Video Evaluation 14/1/22
The show starts off in the 1940’s with the hit ‘Right Here, Right Now’ performed by Sixth Form, the
show would gradually traverse throughout the decades up until the present day. Major hits from each
decade were performed by the dancers and some scenes from ‘Grease’ were performed by Year 11
Drama. The show made its way through the decades featuring a couple of songs each time including
Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’, the Gene Kelly ‘Singing in the Rain’, Strictly Come Dancing’s star
performance of ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and ‘Larger than Life’ from the Musical of And Juliet. Years 10, 11,
12 and 13 were all involved in the show whether they played a part in the actual on-stage portion or
even the backstage set ups, everyone had a part, everyone made the show happen.
My video evaluation consists of both Production and a Dancer’s point of view as I was on both sides
of the playing field during the show, overall, I was impressed with how everything went, if I were to
comment upon one part which didn’t go well, it was definitely the sound or the lighting for some of
the songs, for example, the ‘Beat It’, performed by 11A was lit correctly only some of the times, I
understand the whole moving the lights around to create atmosphere but sometimes the lights were
on the incorrect sides (red lit blue, vice versa), this didn’t seem to affect the audience however I
would’ve changed this if I were the lighting operator for the show, I would’ve instead switched the
focus from Red to Blue and back by dimming each Team’s lights to try and portray a sort of rivalry
and a “winning side” with the lighting, during the chorus / instrumental part really made me happy
with the Drama Team from Year 11 coming to work with the dance and creating a vocalless dance,
the lights given on the instrumental really excited me and I really enjoy watching said dance over and
over for this reason. The cascade and the turning heads really set the mood and really took its toll
upon the audience and the dance itself. Jailhouse Rock’s lighting was basic to say the least, it’s
certainly not what I had spoken about or even planned. It was plain, boring and stayed the same
throughout, I planned for different colours across the stage for the start and throughout which
would change and really set the dancing yet prison mood. As a Dancer during this performance, it
was very bland to look out upon and didn’t really set me in the dancing mood. From a Dancer’s point
of view for the dance, it went horrifically, not because of the other dancer’s fault but because of the
band’s, during rehearsal, we did well with only one person forgetting their cue but the band played at
the speed we were used to, however in the show we had technical difficulties which had made the
band slow down the song which had, in turn, caught all the dancers off-guard and we had to try and
match the tempo of the song whilst not ruining the performance itself, this came to be a large
struggle with dancers missing their cues to come on, some doing their moves too early and others
simply confused on where the song was even at, this was a big disappointment and to anywho who
knew how fast the song was supposed to be and recognised the now slowed down and out-of-place
song, 2 dancers also left the stage too early, this was embarrassing. However all doesn’t end there.
We lit the ‘She used to be Mine’ piece which again, didn’t go to plan. The lighting technician seemed
Production / Dance Team | 11A