Dance in 'Rent' - The Opening Sequence (Homeless character)

I didn't expect the extent of how much dance we wanted to incorporate into the Musical until beginning our first rehearsal on the opening sequence.

The Opening Sequence

The song 'RENT' introduces the atmosphere and scene of the musical, so it was crucial that this came across in our dance through dynamics and choreographic devices. Focusing on pedestrian stylised movements, more specifically homeless stylised movements, we began movement by movement devising the piece as a class.

Developing a strong character background and persona for my character was important to maintain that level of realism in the movements of my character. A few ways I did this was deciding what it was which meant I ended up as a homeless person on the streets on New York Cities East Village. Research being the first key to creating anything I turned to Google. I then discovered a selection of the main issues which cause homelessness (Source):

1. Personal causes such as individual factors (lack of qualifications, no social support, debts, poor mental/physical health, crime or relationship breakdowns); family background (family breakdowns/fights, pervious experience of parents with alcoholic, drug or homeless issues or sexual/physical abuse in their childhood); an institutional background (being sent to prison, being in care or having been in the armed forces).
2. Structural causes such unemployment, poverty, lack of support or closure from long-stay psychiatric hospitals.

Due to the nature of the musical I decided my characters history would include being overrun with debt (rent) and gave up everything to try to pay it off, next step was to use the drama movement technique to change 3 things about my current posture and movement to become my homeless character.

Posture

1. More shrugged over, less straight standing
2. Bigger surface area, further leg gap and pushed back elbows
3. Steady eye-line
   

Movement

1. Walk leading with the head
2. More exaggerated movements
3. Larger height when stepping

The dance was slowly pieced together through many rehearses in Dance lessons, due to the song being long and including a wide variety of tempo changes and numerous song climaxes it took us all a great deal of time to master.

The Beginning

The start of the song had us all in our everyday homeless lives, drinking, sleeping, eating or trying to keep warm scattered under scaffolding and on staging around the stage. When the music starts we burst into the 6th state of tension from our original 3rd or 4th and begin to get into a rhythm.

My character starts asleep spooning another homeless member (trying to keep warm), before springing up, sharing a drink with another homeless and starting to mime eat something out of a plant pot.

As the music continues I begin to have a fight over a bottle of (probably) vodka with someone which causes them to fall into the main stage and start a devised battle with another homeless member from the other side of the stage. We had to show conflict between the homeless characters to allow audiences to imagine the lives we faced and to gently immerse them into the world of Rent.

The Middle

The core duo/trio pieces were included in the middle of the song. Numerous fights break out amongst groups of homeless people. Initially I devised a sequence with two others where I would purchase drugs from a duo of suppliers before being beaten up and stolen from by the same people; although after the character list was released we realised this would have to be changed. Instead I took it in turn with my double casted character to participate in a duo fight with Sophie whilst homeless and swapping whilst I played my main character of Benny.

A fight scene with Sophie wasn't too difficult as she's a talented dancer and the moves (stunts) were already devised, it was just a case of making sure I didn't make a mistake. The movements included rolling over the back of Sophie, throwing a few punches and kicks and movement on the floor, I think overall the fight sequence was effective.

The End

To end the entire cast of homeless persons came into the centre into a purposefully messy circle facing outwards as we sung 'How we gunna pay, how we gunna pay, this years rent, last years rent, next years rent, rent (x6)'. Luckily the lack of movement (walking backwards in character) alongside the homeless persona and singing wasn't too difficult to perform.

In conclusion the whole performance contained a balance between homeless (pedestrian) stylised movement, dance and a clear understanding of the characters/situations around the characters through the movement. I found this beginning sequence especially difficult to grasp but once learnt, quickly managed to incorporate my characters movements.