Chicago- Lesson 12

Chicago- Lesson 12

Today’s lesson was our dress rehearsal. In today’s lesson everyone was there which was really good as we had not had a proper run through with everyone there. We used lights and microphones so we could get use to these for the real performance. We thought that a dress rehearsal would be useful for everyone because it would be helpful for us all to get into character and we could get us to quick changes if anyone had them.  Also in this lesson we had Ralph playing the piano which meant this was our first rehearsal with him and a piano.

We started running through the whole performance and our first song was “All That Jazz”. We all had the same costume which we had all bought in which I thought looked really good because we all looked the same which was what we were going for. Our first run through of this song was good as we had not run through with Ralph before so we had to make sure everything was in the same place for both of us. For the song “Cell Block Tango” I was in the same costume which meant I did not have a quick change. This run through did not go as well as it could of because some people forgot what we were doing which then made it difficult to see whether Ralph was in time with us.

Another thing which we needed to work on were our transitions between scenes and songs as at the minute they were taking a long time which meant in the real performance if they took that long then audience would get bored and it would not look professional.

Chicago- Lesson 11

Chicago- Lesson 11

In today’s lesson we worked on the whole show as we have not done this yet and we need to do it as the performance is not far away. We focused a lot on the acting as we had not really done this as we had focused more on learning the whole show and learning the songs and dances.

For me. I am finding it really hard to do an American accent as I feel embarrassed to do it as I cannot do it properly. I have never felt confident with accents and I know I need to work on it. Although I do not have large speaking part I feel as though I need to get it right. A part from the accent, I feel like I had learnt my lines well enough now and I just needed to keep going over them. My monologue I found easier to remember now I just had to make sure that I got one line correct which would then make me remember the rest.

The other small section I am in as a reporter and a boy went well as I now knew where I had to be for a reporter we just all need to work on entrances and exits. 

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Chicago- Lesson 10

Chicago- Lesson 10

In today’s lesson, we worked on sections that were weaker than others. The first song we worked on was “Cell Block Tango”. Personally, I think that this song needs a lot of work as it was very messy. IT was difficult because different people kept missing different lessons which meant we had not all leant it together. Today all the girls were here which meant we could do a proper run through off the whole song and make sure we all knew the choreography well. We also kept messing up the choruses and singing them in the wrong order. Some people were singing really loudly which did not help as they were singing the wrong lyrics Also, we need to work on tuning because there is a slight key change which some people cannot do. Personally, I feel like I can do this quite well as I have practiced it a lot and I know the song quite well.

Also within this lesson e talked about costumes and what we all needed to bring in. For me for “All That Jazz” and “Cell Block Tango” I was going to be wearing the same costume which was a black crop top or black leotard and black booty shorts with fishnet tights. We were also going to wear black character shoes as they looked like heels and are good to dance in. I decided that I was going to wear a black crop top which I knew I had with my black dance booty shorts as I think this would look best. I need to order some fishnet tights as I do not own any but I know they are cheap so this is not a problem for me.

Chicago- Lesson 9

Chicago- Lesson 9

In today’s lesson, we worked on the second half of the musical. I am barely in the second half which meant I had time to run through the other pieces I was in in the first half of the musical. In the second half I am a reporter and this scene happens before the song “Roxie”. I had missed the lesson where they had blocked this which meant that I did not know where I was standing and where I had to move places to. Also, I still need to learn my line properly for this section as I keep forgetting it even though it is really simple. After this small scene, I am a boy in the song “Roxie”. This song has not been set yet which meant we did not know what we were doing.

When I had some spare time in this lesson, I looked over my lines to make sure I had learnt them completely. I was finding it difficult to learn my monologue which is in “Cell Block Tango”. This monologue was longer than the one I had auditioned for which through me off completely as I could remember that one. There was one line which I kept forgetting which then made me forget the rest. I was also struggling with the American accent, I have never liked doing accents and I could not get it right and I felt embarrassed doing it. This is something that I need to keep working on.

Chicago- Lesson 8

Chicago- Lesson 8

Unfortunately, I had missed the last two lessons due to a dance exam and being ill which made me feel like I had missed quite a bit. Luckily, the girls in my class let me know what they had done in the two lessons so that I could catch up and learn what I had missed. In the first lesson that I missed, the blocked out entrances and exits but again the girls told me where I was going on and off which is very helpful. In the second lesson which I missed they ran through the songs with backing tracks so that people could make sure they knew the lyrics well. I feel like I know most of the lyrics to the songs well I just need to go over them in my own time to make sure I am fully confident.

In today’s lesson, firstly we ran through “All That Jazz” which we had finished learning the choreography to a couple of lessons ago which means we had to make sure that we had remembered it. Overall, most of us remember the choreography well and the positions which we move to throughout the dance. One section we all struggle with is the acting scene in the middle of it as it has not been set yet and it makes it hard for us to learn when to come in with the dance when this section is uncertain.

After this, the girls who are in “Cell Block Tango” ran through the dance. Before the lesson started we met with Bryony so that we could finish learning the choreography which we needed to do. Unfortunately, some girls did not turn up which made it difficult to learn but we still done it as we were running out of time. In the lesson, all of us girls were here so the girls that come before the lesson taught what we had learnt to the other girls. This was quick which we were hap about so that we could learn more. We finished learning the choreography to a basic level we just need to rehearse this song a lot.

Chicago- Lesson 7

Chicago- Lesson 7

In today’s lesson we finished learning the choreography to “All That Jazz”. As some people were not here the previous lesson we had to go over a couple of new parts which we had learnt. After that we finished off learning the dance. The dance was not hard and it had easy choreography so that everyone could pick it up quickly as we did not have much time. Also, simple choreography can look really effective if everyone gets it right. We were still using the backing track as we had not had a rehearsal with the piano yet which made it ever more difficult. We filmed ourselves after we had finished learning the whole dance and after watching it back you can see that there are stronger sections than others and some parts really need to be worked on. Also, some people are more confident with this dance than others and the stronger people are the ones who have attended every lesson so they know what they are doing. Personally, I feel confident with this dance as the choreography is simple and for me I found it easy to learn,

Also, in this lesson we ran through what we had learnt in the previous lesson of “Cell Block Tango”. Again, this is easy choreography with chairs but should look effective and show off all of our characters well.

