Musical Theatre

West Side Story Dance Notes Strengths Characterisation, facial expressions, stance and posture extension and balance Improvements/ targets Improve my timing in the steps with the rest of the group, clearly defining each step and making it look polished, engage my core. Short term goal Get the timing right and make it smooth Long term goal Engage my core and retain posture throughout

Acting Improvements long term and short term Short term improvements would be to keep my head raised the whole time I’m performing and make sure I’ve got good projection and eye contact with the audience and use interaction with the others in whatever I’m performing and projection when I’m talking and especially when maintaining accents. Long term improvements would be that I should make sure every line sounds completely natural as I’m embodying the character and to make sure it doesn’t sound forced or over the top.

Jerome Robbins directed West Side Story 1961 alongside Robert Wise and also choreographed, however was actually fired from the production after the principal photography was done, but when the movie got ten academy awards he ended up winning himself two, West Side Story itself is actually loosely based off the premise of Romeo and Juliet, replacing the rival families with opposing gangs in the mid 1950s, the Jets and the Sharks, and also a ‘forbidden love’, because of the social issues it highlights it’s actually a turning point for American musical theatre. The original broadway production actually ran for 732 performances until it went on tour, and Jerome Robbins directed and choreographed it in 1957 before it went on to be nominated for six Tony Awards the same year.