Pippin 5/19-26

   This week was very productive. The first couple rehearsals were, at least for me, reviewing the music; we were called in my parts to review each song; this definitely helped a lot of us, for we were needing the extra rehearsal time. With this additional music rehearsal, I feel a little more confident with some of the songs. However, there are still some songs that even I get lost in; I feel we didn’t spend enough time working on each of them for the music to be cemented in my head (and it’s not that I don’t want to practice outside of rehearsal - it’s just I don't have ways to play music when at home, limiting my rehearsal abilities). However, I think it will get better once we put the choreography and blocking to the music.

           I have been sensing from the cast a growing irritability. I think a lot of people feel upset about how some rehearsal time gets used. As many of the scenes they spend a lot of time working through require a lot of us, we can’t use our down time to rehearse music or choreography as we have to stay engaged with the work. But because we spend a lot of time going slowly, our energy really drags, making it hard to stay positive. And when that happens, people (myself included) begin to grow frustrated.

On a positive note, I got my first major experience at teaching choreography this week. I was called to begin working on the first "sex scene", where Pippin first discovers women (among other things). Because I started back to work at home this week, I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked to prepare the dance, so what I did come up with didn’t feel like enough. However, to counter that, the girls (as well as cast members watching) are really enjoying the dance - the movement I set on them allows them to get into a character, do some more physical movements, and have some new fun. They tell me it’s a workout – something I didn’t expect. Feedback from my cast-mates tell me that they are incredibly impressed with how it looks, and that it's wonderful to see some new and creative dancing within the show so far; that amount of praise makes me feel proud of my work, and also of how much I have grown as an artist, dancer, AND director (as those skills have come in to play a lot).

     With some work this weekend, I plan to not only finish the first dance, but also enhance the choreography we currently have for most of the numbers. I think I will get the chance in the coming week or so to not only finish the numbers I was given, but with the choreographer’s permission, go back and revamp some of the old numbers, and really solidify them (at least in terms of the dancing). It’s going to look really good once it all comes together.