Every time I walk in the door to choreograph something on non dancers, I temporarily forget how many basic movement ideas I take for granted because of my dance training. Yesterday I taught a simple phrase of 6 counts of eight to our group of supers dressed as Commedia entertainers. Two of them jump on a bench and do a little hop-step as they pull away from each other while the others weave in and out of each other as they circle the bench in opposite directions.
Working with dancers, teaching this would have taken ten minutes. As it were, a half an hour went by and we were still only at the basics, let alone talking to them about style. It's not their fault at all. They worked intensely hard to master the pattern and understand what I was trying to tell them, but the untrained body has a hard time walking in time to music, let alone grappling that while circling clockwise and alternating between running up on tiptoes for four and sneaking with their arms out and flat for four.
I think even harder for these guys is that maybe one of them is actually trained in any kind of stage craft or movement, acting etc. Many of them have only been on stage a couple of times, and probably only holding a spear and standing in one place. What Chuck and I are asking them to do is something that even a seasoned actor needs time to perfect. They must jump ahead at lighting speed in training to accomplish what we are telling them to do with any sort of proficiency.
I guess I've taken the seven of them on as my little project. I will keep grabbing them whenever we have time so that we can run into the lobby and work on style and shape. It is my personal mission to move them up to a different level by the time we open. Their ten seconds in the spotlight will NOT be embarrassing, or even tentative for them. If I can help it.
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