Did anyone here go? Anyone see the team cabarets? For obvious reasons am interested in feedback on our entry - search for "Ceroc Champs Cabaret 2011 - The Doctor Dances" on youtube (can't post a direct link as I'm not allowed 'till until 15 posts).
Ian
Hi Ian
It looks like you all had great fun putting this together...I love the theme, and the effort you made with your costumes and props is fantastic! The fact that one team member stepped in last minute on the day is also impressive
I think it's been mentioned on another thread but I would say that while there are some adventurous elements (i.e. the basket toss and the daleks spinning two of the girls) the majority of the moves are quite basic. Whilst this isn't necessarily an issue, if you are going to use basic moves they need to be executed perfectly and there were some issues with timing and synchronisation. At times the routine looks a little confused and messy and when compared with the 3 finalists I think it was a fair outcome.
What you should take away whether you win a medal or not is that you had a wonderful experience and the audience clearly enjoyed watching your performance. x
This is a fascinating reponse for me, thanks Sarah, and I think goes a long way to getting into the head of the judges. We didn't think either of those elements were adventurous!
The adventurous elements (if one defines that as being "different from the norm" for want of a better definition) were:
Everyone danced with 4-7 partners, requiring a much higher level of skill than normal
The starting a couple of people in the audience and starting with a mime/acting sequence
The story element, rather than just a simple "dance to the music" style - i.e. a true cabaret rather than just team dance
Not having the usual makeup of a few thin, attractive girls, in skimpy costumes dancing with big burly guys who don't move very much
Basic ceroc moves danced to wacky time signatures - not at all basic as many have said (the moves yes, the timing not)
Even when we did have a 'standard' move (what we called the herringbone, i.e. the formation at the end) we had an original take on it, compare ours to the Jive Ho and Gentlemen Prefer Blones versions of the same move.
Having watched back 2 of the other performances I don't really accept the timing comments, accept perhaps on one section, but I think I can understand them if one doesn't see that the timings we used (7/8 time for example) were more complex than usual.
I think though, that you really have highlighted that we probably aimed a little too far outside of the box. If we come back again we'd have to take back a little of our excesses, do some more aerials, whilst keeping true to our aims - ie to do a Cabaret that was based on Ceroc, something I think only one of the finalists fully achieved.
Again, interesting comments, thank you
Agree with what Sarah said and although you get Full marks for theme and costumes, the actual dancing was too basic and the shapes and transitions were very poor. If i had to use an analogy, i'd say it's a fantastic mouth watering dessert that didn't taste of anything.
The idea of doing a showcase or other routine with a single partner appalls me, so having to practice all that with a dozen other people too is a scary scary thought. I'm very impressed with anybody that does it, and losing the Doctor on the weekend without compromising the show is astonishing.
I'm not good enough to feed back on the dancing itself but I liked the dancing daleks!
I agree too!
The Theme and the costumes were brilliant and I liked the music and the way it was edited together and most of all, you all looked like you were having fun but if you want my honest opinion, the dancing just wasn't good enough for a competition performance.
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"If you're going to do something tonight, that you know you'll be sorry for in the morning, plan a lie in." Lorraine
Firstly, brilliant.
Loved the themes, loved the music, loved the choreography.
Critique-wise, I'd agree that the standard of dancing looked occasionally ropey - some of the in-and-outs were iffy, for example.
I'd also say that the music wasn't really suited for Modern Jive - or at least the first half of it - and that made it more difficult to dance to. It's very challenging to dance well to the Doctor Who theme tunes, and I think that exposed some of the dancers' limitations more than a more standard-tempo music track might have.
I also think it went on a little too much - I'd shorten it, especially the intro bit. Reduce the first minute's energy to 20 seconds, and aim for 3 minutes in total, rather than 4.
Other suggestions for improvements from me would be:
- The best bit is the energy-intensive sections - Voodoo Child and the Swing portion from 2:40 onwards, so make those the centerpiece of the routine. It needs more energy, and those sections have the most energy
- Lose the conga; also, I'm not totally sold on the endpiece so that may need some work
- The "Flyng Daleks" sequence was great, but again went on too long, so I'd shorten it up a little
And finally, get some steps for the Daleks to go up
Think of this version as the first draft - I'd very much like to see a final polished product, I think it could be superb.
Yes - more specifically, I'd say that the tempo occasionally exposed some dancing weaknesses a little too much.
I think a bit of jigging around with the musical score could help on thatm, err, score
As for the moves... dunno, maybe they could be worked on, but I think the other aspects are more important.
Finally, I'd say that if you do enter competitions regularly, you should expect to lose most of the time. That's what happens to most people, after all.
So I reckon "developing a thick skin" is a vital ingredient
Not that I'd ever enter competitions - like Lory, I just don't see the point.
Which piece of music are you specifically referring to? There's an action theme later on set to a 7/4 beat which genuinely isn't a Ceroc beat (that's the part where everyone dances round in a circle with the 4 in the centre spinning and lifting legs up).
Everything else is perfectly suitable for modern jive - including the main Doctor Who theme. If anything, In The Mood at the end is the part that would challenge dancers as it is very fast. The Doctor Who theme itself doesn't have a strong thumping beat, but then I'm rather thankful for that!
Probably not surprising to anyone who's seen my previous posts on this track but I'd have replaced In The Mood with this...
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Love dance, will travel
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