Stage Design and Old Gumbie Cat Blocking Workshop

In Todays lesson we got assigned a lesson where we would teach the class our chosen songs choreography. Today's lesson it was Beth's turn and her song was ' Old Gumbie Cat', this dances style is tap dance. We jumped straight in and began learning the dance she had choreographed at the beginning of the piece Beth (Jennyanydot) was standing on the catwalk and either side was an evenly divided class. We walked forward tap are feet 4 steps stops and the with our right foot tapped in front then to the the right, then with our left foot we tapped in front and then to our left; We did this in unison with our hands on our hips. We then dances 360 degrees anticlockwise whilst tapping alternate feet. After with opposite arms and legs we tapped in opposite directions i loved this move and think it was really affective from an audiences perspective. Another stand out movement for me was when people standing stage left move with there right leg pointing at a 45 degree angle and then tapping the floor with our toes whilst their arms diagonally downwards from left to right they do this 4 times whilst moving to the right. Whilst this is repeated on stage right but all the movements are retrogrades to the right. This looks really jolly and captures the motif and emotion in the song.

My penultimate stand out dance move Beth also choreographed in the song was when we get into a line of 5 facing the cat walk on stage left whilst the same happens stage right. Every other  person is facing away from the cat walk we then turn with our arms linked and move clockwise whilst tapping our feet forward. This move looks really professionally well fully polished and i believe its a challenge we can master and as a class make this look really effective.

At the end of the song we all sing 'Oh She's a Jolly Good Fellow' and we all gather round her people at the front kneel then it gradually gets taller. The music suddenly changes and we all turn around anticlockwise on the spot and get back to the original pose around her with are arms out in a diagonal fashion. I thought this was good as she established a motif and a clear ending point for the song, this was assisted by a well established memorable pose.

In this lesson we also designed how the staging would be. As you can see from the diagram we have a cat walk to tie in with our fashion idea. This cat walk links on to the steps leading out to the audience, we wanted to actually connect the two so we felt as personal to the audience as possible. One of our aims when creating cats was to make the audience feel like they were a part of the story. The cat walk then connects to the staging on the left (view from diagram) this will be the office area in the designer house. We felt that it should be on that side as there is not much wing area behind it, and the main entrance to the stage we wanted to have an impact so made it tall (stage right staging). This leads me to the thought process behind the staging on the right. We wanted to create a few things from it, the stair case down to the designer house, which is what the stages theme is. We felt it was necessary for it to be a stair case as we wanted characters to enter with impact for example in Rum Tum Tugger he enters from the stair case and walks down in a dramatic fashion. 'Like he is god' a connotation of arriving from higher ground.

On the floor of the stage there will be clothing rails either side of the stage and also mirrors on stage left, this is to add to the theme of the fashion house. They are also used as props throughout the dances we have choreographed. The sides of the staging will be covered with sheets of wood which will be be painted to make the walls of the fashion house.

David Blaine Character Analysis

When we portray cats the musical we are changing the motif of it instead of it being set traditionally as cats we are putting on the show in the world of fashion. The task we were set involved finding a celebrity, fashion icon or model, we did this so we could link our cats character to a person in this industry. I based my character Quaxo on the American magician David Blaine. I did this because Quaxo takes to the stage and changes character into Mr Mistoffelees who is portrayed in cats as a magician.


David Blaine was born on April 4th 1973, he is a magician, illusionist and endurance artist. He is best known for his high impact tricks and has made his name by becoming a street performer and does close-up magic. He has performed all over the world breaking record and setting several world record.


Some of the tricks he has done includes, buried alive where on April 5th 1999 he emerged himself 9 foot underground with a water tank placed on-top so he could be seen in the public eye. When he did this trick he survived a week with no food and only 2-3 tablespoons a day. He was restricted in a coffin where he only had 6 inches to move his head. This is an example of David Blaine pushing the boundaries of magic and performing stunts that have never been seen before.


Another performance that David Blaine did which really captured my attention was a task he did called 'Frozen in Time'. In this trick he emerged himself in a transparent block of ice and remained there for 66 hours. He had to be cut free after this time using chainsaws. As soon as he came out of the block of ice, he was quickly wrapped in warm blankets and taken straight to hospital. He came out of the ice confused and disorientated and couldn't walk for a month after. This trick broke all world record, but said he would never attempt such a dangerous stunt again.


David Blaine does a lot for charity and helped hugely in the Haiti Appeal, this suggests that David Blaine. He also recently did a stunt where he wanted to give back to the people. This involved him standing in London and asking people for 5 pounds, most people ignored his request. A business man who Blaine asked gave him the 5 pounds it took almost 3 hours just to get 5 pounds off of the public. He spoke to his man and said finally some one has lent me a hand now I have something to pay you back by. He lifted his arms to the sky and money started raining from the clouds, thousands of pounds were falling and the people below scurried to pick them all up.


David Blaine usually wears practical and plain clothing, its almost a necessity for what he wears to be practical as his stunt involve being in these clothes for either long periods of time or involve a lot of movement. Quaxo my cats character is also quite plain until he transforms into Mr Mistoffelees where he then becomes a more flashy character in a light up jacket. When Mr Mistoffelees is on stage and all flashy, this is not like David Blaine he isn't a flashy person but he likes to draw peoples attention onto himself through his stage performances. The boldness of Mr Mistoffelees is portrayed with David Blaine's stunts.


Here is a picture of David Blaine, I got this image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blaine . As you can see he is in a plain grey t-shirt, and black trousers. David Blaine is usually put in outfits like this which are one block colour and usually in colours grey, white, black and brown. This is similar to Quaxo's costume in Broadway where he is in black and white. David Blaine and Quaxo wear similar colours, when David performs his tricks he usually decides to wear something smarter so matches his outfit with a smart black or brown jacket. This is similar to Quaxo who puts on his light up crystal jacket when performing, they still keep within the same guidelines of wearing a jacket when performing.


My researched was influenced by Wikipedia, David Blaine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blaine [Last Accessed 2nd February] and Bing images, David Blaine http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=david+blaine&FORM=HDRSC2 [Last Accessed 2nd February] this allowed me to look at David Blaine's different outfits and understand more about him and his personality. This allowed me to gather information so I could make my own informative opinion about David Blaine.