Dancing Queens

February 17th, Shanti Bhavan
Today was a fun day. We had the sixth grade for aerobics in the morning and I started trying some things out with them for their part in the show. I only taught three classes, so I had a lot of free time and Amanda and I started planning the arts classes and talking through some choreography ideas. I’m using three songs from Billy Elliot in the show, and the program is going to include almost every student in the school. The choir is going to sing two songs and the fourth and sixth graders are going to dance to the dance break of Billy’s big song in the show. I also have an eleventh grade girl named Beena who is going to dance some solos in that number. She’s very graceful and she wants to be a professional Indian dancer. I’m excited to see what she can do, and what she can teach me. I’d love to learn some traditional Indian dance. It’s going to be really cool, because the dance will have three diferent themes running through it. The fourth graders are going to be doing ballet, the sixth graders are going to do dance inspired by boxing, and Beena will be doing a combination of modern dance and Indian dance. The second grade is doing a scene/dance from the song “Shine,” that involves some basic ballet and some acting and singing… it’s a lot, but I think they can handle it. The third grade is making art projects that will serve as scenery, the fifth grade is writing and acting out original scenes related to Billy Elliot, the eighth grade will be writing and reading introductory paragraphs for each part of the show, and the forst graders are doing some visual group improvisation (making shapes with their bodies). The seventh grade is on academic probabtion, so I won’t get to work with them, but school is more important. It sounds like a lot right now, but I think it will turn out really well.
I worked with the choir tonight and they’re actually pretty capable. I picked two boys to sing solos and they sound really nice. I’m looking forward to giving some of the students a chance to step out from the group and show what they can do. There aren’t that many opportunities for them to be recognized as individuals here and I think it will be a good exercise in confidence for them. I found out that there are a few violin students, and so we’re hoping that they will be able to come up with some parts and play along with the choir. I really hope that works out!
Sixth graders had their musical theatre class from 8-8:45. We worked on some boxing moves and they picked up very well. They can’t do anything too complicated, but when they have strong, clear movements to do, they kick butt! I’m really getting jazzed about the show.
We watched The Bourne Identity … off to bed!