LO2: A Chorus Line Rehearsal Reflection Week 2

⭐A CHORUS LINE ⭐

Rehearsal Reflection - Week 2 

Tuesday 17th

Before we began this rehearsal that was taken place in the afternoon, in the morning we received the cast list for the show. I was delighted to find out that I will be playing the role of Val. Val is an attention seeker who dreamed to be a Rockette but she was never "pretty enough" so she resorts to glamour and surgery. Val is also an orphan. Now that I know my character, I can start to characterise the way I am dancing in this opening number and get the character and personality of Val across to the audience.

 For this rehearsal, we were not with the Year 12's. We started off with a warmup led by Grace. We did some stretching to ensure that are bodies are relaxed and ready. We must make sure to stretch properly as the opening number, "I Hope I Get It" is very physically demanding and requires a lot of high kicks and leg extensions. Once we completed a detailed warmup, we then went on to recap the first part of the dance that we learnt last week. I'm pretty confident with that section now as we have been over it and practiced it a few times. This rehearsals main aim was too move on, choreograph and learn the next section of the song. We carried on up until the drum rolls just before we are split into groups for the ballet combination section. 

• Skills: Repetition/Recall, Drag Jump
• Areas for Development: Eyeline, Characterisation

I asked my teacher, Rob, if he could film me dancing what we have learnt so far (see video 2). When watching this video back I could really clearly see my own personal skills and areas for development. My overall skills in this rehearsal was my ability to recall what we had learnt from our rehearsals last week. I think I did well to remember the complicated choreography that we had learnt from our previous rehearsal. I also think a skill of mine was my 'drag jump'. This movement is something that I had never done before. I struggled with it when I first tried it, but by the end of the lesson/rehearsal I think I am performing this movement strongly. On the other hand, I did struggle with my characterisation. When I'm learning a new dance sequence, I find it difficult to add character as I am focusing on my footwork. Once I get more comfortable and confident with the choreography my character will start to show. Another thing that is definitely an area for development is my eyeline. When watching the videos back, I noticed that there's many times when I look at the floor. As the choreography is new to me, I think I am subconsciously looking at the floor for reassurance. I know, I know the steps but I need to be more confident and raise my eyeline. This links to developing my characterisation as 'Val' my character would dance proudly and confidently with raised eyeline so I need to make sure I embody that.

Rehearsal Videos

Wednesday 18th

This rehearsal was with the Year 12's. We started the rehearsal with a warmup. In the warmup we carried out the 'splits exercise'. This exercise is basically a very deep lunge but you allow gravity to pull your hips down to the floor. Gravity, in turn, stretches you so that over time you can gradually get into the splits. We do this exercises frequently to maintain our progress with the splits. Once our warmup was complete we moved on to recapping what we learnt in yesterday's rehearsal. We had to help teach Year 12 the new section as they weren't in the rehearsal. Once that was done, we carried on onto the next part of the song which is when the cast (people on the line/numbered dancers) get put into groups for the ballet section. This next part of the song is very character specific as the spacing and groups depends on what character you are. We could now move onto this section as everyone now knows who they're playing in the show. 

We worked with the dialogue and our characters and were starting to think about thinking about our characters and how they would move in this dance, act in this dance. We are starting to bring this dance to life through our characters. This was hard to do though as we were learning new sections within the choreography which made it quite challenging to also focus on our characters while learning new steps. One of these new sections, is the ballet section where we are put into groups. I was put at the front by Rob, our teacher, to help with this section as I studied Ballet for 10 years. I like this section in the dance as it is a style I am comfortable with as I did it for so long. The next section we worked on was the Jazz section. This is something I was less comfortable with. This section has fast movements which were tricky to get our heads around. It will become easier with more practice. 

As well as the big group rehearsal, I had my own individual rehearsal in the afternoon which was a 1-on-1 with our director/teacher, Tanya, to work on my solo number, 'Dance: Ten; Looks: Three'. The rehearsal was mainly for me to work out the timings of my monologue. The monologue I speak just before my song has music underneath and certain sentences happen at certain points. Tanya and I needed to listen closely and mark the timings. The music underneath my monologue is also split into separate tracks so as well as timings we also needed to figure out what the cue words are for the next track to be played. I read through the monologue and went into my song a couple times. Nothing is really choreographed for my number, Tanya is allowing me to flow with it myself and do whatever is the most natural when I'm acting/singing. I have a couple small gestures that Tanya definitely wants me to keep in like certain hand flicks or poses but other than that it's left to my creative choices. After my rehearsal, Tanya wanted to show the others what we had worked on so I ended performing my monologue and song in front of the whole cast of 'A Chorus Line' (not just Ctec students but acting and dance students too).

