WEEK FOUR

07/02/2022

To start with, in today's rehearsal we worked and ran through all of the dance moves except for the Mooch and Hand Jive to make sure that we remembered the steps. The aim of a Run Through is to ensure that the performers know what is happening at specific moments and to make clear what needs more work on to make the scene better. In this rehearsal, my partner and I took on the role of choreographer and helped the actors that needed help with the different moves. I think my role as an actor in this rehearsal was to provide support and clarity to my peers when looking at the dance so that we were all on the same page and could continue to develop the Jive in the future. This included relocating everyone's focus to the task at hand when there were too many moments of peers being distracted in the class. I would also help Imogen to reiterate her points regarding the dance when the cast was not listening and demonstrate the dance moves so that the class could follow us easier. I found this experience very helpful for me as I was able to contribute to the process of the play by organising the cast and supporting those that needed help to learn the dance moves. This rehearsal was crucial for our cast as we needed to make sure that we could develop our muscle memory regarding the dance and move forward with the rehearsals by keeping up with our set tasks for the day. I think the cast could improve by treating each other with respect and maintaining a professional environment where we can work cohesively. I also think I did well assisting the choreographers because by the time the rehearsal finished and we did the dance with the music, the majority of the class were able to help up with the audio and those that didn't know this time where they could improve so that they could get it right the next time.

I know all the steps to the dance and how to do it in practice, so I don't think my area improvement is the dance per se. However, I have received many comments that I look strange/funny while I dance because the lower half of my body would move to the steps, but I tend to keep the upper half of my body unaffected by the movements and still. Although I did not take those comments seriously before, upon reflection I realise that I need to loosen up and let my whole body flow with the dance because the dance break is not just about getting the steps right, but a lively experience where you see the nurses and soldiers dancing in the dancehall - so it should be fun and involve my whole body.

Despite this being an aspect that I think will take me a while to recorrect, my goal is to make sure that I am more comfortable dancing with my partner and create an upbeat character to help with that. With that, want to make sure that I can...

08/02/2022

Given that we did not have the whole day to do our rehearsals due to us all being invited to The BRIT Awards, we spent our time blocking the previous scenes that we had looked at. My role as an actor during these rehearsals wasn't necessarily in the active sense, but the dormant. Since the Director was looking at the scenes with the specific characters speaking in them and I was not in any of the scenes, I continued to work on my logbooks. I know that wouldn't have helped to talk in the room in terms of giving notes to those working in the scene as I may distract them or steered away from what the Director was trying to achieve, so I did what I could in regards keeping a low volume in the working environment. I think I could have improved my time in the rehearsal by delegating what tasks I would try and achieve when I am not on stage. As the rehearsal was more or less two hours long, so I think I should have used my time better by finding a quiet space to work or asking someone to help me with my script. Although I worked on my logbooks, I did not take the opportunity to work on my lines, so next time I will work on them instead.

09/02/2022

For this rehearsal, we worked without our Director being present and our task was to work on the choreography for our dance break that a few of my allotted peers created. I think my role in the process was to help the choreographers to see what their work looked like with enough people to execute the vision. Instead of giving too many opinions of what I liked or didn't think would work well, I was there to provide teamwork and support in seeing how we could make the dance run smoother and devise new work from our stimuli.

Although this situation wasn't necessarily intentional, I think the aim of this rehearsal was not only to work on the dance but see how we worked together without supervision or prompts to keep us on task. Reflecting on whether or not the experience was successful or not, I think it worked in terms of us actually learning the dance, however, the process of getting to that point to longer than what was needed. As shown below, these were a few of the setbacks that we encountered as we were rehearsing:

• Everyone lacked the focus to learn the dance.

• Many people were distracted and were prone to distract others.

• Everyone was facing the disadvantages of collective fatigue.

• Having to wait patiently for the others to learn the dance moves as we all have different skill sets.

From my perspective, as a group, everyone was distracted and out of sorts from prior engagements which affected us throughout the day. We didn't have our occasional check-ins, so it was hard to understand each other when we had to rely on simple deductions for the behaviour in the space. I found it difficult to tolerate the behaviour in the room overall because many people that were needed for the dance decided not to get involved due to their own personal reasons (which would be fine if they didn't constantly distract those of us that chose to be in the rehearsal). As for myself, I was aware that I was tired and struggled to pay attention to the dance, so I made sure to not speak too much when instructions were given to us and I tried to take part in activities that I would normally not let myself do. For example, when the choreographers were looking for peers that were interested/comfortable with being lifted, I volunteered in the rehearsal, so I think I did well in pushing myself out of my comfort zone. With the choreography, I think we were able to learn what was given to us and able to build on it, so we are in a better position to show it next week.