Chicago- Lesson 6

Chicago- Lesson 6

In today’s lesson we started looking at “Cell Block Tango”. All of us was not here which made it harder to start learning it as we had one person missing. Within this song there are six monologues, mine being the second one. We all started with chairs which we sat on in the same position. Again, the movement for this dance was not going to be complex because it was more about portraying out strong characters as we all had them. This song is about six women who all kill the husbands/ partners. This song is shown in a comedic was but has a dark undertone as it is about killing people. Some people found some parts of the choreography more difficult than others which meant we had to keep going over sections which was just taking up a lot of time. We had learnt up just after my monologue which was the second monologue. I think this is good because it meant that we had all finally picked it up. For me personally. I did not find any of this choreography hard as I have a lot of dance behind me and this dance was not complex.  The only problem we have is that we are going to have to teach it to the people that were not in the lesson.

Chicago- Lesson 5

Chicago- Lesson 5

In today’s lesson we worked on the choreography for “All That Jazz”. Before we started to learn the choreography, we done a warm up to make sure that we had stretched and warmed up all of our muscles.

In the song “All That Jazz” we were all in it but Claudia was playing the main solo in it.  The rest of us were her backing dancers. The choreography was not difficult it was more about looking effective and it made it easy for people to pick up if they struggled with dance.  To start off with we all had to pick a move which we had to stay still in until we started slightly moving to the music. These movements had to be strong so they looked effective. After this we all had to move into a triangle. I was in the second row to the back du to it being in height order. I felt like I picked up the choreography easy as none of the moves were complex. I helped other people in my row as well to make sure they all knew what they were doing and if they had struggled then I could help them. Overall, I think that when we finish the dance it will look really good to the audience and I also feel like I remembered the choreography well.

Chicago- Lesson 4

Chicago- Lesson 4

In today’s lesson we all got given scripts. We also started to learn “All That Jazz” which was in the first half of the musical and we were using this song to open with.

To start with we watched “All That Jazz” so we could all get an idea of what they were looking for and what our characters needed to be like. Before we started singing we done a vocal warm to make sure that none of us would hurt our voices.  We also warmed up our muscles because it is important to do this as well as our voices. Luckily, I already knew this song as I had performed it before with the theatre school I use to attend. Some people had not heard of the song before so they found some bits slightly trickier which did distract some other people at some points but the more we rehearse it the more everyone will get used to it.

Next lesson we are going to be learning some of the choreography for “All That Jazz” which meant we all needed to go away and make sure we all knew the words which would then make learning the dance easier.

Chicago- Lesson 3

Chicago- Lesson 3

In this lesson we all found out which characters we got. I got a part in “Cell Block Tango” of Annie which is a bigger speaking part than what I auditioned for which made me really happy. I also got the part of a reporter and a boy in the song Roxie. It has put more confidence in me getting a slightly bigger role than what I auditioned for as it made me think I can do this.  I now need to work on my strong character and bigger movements.

My character Annie in the song “Cell Block Tango” is talking about how she killed her husband with arsenic. Her character is a very strong character as you need to portray how she does not care about how she killed someone and act like it is normal.

Chicago- Lesson 2

Chicago- Lesson 2

Today’s lesson was the lesson in which we all had to audition for the character we would like to play in Chicago. The audition was in front of our whole class and it was also recorded.  There were three parts of the audition; the dance, singing and our monologues.

My character was a very strong character who is portrayed to me as someone who does not care what anyone thinks as she killed her husband but is telling it in the song in a comedic way but obviously it has a dark under tone.

For my audition I was very nervous as I always get for auditions as unfortunately I think this showed in my audition. I think that the dance part of the audition went well for me as I remembered everything and danced as strongly as I could. This audition was in small groups but still in front of the rest of the class. It then came to my monologue and singing audition. I started with my monologue which went okay as I remembered all my lines but I did not use any movement and I did not do the American accent.  Overall, I think they went okay but if I had more time I could have made them better and worked on more movement and the accent.

Chicago- Lesson 1

Chicago- Lesson 1

In today’s lesson we each given a character in which we wanted to audition for Chicago.  Unfortunately, I had missed the first lesson which meant I did not get given the assignment brief but before the lesson which we were in today I made sure I went to my teacher to get the assignment brief so that I knew what we were doing. It was also helpful that my friends in the class had also let me know what we were doing so that I could prepare a little bit.

After we had been given the character list I decided that I wanted to audition for June who was in the song “Cell Block Tango”. I decided to go with this character because I think that I would be able to act her the best. I have never been strong on my acting skills as I have always focused more on dancing and singing but still enjoyed drama. This character was not one of the main characters and did not have a huge role but I knew that would be best for me as I stress a lot about getting things right so I knew this would be the right character for me.

I need to practice my American accent because again I am not very strong in this area. To help me with this I am going to keep watching the section Annie is in in “Cell Block Tango” so I can get it correct. Between now and the audition which is next lesson I need to make sure I have learnt all my lines and learnt the chorus from “Cell Block Tango” as we also have to sing this in our audition.

Lesson 6

Today's lesson, we were missing one of our members again which means we just had to rehearse to the best of our ability. We focused on adding ore choreography to our piece and making everything look strong. Also, we started to think about the movements that we could do in our solo sections and what would work for all members. 

We got up to my solo section which meant we had to think of movements what went around me. We decided that for this section we should use props as it would work effectively with what i was singing. I decided not to have much choreography whilst i was singing because i want to show off my characterisation throughout the song and show that i can be a big character. Acting is my weakest element which means i know i have to work on it even more. 

As a group, we said that we feel like next lesson we need to work on the musicality of the song as at the minute we are focusing on the movements and the singing. 

Lesson 5

In today's lesson, we were told that we were going to perform what we had already done in front of a small audience so that we could get feedback which we could then go off and work on. We started just by running through the song with movements a couple of times so we could remind ourselves what we had done. We all felt quite confident with what we had done. So far, i think that we have all worked well as a group and we all have been able to listen to other peoples opinions and what they think we should do and we have had no disagreements. 

Halfway through the lesson, we performed our piece to other members of our class so that they could see what we had done so far. They said that we all look like we know what we are doing and starting to look and sound confident with it. We watched another group we had finished their piece which made us worry a bit as we hadn't finished ours yet and we feel like we need too. 

