In March 2020 I had the pleasure of seeing the production, that I had worked so hard on, find its feet on stage. The classical musical Guys and Dolls saw 30 York St. John students, all a part of the Musical Production Society, head back to the streets of 1950’s New York. Having been elected in the previous April as the society’s choreographer it was a huge honour, and indeed a challenge, to create routines for this historic show.

It was nothing but a joy to teach the routines to the classic numbers of ‘Sit Down you’re Rocking the Boat’ and ‘Luck be a Lady’ to name just a few. This process led me to learn how choreographers such as Peter Darling (who choreographed Billy Elliot the Musical) created routines that did not look like ‘traditional’ dances. These dances were created to look like regular movements that the characters would do in everyday life. I learnt a lot about the technical side of choreography during the planning and rehearsal process. The biggest learning curve I faced was, how to teach people to dance when they do not think of themselves as dancers.

I am a firm believer that everyone can dance in some way or another! However, one of the biggest hurdles I faced when teaching routines was making them believe that too. A way I managed to tackle this was warming them up with a range of activities. One of the most effective was playing music of the era, location, or mood that the dance was about. Gradually I would introduce their characters into this setting and allow them time to play around with how their characters would act within this setting. This activity could last anywhere between 5-15 minutes depending on their engagement levels. Whenever the cast had relaxed and found their place within the scene, the dance was then taught or practiced. The energy levels in the room increased dramatically, post activity. The cast developed a deeper level of understanding of their role in the dance, sub textual relationships and even created their own in-jokes

There is no doubt that my training on the Drama and Theatre course aided my teaching and planning of choreography. The ability to envision the possibilities of what could happen on a stage, creating depth within images and the power of the ensemble are all aspects of choreography that were driven by theatrical knowledge.

Sadly, due to the closure of theatres across the UK because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the production did not make it to its opening night. Luckily, we had invited a reviewer into our open dress rehearsal, the week before! She described the dedication and quality of the performance perfectly within her review (see below). Despite the closure, the experience of choreographing an entire show was invaluable and is one that I would love to do again. Hopefully this production that cast and creatives have worked so hard on, will once day make it on to the stage.

A Review by Rachel Rogers: https://www.yorkmix.com/review-guys-and-dolls-dress-run/