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Gonzaga Dance Critique

Decent Essays

I was in the Gonzaga Dramatic Association Production of Hairspray this Spring, where I played IQ, one of the Corny Kids. It was directed by Allan L’Etoile, produced by Paul Buckley and Megan Goldsmith, choreographed by Ellen Abood, and musically directed by Marika Countouris. Many people called this one of the best shows that the GDA has put on in years, and it was a lot of fun to be in. There were three main aspects to putting on the show, rehearsing the singing, rehearsing the dancing, and performing.
When the cast would rehearse the singing for the show, after receiving the music and splitting up into vocal parts, Marika Countouris would start going through the song in small sections, one vocal part at a time. After going through the whole song once, we would run through it again, correct any mistakes, then run in one final time. After that, it was up to the cast to remember everything that we did and to keep doing it. We later had to go back for a few songs and relearn them, but if everyone was willing to put in the effort and practice individually, then we wouldn’t have to relearn it and we could move on. …show more content…

It was a hard process because we had to learn dance moves which were popular in the 60s (when the show took place) so that way the audience would understand the show as the 60s. There was one song in particular, Nicest Kids in Town featuring the Corny Collins Kids, that took a long time to choreograph because it was long, fast, and we all had to be very synchronized for to pull of the effect Ellen Abood wanted. But once we learned everything (and reviewed and changed everything to the satisfaction of Mr. L’Etoile, which took a while) it looked really good and was a lot of fun to

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