Lesson 4

Today was our music lesson. In today's lesson, we decided that we need to focus on recapping what we had done in the previous lesson and teach the person who we had missing what we had done. You could see that we were starting to get more confident within our piece as we started to make our moves bigger. We started with singing through the whole song all together. 

In the middle of the lesson, we got asked if we could leave the room so other people could rehearse which then made it hard for us to rehearse. So, in this time in which we had left we decided that we could all choose which solo sections we would like to do and sing the sections which would suit our voice best. We decided as a group that we should all sing the chorus's together as we would be able to put some harmonies in which would make our singing sound even stronger. 

The section in which i am singing is, 

Oh, oh, oh

Look at my hair

What "do" can compare with mine today?

Oh, oh, oh,

I've got my hairspray and radio

I'm ready to go

I feel confident with this singing section because i know all the words to it and i think i can show of my characterisation really well within this piece and i will really be able to over act it like Tracy does in the musical.

Lesson 3

In today's lesson, we were missing one person from our group which sometimes makes it difficult for us to rehearse it all. We did our best and rehearsed as much as we could. In this lesson, we focused on learning all the words and making sure we knew the timings throughout the song. In the last lesson, we worked on choreography some of the moves at the beginning so we went through these in this lesson.  We still haven't been able to decided who is singing what part as a solo but we still couldn't make this decision today as we was missing someone. 

To start rehearsing, we used the original track a couple of times which has Tracy singing in it so we could feel more confident with it. After that, we used the backing track so we could get used to singing with no one behind us and having to know it all. To help us out, i printed the lyrics off  for us all so that we could use them if needed. Luckily, i knew most of the words to this song before we started rehearsing it which helps me out a lot. 
With the dance moves, we decided that some of the moves should be in unison and some should be in cannon. We want to show our individual characters throughout the piece. 

Lesson 2- Starting choreography

In today's, lesson we knew that we had to start doing choreography. To art with we sang through the song a couple of times so we could get more of the lyrics in our head so that when we started to add moves to it it would become easier.

After this, we ran through the small bit of choreography that we had started doing on Tuesday. We still liked all our ideas what we had put together so we ran through it to make sure it was sharp and we all knew what we was doing. After this, we started to add more choreography to it. We started at Anais solo which starts at "That rhythm in town starts pulling me down". We decided that on this section we should all stand up off of the box's and stand behind them but in canon so it went, Sarah, Myself, Claudia and then Anais. We ran through this a few times without the music because we all kept standing up at the wrong time and we wanted to make sure we all got it before trying it with the backing track. 

Lesson 1- Choosing and starting repetoire

As I wasn't in the first lesson of choosing repertoire (due to being in an exam), my group, Sarah, Claudia and Anais had started to look at some different songs and getting some ideas together but they wanted my opinion as well as it is a group decision. Claudia also wasn't there on Monday for the first lesson it made it difficult for the other girls to look at songs.

Today, we was all together, Sarah, Claudia, Anais and myself. Sarah and Anais showed us a coupe of songs that they had though of. The first song was "Work it out" from High School Musical. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV50hD2thAc). The second song we looed at was "Good Morning Baltimore" from Hairspray. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLaM1d383eg). We sat and discussed both of them and we had pros an cons  for both songs.

Work it out-

The pros for work it out was that it was really upbeat and we all enjoyed listening to it and we thought we could learn the choreography and we could make it looked good.

The con for work it out was that in the film there is a lot of cast and  with a lot of cast it looks really effective as it looks busy but still really sharp and there is only 4 of us which would make it difficult for us to make it look as good.

Good Morning Baltimore-

The pros for G.M.B was that it was something different and we all knew most of the words to the song so that means we can work more on choreography than learning the words.

The con for G.M.B was that we think we could get bored of it quickly as we would be listening to it a lot but then we though that could happen with any song that we pick.

After looking at both of these songs for sometime we looked at a couple of other songs such as "Slipping through my fingers" from Mamma Mia! We all really liked this song but thought we should do more of an upbeat song so we can have more dance in it as well.

After this, we all finally came to a decision that we would start working on "Good Morning Baltimore" and if we didn't like what we was doing with it after starting to work on it then we would change it.

For the last 20 minutes of the lesson, we began to look at different choreography options and how we would start. We decided we would all start on blocks and do big arm movements a facial expressions.

Next lesson we have said that we want to do more choreography and set who is going to sing what section.

Comic musical, chamber musical and film musical

Comic Musical

• A musical which has a light romantic story which makes the audience laugh.
• Minimal choreography which is usually cheesy.

Example-

Guys and Dolls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL9lhzvQV1M

• Guys and dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Joe Swerling and Abe Burrows.

Chamber Musical

• Chamber music- music composed for small group of instruments.
• Normally has a relatively small cast and it is simple.

Example-

GHOST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw5a5beiLSw

• Based on the 1990 romantic drama film of the same name.
• The musical had its premier at Manchester Opera House in March 2011.

Film Musical

• Musical based from a film.
• Often doesn't has a soundtrack.

Example-

Grease

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alz2q7Ky1pg

• Grease was first performed in 1971 in the original Kingston Miles nightclub in Chicago.
• Its now successful both on stage and the film.

Rock musical, Jukebox musical and Concept musical

Rock Musical

• A musical with rock music.

Example-

We will rock you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB9i74etxfU

• A musical based on songs from British rock band Queen.
• The musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought, fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks and acts the same.

Jukebox Musical

• Songs that have been created by an artist which then gets put into musicals.

Example-

Mamma Mia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D32x3Y6_Sbw

• Jukebox musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, former members of the band.

Concept Musical

• A musical based on a concept based on style, message and theme.
• The musical is to pass a message to the audience.

Example-

Cabaret

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AozDE7ulMvY

• The 1966 Broadway production became a hit, inspiring numerous subsequent productions in London and New York, as well as the 1972 film by the same name.

Book musical, Operetta musical and review musical

Book Musical

• A book musical is a musical that is based off a book and the book is used as a base script.
• It strives for realism and integration
• It tells the story and then has songs and dances.

Example-

The Lion King, Disney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NbR6hDXblU

• The musical is based from Disney original.

