Summary of the Showcase
On the 15th February 2018, the BTEC Performing Arts students performed in a showcase in front of a live audience in which we showcased our exam pieces, along with several other numbers from other musicals that we devised for our own enjoyment and to entertain the audience. The performance included the Year 12 group exam performance, in which we chose to do 'It's All Happening' from Bring It On: The Musical, and our solo pieces. The Year 13 company also performed their group performance; an excerpt from Grease along with sections from musicals such as Chicago and Hamilton. The company was also accompanied by a live band, that not only played the backing tracks but their own songs from musicals, such as Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast.
The night proved to be a huge success by the great turn out of audience members - the tickets sold out! Every member of the audience that I spoke to personally also said how successful the night was and that they thoroughly enjoyed the show.
For our exam, the Year 12 company learnt repertoire from the TONY Award performance by the 2013 Broadway cast of 'Bring It On: The Musical'. We heard about this particular performance in an 'urban/hip hop' workshop with Abi Sweeney, an ex-student of MADD. During the workshop, Abi Sweeney taught us a unison section from the repertoire. After learning the basics of the urban style and then this section of choreography, as a group we decided that this style suited us and we enjoyed learning and performing it. So in upcoming lessons and at home, we began to conduct research into the musical and watching different versions of the performance. We found the script online and looked for dialogue surrounding 'It's All Happening'. We eventually chose the section of script from Act 2, Scene 1, whereby Campbell is trying to persuade the students at her new school to pursue cheer leading so that she can compete against her old school in a competition.
We learnt the initial choreography from Abi Sweeney, an ex-MADD student. She also assisted us in many of the rehearsals in order to improve the dance elements of the performance. One section she especially helped with is the timing of the unison section, as after watching back the videos of rehearsals, we found that we were all performing at different times. We found her help incredibly useful as she helped us to clean the entire routine.
The dance specialist, Mrs Turner, also gave her opinion at several points during the rehearsal process. The first time she watched us perform was at the very start when we had only just learnt the choreography and she commented that we needed to get into the hip-hop style more and the dancers of us needed to try and get out of the 'ballet training mindset'. The following week, Mrs Turner watched again and this time said that our energy had improved massively and she could see the urban style now coming through.
In order to aid our vocal abilities, we had a rehearsal once a week with Mrs Guy, a vocal coach. We sang for her many times and she gave not only ensemble feedback, but individual points throughout the performance of the song. At first, she commented on my projection, saying I needed to be more confident and use my core to project the notes further into the audience. The following week, after practicing many times, she said that she could tell I had practiced and that my notes were now a lot clearer and louder. Also, near the end of the rehearsal process, Mrs Guy made the lovely comment that she was impressed and proud of how far I had come vocally in the past few months. This comment really boosted my confidence and hearing from someone else that they had noticed my improvements made me even more determined to perform to my highest possible standard.
After choosing the script, Mr Sluman, our drama tutor, helped us to block the scene and help us with characterisation and how to deliver our lines. We began by using a table ad chairs as props, as if sat in a school cafeteria, however we found that after the set for the Showcase was constructed, Mr Sluman suggested that we change this to stage blocks as we couldn't fit a table and chairs on top of the platform on stage. So after the dress rehearsal, we changed to stage blocks in order to help the blocking and make it safer for us to perform. We found this change very effective and actually benefit us when it came to the final performance. Mr Sluman told me I needed to watch my pitch as sometimes when I was trying to come across as excited, it was becoming hard to understand me. Therefore, I adapted the way I was delivering my lines and then they sounded better and were more understandable to the audience.
