Weeks 6 and 7

(coming a bit late, but better than never :)

VSAO3601

In week six we did some work on the fandango and put some new movements into cat like tread, including some commando rolls which was pretty exciting. Even though we didn't do much work on the fandango, I felt really confident with it this week and felt like I was keeping up really well.

We spent most of the lecture this week on looking at individual pieces and how we could act in pieces we already knew without doing unnecessary 'singer' things. I found it really difficult -- I sang Adele's Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus (which I absolutely should not have done, I hadn't sung it in months and it was not my finest) but I sang for about 10 seconds before Nell told me to stop, and improvise the scene, but spoken. I liked the idea and it was fun to see how it could give me a different kind of intention, but it didn't feel like a correct representation of the character. The scene I ended up with gave the character this frantic, chaotic energy, but I've always thought Adele was a little bit smarter and more measured. Even though I didn't think my song panned out the way I wanted, it was really great to watch Erina and Tharushi's scenes develop. Tharushi has a wonderful stage presence already, and the direction from Nell to have her act as though she was laying in grass and feeling the ground around her was really interesting. In week 7, Erina seemed a bit nervous at first in her song, but when Nell directed her attention onto Grace's hand she developed the really interesting softness. Both scenes felt much less representational, but also much more intimate with the added direction.

In week seven we spent most of our time on the Figaro Fandango and I felt really frustrated because I just couldn't seem to pick up what was happening. I arrived a few minutes late, but when I came in it seemed as though lots of things had been changed and switched around and I just couldn't seem to make sense of it. The first second section (we began with) I feel really comfortable with, but the sections don't feel connected at the moment, and the first section before the bridesmaids duet kept changing structure with different countings each time we ran through. I really struggled to keep up with this, and even though I find each of the individual movements fine, I found it hard to be flexible and keep up with the changes. I'm hoping the next week Lorena will be able to go over it again and I'll understand a bit better how each movement interacts with the ones before and after it.