Prancing and “dancing”, though hardly entrancing!

Nick's note: Kicking off the new week of rehearsals (week four! Can it be??) - integration among the cast members has commenced, with each group starting to come together to interact with one another. First off, on Saturday we had the very first choreography workshop, led by the lovely Judimar Hernandez. I won't be going too much into the details of the workshop as I, the musical director, wasn't there, arf. Instead, here's a post by the man in charge, our director Colin Kirton, who puts his fingers to keyboard to come up with some post-choreo contemplation. Take it away, Mr Kirton!

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Last Saturday saw the whole company (save one!) coming together for the first time since we first met. It was their first session with our choreographer Judi, and rather than working on the choreography for one of the songs, Judi used the time to run a workshop with the cast.

The main aim of the session was for Judi (and me!) to get a feel for the physicality and mobility of each of the cast members – how they move, how coordinated they are, how they use their space, how they express themselves physically, etc. While all our performers are strong in the vocal zone, not all are necessarily adept at dance, and it was quite apparent that we had a wide range of abilities – from the super-skilled to the utter novice, and from the quick-to-learn to the “how-did-that-go-again?”

The challenge will be for Judy to draw out a greater capacity for physical expression and coordination from the team whilst accommodating the fact that there will be limits to what each is able to deliver, and to work realistically within those constraints. The other challenge is to build strong ensemble, so that each works towards the whole, rather than “to each, their own”. It’s going to be an interesting challenge, but I believe we’ll get there.

That’s the beauty of the creative process – seeing a lump of clay slowly shaped into a beautiful vase.

- Colin Kirton

Judi leads the cast through the movement session. And below: moving pictures!
(Plus a very quick music sneak-peek!