Rocky Horror rehearsal
Oct. 19th, 2011 04:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeOy. Very tired lately, the commute is hard on me. Leaving work, I hit the ground running at 7:00, take the train to 42nd & 6th, scooter as fast as I can down the two long blocks to Port Authority (through Times Square!), take the bus to Hoboken and then scooter REALLY fast to Monroe Arts Space. I have been warming up ON the bus, and even on the scooter--it is essential that I warm up physically for this show.
The tap combination is not difficult but I've been a little stressed about it because I haven't nailed it yet in a runthrough. The main reason is that I can't hear the track when I start it, because the rest of the cast is supposed to be cheering me on. So I get ahead of myself. I've been working on it with the track at home but there are a couple of problems--for one thing, I'm terribly self-conscious about making too much noise and annoying the neighbors below. So I can really only tap during the day. Another problem is that there seems to be a sound problem on my computer--the sound is kind of low and the extra speakers I have don't seem to be working. So I can't really hear it there either! So the best solution is to try to work through it anyway, jack up the sound as much as I can and just drill the combination over and over, to get the pace into my body. I mean, realistically even if I do get a little ahead, I doubt the audience will notice, there'll be too many bellowing "2-4-6-8, show us how you masturbate!" But still, I want to get it perfect.
The good news is that with all the obsessive drilling, my triples have never been better! The sounds are clean and right on rhythm--very happy, because something occurred to me. If you're dancing a tap solo, as opposed to a group number--your sounds had better be clean! You can't hide behind anyone :) And I've been doing the combination very fast, much faster than the tempo on the track. I have to warm up like crazy to get to that point, though. And I tend to tap lazily on my left side--the more warmed up I am, the less this is a problem but still, have to correct it. I guess I'm not an ambidextrous tapper! (Which is odd, since I am an ambidextrous kicker.)
It's funny, this show isn't that difficult, certainly not musically but the dance isn't difficult either, there's just a LOT of it. ("Time Warp" in particular is FULL of dance--I'm exhausted by the end of that number! Lots of fun but stuffed with 'ography.) I am an enormous perfectionist as a dancer, because I'm not nearly as strong a dancer as I am a singer, so I compensate as much as I can. I go home and drill these dances and now I have probably the strongest grasp of the dances of anyone in the cast besides the dance captain! She's even asked ME about stuff! And the cast seems to think I'm this amazing tapper--I've had several comments along the lines of "so amazing, I wish I could tap....I'm so impressed by people who can tap..." Uh, I am NOT really a tapper, per se! I have some experience and I can do basic steps and am always trying to improve myself, but compared to REAL tappers? They'd eat me alive! Vera Ellen's ghost is safe :) (Although I tried to stutter-tap a few days ago--it's not actually that hard! I was sort-of doing it anyway :)
When I was preparing for this audition, I talked with Susan about my sense of myself as a dancer. I was brought up as a singer first and foremost--my mother and brother were both opera singers, I was singing in our professional-quality church choir from a very young age, I was always in chorus in high school, etc. Mom was utterly uninterested in dance--she put me in a ballet class for a while when I was in third grade, but I had no more training after that. And that's kind of a shame. I LOVE dancing. It's not easy for me, but I really love it. I'm an athlete, of course I like to move! I think if I'd had more training as a kid, it would come a little quicker for me. But anyway, because I had such a strong identity of myself as a singer, I had a kind of anti-identity as a dancer which was only reinforced when I started working in theater after graduation and coming up against really GOOD dancers, of whom Susan was one. So I've always been very humble, and realistic, about my dance abilities. And when I talked with Susan about going for Columbia I said "I feel almost--arrogant about going for this dancer role but the thing is--I know I can do it. I know I can do it. Watching her in the movie, I know I can learn that combination. I won't get it right away, it'll take me longer than a real dancer, but I know I'll get it...and I KNOW I can sell the shit out of it." Susan will argue with me about this--she thinks I'm a better dancer than I admit, mainly due to my work ethic. It is a great pleasure to master something through sheer dint of hard, meticulous work.
Of course during rehearsals those of us who know the movie will be muttering responses under our breath, or even out loud. It's hilarious how many responses I didn't realize I knew! The other day we were running the climactic scene and Branan as Riff Raff waves his gun and says "So...say goodbye to all of this..." and I blurt out "Goodbye, all of this!" Branan: "...and say hello to...oblivion!" Me: "Hello, oblivion! How's the wife and kids?" Honestly I haven't thought about that response since HIGH SCHOOL!