Operetta Musical

• An operetta musical is a musical with a light subject matter and it is less serious than other opera's.
• It has a classical style as it has an orchestra.
• Gilbert and Sullivan are the main people who have come from operetta musicals.

Example-

Thespis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUECsW8CdxM

• Thespis started in the Gaiety Theatre on the 26th October 1871.

Review Musical

• A review musical is when all the musical theatre art forms aren't done together.
• Review musicals were post world war 1 entertainment.
• The London pavilion is the main place for them to be held.

Examples-

Berlin to broadway with Kurt Weill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS9ACkDlHH8

• This colourful cavalcade of a revue artfully mixes cabaret and commentary spanning a history of twenty extraordinary years from his successes in Hitler's Germany to his triumphs in Truman's America.

Matilda- "School Song" Performace Evaluation

After our performance of School song we got to watch back the video that had been recorded of us performing it. The performance was in front of an audience which had our family and friends in. Before watching the video back I feel as though the performance went really well and I had done my best with showing off all of my skills which I had learnt and developed. The audience gave us feedback and also told our teachers what they thought we had done well. Some of the audience feedback which we got was, "they were all really aggressive" they said this because they hadn't seen the song before so they didn't know what to expect and thought we all presented our characters well.  Another piece of feedback we got back was "Good use of the boxes" again they hadn't seen the song before so didn't know how the boxes were going to be used but they though the boxes were a really good addition to the performance. 

Whilst watching the video I made notes on what I personally thought I had done well. I thought that we all had really good starting positions and it really showed are aggressiveness and it showed off our characters really well. I was behind the bard for the beginning of the song and I though that this looked really effective and it worked well with the theme of the song. I also though that we had really good volume from the first word that we sang and we maintained that throughout. Singing and dancing at the same time is sometimes hard from some people as they struggle to keep up with the timing of the song and will loose breathe quickly. I felt as though the whole group managed this really well and we was able to stay in time and in tune for the whole performance. Linked to this, I think that we all had really sharp movements and everything looked precise and on time. One negative is that I think we was all starting to loose facial expressions throughout the number, this may be due to focusing on getting the movements right or just because it was our first time performing in front of an audience. I also feel as though we was all in time with each other and not one person missed anything or looked out of place. This also links in with the fact we all had good interaction with each other and we performed it all together and didn't just focus on ourselves we focused on everyone. Having good interaction with each other shows that we work well with each other and we can all contribute with new ideas and we can all listen to each other. Also, i think that we all had good interaction with the audience and we all at some stage made eye contact with someone in the audience. Doing this will make the audience feel more involved in the performance. With audience relationship, we was all acting intimidating so that even the audience would feel more intimidated and scared of us. During the song, i also feel as though we all had good spacial awareness. This is because we used up a lot of the stage and we always balanced it out so there wasn't always lots of people on one side of the stage.

As a group, i think that we had good harmonies in most parts of the songs. Through some parts of the song we could hear that the harmony was lost and you couldn't hear it at all because the tune was really loud. I also think that we had really good diction throughout the song and everything was pronounced really well and it made the song sound even more effective. Also as a group, i feel as though we worked well together and we all picked choreography up well. We all remembered all the choreography for the whole song which is really good. Another area which went really well for my group was that we got all of the box section spot on and sharp. Due to getting new boxes that day, some of the letters had changed places but as a group we managed to figure out quickly what we had to change. Thankfully we didn't have to change much and on the actual performance we got all of it right and dint mess it up. 

We watched back the performance video again and we had to watch someone else. Lara watched me and gave me feedback. One piece of feedback she gave back to me was "You had good positions behind the gate at the beginning" she said that she said this because i looked menacing and more intimidating. She also said that the use of the gate was good because it looked like i was locked in jail and it fit really well with the theme of the song. The next piece of feedback she gave me was "Throughout the song i had good strong movements" she said that she said this because i was always on time and every was sharp and looked really effective. The next piece of feedback she gave me was "You knew the choreography really well" she said this because she said that through out the song i didn't have to look at anyone to see what we was doing and what was coming next. She said that i made everything look confident which was really good. Lara said that her favorite part of the performance was when Claudia and i was using the box and pulling it about between us and then had to change it sharply to G, she said that this looked really effective and it drew her eyes (from the audience) straight towards it. The next piece of feedback she gave me was that everything was really exaggerated. Lara said that she said this because the whole group looked exaggerated and it wasn't just me and she think that this made the performance look even better. The last piece of feedback Lara gave me was "you had good projection" she said that the whole song was really loud but it wasn't to loud so we wasn't shouting. She said she could hear me singing throughout the whole song which made me think that i had good projection and i was opening my mouth which would make em sing louder and in tune. 

After this performance i feel as though i still have a couple of areas that i need to work on in future performances. One main thing for me is charcterisation, i know that i need to become a lot more confident in this area and just exaggerate my character a lot more and not be small and afraid of performing it. I also feel as though i need to become more of my character quicker and not wait until the last few lessons to get into character. I also feel as though i need to work on keeping facial expressions throughout the song as well. Whilst i was concentrating on singing and dancing i wasn't focusing on charcterisation or facial expressions which i really need to do so this is the main area i need to work on. 

Matilda- Tuesday 28th February 2017

Today is our last lesson before we perform our version of "School song" to an audience. We had a longer rehearsal today so we could all make sure we knew exactly what we was doing. In this lesson we also was running through our other songs which would be in the show but were not getting marked. I feel as though running through some of the older numbers which we have done makes me see how much I have progressed and allows me to see what new skills I have developed.

