Tuesday began with Zoe and I doing the choreography for our
number “Nowadays/ Hot Honey Rag”. When I did the audition, I did mention to
Nadine that I would preferably like to do this number as it’s my favourite. I like
this number because you have the calming nature of the song which then compares
to the jazzy upbeat nature of the dance break. However, I’ve only ever watched
the film version of Chicago I’d never actually seen the production onstage, so
when Nadine mentioned that we were taking the choreography right from the stage
I was a bit worried that I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much. But I was completely wrong, it was very
different to the film version, it was a traditional Fosse style, which is out of my comfort zone. But I still really liked it. I felt that once I was
comfortable with the choreography I could really add in my fun-loving, a little
mischievous, character.
As I’ve mentioned several times, I’m not a comfortable
singer. Although I feel like I’ve come a long way in this unit with developing
my understanding of sol-far singing and how your body and breathing techniques
assist your voice, I definitely have a long way to go. With the song “Nowadays”
you use a chest voice, which is great because that’s my comfort zone, however,
the song does remain pretty low which makes it harder for me to project my
voice. Alongside this I had other things to worry about such as staying in
tune, ensuring that my characterisation was perfect and then also worrying
about the movement. As a dancer this
came as a challenge to me because I’m used to just worrying about the movements
and my facial expressions, this is a whole new ball park. Considering that I’m
not 100% confident in one of the areas in which I need to focus on I feel like
the dancing and characterisation may suffer a little bit for it.
We completed “Nowadays” which was mainly singing which
enabled me to concentrate on my singing especially in the first verse/chorus
and we just stand, but with this needs to be some good characterisation in
order to keep the audience interested because if not I’m just going to be stood
there singing and it’s going to be fairly boring for them. Where the dance
element really starts is when we complete a cane sequence. By adding the use of
the cane to the performance makes it more challenging for us as performers but
enables us to show off to the audience a little bit. Initially I struggled with
the cane sequence, but I didn’t want to give up because I felt that it would
look really effective if me and Zoe could get it perfectly synchronised. After we’d
had a few attempts at this we began to understand the timing of each part of
the sequence, however we decided that it would be more beneficial to carry on
and learn the rest of the choreography rather than worry about making
everything perfect as this could be done at another time.
We then proceeded to learn the choreography for the dance to
“Hot Honey Rag”. I was particularly excited for this part as this was the whole
reason, I auditioned to be Roxie in the first place. As this is the
showstopping piece both Zoe and I knew that it had to be spectacular, therefore
both of us were very willing to work hard on this piece to ensure that it was
perfect. As we were both strong dancers, we were able to pick up the choreography
fairly easily, so we learnt it quite fast. This allowed us some time at the end
to polish a few things. Since we’d learnt this so efficiently it meant that we
would later have time to focus on the signing and characterisation of the
piece, Nadine also left about 16 counts at the end of the piece for our own choreography.
Zoe and I briefly spoke about what we could put here, and we both decided that
we need to play to our strengths here and incorporate our flexibility into it
somehow in order to wow the audience.
On Thursday we began with our regular warm up and then we
found out that we were going to be working on our song today (Nowadays). We felt
that it would be beneficial if we consolidated what we learnt on Monday so that
we were confident with that first and then we could incorporate the singing as
we went. First of all, Zoe and I sat down and had a conversation about parts
that we were unsure of within the piece and then we talked about the ending. We’d
already established that we needed to put something at the end that was
particularly impressive, therefore I said that my strengths included leaping
and turning, and Zoe’s strengths happened to be the same. Therefore, we decided
that we had a base idea for the ending. So, we began with our weaknesses in the
choreography and we went over those first, this included the cane sequence, and
then we began to construct the ending.
I was still struggling with the cane sequence. Personally, I
think because I’m not used to dancing with a prop it became difficult for me to
incorporate this in the piece. However, I had a good idea that may help out the
both of us. I suggested that if we both performed the sequence to one another
and then the other one could point out where it was going wrong and where it
could possible be improved. I went first, and Zoe mentioned that I knew exactly
what I was doing but she could tell that I was worried about dropping the cane
because she could see it in my face. This definitely needed to be sorted out
because it’s great if I know what I’m doing, and it goes well but if I drop my
characterisation then the audience are going to lose interest. I then watched
Zoe and noticed the same thing, so we decided that it would be beneficial to us
to break it down section by section and then work on our characterisation
alongside it. That was we would not only begin to feel comfortable with knowing
what we were doing we could then remember to include our facial expressions alongside
it.
