Pointed Toes are Sexy - Polish 4, Friday March 20

This night was an extra special rehearsal, as we had an invited guest to work with L on her dance moves and physical presence in the Club scene. Carolyn, a friend of D's, is a local director and instructor whose background includes exotic dancing - and her eye and coaching were a terrific help to the staging of the scene. Scene 7 had been roughed in, blocking-wise, but there were a few key hurdles - actor confidence in unfamiliar shoes and movement, questions of the look and polish of the dancers in this sort of close quarter dancing, and the question of how to keep her active, moving and sexy while she is engaged in a LOT of complex dialogue. No mean feat!

Working with L, Carolyn was able to give her a nice overview of the movements and physical approaches to dancing in a one-on-one situation. The movements she coached gave a much better physical vocabulary for detailing the scene. Also, we learned that newbie dancers draw attention to their crotches, while experienced dancers keep the customer's focus moving and distracted with light and sexy movements through the hips, thighs and legs. Not to mention the bosoms. I don't need to mention them because it has become abundantly clear that I will be giving far more notes on breast positioning than I have for any other show, ever. It's fun to do new things.

I felt a little for S over the course of the evening - the focus was really on developing the physical story being told by Alice's body. As the only fella in the room, it was a bit like falling down the rabbit's hole to an Amazonian place where women discuss thigh placement and breast jiggle with the precision and intensity more classically reserved for complicated risotto recipes. But he was a trooper (insert sly winky face here) and managed to endure two hours of saucy ladies making alarming comments and naughty gestures. Bully for him!

The work here will need plenty of reinforcement, practice as well as rehearsal - and Carolyn (who was a godsend!) has graciously offered to come back and do a revision later in the process - an offer I certainly plan to take her up on! In the meantime, stand tall, shoulders back, and lead with the ladies...