As a company, we filmed many of our rehearsals and watched them back straight away so that we could evaluate both ourselves and the performance as a whole. This helped us to improve ourselves and also give peer feedback, meaning we could effectively help each other to improve. There were several areas of choreography changed after watching back the recording, for example, Allana and Rebecca's diagonal duet section was not successful to begin with as they were both too out of breath to perform the original choreography and be able to sing their lines, therefore the choreography was simplified in order for them to be able to perform to the best of their ability both physically and vocally. This could only be rectified after watching the rehearsals back. I think that the ability to video and watch back the rehearsals and performances is extremely useful as it is the only way to watch ourselves from the same perspective as an audience, so then we can see what the whole performance actually looks like to an audience.
Our initial understanding of the urban style came from our initial workshop with Abi Sweeney. After this workshop, we also conducted our own research into the style. I found that the urban style of dance included many isolations, body rolls and pumps. An isolation is the movement of a particular body part or muscle, this can include the movement of other body parts however the movement focuses particularly on 1 set body part, for example, shoulder locks are an isolation of the shoulders. The hip-hop/urban style can be easily identified as the usual footwear for this style is trainers, which is unusual of a dance style as you cannot see smooth lines or pointed toes, however this is the point of the style; although the movements should be sharp,clean and precise, it is not required for the dancer to have pointed toes and the movements often require flexed feet, as opposed to typical show dances.
In order for the performance of the choreography to remain strong, many sections of choreography had to be changed or adapted. For example, after the unison section, when La Cienega and Nautica (Rebecca and Allana) perform the triplet step with the forwards drop of the upper body whilst singing the final 'whoaaa', we were originally all supposed to perform this move, however, we found that the vocals werent particularly strong when our heads were dropped and we were unable to have microphones because of all the flips and tricks involved in the number. Therefore,we adapted it so that only Rebecca and Allana performed this move and we stayed upright and moved to the next position in order to keep power behind the vocals. Another change we made to aid the vocal stability is that during the four 'whoa's section, according to the script, only certain characters were supposed to sing, however, we felt it was necessary for everyone to sing to make the section more powerful. We also added in a crescendo on the final 'whoa' to also increase power in the vocals.
Another example of a change we had to make was during the duet section where Nautica (Allana) and La Cienega (Rebecca) rap and the rest of the cast are stood in a diagonal line supposedly being paparazzi and in the actual repertoire, they perform it with a rope at the side of a red carpet. We initially tried the idea with the rope, however, with only having 5 people in the paparazzi,it became difficult to maneuver the rope without it becoming a huge issue and becoming distracting to both an audience and the duet trying to perform, so we eventually changed the idea and got rid of the rope. We performed the same poses and positions as before but without a rope, making the section a lot cleaner and more appealing to an audience.
For the dress rehearsal, the set was constructed. The set consisted of a big platform upstage with a set of stairs at the front on each side so that we could mount and dismount the platform with ease. We initially wanted this platform to be centre stage, however we realised that we had to accommodate for both the staff and junior band to perform, so we had to shift the platform to stage left, which meant we encountered a lot of problems with the positioning of many of the performances, including many of our solos as well as the group performances. Below are a few of the changes we had to make (I am dressed in the blue shirt and cowboy boots for reference):
For 'My Shot' we used exact repertoire from the Broadway production. Leila Yildrim, whom dances at Pineapple Studios in London, came in to teach us the repertoire that she had learnt in a workshop herself with the Hamilton cast. Both year groups learnt the choreography and performed in the piece. Every person in the company at some point during rehearsals commented on how advanced and challenging the repertoire was. It included many high kicks, complicated footwork, jumps and lots of advanced floor work and it took a long time of rehearsing after school and in our spare time in order to polish and clean the choreography. We had many problems with the floor section of choreography, some people couldn't do the choreography so we ended up altering it slightly to accommodate and make it simpler for these people. I have added a few screenshots of the 'My Shot' choreography above. I am in the front left corner as you look at the photos for reference.
At the beginning of the academic year, I had never been trained in Drama before so I also found training in this art form challenging, however I really enjoyed learning new skills and was willing to throw myself into any challenge, including being cast as the main role in the script prior to Bring It On. This was a massive challenge to me however I tried to throw myself fully into the role in order to help me improve my acting skills. I find accents challenging to conquer, so having so many lines ion an American accent was really difficult to me and I had to practise a lot, including recording myself and listening back, which I found incredibly useful and helped me be productive during rehearsals.
