VARIETY SECTION 2

Original act ideas and research

One of my chosen ideas of acts I could perform in the variety show end of term variety show is a ballet and contemporary dance solo.
Research material- here, are some You Tube clips of professional ballet and contemporary routines I have gained inspiration from over my research process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-tW0CkvdD

The dancer Sergei Polunin who stars in this fantastic dance solo, has really given me some new and fresh ideas to add in to my solo. His professionalism clearly shows through when dancing and his brilliantly unique fluidity whilst dancing takes the audiences attention fully on to him. The way he hold his body clearly shows how much dedication he has to his dance and therefore represents his commitment and passion for the sport. Polunin also has exquisite musicality, the ability to dance to the rhythm of the music to the exact not. The way he uses the space also has given me inspiration and ideas of how to recreate this in the space, The Sealight Theatre. I will be performing my solo in.
One aspect in particular which stands out to me about the moves Polunin performs are his turns. Each pirouette turn holds so much strength on his behalf as he has the ability to control every turn as he wishes. My personal favourite pirouette he performs is over two counts of eight in the middle of the routine. He performs a sequence of turns which flow in to one another. These are technically extremely challenging are could, if performed poorly, cause terrible injuries; the way he executes them is truly inspiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzM9Mt_cpq0

Another dance piece I have learnt a lot from is this wonderful contemporary dance solo, performed by Olga Kuraeva. This piece is in fact all improvised by Kuraeva which shows her sheer talent and knowledge of the dance type. I always appreciate a soloist who improvises their whole routine as this is a skill aquired after many years of dance lessons and dedication.
My favourite element of Kuraeva's piece is the way she doesn't fill every single count with massive movements; she adds in simple yet effective foot and leg work to fill gaps and add to the suspense of the piece as a whole.

 

Monday 13th April- dance solo rehearsals

Today I spent some time alone in the dance studio, brain storming ideas for my solo.  I thought about what type of moves I wanted to incorporate in to my piece. I am yet to decided officially on a song to dance to therefore, I put some backing music on and started playing around with some movement ideas. I started off concentrating on making a couple of counts of eight of movement which I can refer back to within the dance; I can repeat this as the main section of dance throughout the piece however each time it appears, I can alter the timing, direction and focus of the moves.

I worked out a main sequence which lasted eight counts within the half an hour I spent in the studio. This included a head role, side lean, a double jazz pirouette and a double jete through centre stage coming from a diagonal. This will work well with one song I had in mind to dance to, a cover of Wrecking Ball, originally by Miley Cyrus.

 

Wednesday 15th April- dance rehearsal (Monday carry on)

Today, I found some time at home to put the eight counts of movement I choreographed fro my variety performance solo on Monday, and attempted to put this to the cover of wrecking ball I found that I thought would suit the dance and style. It worked really well and allowed me to dance to moves at a slow pace, which I was aiming for.

Wrecking ball cover- Boyce Avenue

Updated act

I have decided against doing a solo dance piece for the variety show and now feel I can express myself in a higher quality through doing a vocal solo.

My chosen performance piece for the variety performance is a character song. I will be singing, solo, I dreamed a dream from the musical, Les Miserable. I have decided to perform this instead of a dance solo, as I believe it will allow me to express my talents to a higher quality as I am able to incorporate movement in to the way I perform the song where as I couldn’t do this with a predominant dance piece.

I dreamed a dream; lyrics by Anne Hathaway

There was a time when men were kind

 When their voices were soft

 And their words inviting

 There was a time when love was blind

 And the world was a song

 And the song was exciting

 There was a time

 Then it all went wrong

 I dreamed a dream in time gone by

 When hope was high

 And life worth living

 I dreamed that love would never die

 I dreamed that God would be forgiving

 Then I was young and unafraid

 So dreams were made and used and wasted

 There was no ransom to be paid

 No song unsung

 No wine untasted

 But the tigers come at night

 With their voices soft as thunder

 As they tear your hope apart

 And they turn your dream to shame

 He slept a summer by my side

 He filled my days with endless wonder

 He took my childhood in his stride

 But he was gone when autumn came

 And still I dream he'll come to me

 That we will live the years together

 But there are dreams that cannot be

 And there are storms we cannot weather

 I had a dream my life would be

 So different from this hell I'm living

 So different now from what it seemed

 Now life has killed

 The dream I dreamed

 

Reasons behind change of act

The first reason behind this song choice is that I have already performed this sing this year. I sung this for my singing unit and was assessed on this. This gives me an advantage as I have recently performed this song, meaning I am confident with the lyrics and way of singing the song. This will allow me to pull off a great performance. Secondly, I have chosen to perform this song as I believe the lyrics give me a great starting point to develop characterisation and meaning behind my interpretation of the song. The lyrics allow this by having such a serious and emotional tone, making it easier for me to create a real sense of performance out of the song.

Research material

I took my inspiration to choose the song, I dreamed a dream from watching Anne Hathaway's Les Miserable performance of the song. I feel she performs this to an extremely high standard as she uses strong characterisation to portray her character through facial expressions and tone of voice.

I dreamed a dream- Anne Hathaway version

Once I had decided on this song, i took to Youtube and did some further research in to the song and other famous faces who had performed this song. Below, are two of my personal favourites as I believe these both contain elements which I wish to carry forward in to my performance of the song.

I believe Susan Boyle's version of the song tells a story that has happened rather than telling a story which is currently happening, which I think Anne Hathaway does. Both of these perspectives work well with the song as they both tie in to the emotional intention behind the song.

