It started with the development that the second half of the show was going to focus more on Alfie than Evie, as the story followed a couple's story, not just one person. So I thought the idea of Alfie remembering his wife's younger self would be a great moment within the piece, even though his wife is older and has grown frail, he can remember how she was when they first met, and it's a place where Alfie can forget about the his situation and reminisce about the times when Evie knew exactly who he was.
A point of inspiration for this sequence was the music video for 'Thinking Out Loud' by Ed Sheeran,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp-EO5I60KA
To begin with, we taught ourselves some of the lifts they used, to see which ones worked and what we enjoyed doing. As Lee had never danced before, making sure he felt comfortable with the technical sides of the lifts before we performed them properly made him less prone to injury but Mandi and I also.
The problem was that the routine became far too based on lifts than what the essence and message actually was. Honestly we all got a bit carried away with creating movement that the focus went from the intention to the sequence itself. The turning point for this was when I learnt new material that had been made up, but when performing it, it was so tiring and there were no pauses for breath or moments of stillness and when we finished, the routine lasted nearly 2 minutes. That is a very long time to keep an audience's true engagement, once you have watched two or three lifts, they lose their initial reactions, which can allow time for an audience to switch of, and we don't want to give them that opportunity. Therefore, the three of us went through the routine, Mani and Lee performing it whilst I watched, and I removed lifts and sections of the routine to cut down both the length of it, and to get the duet out from appearing like a gymnastics routine.
I managed to cut it down to around 1.30, and kept in just two of the main lifts, so when they were performed, the surprise to the audience still has value.
The dirty dancing lift that was originally in it changed by mistake. When I did it with Lee, I didn't realize how high my legs were going, to the point when they were in line vertically with his head, this becoming the climax of the routine you could argue. What we needed to do now was to really focus on the intention and inner monologues with the two characters to add depth and a meaning to the duet, otherwise its purpose just wasn't clear enough.
Watching back the video of the dress rehearsal of cast A, the duet still seemed shapeless, there didn't seem to be motives for the characters as to why they were dancing, so it did look just like a routine. Therefore, with the following rehearsals, we tried adding individual character intentions.
We tried performing it as if we didn't want anyone to watch, so the moves became more personal, instead of performing outwards to try and evoke a response, we performed them inwardly, so it became a duet solely between two people, instead of a duet to show off fancy movements. I then proposed the idea for Alfie to imagine the whole way through the duet that if anyone were to walk on stage and see him, Evie would disappear. So every movement he did had a tension of never wanting to let go, as well as adding a tenderness to it because at any moment Evie could disappear, and that moment of utter happiness he has will go. For us as Evie, seeing Alfie as we always do, the fact he's older doesn't change anything and we still perform as we did with younger Alfie, also I wanted to add a playful nature to it, so when I go behind Lee's back I'd poke my head round the side, or add giggles and trace over his hand, so it reinforces what younger Evie was like. It also takes the routine from
being too overly sentimental.
The original music for it was 'Damien Rice It Takes A Lot To Know A Man' which to me seemed too dramatic. The music didn't fit the essence behind the piece and the two just didn't fit together for me. We then thought of music that was softer, piano music has a beautiful sound which can create such an atmosphere and provoke feelings for people. To try and link it with the rest of the piece, we chose to repeat the music used in the table routine 'I Giorni' so the audience are familiar with this music, and it holds such strong memories for both Evie and Alfie, that the music then holds a deeper meaning as well as fitting the style of the duet. It does have that same feeling of being reunited, as Alfie is reunited with his younger wife's self, who knows exactly who he is.
The duet did become frustrating for other members of the company. mainly because it was becoming too over rehearsed, whether that is because the other two felt less confident etc is another matter, but personally, I rehearsed till I knew the steps and was happy with the emotion behind it, and then wouldn't practice it till runs. The danger with every movement section is over-rehearsal. Rehearsing to the point where you know every point you laugh, or the exact moment you do a gesture can stop you from being spontaneous in the actual show. You still want to be able to add small details that you haven't done before, but if you have rehearsed something till it becomes dry, you can lose the ability to add those details. I don't mean that in a detrimental way to the others, it's just an observation from rehearsals.
To begin with, the routine was meant to come after the prisoner of war scene, which was cut further along the process. So the duet was originally older Alfie remembering Evie as he was in prison, so I wrote a monologue/section of dialogue that was going to say after the duet, an apology for why he never replied to her letters. In context, Alfie was going to be re drafted to war, and Evie handed him a letter as he left, but as he was caught by the Germans, he never got to reply. Her face was going to be like a blank canvas, completely expressionless as he tried to explain, as she is just a figure of his imagination. As the P.O.W scene was later cut, the monologue didn't make sense, but here's a copy anyway:
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry i never got to reply to your letter. I read it everyday. Evie believe me it gave me more warmth than any fire ever could. I tried to reply, paper was scarce, oh I had so much to tell you! To imagine your face reading it! They got me before I could send it. Caught me and threw me away like I was rubbish, like I meant nothing, but we mean something don't we! You and me? We meant something! Look my reply is here, I hid it where they couldn't find it. I had a reply. I'd never forgotten about you. Us, we meant something. In that camp, where they tried to beat me down and spit me out it didn't break me. I wasn't going to let go of our story. I'm never going to let go of our story.
*The video footage of the development of the duet can be found on the Level 4 Facebook page*
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