Friday 5th December/ singing and dancing

Today was our lesson when we are taught singing by Kim and dance by Kat. Recently we have been combining the two lessons together to work on our musical skills of singing, dancing and acting at the same time. 

Today in the lesson, we did two full run throughs of the music and dance side of the musical, everything included in the backing track. We did this once with the backing vocals and once with out. Again, the second time went better because the first time, despite the fact we had the support of the backing singingers, everyone knew what they were doing and which parts of the scenes needed extra work or effort. 

For me, I think the second time I sang giants in the sky, my solo, actually felt like the best I'd ever sung it in front of my class. It was the first time I had managed to project my head voice notes loud enough to the audience and I used diction to pronounciate the words properly, making telling the story of the song easier for me. I also used a change in articulation through out the song therefore I sung it how it is meant to be. Overall, very happy with this now. 

One thing I need to work on is my small solo song, saying goodbye to Milky-White. The first time I sung it, went better than the second because I had the backing vocals to support me through the timing, which was what let me down the second time. This is something I will go through in my spare time, listening to the backing track wth out vocals so I can get used to and familiar with the timing of the song. 

All in all, the musical side is shaping up well to In To The Woods. One of my favourite musical numbers is the witches rap. The way Izzy is projecting her voice and making full use of her characterisation skills really pays off, especially when watching her with her backing dancers from year 13, this song is looking really good at the moment. Another of my favourite pieces is The Baker and his wife's It Takes Two dance. The way Bryleah and Luke use their facial expressions to convey to the audience their feelings for each other and the situation works well with the lyrics if the song. One number I think needs work is the very opening song. It is all staged well and everyone is aware if where they are meant to be and the actions they're doing however most if te cast in stage at that point, are not fully familar with the order in which the song is to be sung. I think we need the have a session in which we rehearse this together in. 

Finally, we went in to the theatre to choreograph the end of scene 1 because the staging has now changed from our original idea. Kat helped set us out in our formation and added a couple more moves in to the dance to mix up the levels for the audiences enjoyment. Now we have sorted this song out, I think we are almost ready to perform!