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This Padlet will look at the vision I had for my FMP, what I wanted to include, things that did not make the cut, my inspirations, choreography extras such as lighting and sound, cast and why I decided to do what I was going to do.

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During my time spent at the performing arts course at Grimsby university I knew that I always wanted to do something in the Vogue theme so coming to the decision of presenting a vogue ball was a quick and easy process.
I wanted to put on a show with different dances, some comedy and audience interaction all within the Vogue, LGBT theme. I would have six dancers, including myself all with different personalities and expressions and one drag queen. The show would begin with an opening number performed to the song "Supermodel" by famous drag queen Rupaul. This song is an upbeat, campy, happy song perfect to have fun with, I chose this song to help set the light-hearted tone that the show was intended to have, it was supposed to let the audience know that they are supposed to have fun and enjoy themselves during this show as it wasn't to take itself too seriously but still deliver an important message. The opening number had simple but fast choreography that involved chairs, it was to be danced in a style that combines some Vogue, strutting, posing and exaggerated facial expressions. Towards the end of the song I would have had the professional drag performer Stacey Rhect come on to the stage from the side and join the dancers choreography but she would be front and centre, lip-syncing and hyping up the audience as best as she can, I wanted her to come out half-way as a reveal, hopefully adding to the excitement of the audience. Once the song finishes the six dancers will sit down on the chairs on the stage and rest for two minuets while Stacey introduces herself, the dancers one by one and what we are actually doing. She would welcome the audience to our Vogue ball and ask that they enjoy themselves, she would then go into the audience and choose any member she likes and ask them a few questions such as "Have you ever met a drag queen before?" "Do you like my outfit" and say things like "My eyes are up here hunny!" all in the hopes to relax the audience and make them laugh. After that she would return to the stage and explain what we were going to do next. She would introduce us in 'Houses' next, two houses or teams of three and explain that we were going to essentially have a dance-off. The team names were going to be 'House Scartho' and 'House Nunny' simply to again add to the comical nature of the show but also remain true to the Ballroom culture. After this the first team to dance would be 'House Scartho' which would consist of three dancers, dancing to the song 'Scheibe' by Lady Gaga. The choreography for this dance would be heavily inspired by the original choreography danced by Lady Gaga during her shows and created by choreographer Richard Jackson. It involves a lot of formation work, strutting, posing and creating strange shapes with your hands, all elements of Vogue. For each dance I wanted one house to begin the dance but the other house to join in so in both dance-off pieces all six would be dancing but they would be places differently in each dance. I wanted to do this simply to fill up the stage and add to the performance element of the piece. After this Stacey would take the stage with a mic and interact with the audience more, asking them what they think, if they are enjoying themselves and other questions of that nature, this gives the dancers time to prep for the next part. The next dance would be performed to a song called 'Fashion' also by Lady Gaga, this song is very on brand with the Vogue culture and perfect for this piece. For this one I wanted to incorporate the use of costumes and props to help enhance the piece. I would have had each person make their costume look more fashionable for this dance so for example add avant-garde sunglasses, heels, hats and long off the shoulder coats to really sell the fashion focus of this dance. The choreography would consist of a vogue style similar to the opening number but without chairs and using the props as much as possible for example playing with the glasses, throwing the coat and using the fans. For this piece I wanted to give everyone a fan and incorporate it into the choreography, this also adds to the fashion theme for this piece and also remains true to the ballroom tradition of 'thwoorping' fans. After the second dance the dancers would go backstage to rest and prepare for the last dance, while this is happening Stacey will take t the stage again to interact with the audience to determine a winner, this is irrelevant and only for the audiences purpose but hopefully they will vote for the one they preferred and Stacey will decide the winner. After the winner has been decided Stacey will say that it doesn't really matter who wins and that we are all welcome and celebrated within this community then it will blackout ready for the final dance. The final dance will be the longest just reaching five minuets long but will not be very strenuous on the dancers. The song for the final dance will be 'Vogue' by Madonna and the choreography will be heavily inspired by quintessential Madonna's Vogue. The choreography will start with everyone in a pose with just the back lit up and one single spot light in the centre, with the dancers surrounding it they will, one by one enter the spot and do a little pose or dance move and return to there original spot, after this the choreography will consist of Vogue moves, formation and partner work throughout with the use of fans near the end. The final number ends with Stacey joining the stage and everyone holding pose, it will then blackout and a message projected onto the back that says "If you can't love yourself how in the hell can you love somebody else?", this is how my piece will end.
I decided I wanted to put on a Vogue ball for a few reasons. Firstly this is something that is very important to me personally, this entire culture is based on simply celebrating yourself and others and excepting and embracing yourself and others which I believe is very important and lacking in today's society. I wanted the audience to feel happy, laugh and enjoy themselves but mostly I wanted to expose them to an underground culture that is all about loving yourself and others and educate them on LGBT culture and traditions that essentially has saved people's lives!