For the ending we included a sequence of leaps and turns and
decided to end it with the splits, thus making it a grand finale for the
audience. We felt that this would be a good use of levels within the
performance as a lot of the performance had been completed pretty upright, in
the traditional Fosse angular style.
Then Ralph came in and we began to go through the song. The first
starting point was that Ralph pointed out to us that we’d been singing the
first two nowadays wrong. The first nowadays was lower than we thought and the
second one was higher than we thought. He pointed out that if we looked at his
score you could see the difference between the two notes. We weren’t given scores,
so we didn’t know this, but this helped me out in understanding why a score was
so important. I’d heard several members of the group question why they didn’t
have a score, but I was confused as to why they were worried because they had
the lyrics, but now I understand. Because if you look at the score, the way you’re
supposed to sing the song matches the way that ralph plays, which would’ve
helped us in understanding how high/low we would’ve needed to sing the
nowadays. We then sang through the rest of the song and Ralph was happy with
the way it sounded, but he did mention that we need to be louder, which I knew
would be a problem for me anyway, he suggested that we stand tall and think
about the sound coming from the front of our mouths and ensure that we use
diction.
Sam began the lesson by talking to us about the importance
of diction. He said that using diction is like using a microphone. If you place
your hand in front of that microphone and sing you won’t be heard but if you remove
that hand, then you shall be heard. By using diction, it assists with your
projection. Therefore, I feel like I need to consider this when singing “Nowadays”
to help me project more.
After this we ten attempted to sing, dance and act the whole
thing together. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a car crash, but it wasn’t.
the singing we focused on in the beginning I thought a lot about the use of
diction. The cane sequence went particularly well even though I could see my
face dropping at several points when catching myself in the mirror. The ending
we added was a little messy and needed fixing, but Ralph and Sam said that for
a first time run through it was particularly successful, but they both
mentioned that characterisation was key. So, I think the next step forward
would be to ensure that our characterisation remains constant.
Friday Nadine came in and took Rachel off to do “I can’t do
it alone”. I knew that I’m sat there during her performance, but she suggested
that she should learn it and get more comfortable with it first before I come
in which I felt was a valid point on her behalf. So, I went off with everyone
else to go over the Roxie/ reporter scene and dance with Richard. First, we performed the scene and the dance in
its entirety so that Richard could gather and idea of what we’d got so far. I think
it’s safe to say the dance fell apart a little. Nobody thought to video the
dance when we did it, so we all forgot what was happening and that was Richard’s
first comment, that the dance needed working on. His second comment was discussing
how we were going to make an obvious transition from the reporters to Roxie’s
boys. He suggested the potential use of a prop or additional piece of costume
that would distinguish us from the characters. I began to think outside the box
a little bit and instead of having a costume or prop I decided that I would use
my characterisation instead of obviously changing/ getting rid of a prop. I felt
that this would enable me to show off my dramatic skills. So, for the reporters
I’m very much like a show off, wanting my headline to be the most heard and the
most startling, and then for my boy I’ve constantly got a performance face,
quite sultry but I don’t try to steal Roxie’s limelight, I’m quite neutral and quiet.
During this Rachel had started on her choreography for “I can’t
do it alone” with Nadine. So after we'd finished going over Roxie, I took
this opportunity to ensure that I was running over my lines as I have quite a
chunky paragraph after she finishes her performance. I’m never very good with remembering
lines and I feel like this is a definite weakness of mine and something that
throughout these processes I have gotten better at. I also began to think about
my potential responses to her actions and some of the things she says, I thought
about how I would sit at that table almost angling myself away from her to
really show my dislike towards her. Rachel has a few little jokes that are
imbedded into the song and I thought that when she says those lines, I would
acknowledge how stupid those jokes were and accent them with an eye roll or a
really sarcastic laugh just to reiterate to the audience my pure dislike for
Velma.
After I finish the
Roxie dance, I have to rush of quickly and get changed into my Roxie costume in
that time I realised I only have one very short scene to do this, which I think
is going to be a bit of a problem for me. So, we began working on the scene before mine and Zoe's dance and
found out that this scene relied on timing the action with the lines. For example,
Lex says will the defendant please rise, and at that point I have to rise onto
the staging that I’m stood in front of, Keira bursts in and says her lines and
cuts someone off and that then result in everyone rushing out. So as a group we
need to make sure that everyone knows their cues and that the scene flows
rather than keep starting and stopping. The song before this is “Razzle Dazzle”
and everyone who is in the judge scene is in “Razzle Dazzle” including me, so
we decided that we needed to consult Richard on how one scene would flow into
the other next lesson as we'd run out of time.
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