Dancing Dreams

Final Performance!

by Student on May 8, 2012

The spring performance on the 6th of May at the Mary Louis Academy was a  spectacular event. Beautiful little divas dancing in their amazing costumes in an ephemeral setting left the audience spellbound.  The last few days were very busy for the team getting all ends of the show together. From finishing production to transportation and installing, the team did it all.

 

In Anticipation

The audience waited in anticipation for the show to begin. The big tree upfront and the ‘rabbit hole’ on the curtain set the mood for what was yet to come.

 

Be Our Guest

The curtain opened with all the beautiful dancers on the stage. They performed to the number ‘Be Our Guest’  greeting all the guests in a beautiful forest setting.

 

Bippity Boppity Boo

The dancers danced to a Cinderella themed number ‘Bippity Boppity Boo’. A beautiful pumpkin was the highlighting feature which converted to Cinderella’s carriage with the swoosh of a wand!

 

Under the Sea

After Cinderella to Red Riding Hood,the dancers dressed as little mermaids with lots of fins and shells danced to ‘Under the Sea. Sea weed panels and blue lighting blended very well with the costumes  creating a beautiful aquatic environment.

 

Alice In Wonderland

In this Act the dancers danced to a many Alice In Wonderland numbers in a forest setting.Painted scenery panels served as a backdrop to tall trees and oversized flowers and mushrooms.  The sculptural cards created a unique “Alice” setting.

 

When You Wish Upon a Star

After the Alice in Wonderland Act, there was slideshow about the dancers, their process and passion for dancing. Following the slideshow a huge book ‘Once Upon a Time’ rolled on the stage and  each dancer walked through it marking’ their moment’.  After all the dancers walked through it, the book came together creating a perfect setting for the end of the show and received a lot of appreciation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Model Study

by Student on March 27, 2012

The design team made a model of the stage  with all the elements to get a good understanding of the space and how everything relates to one another. We decided to use the already existing three sided rotating panels on the stage as structure for the backdrop. We designed a forest scene with a big canopy,oversized trees, mushrooms, flowers that would serve as a backdrop for the most part of the performance.

 

 

Forest Scenery Panels and Trees

For the Forest scene, we designed a system of having three panels on both sides of the stage to serve as a backdrop to all the other elements. Each panel would have a painted scenery depicting the forest and oversized abstract trees attached to it.

 

Abstract canopy

This is a oversized canopy that would span over a large extent of the forest. The dappling effect of light through the canopy would create an ephemeral environment on the stage.

 

Bright Shrubs

These bright shrubs with colorful flowers and hearts would be at the front of the stage almost extending the forest environment beyond to the audience.

 

Colorful Flowers

These oversized flowers would spring up on the stage and on the shrubs as moments of bright color.

 

Oversized Cards Sculpture

This is an abstract sculpture of oversized cards that seem to be in motion to depict the chaos of Alice in Wonderland.

 

Under The Sea

For one of the songs which has an aquatic theme,the three sided panels would be rotated with that side having an underwater scenery  painted on it. With blue light and bubbles we want to create an underwater environment.

 

‘Grand Book’ Finale

For the finale we designed a grand ‘Once Upon a Time’ book with the Dancing Dreams logo on it. The idea being that each child walks through the book and it is ‘their moment’.

 

Three Sided Panels

This is a diagram explaining how we are using the three sided panels to create the different scenes.

 

Taking a trip to Materials for the Arts!

March 19, 2012

This week we ventured to Long Island City to check out Materials for the Arts. MFTA, offered through the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs provides New York City’s organizations, public schools, and community arts programs with the supplies they need to run their programs. MFTA gathers a diverse amount of materials from companies and individuals […]

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Small Studies, Big Ideas

March 5, 2012

The design team is not thinking of a literal representation of “Alice in Wonderland”. Rather, we  feel the best way to create a whole ‘new world’ is through abstraction of key allegorical elements.  We have been playing with scale to heighten the illusion of fantasy and drama.  To achieve this, we are finding new ways […]

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Setting the mood for “ONCE UPON”

March 5, 2012

We started with putting together mood boards that gave a sense of the textural quality we were trying achieve for our set. The idea was to use exaggerated scale to create the desired impact.

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Process sketches

March 5, 2012

We made many sketches to depict our ideas of using exaggerated scale to create interest. We decided to go with the script of the performance and created an over all scene of the forest from Alice in Wonderland, this scene is intented to be modified for the first and the third act through use of props […]

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Site Visit

February 7, 2012

This week we went to visit the site of the performance.  It will be taking place on May 9th at The Mary Louis Academy in Jamaica.  While there we took field measurements and photographed the space so we could construct a model back in studio.  The model will allow us to play around with the […]

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Dancing Dreams: Project Brief

January 17, 2012

A nonprofit organization called Dancing Dreams approached us last semester to design sets for their spring performance in May.  They have three major acts and wanted us to create sets for them that could be easily changed out but still had great impact on the audience.  The girls in the performance have physical challenges so […]

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