Creating a Peroformance: Seven Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Sins

When given the task of agreeing upon a theme for our Dance Festival piece, it wasn't much of a surprise that we, as a group, went for something rather dark and twisted: The Seven Deadly Sins. Naturally, there were those amongst us who wanted to do something slightly cheesy (LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAAAAAAAAIN!) and those of us who wanted to do something more innocent (Let's do the LazyTown dance!). However, the sinfully sinister dark approach won.

I WAS PRIDE ;)

Stimulus Items?

Clare gave each of us in the group an area of stimulus to look at. I was given literature. Naturally, I took it with great pride. After looking through the internet for a famous or two, I decided to write my own. After all, I like writing and dark, twisted themes are something I can get behind. Here it is, in its full glory:

They say seven devils own the seven seas
They’re the reason many sailors do not return
We, on our island, are isolated in greed:
The taste of power corrupts those in need.

She tells me seven devils own the seven seas

Between the swigs of mead and forks of meat she feeds me
Gluttony cannot find me whilst on land
Safe between by parapets of sand.

She simpers ‘seven devils own the seven seas’.
Beautiful lady! Stories to amuse.
She beckons me again, lust eyes wide and inviting
How do you refuse a creature of pure beauty, so enticing?

Servants whisper that I have been corrupted by the seven devils who own the seven seas
HAHA! Fools that they are! Who dares to claim their King is corrupt!
I keep them protected with my power and pride
They’re lucky that they’re allied.

Mother once told me that seven devils own the seven seas.
I slept through the day and watched the ceiling through the night
She calls me sloth, but a must disagree.

Why work when sleeping is free?

Seven devils own the seven seas?
I want to own the seven seas!
Devils don’t scare me; I want what I want NOW!
Envy is nothing, compared to me, what to see how?

Father told me as he died that seven devils own the seven seas.
It does not matter who own them; they all lead to his killer
Revenge, I am told, is never correct...
.... But how can I sit here when I can kill the only suspect?

Seven devils own the seven seas
Please please, mercy on me?
I have no place for lust or gluttony or envy or pride
What good is revenge or sloth or greed?

Please spare my mortal soul

How many sins can one man uphold?

... Yes, I know, rhyming couplets are cool. :)

What happened with the stimuli?

Along with everybody else, I took my stimuli into school with me. Now, in my head, there were seven different characters, all controlled by one of the seven deadly sins. And the final two stanzas, all the characters would be the narrator of this. But, when my poem was stuck onto a piece of HUUUUUGE paper, and the team began to bounce about ideas, other interpretations came to light.

Dionne saw the final narrator as a sailor, and the seven sins were attacking him. This was a nice concept, as it would be able to show some strong relationships between the different personalities. Unfortunately, though, there were three students who weren't able to be in the Christmas concert for different reasons.

Complications?

We were faced with many different complications whilst creating this dance piece.

Some were easy fix: Timing with the music, some people wanting to contemporary dance and others wanting to do street style dance, Et Cetera, Et Cetera.

Then, there were tougher struggles.

Firstly, two students dropped the subject. Ouch.

Secondly, I was ill for an entire week. Oops.

Thirdly, Luke wasn't able to make the Dance Festival for valid, personal reasons. Oh well.

These three issues meant that people had to change choreography, change positions, change... nearly everything. Because I was ill for a week (I'M SORRY), I also had to learn a lot of new choreography. I really struggled to learn a move, too, which I'm certain caused tension within the group.

Clare pointed out to us that the dance wasn't really, well... dance-y. How does that happen, you may be wondering? Here's how:

I, Ant, Holly, Tilly and Luke all did drama GCSE. Dionne did dance. So, most of us won't pirouette but we'll happily walk insidiously slow for two and a half minutes.

We had to include more choreography into the dance. Of course, we tried our best to follow the new routine, though a couple of us (ME) did get stressed out over the constantly changing routine. As somebody who misjudges the amount of steps she has to walk down before reaching the bottom frequently, moving isn't my strong suit.

One issue that I think the group needs to work on is, sadly, team work. I wasn't the only one who felt singled out for criticism when making the wrong move, only to then have to person who criticised you laugh when they made a mistake.

Insecurities?

I am very insecure about dancing in front of people. You might think 'what, but you dance in musicals?!'. While that is true, I do dance in musicals, there is a large difference in doing box steps and jazz hands when compared to the style of dance you see at, well, a dance show.

When it comes to musicals, even if I do bad on the dancing side, there's always the singing and acting sides to make up for it. Sadly, these safety nets aren't there when performing a dance piece.

I think what I was most scared of was going wrong in the live performance. It didn't help that the Dance Festival was on a Thursday, when the Thursday Curse was bound to strike.