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.