Jack Iredale stepped up to the role of guest blogger this week with a report in on Gold Company rehearsals
The main plot point behind, "The Twelve Dancing Princess," is, obviously, the fact that they go dancing every night. Whilst hinted at it throughout the play, we don’t actually see the dance until scene ten. But even from the few rehearsals we’ve had (I say we, I’m one of the few cast members not doing it), it already looks brilliant.
One of the reasons is, it’s one of the few performances I’ve seen at Yew Tree where we’ve had actual dancing. However, looking at it closely, it’s more physical theatre than full on dancing, which means that as well as being enjoyable to watch, it also means that for those...non-dancing people at Yew Tree don’t have to learn a load of complicated steps to put together a fantastic piece of physical theatre. It starts off with slow, sombre movements that change into quick paced, frantic action, the contrast working well both visually, and in the context of the story, as you can see that by doing this every night, the princess’s would go through shoes like wildfire.
I think it’s also a credit to the actors we have at Yew Tree how quickly they’ve picked up the movements, even some of the more complicated ones, such as spotting, which is essentially keeping your eyes on a single point whilst turning so as not to get dizzy. From looking at people in today’s session, it’s harder than it sounds, yet the company tried it, and performed it brilliantly.
I’ve used brilliant twice already, but that’s because this scene is. It’s brilliant to watch and it’s brilliant how well Yew Tree’s actors, both old and new, have risen to perform it. And to be quite honest, you could say that for the whole production. The whole piece is an absolute blast to watch, and I can’t wait till it gets put on stage in December.
J. Iredale
The main plot point behind, "The Twelve Dancing Princess," is, obviously, the fact that they go dancing every night. Whilst hinted at it throughout the play, we don’t actually see the dance until scene ten. But even from the few rehearsals we’ve had (I say we, I’m one of the few cast members not doing it), it already looks brilliant.
One of the reasons is, it’s one of the few performances I’ve seen at Yew Tree where we’ve had actual dancing. However, looking at it closely, it’s more physical theatre than full on dancing, which means that as well as being enjoyable to watch, it also means that for those...non-dancing people at Yew Tree don’t have to learn a load of complicated steps to put together a fantastic piece of physical theatre. It starts off with slow, sombre movements that change into quick paced, frantic action, the contrast working well both visually, and in the context of the story, as you can see that by doing this every night, the princess’s would go through shoes like wildfire.
I think it’s also a credit to the actors we have at Yew Tree how quickly they’ve picked up the movements, even some of the more complicated ones, such as spotting, which is essentially keeping your eyes on a single point whilst turning so as not to get dizzy. From looking at people in today’s session, it’s harder than it sounds, yet the company tried it, and performed it brilliantly.
I’ve used brilliant twice already, but that’s because this scene is. It’s brilliant to watch and it’s brilliant how well Yew Tree’s actors, both old and new, have risen to perform it. And to be quite honest, you could say that for the whole production. The whole piece is an absolute blast to watch, and I can’t wait till it gets put on stage in December.
J. Iredale
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