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The dances throughout the musical had a street/jazz element, which most modern musicals use genre wise, as well as having the band that made all the music feel more lively than what the backstory of the original version felt like. A modern approch was intended for the set as we took the orginal concept of Evillene's workers being apart of a factory (which was suitable for the time period of the orginal film) and turned it into an office environment. Most people now work in offices instead of factories, so it was only fitting to make this change for modernising purposes.
During this rehearsal, we had almost the entire song completed (apart from the transitions into the next dance phrase and positions, which would come later). As seen from the video, this dance was taught to the level 2's as backup support which resulted in a few mistakes, as it was their first time rehearsing it, that can easily be fixed. In this rehearsal, it was purely focused on showing it to the level 2's, as well as working on our performance skills. I concentrated on perfecting my technique when it came to footwork and the dynamic of performing movements by making them sharper in the street sections, and making them flow more in the jazz sections.
Due to almost finishing the dance, I am was to envision how this dance was suited to mordern audience clearly. Apart for what I have already said, the dance is quite busy in the sense that there is always something going on, so the audience always has something to focus on. In our modern generation, most people have a shorter attention span, meaning that if this dance had a lot of pauses and breaks, the attention would come off of us and the audience wouldn't be interrested anymore with what was on stage. As part of development to "Brand New Day," we brainstormed some ideas as for what we should add to the introduction of the song. The song gives off an aura of happiness and joy, as the placement of the song is located in Act 2, Scene 2 when Evillene is killed. To recreate this emotion, we explored different dance movements that provide an upbeat and positive feel. Due to it being a musical, a lot of cheesy movements were added, like clapping and jazz hand reveal that is typically found in musicals. We also didn't want to make the movements too complexed, as we didn't want to take away from the principles. However, the more new dance movements were added, some were removed and important things had been changed.
There has been many different versions of the song that we had been practising to. An example being that we had been listening to 'The Wiz Live! 2015' version, which was different to the script version of the song. There was also a problem with the length of the two different versions where we had to cut some of the dance routine and add it later into the dance. We also added onto the dance, by creating a routine for the second and third verse to then show it to the level 2's, who will hopefully helping us with the numbers in the chorus. To make this more suitable for a modern audience, I made sure my movements were sharp and street-like to give it that Urban feel, but with elements of other dance styles. In today's rehearsal, we were introduced to one of the main dance numbers, "Brand New Day."
Some of the movement pieces were inspired by "The Wiz Live!" and we added our own characterisation within the dance by exploring different ways we could perform a specific movement. A prime example of this, from the video, was the walk styles at the ends of the chorus' and how everyone did something a little bit different. This was added to make the overall dance more appealing to the audience, as well as giving it variety and more energy. If all cast members were to perform the dance routine the same way, it would become very repetitive and boring. We also gathered ideas of movements by listening to the lyrics and having corresponding movements to the words and music. An example from the video was on the word, 'freedom' and our hands were in the air as symbolism for exemption. Another example being the lyrics, "Just look around..." where we look from right-to-front. I believe this is effective to add, because it's distinctive enough for the audience to remember by having the lyrics matching the dance movement. I believe that we have made our performance suitable for the modern audience of today because the genre of the dance takes on a street twist, mixed with elements of contemporary and 90's diva. |
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