We began the lesson by warming up. We started with a physical warm up which would make us all feel energised and ready to perform the song. The first exercise made us concentrate really hard and it was to make us focus on our listening skills and not to watch what other people were doing. Then we began to warm up our voices. We focused on diction and pronunciation. We done this by singing things that were sort of tongue twisters to see if we could do it or not.
After warming up, we then began rehearsing. For the first hour and a half of the lesson we was working on School Song. The whole of my dance group decided that we wanted to rehearse in costume so we could get used to it and we could become more of our character. I felt comfortable in my costume. My costume was a white shirt, red tie, black school skirt and black trainers. I think that by all of the older children wearing black trainers it made us look more rebellious.
We had one problem this lesson which was that one of the younger children, Imogen, wasn't there which made it really hard for us all to rehearse. This made it difficult when it came to the black section as we all have to work together to ensure that the blocks are always where they should be. However, we all learnt to work round this for this lesson and we knew we still needed to rehearse as well as we could so we could have the best performance possible.
Whilst wearing my costume today, I felt as though I was more of a character and not just myself. I personally feel as though I have done a much better job today at showing the audience who my character is as I feel more rebellious and more like my character than I have in other rehearsals. This rehearsal, I felt as a whole group that we had pulled it together really well and we put a lot of energy into it and we all done the best that we could with one person missing

My target for this lesson was to run through the song as many times as possible so I knew it really well and so I could focus on my characterisation which I have. I feel as though todays lesson I have progressed a lot with characterisation and I fee more confident with performing it now I have that skill better.

Matilda- Monday 27th February 2017

Today was our music lesson. To begin the lesson we started to warm up our voices and our bodies. We began warming our bodies up by doing small head rolls and small ankle circles. The small ankle circles were to ensure that we had strong ankles so that we could have a good stance and posture. Then we began to warm up our voices. We done many different warm up which would help us with singing School song. We worked a lot on diction because we knew that the song is fast and we needed to pronounce all of our words properly. We wanted to make sure that we wouldn't strain our voices throughout the lesson and keep the warm all the time. 
After fully warming up we began rehearsing through the song. My group decide we wanted to just keep running through the number so that we could make everything sharp and precise. All of our group today rehearsed with ties so we could get use to them so we could get use to them and we could see how we could use them throughout the number. We figured out that whilst we was in the section when we are bullying the younger children we could pull their ties about and make them look scruffier like the older children. Whilst wearing the ties i think that we all felt more in character and we could work on building up our characters more. Today, i wanted to work on my character more and i feel with using the ties and using them effectively with the younger children i could get more in character. 

After we had talked about costumes a bit more we decided we need to work on the song and keep running through it.  The first time we ran through it i felt as though i personally didn't put as much energy in it as i could off and i could have been more in my character. After this we decided to run through it with out the music so we could sort some sections out. We all knew we should run through the ending a few times without the music because we had only finished that part on Friday so we needed to go through it so that everyone knew it well and could show their character whilst doing it. Whilst rehearsing some people were becoming out of breath quickly which meant the singing was lacking. From previous experience in performing i knew how to breathe whilst singing and dancing at the same time so i knew where i had to breathe so i didn't get out of breathe quickly and i could stay in time with the music. As other members of the group were struggling we decided that we should go through it and decide where to breathe so that everyone could keep the energy up throughout the whole number. We got close to the end of the lesson so we decide to just run through the number as many times as we could. 

My target for this lesson was to work on my characterisation and i felt like i have worked on it quite a lot and i think that i have become a lot stronger in my character. My target for next lesson is to keep rehearsing the number and to become fully confident with the whole song. 

Matilda- Friday 24th February 2017

Today’s lesson was my groups dance lesson. To start the lesson, we warmed up with our normal routine to ensure that we were all warm and all of our muscles were ready for us to dance. We also done a vocal warm up focusing on our diaphragm and diction. After warming up, we began to recap the choreography which we had done to make sure everyone as 100% with it and everyone knew where they had to be at what time so that everything would work.  After we had run through the number a couple of times up to where we had choreographed we decided that we would finish it all off. We had thought about the ending in other lessons but none of could agree with each other on what to do. After going through many ideas, I came up with the idea of getting into a pyramid and doing some sharp movements to certain letters. Everyone liked the idea of this so we started to set in a decided where we would be in the pyramid. We decided that we should have different levels in the pyramid. One person kneeling on the floor, two people kneeling higher and four people standing at the back.  For the sharp movements, Sarah, Claudia and I were going through different things to see what would work and what arm movements would look most effective. We also decided that we would only do sharp arm movements on the letters “A,E,H,L,P,S,V,X”. WE figured out that we couldn’t do sharp arm movements for every letter as it would be to quick and we wouldn’t be able to keep up and it would look messy and we didn’t want that. After we had figured out what arm movements worked we taught it to the rest of the group and they all liked it and picked it up really quickly which was good as it meant we could keep going over it so we could just keep making it sharper and sharper because the sharper it is the better it will look. As we were all able to do this, we decided to a slight canon at the end to show more skills and we thought it would look effective.

My target for lesson was to finish of the song and we have managed to do that. I feel as though we know have a strong ending which will look effective. My target for next lesson is to really work on characterisation and to see what sections I need to build up more of a character.

Matilda- Tuesday 21st February 2017

Today’s lesson was our Drama lesson. In today’s class I wanted to work on what costumes we should be wearing and how we should have our hair and make-up. At the start of class, we warmed up like every lesson. For our physical warm up today we done an exercise which made us think about characterisation. Someone was shouting out a certain thing such as water and we had to act that out. I feel as though this is going to help us in Matilda because it would make us think about our characterisation more and how exaggerated our movements had to be. We then done a vocal warm up which would warm up our vocal chords and we could make sure that we wouldn’t strain our voice whist singing throughout the lesson. After warming up, we split into our two dance groups so we could start rehearsing straight away. Most people in my group had brought a small part of their costume with them so they could begin to rehearse in it, unfortunately this lesson I didn’t bring mine. However, I did put my hair into two bunches to see what it would be like to have my hair hat way and to see if that would portray my character well. I think that by all of us having our hair in different rebellious ways it would make us feel more like our character and we should be able to perform better as we feel more like our character. Our group decided that we didn’t want to use the mirrors this lesson so we could get use to not using them all the time and relying on them to make sure we are all in the correct place. We rehearsed a couple of times without the mirrors and we felt as though it went well because we all have good special awareness and we all knew where we had to be. Near the end of the lesson, we ran through some of older pieces which we had done as we would be performing them to an audience the same night as “School song”. I felt as though I could see a big improvement in myself form the beginning of the school year and I have seen that I developed all lot of new skills.

My target for this lesson was to work on costume and to see what would work. I have figured out that the two bunches looked quite childish and they would be better for the younger children. My whole group decided that none of us liked the idea of bunches for the older children. We said that our hair should be more messy and scruffy. My idea was to have a side pony tail which is messy and would look more rebellious. For costumes, we have said that older children should wear all black trainers/plimsoles because again they look more rebellious and they younger children should wear smart school shoes because we think that normally all new children starting a new school always look neat and tidy and that’s wat we wanted our younger children to look like so it would portray their character well.