 Susan Boyle's version

The final version I watched that gave me my final push of inspiration of how to performed the song, was Glee's cover. They sung the whole song accapella and I feel this gave it an extremely raw feeling and a very naturalistic way  of telling the story of the lyrics.

Glee's version

Monday 4th May- singing rehearsals

Today I used my lesson time to rehearse my song, I dreamed a dream. I took the time in the lesson to sing in a practise room alone. I feel being alone is my personal preferred way of practising as I find I work the most productively in my own company. I sang my dong through a couple of times with the karaoke version and felt I needed to work on reaching the higher notes in the song. For this, I sang an high octave scale, in my chest voice which really pushed my vocal limits. I feel this helped develop my range and enabled me to feel more comfortable around the higher notes within i dreamed a dream.

Monday 11th May

Following last week's rehearsals for my variety act, today i decided to sing my song acapella. I have chosen to sing it with no backing music as I feel it will help me portray to the audience, the meaning of the song and the story behind the lyrics.

Development of act

Idea 1

My original idea was to sing the song, standing stationary in front of a microphone and stand in centre stage, accompanied by the karaoke backing track; the same track Anne Hathaway used in the musical version. This was a very similar version of the song as to which I performed for my singing unit. I initially thought this was the best way the perform the song however after rehearsing the song like this for a week, I soon realised I needed to add some more diversity to the way I sing the song. After all, there are endless ways one could potentially perform the song due to the flexibility of the lyrics.
Karaoke backing track

Idea 2

The fail of my original idea, brought me to my second idea. This idea is indeed inspired by the Glee’s version of I dreamed a dream which was one of my favourite versions of the song, featuring in my research. The way I have decided to perform the song, is acapella. This way of performing the song is potentially a gamble however, I believe my voice is strong enough to carry the sound to every seat in the theatre I will be performing in. Another reason as to which I have decided to do this, is that I believe not having a backing track or music to sing to will increase the idea that I will be telling a story rather than singing a song. I have decided this because I am performing this in a variety show and I believe this is a unique way of presenting a character song. Variety shows are all about unique acts and putting a personal twist on what you do, therefore I believe my act now fits the criteria well.

Lighting plan and positioning on stage

 

Costume ideas; 1 and 2

 

Idea 1

 

Idea 2

The stage- The sealight Theatre and audience

I plan to use the stage to its full potential when performing my act. I will start off the song, sitting down, towards the back of the stage, in the middle. I will do this to automatically draw attention to my being on stage. I will not use any props or complex lighting because I believe all the attention must be on my character through out the song. This will emphasise the fact the lyrics tell the woman's story of loosing love and being heartbroken.

I plan to move around the stage which requires me to have a radio microphone. I will be moving around the stage as part of my characterisation for my character, showing how distressed and lonely she is in the current moment.

Other acts I am invloved in for the variety show

1) Max's act, Both reached for the gun- Chicago

I play Roxie Hart, who acts as a puppet through out this song therefore I am required to make puppet and floppy like movements. To ensure I have perfected this in time for the performance, I will watch the Chicago original version through a few times and really take note on the arm movements she performs. Click here to see We both reached for the gun




2) Izzy and Jess's act, What is this feeling- Wicked

In this act, Luke, Max and I play Garlinda's groupies. We have to act as if Garlinda is at the top of the school's hierarchy and is our role model. We use our characterisation skills to act in an immature high school manor. Luke, Max and I have also worked out two part harmonies to sing underneath Jess and Izzy. Click here to view what is this feeling.

Monday 18th May- tech rehearsal

Today, Monday 18th May, is the day before the variety show. This is the last assessed show of the year and therefore, I have put a lot of effort in to ensuring my act is up to a high standard.

As an extremely last minute decision, I have now decided to sing my song with Kim accompanying me on piano. I have made this decision because when I sung I dreamed a dream in my tech rehearsal, I felt it needed something in the background to add to the mood and atmosphere of the piece.

The lighting I have chosen in today's tech rehearsal for my song is very simple and doesn't change through out the course of the song. I have chosen a mixture of white and blue lighting. I feel these two colours put together really compliments the tone of the song and reflects the emotion behind my character's feelings after being heartbroken. The white represents purity and the blue, suggests vulnerability and a bleak future. I also chose not to change the lighting at any point during the song as I believe the power behind my voice and the way I sing will change the mood of the piece. I don't feel as though I need any lighting alterations or props for this.

Overall, my tech rehearsal went well as I managed to figure out that I need to have a piano accompaniment to put to my song.

Variety show evaluation

I feel my main act performance went well and to plan. This is because I got a strong audience reaction when I had finished. Also, I feel my vocals were strong during the performance and I feel that yesterday's singing lesson with Kim really helped me improve my vocals for the performance today.

I think I used the lighting in a positive way, as all I had on stage was a neutral white lighting. This lighting set the scene of pain and betrayal for me to feed off of. I think if I had included any more colours in my lighting plan, there would have been too much going on visually for the audience. I feel the best way for me to put emotion across, was by putting power, characterisation and emphasis behind the song lyrics and meaning behind it.

I feel I put good emotion across to the audience through my facial expressions and moving around the stage, making use of the space. Facial expressions was one target I set myself earlier in the year to improve on and I feel with this performance, it was clear i have improved over this year. i thought about the context and how my character would react to the situation. This helped me shape my facial expressions through out the performance, with high notes I had a very expressive face whereas low notes having a more timid facial expression attached to them.

To improve, I would have spent more time focusing on my breathe control and being able to hold a certain word which went through 5 notes. This was 'shame', and I feel if I had spent a bit more time on doing some breathe control exercises, I would have perfected this. overall however, I am very happy with my variety performance and how I performed the song to the audience.