Shipwrecked! continued.....

Now I had to create a story. If there was a shipwreck there had to be a storm. This gave me a chance to use large fabric as the calm sea rolling down the stage then small pieces broken up representing the sea as the storm intensified before the ship sank. Good, one dance sorted, eleven to go! Mermaids could rescue the Shipwrecked Pirates but it seemed a good idea to have the teenagers create a dance inspired by the currents beneath the surface before they did. Pre teens with a bit of attitude seemed the best group for the Mermaids. The youngest groups were perfect for Parrots and bands of Small Pirates and another group could be jungle elf type creatures inspired by Tinker Bell but this only was about 30 minutes of dancing.

By July I was in a bit of a panic. It seemed impossible that the small numbers of groups in the school could do enough dancing to make the performance fill the time I wanted. Concern I would be asking too much of the dancers combined with the reality that rarely were the groups complete due to various reasons such as illness, school commitments and birthday parties, plus the three soloists were incredibly busy with other performances, made me even more despondent. Would we be able to make it happen? How would we all feel at the end of the year? And winter seemed to go on forever!

Shipwrecked!

Now the holidays are finally here I think it is good to catch up on the last tumultuous term and write about the process of creating our performance this year.

Sometimes the idea or theme is quite clear and almost formed in my mind but not this year.

My initial inspiration was the fact that my 5 year old grandson was very much into pirates and there was a TV commercial (what it was about I cant remember) that showed a line of youngsters on stage dressed as pirates. In the back of my mind I kept seeing a silhouette of a sailing ship in a similar vein to our previous year's performance. I knew if there was a shipwreck there could be mermaids, the sea, desert islands, jungles, bands of pirates, creepy swamps and treasure. But how to draw it all together? What subject would be appropriate for each class or group? And could it be made to last a hour?

Walking along the beach last summer I started to make up a story in 4 scenes- the sea, the jungle, the swamp and the treasure..............

What Excitement!

This is one of my kinder students getting ready back stage and looking as if he is just a little bit excited!

During the rehearsal of the bows he put his hands over his ears when he heard the clapping. I told him he had better get used to applause as he was going to hear lots of it and I was right. Who got the greatest roar from the audience at the performance?....you guessed it.... the kinder Parrots!

Dance Picnic Break Up

Wonders of wonders the weather held off so we could have our Dance Picnic in the park. It looked as though we would have to cancel but the rain stayed away and the sun even shone now and then.

Team arrived as Mr Titch this year and entertained everyone with an interactive Tai Chi demonstration before leading a a rather unusual version of Tai Chi Sword Form.

Then we ran through all our circle dances ending with a spiral that morphs into an archway before becoming a circle again. It is so delightful to see everyone from littlies with their parents through to my super cool teenagers....well I think they are anyway...... joining in together in the simple dances like Negun Itik and King of the Fairies.

It is a lovely way to end the year as the performance is just a memory now and we need to have sense of completion of the year.

Having been very tardy in writing this blog this term due to a feeling of being total overwhelmed by all that has been going on in my life I am going to, now I have some space, review the performance etc in the coming days. So look out for some great photos as it was quite something!

A Little Light Relief

With only two weeks till the performance there has not been the brain space for blogging. However this week the pre school classes "went to India" inspired by the Commonwealth Games and I quickly took this photo of one class "catching the moon light" in the garden with their scarves. We perfumed our feet so there was a lovely scent in the air. It was a delight to see them entering into the fantasy and I thought this was a lovely image. We danced as monkeys, bathed in the Ganges, became snake charmers and snakes and finished with Bollywood.

A little light relief from the intensity of rehearsing Shipwrecked!