Friday Feb. 22

2 pm. Lunch time and I'm trying to finish my Kirchhoff's soup before going back to choreograph for Follies. I spent the morning trying to work out the dance movements to a song medley for tonight. Last nights Follies rehearsal was cancelled so I'm only 3 rehearsals behind. It took me 2 1/2 hours to work out the movements for 50 people on stage. I start with the words of the songs and the beat. Is it 4 beats to a measure or 3 beats? Is it cut time or standard time? What does the song feel like? Then I start trying out a few steps here and there. (Trying to remember that I'm choreographing for a large group of women so that my tendency to use masculine dance steps don't dominate.) This morning's song medley included : I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Followed by Black and White by 3 Dog Night, Next was Halfbreed by Cher, It's Not Easy being Green, Indian Nation by Paul Revere and the Raiders, Gypsy Tramps and Thieves, Everything is Beautiful. I'm back to work this afternoon on the Sunshine medley. I called Mary Jane McGuire the musical director for Follies and we discussed a couple of sections of music that really need a strong bass beat to keep the dancers on the beat.

While I was choreographing Jim Keeney technical director stopped in and we talked about furniture styles for Harriet the Spy. We need to build some custom beds, tables and chairs to fit the stage areas. We also talked about ways to make a dumbwaiter in a scene. Crowns is still taking up time too in trying to reschedule and we are juggling school matinees for Harriet the Spy with a couple schools changing their last minute numbers to attend.

Soups done. Time to go back to work.