Personally, I think that my main strength is dance. This being because I have 14 years of dance training outside of school, including that I am a fully qualified IDTA dance teacher, meaning that I am more confident in this art form than others, such as singing and drama. I used my knowledge of drama and dance in order to help others throughout the process. For example, when Jack was struggling with the Bring It On unison section of choreography during a particular rehearsal, I helped him by breaking down the choreography into basic steps, as I would if I was teaching at my dance school. This helped him to pick up the choreography and be able to retain it in his muscle memory after practising it several times.
In order to achieve my dream of becoming an all-round performer and a 'triple threat', I am going to train and work hard to improve my ability in all three areas.
The night proved to be a huge success by the great turn out of audience members - the tickets sold out! Every member of the audience that I spoke to personally also said how successful the night was and that they thoroughly enjoyed the show.
The Process of Learning and Improving 'Bring It On'
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| The cast of Bring It On: The Musical. |
We learnt the initial choreography from Abi Sweeney, an ex-MADD student. She also assisted us in many of the rehearsals in order to improve the dance elements of the performance. One section she especially helped with is the timing of the unison section, as after watching back the videos of rehearsals, we found that we were all performing at different times. We found her help incredibly useful as she helped us to clean the entire routine.
The dance specialist, Mrs Turner, also gave her opinion at several points during the rehearsal process. The first time she watched us perform was at the very start when we had only just learnt the choreography and she commented that we needed to get into the hip-hop style more and the dancers of us needed to try and get out of the 'ballet training mindset'. The following week, Mrs Turner watched again and this time said that our energy had improved massively and she could see the urban style now coming through.
In order to aid our vocal abilities, we had a rehearsal once a week with Mrs Guy, a vocal coach. We sang for her many times and she gave not only ensemble feedback, but individual points throughout the performance of the song. At first, she commented on my projection, saying I needed to be more confident and use my core to project the notes further into the audience. The following week, after practicing many times, she said that she could tell I had practiced and that my notes were now a lot clearer and louder. Also, near the end of the rehearsal process, Mrs Guy made the lovely comment that she was impressed and proud of how far I had come vocally in the past few months. This comment really boosted my confidence and hearing from someone else that they had noticed my improvements made me even more determined to perform to my highest possible standard.
After choosing the script, Mr Sluman, our drama tutor, helped us to block the scene and help us with characterisation and how to deliver our lines. We began by using a table ad chairs as props, as if sat in a school cafeteria, however we found that after the set for the Showcase was constructed, Mr Sluman suggested that we change this to stage blocks as we couldn't fit a table and chairs on top of the platform on stage. So after the dress rehearsal, we changed to stage blocks in order to help the blocking and make it safer for us to perform. We found this change very effective and actually benefit us when it came to the final performance. Mr Sluman told me I needed to watch my pitch as sometimes when I was trying to come across as excited, it was becoming hard to understand me. Therefore, I adapted the way I was delivering my lines and then they sounded better and were more understandable to the audience.
As a company, we filmed many of our rehearsals and watched them back straight away so that we could evaluate both ourselves and the performance as a whole. This helped us to improve ourselves and also give peer feedback, meaning we could effectively help each other to improve. There were several areas of choreography changed after watching back the recording, for example, Allana and Rebecca's diagonal duet section was not successful to begin with as they were both too out of breath to perform the original choreography and be able to sing their lines, therefore the choreography was simplified in order for them to be able to perform to the best of their ability both physically and vocally. This could only be rectified after watching the rehearsals back. I think that the ability to video and watch back the rehearsals and performances is extremely useful as it is the only way to watch ourselves from the same perspective as an audience, so then we can see what the whole performance actually looks like to an audience.