My target for next lesson is to keep working on the choreography and to get the final ending part completed.

Matilda- Monday 20th February 2017

Today was our music lesson. Today was our first lesson back after the half term so we all knew we needed to work really hard as it isn't long until the performance. We did a long and thorough warm up as we all hadn't sung properly in over a week so we knew we need a longer warm up.  Over the half term, personally i had done some warm ups throughout the week to make sure that i didn't loose any technique and to make sure that i could still hold my diaphragm. I also had sung through the song a couple of times so ensure that i didn't forget it. We started warming up by warming some of a muscles up such as moving our head from left to right to warm that up. Also, we did circles with our ankles to make sure they were warm so we could have a good stance and good posture. We than began warming our voices up. Again, we did all the normal warm ups to make sure that our voices were warmed up correctly. We focused on our vocal range to make sure we was all using our vocal range to the best of our ability. We then focused on our diaphragm to ensure we was using that correctly. We done this by doing short staccato rhythms. We also worked on our diction because diction is very important in School Song because some verses are fast so we need to be able to sing them in tune and to make sure that audience can understand what we are saying. 

This lesson, my group knew we needed to work on some verses which we always speed up on and also some tuning. We sang through the song with the backing track and we stopped whenever we was singing a section to fast so we could go over it and work out what the timing was and to make sure we was all in time with each other. After going through the song a couple of times like this we managed to get the timing correct. We then worked on the section where we always speed up, this is the verse which begins "You listen hear my dear". We sang through it without the baking track and with someone clapping the timing so we could sing along to that beat. We all felt as though this helped us because we then was able to sing it with the backing track and without singing to fast. We also had all realised that we would need to project more whilst we was singing because we would be performing in a different room to which we rehearse in and the other room (the stage) is bigger which means we need to project more. This means opening a mouths more to make sure that we could singing as loudly as possible without shouting and so we all stayed in tune.

My target from before half term was to work on some tuning throughout the song and some timing whilst singing. I feel as though i have been able to work on this a lot.
My target for next lesson is to work on costumes and to figure out what works and what we all should wear.

Matilda- Friday 3rd February 2017

Today's lesson was our dance class. In today's lesson we wanted to focus on finishing the choreography. We also wanted to make sure that everything else we had done was sharp and we all knew were we should be.

Before we started that we had to warm up. We began warming up with our normal routine which we do. This routine ensures that we have warmed up every muscle and stretched everything out. In the routine we do side stretches, lunges, small head rolls, working through our feet (through demi pointe to full pointe), small jumps and a few more. The small jumps are to get the adrenaline and blood pumping through out body to make sure we are all warm enough. If we did not warm up then one of us could hurt ourselves and pull a muscle. 
After we had warmed up, we went through the number a couple of times to see where we was up to and to see what bits we needed to work on. We always rehearse in front of the mirrors. We feel as though this really helps us because it means we can see what we are doing and if our spacing and positioning is correct. Before we moved on to finishing off the choreography we wanted to polish the first section. We made sure that the section where we run into a arrow shape was clean and our spacing was correct. I was opposite Darcy in the arrow and i always ran to far forward which then would make the arrow shape look off so i had to work on getting to the right space and being opposite Darcy. We then started to finish off the choreography. We had most of the letters finished we just had a couple more to do. We all wanted to make sure that we didn't copy any movements that we had done before as we wanted them all to be different so the audience wouldn't get bored of watching the same thing. We managed to get up to the letter "X". Before running the piece from the beginning we wanted to run through that section so we all knew where we had to be at what time. Firstly, we did it slowly without the music from the beginning of the letter section. After we had done this, we sped it up to normal speed just without the music. We all seemed confident with it so we tried it with the music. The first time we did it with the music we messed up a couple of letters but we all knew where we had to change. Then we did it again and we did it all correct which made us all feel confident and we wanted to try the whole number. We ran through the whole song and we did get it all correct. We knew that we just needed to keep going over and over it so it got stuck in our head.

My target for this lesson was to work more on the singing side of the song but unfortunately i didn't get to do that. I still feel as though i have progressed in this lesson though because we have nearly finished the song and the singing was okay but still needed some work. My target for next lesson is to definitely work on the timing of some of the lyrics and to make sure we are all still building up our chracterisation.

Matilda- Tuesday 31st January 2017

Today's lesson was our drama lesson. This lesson we used to rehearse the song as much as we can. At the begin of the lesson we had one of our group missing as they had to be somewhere. This means it was harder for us to rehearse as we didn't have everyone to go over everything with. This means when we got to the box section we struggled quiet a bit because in that section we all have to work together to make sure the boxes get to the right place at the correct time. Even though only one person missing it still means we all had to try and work around it as best as we could. Half way through the lesson we had our whole group which then made it so much easier to rehearse as we could go through all of it and show her which bits we had sharpened and made bigger and stronger. When we rehearsed we did it with the music and without the music. We did it without the music so we could do it slower to ensure we had a ll got the choreography correct and no one forgot any bits. We also did it with the music so we could make sure we was in time with the music so we could tell if we was to fast or to slow. We knew that we was always to quick on the section which begins "You listen hear my dear" until "Extremely careful". We sang through this a couple of times to make sure that we were all in time and not to quick. 
After we had made sure all the choreography which we had done was correct and sharp we worked on our characterisation and making our characters a lot bigger. We started doing this by putting our hair up into two pig tails so that we could feel more like school kids and more childish. We all think that this helped us a lot because our hair wasn't coming into our face when it was down and also it made us feel like our character which then makes it easier to portray to the audience. It made us feel not like ourselves and as though we were an actual school kid. 

Near the end of the lesson, my group went into the other room to watch back the video we had recorded of us rehearsing the number. Whilst we was all watching it we all said that we wasn't putting all our energy into it and we all knew we could do so much better.  I knew personally that my characterisation was poor and that i still need to work on that a lot. To improve this i think that i need to make all my movements bigger and bold and have more facial expressions.After we had watched the video a couple of times we sat and discussed what we thought would be the best costumes. We all said that we should wear black school skirts and a white blouse as we think this portrays school children. We said for the younger children they should wear everything neatly and have their hair in two bunches. For the older children, we all said we should make the uniform look scruffy and as though we didn't care about it. We also said that our hair should be in high ponytails as this is slightly more grown up.

