Dance in Musicals, 9 February

Who, originally, thought of having dance in musicals?

Dance within musicals dates back to 5th Century BCE Greece and cannot be traced to a single person

What musical was the first to include dance?

Once again it is impossible to track as it goes back to ancient times

When was the most successful musical made?

The Lion King has become the top-grossing musical of all time with more than $6.2 billion earned globally. 

Where was the first musical with dance shown?

The closest place it can go back to Greece in ancient times

Musical Songs

Here are some songs I think would be good for a musical finale or during the musical itself.

You can't stop the beat from Hairspray - For multiple reasons including the fact everyone can get involved and the fact that empowers both larger people and colour and it's also a fun exciting song.

Waving through a window from Dear Evan Hansen - I do not know this musical very well and it may not be a song everyone can, vocally, participate in, but, for those who are dancers this may be a very exciting opportunity for them to show known or unknown skills.

 Stand by you sung by Rachel Platten - It may not have been in a musical but this song emanates a lot of feelings and can even, with a little bit of lyric change, show a strong bond of friendship.

Travel

Had they replaced my heart with a drum? I thought so. I could here it's beat over the roaring crowd. My dream is so very close now. I look to the audience trying to spot my family in the crowd. I finally spotted them, only to see most either crying or screaming, holding up signs with different encouraging words. I could feel both pride and tears coming to me. I glanced at the clock above my family, friends and colleagues, knowing it was time to go. I look back, waving and shouting goodbye, I walked to the giant piece of metal that would get me to my future. 

My name is Jessica

I'm 12 years old

I have three siblings

I don't really have a favourite performer

The Lion King Musical Clip/Trailer

Top musicals from:

1930's - 1939's The Wizard Of Oz originally was a book written by L. Frank Baum. It is about when a tornado rips through Kansas and Dorothy and her small dog Toto are whisked away in their house to a magical land, Oz.

1940's - 1940's Pinocchio is about when the woodworker Geppetto wishes upon a star for his wooden puppet to come to life and the Blue Fairy grants his wish.

Almost There!

It's almost there, on Thursday we will be both doing a full blown dress rehearsal and performance. Everything is coming along nicely and we have most of the costumes done and dusted. Within the next few days before the performance we'll be doing rehearsals in the auditorium every chance we have. Today we got to have a practice in the actual auditorium where we 

will be performing. I feel 

like something I have to work 

on is knowing my ques and 

getting them perfect.

Practice, Practice And More Practice

Today we started off the by having to change into our PE gear, because we would be doing some dancing and it would be easier to move around. We started with our warm ups, including an 8 count warm up, some vocal warm ups and more. On Thursday we were given our roles, I am Simba's understudy and I am also Ed (The Dumb Hyena) I share this role with another person so we both say those lines, we also got to sing the first three songs from Lion King Circle Of Life, I Just Can't Wait To Be King and Hakuna Matata,
we also got to read through the script as our roles. We have been looking at make up looks for our certain characters, I haven't been able to find a make up look I like, but, I'm sure I will find one eventually.

Hakuna Matata, What Wonderful Phrase!!

Today we learnt a small portion of dance from Hakuna Matata and we had a read of the script, some people took the part of certain characters, although, the teachers said that this didn't mean we immediately got that role and we were just taking this role temporarily. Learning the dance was really fun, for the dance we went in a pair with another person, my partner and I were asked to perform for a video with another pair, so people could learn the dance at home.