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| Photo from the original hip-hop workshop, showing the shoulder locking isolation (I am 4th in from the left). |
In order for the performance of the choreography to remain strong, many sections of choreography had to be changed or adapted. For example, after the unison section, when La Cienega and Nautica (Rebecca and Allana) perform the triplet step with the forwards drop of the upper body whilst singing the final 'whoaaa', we were originally all supposed to perform this move, however, we found that the vocals werent particularly strong when our heads were dropped and we were unable to have microphones because of all the flips and tricks involved in the number. Therefore,we adapted it so that only Rebecca and Allana performed this move and we stayed upright and moved to the next position in order to keep power behind the vocals. Another change we made to aid the vocal stability is that during the four 'whoa's section, according to the script, only certain characters were supposed to sing, however, we felt it was necessary for everyone to sing to make the section more powerful. We also added in a crescendo on the final 'whoa' to also increase power in the vocals.
Another example of a change we had to make was during the duet section where Nautica (Allana) and La Cienega (Rebecca) rap and the rest of the cast are stood in a diagonal line supposedly being paparazzi and in the actual repertoire, they perform it with a rope at the side of a red carpet. We initially tried the idea with the rope, however, with only having 5 people in the paparazzi,it became difficult to maneuver the rope without it becoming a huge issue and becoming distracting to both an audience and the duet trying to perform, so we eventually changed the idea and got rid of the rope. We performed the same poses and positions as before but without a rope, making the section a lot cleaner and more appealing to an audience.
For the dress rehearsal, the set was constructed. The set consisted of a big platform upstage with a set of stairs at the front on each side so that we could mount and dismount the platform with ease. We initially wanted this platform to be centre stage, however we realised that we had to accommodate for both the staff and junior band to perform, so we had to shift the platform to stage left, which meant we encountered a lot of problems with the positioning of many of the performances, including many of our solos as well as the group performances. Below are a few of the changes we had to make (I am dressed in the blue shirt and cowboy boots for reference):
In the performance, I was cast as Campbell. She is a larger-than-life character with a huge personality and I ensured that I achieved the correct characterisation by watching several YouTube videos of both professional and amateur performers playing Campbell Davis and this helped me find a style of playing this character that suited me. My character was also portrayed through my costume. I copied Campbell's costume of the loose fitting blue shirt and brown cowboy boots in order to portray that I am playing a 'country girl' in the middle of all of these urban and hip hop dancers in a 'streetwise' type of school.
During this entire process of rehearsing and performing, we worked together as an ensemble to ensure that the group were as successful as possible and ensure that we can achieve our best possible marks. It's important to work as a team within the performing arts industry as a musical is a whole cast and crew performance. No one goes to a musical to watch one person shine and the rest fall behind. The whole company must help each other to improve and ensure that it is a tight and clean performance. We helped each other by commenting and giving feedback verbally whilst watching our rehearsals back on video, as well as using peer observation grids to mark each others performances. We found this extremely useful to get opinions from our peers and helped the overall performance be much more successful.
Analysis of My Solo Piece
For my solo piece, I chose to keep my initial solo from the baseline assessment we performed at the beginning of the academic year. I tried to experiment with other repertoire, for example, a solo from Cats or the Dream Ballet from Oklahoma. However, I didn't find any of these solos to suit me the way Flashdance did. I received positive feedback and got good marks on this solo the first time so I decided that I would use the feedback from the baseline in order to improve my performance in the showcase and perform the solo to a much higher standard.
Personally, I think that my solo was successful in improving the feedback from the baseline. I felt much more in character and I felt that my movements were much more controlled and placed better and therefore cleaner and made the rep correctly copied. The only thing I changed was that I performed the entire dance with the other leg, as she is right leg dominant and I am left leg dominant, therefore I just mirrored the choreography.
Below are some comparisons of my final solo to my baseline solo and also the original repertoire:
Alongside our marked exam pieces, we decided we wanted to showcase our talents in other musicals and styles. We chose to explore Hamilton.