My target for next lesson is to focus more on the singing side of the piece as i now feel confident in the dance and choreography element of it. I feel as though for some sections of the song we go out of tune which then make the harmonies sound bad. Furthermore, in the section which begins "You listen hear my dear" we always all speed up on that to much and we finish that verse before we are supposed to and you can really tell. Next lesson i think that the whole group should work on this so we can become stronger in it. 

Matilda- Monday 30th January 2017

Today's lesson was our singing lesson. We began our lesson by warming up. We did a half an hour warm up to ensure that our vocals were all warm and our bodies were warm too. When we were warming up our bodies we made sure that we had stretched our muscles out. After we warmed out bodies up we moved onto our vocals. Some of the warms up we did included warming up our diaphragm and ensure we are using it properly.  We also did breathing exercises which were to help work on expanding our rib-cadges and when we are performing it should help us when singing and dancing at the same time. We then moved onto technique, this included exercises to help us with our diction and holding notes. We had to work on diction because the song is up tempo and quiet fast so this means we need to sing quicker but we still need to sing all of the words correctly and not slur all of them.  

After we had all made sure we had warmed up properly, we split into our dance groups so that we could rehearse the song. My group ran through the number once to see how much we could remember and what bits looked really sharp and also what other section we needed to work on. We knew that we needed to work on the section with the boxes (props) because there was little things in that which we kept messing up such as the bit when one of the younger children is supposed to push a box to one of the older girls, she kept forgetting to do it so we ran it over and over so she could remember. After we had made sure that all of the section what we had done with the section was sharp we ran through the number again and again so that we could keep making the performance stronger each time and we can all still become more confident in it. Also in this lesson we worked a lot on staging to make sure that we was using as much of the stage as we could and to make sure that we wasn't all to crowded.

I still haven't worked on my facial expressions much because i am focusing on my facial expression so much. For next lesson my target is to improve my characterisation and my facial expressions. I think now that we all know the choreography very well and we all know where we have to be at what time it will be easier for us to work on charaterisation. 

Matilda- Friday 27th Janurary 2017

Todays lesson was our dance lesson. We began in the lesson by talking about what we had learnt this week and what new skills we have developed. This week I feel as though I have developed many new skills. One being that I have developed my facial expression and being ale to use my face more to show my character and to be more intimidating. Another skill I feel as though I have developed is my eye contact with the audience, I know that I can still have much more eye contact with the but I feel as though I have become more confident in it and I don't feel awkward whilst doing it now.

After we had discussed this, we started with our warm up. We did our normal warm up to ensure that we had warmed up all of our muscles and to make sure that we wouldn't pull any muscles. After we had done our physical warm up we focused on our vocals so we warmed them u too. We done this by doing different exercises like we do in our singing class such as scales and diction exercises. Once we had warmed up we ran through the number to show Nadine what new skills we had developed and what we needed to work on. I felt like the first time we ran through it went well because we were all using our facial expressions and our special awareness was really good. This lesson was the lesson which we started to learn and choreograph with the alphabet blocks. The alphabet blocks are our props in the number. To begin with we all struggled to think of moves which we could do to show the audience the letters and to make them big movements. After we had a bit of time to think about it we soon managed to get lots of ideas for different moves which we could add in. We didn't get all of the letters done but we wanted to make sure that the letters that we had done were polished and we all knew where we had to be at what time.

My target for next lesson is to make sure that I am still strong with my facial expressions and to make sure that all the choreography is still really confident and big.

Matilda- Tuesday 24th January 2017

Todays lesson was our drama lesson. In this lesson, we focussed on our characterisation and having more eye contact with the audience and other performers. Even thought it was a dram lesson we still warmed up our vocals so that we wouldn't strain them as we would be still be singing whilst rehearsing. We also done a physical warm up so that we could warm up our muscles so that we didn't hurt ourselves. It is important that all performers warm themselves up because if they don't ten they could seriously injure themselves which may end up with them ending their career in the business. Also, warming up helps performers improve their skills and learn new ones.

To start the lesson off, we split into our two groups to performer the song to each other to show what we had done. My group went first. I felt as though we could have performed a lot better and we could have lots more energy. I don't think we was sharp enough with our movements or big enough. I think that our singing was okay but we could still work on our harmonies more to make sure that the audience can really hear them. After we had performed our number the audience gave us feedback. They said that we need to have more of a relationship with each other and sing and interact with each other more and also we should have more eye contact with the audience so it would show our character more as our character is an intimidating character.

After we had both performed our version of the song to each other we split into groups of 4. We did an exercise which will help with our characterisation. In this piece we wasn't allowed to talk we had to use our expressions and our movements so that the audience could understand our routine. My group had to do a piece which had year 9's in it which were picking on a year 7. The year 7 wanted to walk past us and get through but we wouldn't let her and we was being horrible to her and intimidating her. I realised whilst doing this exercise that I need to use my facial expressions much ore and make all my movements 100 times bigger.
After we had done this exercise we had to apply the things we had learnt into "School song". I think that this exercise helped me a lot in building my character and making me a stronger performer.

My target for next lesson is to learn more of the dance and make sure that I apply all the facial expressions into the number and making sure that I have more eye contact with the audience.

Matilda- Monday 23rd January 2017

Mondays lesson was music. In today's class we were focussing on making sure we had everything polished up to where we were in the song. Before we started to sing school song we had to warm up. We did many different warm ups. The first warm up which we had done was the breathing exercises. After this we focused on our diaphragm and we done different exercises to warms them up. After this we done some more vocal warm ups such as 'Donna' and the number exercise. After we had all felt like we had warmed up properly we started to rehearse the song.

We split into our two dance groups so that we could practice. My group, Friday dance class, we all stayed in the singing room to run through the song without the moves to make sure that we had gotten all of the lyrics in our heads. Whilst we stayed in the singing room the other group went into the other room to rehearse the song with movements. When we was rehearsing we could really use our characterisation skills because we didn't have room to move about much and do the dance full out so we struggled to add more movemts and develop our characters. As we run out of time, we didn't get to go into the stage to rehearse which meant we didn't get chance to run through the song full out.

