I think thats because the directions are given in the song. we have worked on spacing and how we are going to present this to the audience. I am finding this piece to be lacking in energy I think this may be because I think we don't have enough people in it. I am hopeful that the second years would like to be apart of it.
The final piece I have been involved in for the North America port is 'The cup song' from Pitch Perfect. Lucy is the commissioner for this piece as has approached me and Natalie to perform the cups whilst also being backing singers. I have found this particularly hard as I struggled to sing whilst also creating the beat with the cups so I have decided I will sing the chorus only, Natalie decided to do the same to allow Lucy to sing mostly solo.
Week commencing 5th Feb: (WEDNESDAY WAS AUDITIONS)
On the Tuesday of this week we decided we would create a schedule to ensure that we went over all pieces that needed work, and allowed time to correct them. Me and Tiffani created the schedule with everyones input
From this session we completed the frantic assembly routine completely ready for auditions, which was great because me and Natalie were worried because this routine had been left behind from the first week.
We completed 'hot hot hot' and have added some comedy to it. This routine is quickly becoming one of my favourites.
When we got to yoga, me and Natalie were very worried because we had come to a mental block since we last approached yoga (see the video) but pulled ourselves together this session and blocked the whole rest of the routine
7 stages of life
The infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
The whining school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school.
The lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress' eyebrow.
The soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon's mouth. (Pard refers to the leopard; the soldier's beard is being compared to a leopard's whiskers.)
The justice, in fair round belly with good capon lin'd, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances. (A capon is a fattened chicken prepared as a delicacy, and lin'dhere means more like "stuffed." Proverbially, a capon refers to a bribe. Wise saws refers to old sayings, and modern instances are trite sayings.)
The lean and slipper'd pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side, his youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound. (A pantaloon is a foolish old man.)
Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. (Here, mere means "complete." Second childishness and mere oblivion is a fancy way of saying "old age and death.")
I managed to familiarise myself with 'Is you ok' piece but unfortunately I am going to have to audition on script because I feel I don't have much time left and I have other pieces to rehearse for. It is a shame the piece was apparent to my late in the week because I feel like I could have added much more to my character than I am.
The day of auditions was harsh, a lot less of our pieces as a group did not get in as we initially thought, we also thought the delivery of our feedback was out of context and a tough pill to swallow, however as a group we were professional and didn't disagree with the choices that were made by the second years. and after some later on amendments we have a list of pieces that are in for the show.
The pieces of mine that are in; my French song, Despacito, hot hot hot, buba yetu, African dancehall, Yoga adapted to dance, Daddy lessons, American commercial hip hop and including the finale.
I have been removed from the 'is you ok' sketch and from somewhere over the rainbow.
I went home a little deflated but hopeful the show would be great. Part of the small amount of acts that got in it due to the fact we have many students involved in our first and second years and its only a 3 hour show.
Week commencing 19th Feb:
We have worked on Buba Yetu again, to clarify harmonies everyone is clear on their singing groups and it is coming together nicely. I feel I am strong at this song, I've chosen to challenge myself and allocated myself to the alto group rather than the sopranos, part of this decision is because as a group the soprano group sounds stronger than the other groups.
me and Natalie worked on our yoga to polish up movements and to iron over mistakes. In the last run of yoga, my balance let me down so I need to work on engaging my core muscles whilst performing because I feel my balance will be threatened by nerves.
I have also worked on Daddy Lessons as we were given feedback that we needed more of a stage presence so I have had an idea to create a mini scene where Natalie and Lucy will act as my children and me and Ryan are the parents, they will come in and ask me to tell them the story of their grandad, that is where I will begin singing (As if I am telling them a story.)
Week commencing 26th Feb:
on the Tuesday we all teamed together to help the production arts paint the set that we will be using for the show.
We also found time to go over routines and polish acts, I need to work on my presence for my French song, the emotions I am portraying is confusing, so I should work and practice as if there is an audience there so I can connect with telling a story.
Later this week, I have still been extremely worried about the commercial hip-hop dance as the foot work still confuses me, I asked Natalie and Tiffani to go over the footwork and I managed to complete it for the first time. We also managed to finish the whole routine.
Despacito is now a group number including; Me, Ryan, Natalie and Tiffani because we were given feedback to add more people to the act.
Week commencing 5th March: (help sheet)
This week we worked on full runs and dress runs, Me and Natalie also travelled up to London to get costumes for the group. I have performed my French song the way I feel it needs to be performed. We all worked with Leroy in the space and were given feedback to apply more facial expressions and to add extension and meaning to our movements. We have also been told the at African Dancehall and Hot hot hot are lacking in vocals to add to our movements so we have been working on that by adding relevant sounds to each piece.
I feel it has come to that point as a performer that I need to perform to an audience to give me the adrenaline I need to add power to my acts, I know this isn't ideal, but I feel I would have more connections to performing when I can see reactions. I know as a performer from the audiences reactions if I am doing things right or if I need to do more. I need to learn to channel this in to rehearsals.
We have finally rehearsed Yoga enough to be pleased with its performance quality. I feel I have worked on engaging my core and from this I don't mess up as much. I also feel I connect well to the emotion of this piece and I can say I am very proud of what we have created.
Week commencing 12th March:
I spoke to my singing teacher and asked her feedback on my French song, but she had no feedback to give me, she said I was performing it perfectly.
We have continued to run our performance, perfecting costume changes and entrances and exits.
I was given feedback that I should wear a dress for my French song. Personally I feel everyone was in a dress and I wanted to wear something plain to bring eyes towards my face, I feel this wasn't a song to be all dressed up for but intact to portray raw emotion from my face.
Please explore my page to find more snaps of the process! Feel free to explore my Youtube!
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