Penultimate Rehearsal - Storm Dancers and Peasants

We got the first draft of the music of Chris our fab musician (http://gurusoul.net/).

This meant that we could finally really get to grips with the dance.

The group Split into two - with the peasants and the narrator in one room with Rai Taro and helped by Sam who turned up to say hi and ended up playing the drum for us, and the Storm Demons and Thunder God (Rai Den) rehearsed the dance in the second room.

It was nearly 9pm before we were ready to show each other what we had ended up with, making this a late finish, but lots of really positive stuff got done.

 One more rehearsal for the whole group, one meeting between the Storm Dancers and a pre-performance visit to the famous Custard Factory in Birmingham,

a bit of running round getting costumes together and a chat with Merv's daughter who is going to come on the day of the performance to do the makeup.  

We won't actually see the whole characters in mask/costume until the performance, so it will be interesting for us to see what it is like on the day. 

 Some of the group will also not see the venue until the day of the performance, so we have no way of being able to predict what the performance will be like at all.  

For many of the group, this will be the first time they have ever taken part in a public performance of this nature.

Bringing all the separate parts together will be one of the many focusses of the next two weeks.

Next monday's rehearsal will probably be very long!

Congratulations to the narrator who remembered most of her many lines!

In the sculpts we try to use many different physical levels, as well as levels of tension, in order to add interest visually.

Mirroring and echoing are strategies commonly used to add emphasis to an expression, and conect different parts of the performance

21st Sept - Storm Dance, Rai Den, Long Black Robes

It seems a long time since we were in the Fire Station for a rehearsal.  It was good to have a room with a bit more space in it.  We have another Storm Demon, and spent half the session working on perfecting the 3 basic dance positions - with more instructions to practice several times a day.

The first position is high - with legs and arms held at an angular stance, hips tucked in and shoulders straight across.  To help with balance and centering, and to practice returning to this stance, we practiced gently pushing each other, in position, and the person in position becomes like rubber, firm yet pliable, and returning to the original stance once the pressure of the push is removed.  This involved also a pressing gently against the pressure of the push, so that the body is trying to return to it's original position, without actually straining.

The push came from each side, and front and back.  After a few tries, the person being pushed closed their eyes so that they could focus more on the feeling of the position, the pressure, and the movement.

After some time practicing and perfecting the positions, and moving between them, we practiced in a group, each taking a different position at one time, which is how it will be in the actual dance.

Following this, we robed up Ray Den, and worked on his part of the storm dance.

The robe is made from layers of black cloth.  We cut a strip off the end to make a belt.

This was starting to look a bit Japanese, but the actor could not raise his arms!

So we untied the tie, and he raised his arms first, thus ensuring full range of movement when the garb was again belted up.

Now Ray Taro can move his arms as much as he likes, tho we may get a wider kimono style belt.  We also had some discussions about hair, and so far the favourite plan seems to be to shave his head and paint the whole head with the face paints that will be used to mask up each character.

Ray Taro's robe from the rear.

We spent some time working with the movements for the bringing of the storm.  First the actor spoke through the moves, and showed the group, the group reflecting them, and having much discussion about how each move would be made.  We also spent some time setting the scene, as the visualisation that each character goes through in developing their sculpt adds to the intensity conveyed in the sculpt.

The energy is captured and held, ready for the bringing of the storm.

Beating the Great Drum of the Thunder

Preparing to give the gift to the peasant.

After we had worked on the physical movement sequence as a group, the rest of us all got onto a chair and watched as the actor finally got the opportunity to take centre stage and show us the complete sequence.  And we finally got the chance to see the Thunder God in action.

18th Sept - Final Choreographry Session. Costume and Makeup.

We started the session looking at some painted faces from Japanese Kabuki theatre.  These are the designs that will influence the makeup of Rai Den, Rai Taro and the storm demons.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3BAsvHbF4NknOFFsIxDTKt_GskNa98VJgyBn9vpogT2ejEAWjwuhf-2hAVdNsM1zOsP_im8FFXSuqVjlctX5a8M8AOgg3YFgD3r9tZDX9dtJGbAAUG8P2eWL6hp_d5-VGrJSYtvP9SA/s1600/kabuki_makeup.jpg

http://www.tokyotopia.com/image-files/kabuki-make-up.jpg

The storm demons will have black bases, instead of white, but also have the red markings.  Rai Den will have stronger, angrier makeup, to convey his greater power and strength, whereas Rai taro will have smaller, less intimidating makeup, conveying his youth.

We also discussed the costumes.  Whilst all performers will wear black, there will be some differentiation in style of clothes, to suggest role.  For instance, the peasants will wear many loose layers, and possibly hats, the gods will wear kimono or monk style garbs, and the storm demons will wear leggings and tshirts, enabling them to move around and showing of the lines of movement in their styleised dance.

http://rlv.zcache.com/japanese_fairy_photo_sculpture_photosculpture-p153925678051161791qdjh_400.jpg

The narrator will be the only performer dressed in colour.  She is a fairy, and hopefully, we will get some hint of the Japanese in her costume, but with short time and short supply of dressmakers, we may end up improvising with some scarves and netting.

http://image.blingee.com/images17/content/output/000/000/000/6ab/630658624_1548811.gif?4

We have finally got to the end of the story in terms of choreography.  There is still some choreography for the narrator, and sometimes she may have to improvise.  However, for this style of performance, which is very deliberate and focussed, my feeling is that it is better if all movements are well rehearsed.


Finally for this blog, a mention about how sometimes a moment of drama can conflict with a person's real life and experience.  This is what happened during this session, as an actor found that they had big difficulties when asked to portray something that brought up a lot of personal issues?  We came across this situation in today's rehearsal, and whilst we didn't come across any definite solutions, I am left with a few thoughts.


1. Firstly, it is important for the actor concerned to set the pace at this point, and very positive if they are able to communicate the difficulties that they are experiencing.  


2. Implications for the way that we are working are that whilst we normally seek to find an authentic energy in visualising and internalising the circumstances and history of the role and themes conveyed, in some cases, we may instead use a more technical approach, less reliant on a projection of inner experience and more reliant on using method and logic.


3.  Implications for a therapeutic group - What came up in the session would have been very useful material for a therapy group, and the group member would have had the opportunity to explore their response to the themes they were working with in more detail, and if they wanted, to share these experiences with other group members.  As it is, the fact that the group member was able to recognise and acknowledge what they were experiencing, meant that they were able to reflect on this later, and begin to internalise what the experience meant to them.