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Extras such as Lighting, Sound, Costume and Props

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Extras such as Lighting, Sound, Costume and Props

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Lighting - When it comes to lighting, I had one thing in mind; simple but effective. For the first number I simply wanted a normal wash and stage lit up so you can see what is going on, nothing special. For the second and third dances I wanted the same apart from two sections in each song in which I wanted the lights to flicker to add a more dramatic feel at that part of the music. Finally for the last dance I wanted to use spotlights, at the start I wanted on single spot in the centre of the stage with the dancers just behind it and then the ack lit up so the dancers where just silhouettes and then they would take turns stepping into and out of the light, after this section I simply wanted normal stage lights.
Sounds - For the sounds it was relatively simple also, I just wanted the four songs I chose, Scheibe, Fashion by Lady Gaga, Supermodel by Rupaul and Vogue, Madonna to be played at the right times from start to finish.
Costume & Props - For costumes and props I decided that I wanted to take a different route I did not want everyone to look the same for example everyone dressed in a black dance costume of sorts. I really wanted to enhance the fashion element for this piece especially to try and stay as close to the Ballroom theme as possible. I wanted my dancers to wear fashionable items so long coats, heels, pantsuits, sunglasses, jewellery and more, as long as they could dance in it I did not mind. I wanted them to have their own personality and to be a unique character on the stage and express this through their movement and attitude. I also was going to give everyone a fan to use and implement in the choreography, these fans are regularly seen in Ballroom performances and add a fierce effect to the choreography when used correctly, this prop combined with the costumes would have made the perfect visual for a Vogue ball.

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Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances we were not able to actually perform the piece, however I wanted to add a section to speak about how successful I think it would have gone.
The key to success in this case I believe would have been to rehears as much as possible, with that comes the timing and confidence needed to sell this show. I think that the piece would have been a really great insight into an underground, but exciting LGBT culture and the people watching would not soon forget what they had seen.

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The drag balls are essentially competitions between individuals, usually drag performers who perform different genres referred to as categories, hence the saying "Category is....". The term drag simply refers to the practices of one gender dressing up in clothes usually worn by the opposite gender and continuing to perform as that gender. These drag performers then go on to develop a drag persona, create a name to suit themselves and adopt a style and attitude.
The origin of Ballroom culture is a very bittersweet one, This culture focuses on race, gender and sexual orientation within society in the 1900's. Drag balls originally surfaced around the 1940's in New York city and served as gatherings for the LGBT, black and Latino communities, this is because they were very much discriminated back then and these balls were safe places to congregate. The balls would consist of people of any race, gender or sexuality performing and 'walking' in different categories. Walking refers to competing in the categories, they would have to serve fashion and face while walking the runway. There would also be dance battles held at these events, they would be certain members of houses competing against other houses for titles and bragging rites amongst the community. Houses are formed when enough people take on that houses persona for example the house of extravaganza and ninja, these houses were formed all in good fun and celebration but filled the role of a family to many people, especially people that may have been shunned by their own family for bring who they are. These events were very much seen as wrong and made illegal hence the underground nature of these gatherings. Society has since moved forward in bounds thankfully and in today's society such discrimination is referred to as hate crimes.
In today's society drag and ballroom culture has become much more mainstream and accepted especially through T.V shows such as Rupaul's Drag Race and through the nightclub scene.
Rupaul's Drag Race is a competition reality T.V show that has seen so much success and has manged 12 seasons thus far with no sign of slowing down anytime soon. The show covers so many issues faced by LGBT community members from discrimination to feeling uncomfortable in your own skin (Buckner, 2020)

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This entire piece has been inspired by three people Lady Gaga, Rupaul and Madonna. All of these people could be considered pioneers for the LGBT community and queer icons. They all have music which is very popular within the community.
Lady Gaga has always championed the LGBT community throughout her career and her work has been a huge influence, especially when it comes to choreography.
Rupaul has influenced the drag section and fashion section of the piece, as the most successful drag queen in the entire world he was a great insight into how drag queens typically perform.
Madonna has had an extremely long and successful career in which we saw the release of the smash hit Vogue in 1990. Since then it has been a huge part of ballroom culture and you generally wont have to search far to find that song within the scene.
All three of these people are a huge inspiration to me personally, I love who they are and what they stand for, their work and careers and am excited to see what they do next.

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Stacey Rhect is a professional, working drag performer who lives and works locally and agreed to be a part of my piece. The roles that I would have given her are basically dancing and hosting. Stacey would have been the perfect candidate for these roles as she regularly performs in show bars in front of large audiences. She also hosts and deals with large groups of people when she is working in a bar, she's a very outgoing persona in drag and this is exactly what I wanted for my piece.

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A picture of drag performer 'Stacey Rhect' performing in a show bar.

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Jess working the opening number!

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This video only includes two out of the six dancers, but offers an insight into my vision for the opening number!

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Underground Ball Culture, Buckner 2020 online available at: https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultures-and-scenes/underground-ball-culture/ [Accessed on 15/05/2020]