Personally, I think that my solo was successful in improving the feedback from the baseline. I felt much more in character and I felt that my movements were much more controlled and placed better and therefore cleaner and made the rep correctly copied. The only thing I changed was that I performed the entire dance with the other leg, as she is right leg dominant and I am left leg dominant, therefore I just mirrored the choreography.
Below are some comparisons of my final solo to my baseline solo and also the original repertoire:
Analysis of Hamilton
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| Section of 'My Shot' Choreography |
Hamilton is a sung-through, American musical based on the true story of Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda. It was inspired by the 2004 biography 'Alexander Hamilton' by Ron Chernow. The musical contains mostly rap but has several alternative songs that include soft melodic singing and harmonies. The phenomenon is renowned for intertwining hip hop, rhythm and blues, pop music, soul music and incorporating the casting of non-white actors to play typically white founding fathers, achieving both critical acclaim and huge box office success. It won 11 TONYS in it's first year on Broadway alone!
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| Section of 'My Shot' |
As a company, we enjoyed the soundtrack, their TONY performance and watching clips on YouTube, many of us even have tickets to see it in the West End, therefore we decided to perform several songs from the musical because we enjoy it!
The songs we selected to perform were:
- Alexander Hamilton - Performed by BTEC company
- My Shot - Performed by BTEC company
- Schuyler Sisters - Performed by GCSE music students
- Helpless - Performed by Year 13 students
- Burn - Performed by Allana Taylor (Year 1 solo)
- Yorktown - Performed by BTEC company
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| Section of 'My Shot' |
Strengths and Weaknesses
At the start of the course, as specified in my 'initial skills audit' and 'long term targets' blogs, I had only previous training in dance. This meant that I had limited knowledge in both drama and music. My only strengths initially were mainly in the art form of dancing. However, I feel now, after several months of training in all three art forms, I am now a more rounded performer and find myself closer to becoming the triple threat I aspire to be.
Although I still don't consider myself 'a singer', I am much more confident in this art form after having vocal training, both with my peers and sessions on a one-to-one basis. I feel that I know how to effectively use my voice now in order to project this to an audience whilst singing. I feel that after having help from multiple vocal coaches, I can now control my breath better, in order to sing for longer and help me belt out notes. Mrs Guy showed me several breathing exercises incorporating the core, in order to support my notes and make them stronger. Even she commented on my confidence as a singer in one of my last sessions. After working with tutors, I feel that I now have a wider range of notes due to practise and now knowing how to support my notes through breathing and my core. I personally think that I have achieved my long term target I set at the beginning of the year in singing as I now feel that I could confidently carry a tune with melody in front of a large audience without nerves getting the better of me. I think that now, in order to improve and ensure that I retain this training, I need to look at getting vocal coaching outside of school.
Personally, I think that my main strength is dance. This being because I have 14 years of dance training outside of school, including that I am a fully qualified IDTA dance teacher, meaning that I am more confident in this art form than others, such as singing and drama. I used my knowledge of drama and dance in order to help others throughout the process. For example, when Jack was struggling with the Bring It On unison section of choreography during a particular rehearsal, I helped him by breaking down the choreography into basic steps, as I would if I was teaching at my dance school. This helped him to pick up the choreography and be able to retain it in his muscle memory after practising it several times.
Conclusion
From both my Learning Aim A presentation and performing in the showcase, I have learnt that performing is a lot of hard work and dedication. I need to ensure that I dedicate all of my time to rehearsing and maintaining my health in order to be successful within the Musical Theatre industry. Most performers are required to be a 'triple threat' meaning that they have incredible talent in all three art forms, acting, singing and dancing, as this helps them to be successful in getting a variety of roles in a variety of musicals.In order to achieve my dream of becoming an all-round performer and a 'triple threat', I am going to train and work hard to improve my ability in all three areas.
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| The BTEC company 2018 |
