June 30 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Guitar Concerto 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Zoot Suit rehearsal. Last morning rehearsal with the students today. Worked on lifts again and taught the basic movement for the Finale number. Did a little energy exercise with them as well.

Worked with Lakin and Maya, our romantic leads, to get them more comfortable with the first dance. Much of it was just allowing them to relax and enjoy the dancing, and the dancing with each other. I think we made some advances on that front.

Set a section where there is a general celebration when our protagonists are released from jail. Its set to a very Mexican piece of music. To my great luck, I had a few performers in the show who had a background in ballet folklorico, so I was able use it in the number. I was also lucky in that I had some great actors, like Catalina Maynard, who were able to play long dramatic moments.

Then I set the finale of the show which took a little while, but I think will be clean and effective.

Finally, I had another birthday week celebration when I took my parents to my favorite restaurant in Little Italy.... Davanti Enoteca. A good time was had by all.

June 29 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Guitar Concerto 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Zoot Suit rehearsal. In the morning, worked with the SCPA students on their jitterbug lifts. Then we had a discussion about "life in the theatre." Pretty much talking about the necessity of a good work ethic and needing to push themselves to excel. Worked more on the dance going into the Zoot Suit riots and then set a section for a military color guard. Have to do a little research on that one.

June 28 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Guitar Concerto 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Zoot Suit rehearsal. Finished the dance number in Zoot Suit Riots and handed it over to our brilliant fight director Jaime Newcomb. Its always so nice to see people working who just know their stuff and do their jobs. Professional. Especially when you are dealing with students. Just "do ood work."

Anyhow, afterwards went out for a simple late night birthday celebration at Extraordinary Desserts with Shana Wride. Happy Birthday to me! My joy was only marred by the fact that they had run out of cheddar cheese, so i couldn't have my favorite grilled cheese sandwich. Ah  well in a month I will be in England and be able to stuff myself with all that great English cheddar.

Also nice to come home to find a online friend-Toronto comic artist J. Bone had drawn a cute drawing in honor of my B-day. Ah, the simple things. :)

June 27 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Guitar Concerto 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Zoot Suit rehearsal. Worked more on the dance number working into the Zoot Suit Riots in Act 2. Taught the students how to do a jitterbug slide through the legs and a jitterbug flip.

Then  I zoomed over to SDB to teach the Dewey Third Graders. 

And then I zoomed back for a run through for the First Act of Zoot Suit. After dinner, we staged the Handball number. Its a bit more graphic than usual, but oh well. Times have changed. :)

Got some good news today that an former SDB dancer might be returning. It always nice when someone comes back after a year away.

June 26 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Guitar Concerto 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - This morning, I went into the SDB office to meet with Katie to get up to date on the social media side of things. Then went into Zoot Suit and started working on some second act numbers and cleaned up stuff in the first act. The afternoon was spent with one of my best pals, Beverly, at Davantu Enoteca (the burreta and tomato salad) and seeing The Intouchables at Landmark Theatres. I highly recommend both. I laughed. I cried.

June 25 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Guitar Concerto 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Day off from Zoot Suit. So I went in to the SDB office. Everything is still there. Got a request to speak at an interesting event from Voice of San Diego in August. Picked up and signed paychecks.

June 24 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Guitar Concerto 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Zoot Suit rehearsal. Staged a number called Chucos Suaves. Its pretty much a transitional number, but it has one of the catchier melodies in the show. We ran through Act One today. So far so good, we are on schedule. 

Taught the kids some flashy jitterbug lifts, including the trademark straddle into a handstand. Much fun was had by all. We had one lift that went a bit too far over, but I was there to catch the girl. Just goes back to my training. Always spot lifts.

June 23 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Firebird 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Zoot Suit rehearsal. Set the movement for a number called Marijuana Boogie. Had to talk to the director and musical director to decide what purpose the number served in the show. Unlike the other numbers in the show that move the plot forward, this number pretty much serves as a "charm" number as far as the audiences perception of it. So it was important to know why we were taking the time out of moving the story forward to sing about pot. In the end, it was decided that it was a statement about social perception about mexicans and drugs. 

Finished the Saturday Night Dance. The piece in three sections. Each section has an identical introduction, which then spins into a specific dance, which then spins into a scene. 

For the identical intros, I decided I wanted to repeat the same physical motifs every time and to just present them in different spacial relataions. That would allow the audience to pay attention to the slight variations in the sung lyric being sung by the lead upstage. Also, sometimes people are afraid of repetition. But repetition is a great tool when you are trying to get the audience to get a point. 

The first section is a swing number. Since there is so much swing dancing in the show, I wanted to differentiate it a bit (and also differentiate it from the upcoming sections). I knew that section two had to be slow and sensual, and that section three was going to be wild and fast, so I needed contrast. That being the case, the swing number ended up being very bouncy and slightly athletic. It finishes in a straddle lift.

The second section is a danzon, which (for all intents and purposes) a rhumba rhythm. Slow-Quick-Quick. It features the guys pulling the girls around them and gettting all wrapped up, finishing in a big dramatic dip (that echoes the straddle lift in the first section). 

The third section is a mambo. It was important to me that the choreography stressed the off beat. I have seen too many "mambos" staged on the down beat that it drives me crazy.

Anyhow it all ends up turning into a fight (don't all musicals about gangs) and then they dance a big finale.

June 22 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Firebird 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Zoot Suit rehearsal. Finished Zoot Suit Boogie by teaching it to the cast members who hadn't had enough time on it. Still have to finesse the choreography for the leads.

Started the Saturday Night Dance, which is a big sequence that alternates between a sort of saturday Night Dance Theme and swing dancing and then danzon (which is really a rhumba) and mambo. Should be able to finish it tomorrow. I'll talk a little about it then.

June 21 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Firebird 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Worked on Zoot Suit Boogie at rehearsal. Sort of finished it, in that I got the Pachuco and his back up girls worked in. Also, totally finished the rival gang's choreography and pretty much blocked out the choreography for the leads. Although it has been set, some of the leads haven't had time to learn it. Luckily, I have a very good dance captain, Spencer Smith. Not only did he do the show 15 years ago, in a different part, but he played my nephew in the Nutcracker at SDB when he was a kid.

Also did a sort of one step quadrille dance for some couples while the lead character is in prison. It is called a paso doble in the script, but I have always seen it as a bit lower class. It is meant to be satiric. So even the last time I staged it, I made it pretty raunchy as far as looking like a dance someone would do in a bar in Tijuana.

June 20 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Firebird 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - Had a rehearsal with the SCPA students for Zoot Suit this morning. We sketched out an interior section of the Zoot Suit Boogie, the number which opens the show. And I am pretty happy with it as a start.

Then zoomed over to dance Place to meet my final rotation of the kids from Dewey Elementary. Chasse. Chasse. Chasse.

Then zoomed back to Zoot Suit rehearsals to work on Zoot Suit Boogie with most of the cast. Its a big complicated number with different groups of people doing different things onstage. I would guess I did about two thirds with the group I had.  But it will take a bunch of layering even once I finish it. Still, it is fine so far. :)

June 19 2012

Rehearsal for SDB's Firebird 2010. Photographer: Manny Rotenburg. During our summer hiatus, I decided to post some pics from the archives.

Daily Stuff - First Zoot Suit rehearsal. Great cast and creative staff. The SCPA student got to show the jitterbug steps we have been working on for the past few weeks. The performed with flying colors. Read through the show and "Meet and Greet." Then watched a couple of videos on the "Zoot Suit" riots in LA in the 40's.

Looking forward to a wonderful few weeks of rehearsal.