“If a dancer dances- which is not the same as having theories about dancing or wishing to dance or trying to dance or remembering in his body some else’s dance- but if the dancer dances, everything is there… Our ecstacy in dance comes from the possible gift of freedom, the exhilarating moment that this exposing of the bare energy can give us. What is meant is not license, but freedom… (Mercecunningham.org, 2015)

I asked Emily Nichols, a Dance and Drama student at the University of Lincoln, to teach me a dance and to give me lessons. She decided to teach me one of her Technique class exam pieces which was inspired by Merce Cunningham. Cunningham “was a leader of the American avant-garde throughout his seventy year career and is considered one of the most important choreographers of our time” (Mercecunningham.org, 2015). He was also considered America’s greatest dancer. Emily informed me that Cunningham liked to contrast the idea of straight lines and physique with the curve of the body. I found this quite interesting as I brake the normal criteria of the image of a dancer with my curves. 

pooping position (Spencer, 2015)

We started with Emily teaching me the dance, going very very slowly indeed. I started in first position and did a few points with my feet and I also learnt how to plie, or what I like to call, ‘the pooping position’. Then we introduced my chosen song which is The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Technohouse Remix). (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Electrohouse Remix), 2012). 

Below are a few videos of myself and Emily dancing. Well, me trying to remember what she has taught me. This video shows my first practice and well, lets just say it did not go to plan. However, this conveys how far I will hopefully develop in my final solo performance.

Practicing the turn (Spencer, 2015).

https://youtu.be/RmkaSS_YKaw

 My first run after being taught everything (Spencer, 2015).

https://youtu.be/lmhq8ZUs9j4

In reference to my previous blog post about Dawn French and her performance in The Mirror Dance, I see a lot of similarities, especially dancing with Emily. She’s the thin, perfectly poised dancer and I try to mirror her. However, like Dawn French I am not intentionally trying to be bad, I am actually trying to learn this dance and I hope to prove to my audience that I can dance.

References

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Electrohouse Remix). (2012). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chOtemRAYNc [Accessed 18 Apr. 2015].

Mercecunningham.org, (2015). Merce Cunningham – Merce Cunningham Trust. [online] Available at: http://www.mercecunningham.org/merce-cunningham/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Spencer, J. (2015). Dance Practice. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmhq8ZUs9j4 [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Spencer, J. (2015). Practicing the turn. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmkaSS_YKaw [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Fat performance.

“Fat performance is a broad term covering everything from mundane performances of fat individuals to staged performances of fatness. The latter includes both mainstream media performances that present fat people as grotesque, and fat-positive performances which aim to challenge preconceived stereotypes of fat and fat people.” (Hole, 2003)

It complexes me that fat performance is an actual term used to describe fat people acting or performing on stage. I don’t know about you but I find this absolutely ludicrous. Fat people should not have a genre of theatre to themselves just because they are of a larger size. If you want to perform, go and perform no matter what your size is. If you have the talent to do so, go and do it. This is my main inspiration for why I am performing a dance. I want to dance, so I am. I should not let my size get in the way of that.

Another beautiful quote from Becoming the Subject of Your Own Story: Creating Fat-positive Representations, was a reflection on Anne Hole’s quot about Dawn French.

“Hole analyzes the “body politics” of Dawn French’s collaboration with another comedian in the “French & Saunders series” as a performance based on a completely different type of politics. In different episodes, French and Saunders accentuate the physicality of their fat bodies by wearing skin-tight, flashy dresses (that are usually reserved for fashionably-thin women).” (Hole, 2003)

Firstly, I appologise for the clothes I wear. Especially on a night out. God only knows how offensive they are to others. I mean am I not allowed to look good? Yes I probably don’t wear “skin-tight” dresses, but I do wear dresses that make me feel good, and if that means I show a bit of flesh, then you will just have to deal with it. I am not going to dress ‘fat’ because my body is fat. I dress for myself, no one else.

In my performance, when I do dance, I had planned to wear a leotard because that is the normal dance attire. However, I do not want to accentuate my fat body, I want to feel comfortable because I am comfortable. I am not after a cheap laugh with my body. I want people to look at me dancing and hopefully go, shes ok. For this, I want to wear leggings and a over sized jumper because this is when I am most comfortable.

References

Hole, A. (2003). Performing identity: Dawn French and the funny fat female body. Feminist Media Studies, 3(3), pp.315-328.

Since researching Dawn French and Miranda Hart, I have been looking at other larger female idols such as Rebel Wilson in her hit movie Pitch Perfect and Melissa McCarthy in her hit films Bridesmaids Identity Thieve and The Heat.