My target for next lesson is to be able to rehearse the number full out and be able to add more characteristics. I want to still become more confident within my character because I still feel as though I can develop my character more and be more of an angry older student. 

Matilda- Friday 20th January 2017

Fridays lesson was dance. In today's lesson, we was focusing on making sure that all of our movements were sharp and everyone knew the whole of the first section. Before we started going through the song we had to warm up. We done a physical warm up first which we always do at the beginning of our dance class and we all learnt it in the first week and we do it every week so we know it really well. After we had done a physical warm up we warmed up our voices because we wanted to keep our voices warm even if we wasn't singing as much in the lesson. Once we all felt warm we began to go over the song.

First, we ran through the song so that Nadine could see how far we had gotten and what we had choreographed ourselves. Once she had watched it, she said that it was good but at the beginning she thinks that we should face inwards at the younger students as we had all started facing outwards. Facing inwards at the younger students made it look more intimidating and as we are all in a freeze frame it looks really effective.  We all stood in intimidating positions so that it would be more scary for the younger children and also it would portray our characters well.We also decided that it would look effective if we all started to move slowly when the younger children started to sing "Mummy said im an angel". After we had gone through this section we went through the next section slowly so we could show Nadine what we had done and so she could show us how we could make it sharper and make the movements look bigger.As a group, we need to work on where we are spaced so that the spacing is equal at all times and to make sure that no one looks odd and out of line.


My target for next lesson is to work on my facial expressions still as we didn't work on them much this lesson and also to make sure that i can hold the tune when Sarah starts singing the harmony because at the minute i am struggling to block her out and hold my note.

This video shows what we had achieved by the end of the lesson and how far we had come. 

Matilda- Tuesday 17th January 2017

Todays class was drama. In this lesson we used our time to rehearse the first half of the number to make sure that we had all got it correct. Before we started to rehearse the number we all warmed up to ensure that we wouldn't get injured. Today was my day to warm everyone up in the first half an hour so i had thought of a game which i knew everyone enjoyed and also it warmed everyone up.First, we warmed up physically (our bodies). We done this by playing a game which stretched out in. After that, we warmed up our voices by singing "Donna" and also we sung through "1,1 2 1, 1 2 3 2 1" song as we all enjoy this and feel as though this one warms up our voices well.

After warming up we split into our two groups and started to rehearse. As i had missed when my group had choreographed the first part of the song i had to learn it in the lesson. I watched them run through it once so that i could get in my head what movements they were doing. Once i had watched it we all went through it slowly and step by step so that i could learn it. When we was doing it step by step i felt like i picked it up really quickly and i was remembering it well. After we had changed a couple of movements to make sure that the performance could be as good as we could get it, we moved on to the next section of the song which started "But if i try i can remember". We felt like the movements which we cam up with for this section worked really well as we thought of how the characters would actually feel and we have choreographed movements accordingly to the words. After we had finished choreographing the section we was on, we knew the next section so we run up to where we was told to stop which was "you better learn to listen kid". We ran through the whole of the first section a couple of times with the music but you could tell that we still wasn't fully confident with it because we messed up a couple of things and also we was looking round at other people to make sure we was on the right section. Also, our singing had dropped a bit because we was focusing so much on the moves so we needed to get the singing back up and make sure we had the harmonies in. We thought that the synchronized section looked really strong as we was all doing the same movements and it was sharp.

Near the end of the lesson, we performed back to the other group so that we could get feedback from them and we could see where we have to improve. The other group said back to us that we still need to work on our facial expressions and make sure that they are strong through out and we dont loose characteristic. They also said to us that we need to have more eye contact with the audience because we didn't have much and it looked like we didn't want them to be there.

I feel like in this lesson i have become more confident with the choreography and i now know exactly what i am doing for this section and also i know all of the words so i haven't got to worry about them.

For next lesson i want to improve my characterisation skills because at the minute i dont think that i stay in character very well and i need to stay in it throughout the whole song. Also, i feel like i need to improve my facial expressions because i feel like they could be a lot stronger. 

Matilda- Monday 16th January 2017

On Monday, i had my first singing lesson to learn the "School song". Over the weekend i had listened to the song a couple of times so that i could get the lyrics in my head.

We began the lesson by warming up. We warm up our whole bodies not just our voices. It is important to warm up our whole bodies but we have to use our whole bodies to sing. We have to make sure that our posture is correct for singing so we can sing to the best of our ability. After we have stretched out our bodies we done some diaphragmatic exercises to make sure we was holding our core and we worked on our flanks. Whilst we was doing this we was making sure the notes were short and sharp. We then began to work on our vocal warm up, this included working on our diction. Diction for the song we are singing is very important because it is a quite fast song so we need to make sure that the audience can understand everything we are singing. After this, we worked on scales and making our lips vibrate. After we had done all of this and made sure all of us was fully warm we started on the song. We sang through the song once to make sure that everyone knew the words. I had been over the words at the weekend so that i would feel more confident in class. I had the lyrics next to me just in case i needed to use them if i had forgotten a small section. Once we had sung through the song, harmonies were added in. In my group, Sarah and Darcey are doing the harmonies and Anais, Claudia, Imogen and me are singing the tune. We have to make sure that the tune is strong throughout the song so that the harmonies can really be heard. At first, i found it hard to not sing the harmony as it was really easy to slip into but after i had practiced and made sure i wasn't standing next to someone who is singing the harmony section i had picked the tune up easily. When we changed over to using the backing track instead of the piano, we struggled at first to get the harmonies in but after practicing a couple of times we got there. 

I feel as though this lesson went really well and i have picked up the lyrics really quickly which has made me feel more confident with the whole number. I feel as though i have improved in my singing because i have had to push myself to sing the quick section but i think that i have done really well to pick the song up in two lessons because by the end of this lesson i didn't need the lyrics anymore.

Next lesson i definitely need to work on characterisation because i didn't work on it this lesson and now i feel as though this is the part that is lacking and needs to be as strong as the words are and the choreography. My next lesson is drama so i feel as though i will be able to work on my character. I need to be more confident in myself and just make sure that everything looks over the top and sharp and so it looks as though we are scaring the younger children.