Monday, July 7, 2014

Dance Xcetera - Pop Danthology 2013

 

 
Dance Xcetera's debut performance of this song was on June 20, 2014 at The Empire Room.  Our performance received very good reviews despite a mechanical error in the beginning.  It was liked so much that we were asked to perform it again on July 5, 2014 at The Paramount Theatre.  In order to do this we  had to completely modify the dance.  The Paramount's stage is much smaller than The Empire Room so modifications had to be made to the set - which were actually 5 sets in one, as well as a new set of choreo moves.  The photos below are of the set modified to fit the Paramount stage.
 
 
When Wild told me we were asked to perform at the Empire Room, I was really excited.  This was it, Dance Xcetera was making a debut.  I knew right away we should do a mash up, but I wasn't sure if Wild would like that.  Not only did she love it, she took off with it...."we can do this, and this, and have this....."  We were both so excited and it was hilarious.  I had an idea for three songs I thought would be great together, but we didn't have time to find someone who could blend them into a single dance so I went on youtube and did a search for mashups.  And there, staring at me was Pop Danthology 2013.  (the YouTube video)
 
If you didn't view the song video, I'll explain it here.  Pop Danthology 2013 is a mashup of 68 songs that were popular in 2013.  This was going to be our "wow" factor.  And this is the part where I get totally stupid.  The original set for this song included 11 separate sets, all set to appear and fade away at certain times.  We were on a deadline and Wild was getting nervous, and I added, adjusted, and readjusted scripts, too many scripts to get this thing to work and in the end it was a total bust.  I don't think the scripts could handle all the commands and some of the prim were not fading.  So we had a meeting and it was decided to cut it down to five sets only, and two of them were not danceable sets.  I don't think this will ever get filmed so enjoy my pics!

NOTE: Click on the pics to enlarge :)
 
 

This was considered "Set One." It started off as a solid black screen and every second a photo of a male or female silhouette in a dance pose would appear and disappear.  When Pop Danthology is mentioned in the song, this showed up just before it faded to the second set.
 
 
 
 
The Piano Set.  The black and white music notes on the left and the right were originally above the stage.  Thirty-three seconds into the song, those music notes came down very slowly with a dancer posed on each one of them.  They were also made with glitter, so they sparkled too. 
 
 
 





This one is the Red Set.  Out of all 11 sets that I built, the dancers like this one the best.  The top photo was taken at midnight and the bottom at midday.  There are red, pink, and white sparkles floating around.  The bottom half of the platforms sparkled too.  I love the color combination here and most likely will use it again.



This was the last danceable set.  I called it the "JT" set, short for Justin Timberlake.  This set appeared at the point in the song where Justin Timberlake sings.  This set included some cool gold glitter flashing around but I don't think I have them turned on in this pic. 
 
That's pretty much it.  I'm hoping one day a fade script will be able to take a beating, and I can do the song with all 11 sets.  I was really happy, these sets combined with our awesome costumes - I'm wearing an orange glittery dress with really loud obnoxious glitter - they were mesh dresses and they were shiny, with the glitter on top I felt like we were performing in Vegas!  I love that dress and plan on wearing it again too.....we could color them any way we wanted so each girl wore a different color...pretty cool.  :-)