What at I found similar between these two actresses is that they are both big, and that they play the funny side kick role as support actresses. In Pitch Perfect, Rebel plays a young college student called Amy, or Fat Amy, “so that people like you don’t make fun of me behind my back”. She addresses the fact that she is big from the very beginning. When I first saw this clip I was shocked because you shouldn’t have to state your size to someone you meet, they should like you for who you are. But then I realised, I always used to make jokes about my weight to fit in with new people and I related with Fat Amy in that aspect. One of Melissa McCarthy’s most remembered  film role was in Bridesmaids as Megan. Megan was a secret agent and was the Groom’s sister. She was the one that nobody wanted to be around because she did not fit in. She was an overweight, boyish character, very similar to the character Alan in The Hangover movies.However, Melissa McCarthy has now become so popular with the public that she is the female lead in films, such as Tammy. In addition, Rebel Wilson is too very popular with the public, and they are both considered comical geniuses.

In certain ways, I can relate to McCarthy and Wilson in the fact that I was always cast as the fat, funny sidekick in musicals or plays. For example, I was cast as Mabel in the musical Fame. I was really happy about this, I had my own solo and was considered one of the lead roles. What I did not realise was that underneath the name Mabel was the description, “worlds fattest dancer”. I mean, I did not mind, I was cast in the show. But I felt I had a pressure to be funny because if I didn’t joke about my size, I wouldn’t be comfortable with people laughing at me. One thing I have been thinking about, was when I was cast as Scaramouche in We Will Rock You. I was much slimmer in this role, but if I was to audition again with the same abilities as I did before, would I be cast as her again? Probably not. I would be cast as The Killer Queen, who is more voluptuous and much bigger in her presence.

“The problem of how the female comedian is to construct her own identity through her performance, for there remains the potential for the weight of traditional meanings to push the female body, and especially the fat female body, back into the place of object, or butt, of the comedy.” (Hole, 2003)

This, from my experience, is very true and is something that I will include in my performance. I want to state my size from the beginning just like Fat Amy, so that people won’t be laughing at my weight, but hopefully be laughing at the jokes I make.

References.

Hole, A. (2003). Performing identity: Dawn French and the funny fat female body. Feminist Media Studies, 3(3), pp.315-328.

After researching comedians such as Dawn French and Miranda Hart, I am now certain that the best way for me to convey my idea is through comedy. During my time tabled lesson, we had one task which was to write a diary entry and to perform it  to the class. I decided to talk about my relationship with my sister and how we hated each other when we were younger. Although this was quite a serious matter, I tried to keep it light hearted with my delivery and tone. This serious subject then became quite comical and the feed back from my fellow class mates was brilliant. I want to incorporate this style and delivery into my final performance.

Final Idea

I want to talk to the audience about the ‘ideal image’ that society wants people to conform to, and how I am going to break these so called ‘rules’ in which we have to follow because of our size. I am going to discuss how I have always been big and bullied by my ‘friends’ because I did not look like them. I am then going to talk about my love of dance, and how as a child I was never allowed to dance because of my size and state that just because I’m big, does not mean I cannot dance and then go one to break these ‘rules’ by performing The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. However, the comedic twist is that I cannot actually dance.

Style

Most recently, Dawn French is performing a Solo show in which she describes is “somewhere between a monologue, a play, and an autobiographical slide show” (Logan,2014). I envisioned my performance to take on these qualities, for example, my story is autobiographical and I want to talk to the audience directly. In regards to the ‘slide show’ aspect, I am going to film my rehearsal process which will include footage of me training, exercising and also interviewing friends and family about my idea for my show. I really enjoyed how Major Tom kept referring to the videos and re-enacting the moment on stage and I feel this would be a good approach to use, especially for comedic purposes. I can imagine myself recording my dance lessons, looking awful while trying to learn a ballet piece and completely contrasting that by trying to perform the dance as accurately as possible. I feel that I will need to develop this idea and practice a lot as I only have ten minutes, but I am certain I am going to film my process.

Title

I have been playing around with titles most recently, and came up with the following:

• How To Teach A Hippo To Dance.
• The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fatty
• Keep Going Fatty
• And… Break

After thinking about it, I really liked the play on words with The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fatty and I shall perform my final ballet number to The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

References

Logan, B. (2014). Debut standup comedy tour puts TV star Miranda Hart on the spot. [online] The Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/feb/28/call-the-midwife-star-miranda-hart-standup-comedy-tour [Accessed 21 June. 2015].

Miranda Hart; actress, writer and comedian.

Miranda Hart www.bbc.co.uk

Miranda Hart has always had a special place in my heart ever since I was compared to her in a review for my performance of Scaramoche in We Will Rock You at the age of 18 years old. At this age, just like Miranda, I wasn’t fat. I was big. I had a very early growth spurt at the age of 12 and was 5ft, 8″ and I had size 8 feet by the time I was 13 years old. Miranda’s comedy show Miranda, plays off of the idea that she is big and clumsy, and she has a slapstick comedy style.

Most recently, she performed her first ever stand up comedy routine, which toured the United Kingdom and Australia. Just like Miranda, I am moving from theatre based acting and hoping to perform a stand up comedy routine. If any of you have seen Miranda, you notice that she talks a lot to the audience about various situations, and performs a lot with her face. Her facial expressions and her comedic timing is something I want to include in my performance, and something I will practice along the way.