Tuesday, 6 January 2009
30/11/08 The Elephants are losing their heads!
Our trio was difficult to start, we didn't know which part of the story, character, emotion or theme to use, but as Bernice has said, the elephant was out inspiration. We thought about being Shiva's Ganas out hunting, and made some sequences around this theme, but we decided that we needed to rethink our plan. Heather came up with a motif that involved swinging out arms, and at one point, this looked like a swinging trunk, so Heather became the elephant, and we were the ganas. By the end of the session we had a good idea, but we knew that it needed work and developing. We planned to work on this at the next session.
23/11/08 - Duets and Quartets!
A full session today! We did all struggle to remember Bernice's choreography, but it was because it was a totally different style of dance - well it was for me! It was more like 'street dance' than any other style because of the strong, sharp and precise movements rather than the more balletic/contemporary and lyrical Indian movements we were using. I think we also found it hard as we knew we were playing to Jo's violin music, but we hadn't got that to practise with, so the timing was sometimes hard to grasp. We then tried to put it to a count, knowing that the fluidity would suffer, but we needed to learn the steps and and I needed a count to help me memorise them!
I too got my flight booked when I got home, as Bernice said, we needed to make sure we all got on that flight!
I too got my flight booked when I got home, as Bernice said, we needed to make sure we all got on that flight!
16/11/08 - Ganesha's Story
I found this session challenging, but really rewarding, and it made me feel more confident in myself. It was really interesting that we all started at the same point, but all came up with completely different dances, and in totally different styles. I found it difficult to get started devising my own work, but once I got going, it got easier. As much as showing my work to the others was nerve wracking, it was a really good experience, and helped develop my own ideas. We also got homework! I now totally empathise with my students as this is the sort of work I ask them to do. Usually they struggle in the intial stages just as I did, and now I understand the difficulties that this style of work can pose. Time to research Ganesha and make notes on what I did today!
Saturday, 3 January 2009
2/01/09 - Full dress rehearsal with Zoobin
Holistica 6.30-9pm
Holly Cassidy
Marianna Hitiris
Heather Jackson
Bernice McBride
Eilidh Newton
Jo Small
Erica Wilson
Full dress rehearsal again today. Bindi and Mrs Basan were there at the start to watch and feedback. Also to help with our costumes which we weren't wearing properly (well, I wasn't anyway!). The studio was absolutely freezing cold which hindered our dancing, even though Jess had left a heater on for us when we arrived.
Zoobin had brought candles for us to use in one of the dances - I'm now getting sligtly concerned that I won't have enough room in my hand luggage bag for everything we'll be taking! Rucksack shopping tomorrow for me.
The rehearsal went well, no major changes made. Zoobin seemed pleased with the work we'd done, though he encouraged us to exaggerate our movements more than we were doing (we put this down to the cold and the oddness of wearing a relatively new costume).
The next time we'll be meeting will be at the airport! Arrggghhh!
Holly Cassidy
Marianna Hitiris
Heather Jackson
Bernice McBride
Eilidh Newton
Jo Small
Erica Wilson
Full dress rehearsal again today. Bindi and Mrs Basan were there at the start to watch and feedback. Also to help with our costumes which we weren't wearing properly (well, I wasn't anyway!). The studio was absolutely freezing cold which hindered our dancing, even though Jess had left a heater on for us when we arrived.
Zoobin had brought candles for us to use in one of the dances - I'm now getting sligtly concerned that I won't have enough room in my hand luggage bag for everything we'll be taking! Rucksack shopping tomorrow for me.
The rehearsal went well, no major changes made. Zoobin seemed pleased with the work we'd done, though he encouraged us to exaggerate our movements more than we were doing (we put this down to the cold and the oddness of wearing a relatively new costume).
The next time we'll be meeting will be at the airport! Arrggghhh!
Friday, 2 January 2009
20/12/08 - full dress rehearsal
Holistica 3-6pm
Holly Cassidy
Mariana Hitiris
Bernice McBride
Eilidh Newton
Jo Small
Erica Wilson
Thankfully our anticipated clothing crisis was not as terrible as it first seemed. Everyone has managed to either alter an existing gold top or add gold trim to a plain white one (nice work for sourcing the trim, Eilidh!). There seems to be a shortage of ankle bells and Holly and Erica still need to find some uncoloured diamante style jewellery, but that shouldn't be too hard... at least we are all fully clothed!