• Skills: Ballet section - helping rob, Confidence (Solo Song)
• Areas For Development: Characterisation (Opening number & Val monologue) - character - needs work (everyone) very stand still (Opening Number), Jazz floor-drop

For this rehearsal, I would say my skills would be the Ballet section in the opening number. I think this is a skill of mine just because I have previous Ballet experience so I felt confident and comfortable with this section. I would also say a skill of mine for this rehearsal would be my confidence, mainly with my solo song. I think I performed my song to the cast confidently even though this was my first rehearsal of it. Partly what helped with my confidence is that I was already very confident with the song anyway as I sang it in my audition so I was already very familiar with it and I had practiced it prior to this rehearsal. On the other hand, when it comes to my areas for development, I do need to work on my characterisation more in the opening number. The opening number does have moments when we're not dancing I just need to remember to keep acting and stay in character even though I'm not dancing because I am still on stage. I also need to work on my characterisation for my monologue. This rehearsal was my first proper go at it so my characterisation will come as I learn my monologue. My last area for development in this rehearsal is the Jazz floor-drop. This movement is something I'm finding quite challenging at the movement as it is a move I have never done before. I have found that I am hurting myself a bit when doing it as I am landing/hitting the floor quite hard. I need to work on it to ensure it is done safely so I don't continue to hurt myself anymore.

Rehearsal Videos

Thursday 19th 

For this rehearsal it was just us Year 13's. The aim of this rehearsal was to work on the 'Line' scenes that happen after the opening number, 'I Hope I Get It'. We started off by figuring out what order we actually stand in when we are in the line. I am next to characters Kristine and Mark. Once we knew where we standing in the line we started to play around with our characters and work out what our 'line pose' is going to be. Our 'line pose' is the position/pose we are going to hold/stand in whenever we are in the line. We have to be able to hold it for a significant amount of time so the pose needs to be comfortable but still in character. My pose is a simple hand on hip with one leg slightly bent so that my foot is propped up on the balls of my feet. We hold these poses during the scene directly after the opening number. We ran through this scene where we introduce ourselves. When it's our turn to speak we take a step forward out of the line. 

Once we worked through the scene we moved on in the script and skipped to the song, "And...". We started off by just singing so that everyone knew their parts. This was quite tricky in the rehearsal as we didn't have the Year 12's with us so certain lines in the song were one of theirs. We had a couple sing throughs and then went on to beginning to stage it. This number has no moves other than Bobby. For this number it's mainly us just acting either out to the audience or focusing on the story Bobby is telling us. 

We got through and completed the number, we just need to now put the Year 12's into it. After this rehearsal, we had another rehearsal in the afternoon to sing through the songs. We went through the opening number, "I Hope I Get It" so that we can learn the harmonies. I read music and play piano so for this rehearsal, I taught the harmonies to everyone by reading the music and playing each harmony part to the group on the piano. This was a good challenge for me as I had to read the music and figure it out on the spot. 

• Skills: Teaching harmonies
• Areas For Development: Characterisation

My main skill for today's rehearsals was that I was able to teach the rest of the main cast what harmony they would be singing in the opening number. I had make sure everyone was in their vocal groups and make sure all the harmonies sounded good together. I also figured out the harmonies on the spot for everyone. An area for development of mine would be to work on my characterisation in "And...". As this song has basically no movement for the people on the line, I kept just watching Bobby (Harrison) do his actions and kept forgetting that I need to act/react to what is happening in stage. We are not meant to be watching Harrison at all; we are meant to ignore him as this number is meant to be like the dancers internal thoughts of what they are going to say to Zach. I found it quite challenging to not watch Harrison. I need to get used to focusing on the audience and not the actions Harrison is doing.

Friday 20th

This rehearsal was an extra-curricular session. The whole cast was involved in this rehearsal, this means it was also the other people from the Performing Arts Department and around the rest of the college who are involved in the show. The other people involved in the cast who aren't Ctec students are not in our rehearsals that happen during our lesson time as they have a different lesson. This means that they don't know the choreography yet so this rehearsal's main aim was to start teaching the opening number to the rest of the cast. 

We slowly went through the number starting at the beginning, breaking it down so that we were going a learning speed so that the rest of the cast would be able to pick it up. We got up to the jazz sequence by the time the rehearsal ended. Even though this rehearsal may have mainly been for the benefit of the rest of the cast, I still found this rehearsal beneficial as it allowed me to get in extra practice for the opening number. I personally didn't find this rehearsal challenging but just good practice. For this first section of the opening number, I would say I am at the point now where I am confident with the movements but I now need to work on refining it and getting the detail and precision right. Precision isn't that key in the opening number as it is an 'audition' so, to the audience, it's like we have only now learnt the choreography on stage in the 'audition' but it is key for the main dance break as it is a key characteristic of the number. I need to start working on the dynamic between the start section and the main section. The start section when we face the mirrors is meant to be us mostly accurately marking the routine this is so that the main dance break "away from the mirrors" has bigger impact as that is done full out. Right now I would say when I'm dancing both sections I am not showing the dynamic as strongly as needed so this is something I need to refine and work on.