I am loving the score. Right now my favorites are "Science Fiction Double Feature" and "Over at the Frankenstein Place."
The tap combination is not difficult but I've been a little stressed about it because I haven't nailed it yet in a runthrough. The main reason is that I can't hear the track when I start it, because the rest of the cast is supposed to be cheering me on. So I get ahead of myself. I've been working on it with the track at home but there are a couple of problems--for one thing, I'm terribly self-conscious about making too much noise and annoying the neighbors below. So I can really only tap during the day. Another problem is that there seems to be a sound problem on my computer--the sound is kind of low and the extra speakers I have don't seem to be working. So I can't really hear it there either! So the best solution is to try to work through it anyway, jack up the sound as much as I can and just drill the combination over and over, to get the pace into my body. I mean, realistically even if I do get a little ahead, I doubt the audience will notice, there'll be too many bellowing "2-4-6-8, show us how you masturbate!" But still, I want to get it perfect.
The good news is that with all the obsessive drilling, my triples have never been better! The sounds are clean and right on rhythm--very happy, because something occurred to me. If you're dancing a tap solo, as opposed to a group number--your sounds had better be clean! You can't hide behind anyone :) And I've been doing the combination very fast, much faster than the tempo on the track. I have to warm up like crazy to get to that point, though. And I tend to tap lazily on my left side--the more warmed up I am, the less this is a problem but still, have to correct it. I guess I'm not an ambidextrous tapper! (Which is odd, since I am an ambidextrous kicker.)
It's funny, this show isn't that difficult, certainly not musically but the dance isn't difficult either, there's just a LOT of it. ("Time Warp" in particular is FULL of dance--I'm exhausted by the end of that number! Lots of fun but stuffed with 'ography.) I am an enormous perfectionist as a dancer, because I'm not nearly as strong a dancer as I am a singer, so I compensate as much as I can. I go home and drill these dances and now I have probably the strongest grasp of the dances of anyone in the cast besides the dance captain! She's even asked ME about stuff! And the cast seems to think I'm this amazing tapper--I've had several comments along the lines of "so amazing, I wish I could tap....I'm so impressed by people who can tap..." Uh, I am NOT really a tapper, per se! I have some experience and I can do basic steps and am always trying to improve myself, but compared to REAL tappers? They'd eat me alive! Vera Ellen's ghost is safe :) (Although I tried to stutter-tap a few days ago--it's not actually that hard! I was sort-of doing it anyway :)
When I was preparing for this audition, I talked with Susan about my sense of myself as a dancer. I was brought up as a singer first and foremost--my mother and brother were both opera singers, I was singing in our professional-quality church choir from a very young age, I was always in chorus in high school, etc. Mom was utterly uninterested in dance--she put me in a ballet class for a while when I was in third grade, but I had no more training after that. And that's kind of a shame. I LOVE dancing. It's not easy for me, but I really love it. I'm an athlete, of course I like to move! I think if I'd had more training as a kid, it would come a little quicker for me. But anyway, because I had such a strong identity of myself as a singer, I had a kind of anti-identity as a dancer which was only reinforced when I started working in theater after graduation and coming up against really GOOD dancers, of whom Susan was one. So I've always been very humble, and realistic, about my dance abilities. And when I talked with Susan about going for Columbia I said "I feel almost--arrogant about going for this dancer role but the thing is--I know I can do it. I know I can do it. Watching her in the movie, I know I can learn that combination. I won't get it right away, it'll take me longer than a real dancer, but I know I'll get it...and I KNOW I can sell the shit out of it." Susan will argue with me about this--she thinks I'm a better dancer than I admit, mainly due to my work ethic. It is a great pleasure to master something through sheer dint of hard, meticulous work.
Of course during rehearsals those of us who know the movie will be muttering responses under our breath, or even out loud. It's hilarious how many responses I didn't realize I knew! The other day we were running the climactic scene and Branan as Riff Raff waves his gun and says "So...say goodbye to all of this..." and I blurt out "Goodbye, all of this!" Branan: "...and say hello to...oblivion!" Me: "Hello, oblivion! How's the wife and kids?" Honestly I haven't thought about that response since HIGH SCHOOL!
I am loving the score. Right now my favorites are "Science Fiction Double Feature" and "Over at the Frankenstein Place."