Today we did a full dress rehearsal, everyone wearing their jewellery, bells and saris (except me - not the sharpest of tools at the best of times, I forgot all my jewellery - tsk!). What is becoming apparent is that we'll be needing a lot of safety pins. Erica made a list of things individuals need to get before the show. We're thinking, to save on weight, just to share one colour nail varnish and lipstick, and to use the lipstick for our Tikkas too. Who knows if this will work, we could end up sightseeing in Amsterdam covered in red smudges, but it's probably the best option for perfomance, least likely to sweat off or stain horribly...
Any way on with the dance...
It was clear that due to the two week break between rehearsals we were all a bit rusty on areas of the dance. Personally, having performed the Ganesha choreography before I was quite confident in that, but felt very weak in the first piece. After a few practices we were more confident, but we'll have to take into consideration the effect the break has had on our performance because it will be another two weeks before we meet again and this time Zoobin will be watching us.
Jo brought her violin to the session this time and it was really good to see how the piece looks with music. We made a few alterations, Eilidh will now be remaining on stage after her duet with Jo, cutting a very striking Ganesha-style pose in the corner of the stage. We just felt this little change added a lot of fluidity and nods towards the Ganesha myth and the vigilance of the god. Erica, Heather and I will have to remove the Kathak footwork from our trio, it is far too heavy for the music. Erica and I will have to discuss this with Heather at the next rehearsal and try to come up with something to replace it.
We all obseved each other's sections in the first part of the dance then split the group in half so we could observe the Ganesha choreography performed and feed back.
Holly Cassidy
Mariana Hitiris
Bernice McBride
Eilidh Newton
Jo Small
Erica Wilson
Thankfully our anticipated clothing crisis was not as terrible as it first seemed. Everyone has managed to either alter an existing gold top or add gold trim to a plain white one (nice work for sourcing the trim, Eilidh!). There seems to be a shortage of ankle bells and Holly and Erica still need to find some uncoloured diamante style jewellery, but that shouldn't be too hard... at least we are all fully clothed!
Today we did a full dress rehearsal, everyone wearing their jewellery, bells and saris (except me - not the sharpest of tools at the best of times, I forgot all my jewellery - tsk!). What is becoming apparent is that we'll be needing a lot of safety pins. Erica made a list of things individuals need to get before the show. We're thinking, to save on weight, just to share one colour nail varnish and lipstick, and to use the lipstick for our Tikkas too. Who knows if this will work, we could end up sightseeing in Amsterdam covered in red smudges, but it's probably the best option for perfomance, least likely to sweat off or stain horribly...
Any way on with the dance...
It was clear that due to the two week break between rehearsals we were all a bit rusty on areas of the dance. Personally, having performed the Ganesha choreography before I was quite confident in that, but felt very weak in the first piece. After a few practices we were more confident, but we'll have to take into consideration the effect the break has had on our performance because it will be another two weeks before we meet again and this time Zoobin will be watching us.
Jo brought her violin to the session this time and it was really good to see how the piece looks with music. We made a few alterations, Eilidh will now be remaining on stage after her duet with Jo, cutting a very striking Ganesha-style pose in the corner of the stage. We just felt this little change added a lot of fluidity and nods towards the Ganesha myth and the vigilance of the god. Erica, Heather and I will have to remove the Kathak footwork from our trio, it is far too heavy for the music. Erica and I will have to discuss this with Heather at the next rehearsal and try to come up with something to replace it.
We all obseved each other's sections in the first part of the dance then split the group in half so we could observe the Ganesha choreography performed and feed back.
Sunday, 7 December 2008
7/12/08 - Costume Crises
Holistica - 3-6pm
Holly Cassidy
Marianna Hitiris
Heather Jackson
Bernice McBride
Eilidh Newton
Jo Small
Erica Wilson
Hurray! We are all finally rehearsing together! And a great rehearsal it was too - we all worked on the Ganesha Dance, we are all quite confident with all the choreography for this now and it's just a matter of polishing, we will have time for this when Zoobin gets back.
