- Emily Ellet
Rehearsal Process
Granted, they’re shorter shows (between 30 and 45 minutes), but it’s still a ton of information to receive, process, and commit to physical and mental memory in less than a week. Last night in particular, I think we all felt like we had pea soup for brains, as we learned an entire show yesterday alone.
It’s a funny thing about choreography. Often, the simplest movements are the hardest to remember. “Tombe, pas de bourre, glissade, saut de chat?” No problem. But “step, touch” in twenty different iterations over ten songs? Fiendishly difficult to keep straight.
I can’t tell you how many times I went totally blank in the middle of a song, only to be reminded that the choreography was a simple arm movement. Not even steps to focus on! Just an arm…and because it was so simple, I forgot it. “It can’t be that easy,” you think to yourself when you’re trying to remember it. Ah, but how often it is.
In other news, my feet are quite unhappy with me. The 3″ character shoes we wear for most of the shows are taking forever to wear in. Part of the problem, of course, was that I had a half-size too small for the first three days or so, but even having the right size is painful with brand new shoes. Sometimes I take pity on my feet and put on my falling-apart, well-worn 2″ character shoes, but then sometimes even that’s not enough, and I have to capitulate to tennis shoes. (Bare feet aren’t as comfortable as spongy rubber!) Fortunately, this third show we’re learning just requires ballet shoes for me – SOLD!
If you’re curious what kind of choreography we’re learning, below are a few (bootlegged) videos to give you a sense of the shows we’ve learned so far, “Colors of the World” and “Stardust”, and a sneak peek at the one we’ve just started, “Once Upon a Dream”. [UPDATE – None of these videos are of me or my cast! They’re just references of former casts from YouTube.]
Start this first Colors of the World video at about 1:15 – the camera doesn’t focus on the stage till then. But I’ll be the Indian Princess and later (7:30) the Japanese geisha!
This is a set of excerpts from the Stardust show (with a bonus at the end of our Motor City Medley, which is a different show and which we haven’t learned yet). I’m doing the same track as the girl whose hair is pulled back in a bun!
Finally, this is the opening of the Once Upon a Dream show. I’ll be the little girl whose dream we’re watching!
Though I am an employee of Princess Cruises, all opinions are mine only and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
photo credit: V’s First Ballet Shoes via photopin (license)
#MusicalTheatre #internationaldance #ballet #cruiseship #indianprincess #womensshoes #bollywood #Music #dance #jaiho #Singer #japanesegeisha #truecolors #rehearsalprocess #musician