I found the process of producing the dance show quite challenging and have definitely learnt a great deal about time management. Furthermore it has really shown me that not everyone will have the same sense of urgency as you, they may offer to help but that doesn’t mean they will prioritise it; so the important things you need to either do yourself or give to someone you know will definitely complete the task on time. In terms of budget it wasn’t controlled by a limit rather than how much I was willing to part with of my own money, and for that reason I didn’t get to experience planning the budget as much. In terms of finding sponsorship I have learnt that everything has to be very far in advance to allow for any applications to be processed in time.
I think I was a bit over-ambitious with the showcase; choreographing numerous numbers in the showcase on top of being the costume designer and producer, however I had initially planned to only design costumes for one or two of the numbers in the show. I was also anticipating more help from an arts and events management student in producing the show; however those who had initially expressed interest in helping ended up needing to focus on other projects. I am quite proud of how much I achieved in so short a space of time and know that the show itself was a big success considering how limited we were on time and money.
I am looking forward to expanding on my new-found knowledge of production and working on the showcase next year. Although I will definitely be more organised and have already started discussing funding with a member of Bournemouth Council.
The costumes on the whole looked effective on stage and although some things I would have changed and done differently had we had more money available. Furthermore I was quite disappointed with the shirts that were altered for the James Blake contemporary number which opened the second half, as they were not finished in time for the performance. When I asked my supervisor why they hadn’t been done, despite me asked her to make them her priority the previous day, she told me they “had got carried away with sewing name tags in and lost track of time”. As a result we had to do a couple of alterations back-stage before the performance but this meant that the idea did not reach its full potential compared to the ideas I initially gave to the makers. They played a bit too safe so most of the work done to the shirts blended in with the main body of the shirt. I’m aware this was mainly due to a lack of time but it is still something I would have liked to improve on.
It was very unfortunate losing Lydia the night before the showcase when she dislocated her knee in rehearsals and it also meant that we had a very short space of time to re-work some of the dances. It also increased the number of quick changes. My order for the set list was not based on the music or the flow of the showcase it had to be based on avoiding quick changes as the main dancers were in the majority of the numbers in the show. I had managed to arrange it so no-one had to go back on stage immediately after coming off, but after Lydia had to pull out another dancer was needed to fill in for the beginners can-can. This meant there was a direct quick change so I asked the hosts to fill time during this break.
We had a further drawback in that our dressing room for the first night was being hired out on the second night, so we had to use the downstairs kitchen which was a very small space and involved dancers having to run up the stairs and through the crowd and across the adjacent stage. Despite this we were able to time and cue costume changes and dancers effectively.
On reflection I was able to source a large quantity of costumes, and successfully managed to keep within both time and personal monetary constraints. However in taking on a project of this size I realise that the early planning stages are vital and that this could have been undertaken at an earlier date.
I have also learnt that “peer management” has an important role within production, and that I need to account for the needs of others when directing a project, and that compromises are sometimes necessary to achieve the optimum result for all those involved.