We took about 45 minutes out of the rehearsal to all practice our solos, duets etc. The Quartet people have added counts to help with the speed and togetherness of the piece. We are finding this way easier than before. We have also created running order:
Eilidh & Jo - Duet (Jo remaining onstage with the violin)
Holly & Marianna - Duet (Holly remaining onstage ready for quartet)
Bernice, Erica & Heather - Trio (None exit, join Holly immediately for quartet)
Bernice, Erica, Heather & Holly - Quartet.
Ganesha dance.
Eilidh timed us with this running order and for all 4 pieces it took around 5 minutes. This will fit perfectly with Jo's 4 minute violin piece and with the Ganesha dance (7+minutes) we'll easily fill our 10 minute slot.
The only issue we need to address now is the matter of costumes. I got the saris from Mrs Basan this week and took them to Holistica. They were pretty big, but should be easy to adjust. Only problem now is getting tops to match. A few people returned their white tops to Zoobin after Bollywood Tyohar and we need to retreive them somehow. Eilidh texted Zoobin during the rehearsal to see if we could collect them from storage but I don't think this is an option. Mrs Basan has one white and gold top, which I could possibly collect, time permitting. We've all got to get lots of stuff together before the dress rehearsal next week...
The only issue we need to address now is the matter of costumes. I got the saris from Mrs Basan this week and took them to Holistica. They were pretty big, but should be easy to adjust. Only problem now is getting tops to match. A few people returned their white tops to Zoobin after Bollywood Tyohar and we need to retreive them somehow. Eilidh texted Zoobin during the rehearsal to see if we could collect them from storage but I don't think this is an option. Mrs Basan has one white and gold top, which I could possibly collect, time permitting. We've all got to get lots of stuff together before the dress rehearsal next week...
30/11/08 - The elephants are losing their heads!
LA Fitness 12-2.00pm
Holly Cassidy
Marianna Hitiris
Heather Jackson
Bernice McBride
Eilidh Newton
Erica Wilson
Today we mainly practised the Ganesha Dance. Marianna hadn't done it before so we ran through it and practiced it a few times. We're all getting far more confident with the choreography by the end of the session. We also worked on a trio (Erica, Heather & me) and Marianna and Holly's duet. Taking the cue from Jo and Eilidh's magnificent rendering of the elephant trunk in their duet, we decided to focus the choreography of the trio on the hunting and beheading of an elephant in the Ganesha myth! Early experimentation resulted in Erica and I savagely 'beheading' Heather and carrying the 'corpse' offstage! Though a highly amusing concept, we decided that this would create more hilarity than anything else (plus the Ganas didn't carry the body away - they only wanted the head) so Erica and I had to settle for abandoning Heather's bleeding corpse onstage! Hahah!
Actions for this week are to contact Zoobin re Holly's plane tickets and the running order of the show and for me to pick up the costumes from Mrs Basan and re arrange the 14th Dec rehearsal for a different date.
Holly Cassidy
Marianna Hitiris
Heather Jackson
Bernice McBride
Eilidh Newton
Erica Wilson
Today we mainly practised the Ganesha Dance. Marianna hadn't done it before so we ran through it and practiced it a few times. We're all getting far more confident with the choreography by the end of the session. We also worked on a trio (Erica, Heather & me) and Marianna and Holly's duet. Taking the cue from Jo and Eilidh's magnificent rendering of the elephant trunk in their duet, we decided to focus the choreography of the trio on the hunting and beheading of an elephant in the Ganesha myth! Early experimentation resulted in Erica and I savagely 'beheading' Heather and carrying the 'corpse' offstage! Though a highly amusing concept, we decided that this would create more hilarity than anything else (plus the Ganas didn't carry the body away - they only wanted the head) so Erica and I had to settle for abandoning Heather's bleeding corpse onstage! Hahah!
Actions for this week are to contact Zoobin re Holly's plane tickets and the running order of the show and for me to pick up the costumes from Mrs Basan and re arrange the 14th Dec rehearsal for a different date.
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