Well Hello There,
My name is Niamh and I am the first trainee who has been inducted into my role as a Hen Party Instructor, within the House Of Trixie Blue. Huuuuzzzaaahhh!!!
I have created a small number of blogs to record my journey throughout this process which acts as nice memory for myself to see how much I have developed throughout this journey but also to provide you lovely lot, with an insiders peek at what really goes down behind the scenes in just one area of the brilliant House of Trixie Blue!!! Well then, grab something nice to wet your whistle and off we go again in to my weird and wacky wonderland.
If you have read part 1 of my journey at the HoTB academy then cast your minds back to my last blog and my homework was to complete the choreography for Beyonce’s – Single Ladies ready to teach for upcoming hen parties and moving forward. I mean by now you will have obviously taken a little peak at what we have to offer here at The House of Trixie Blue and if not shame on you!! Tut Tut – Here it is and take a quick peak and I won’t tell if you don’t! Ahem, now as I was saying, we offer an extensive range of Hen Parties here at HoTB and many styles you may not even of considered however Beyonce is just one style I am working with to get me warmed up.
Ever the tenacious and determined female that I am, I spent a lot of time on my homework and I put together a sequence of choreography for the intro which I used in the first session, the first verse and the chorus of single ladies. This was done by breaking down each section and constructing multiple counts of 8, in order to help me, I focused on the lyrics from the song, used my own creation of choreography that I wanted to use and lastly by researching the original choreo that was used by Beyonce in that very iconic video we all know and love (and definitely attempted by both men and women over the festive season at those office parties)
I did this over the course of around a week and then moved on to rehearsing this routine, so I could remember it and knew it INSIDE OUT!! I REPEAT INSIDE OUT This was a lot of rehearsal time, I even playing through it in my head on the daily commute. My partner is a musician and he gave me a piece of advice to help me with rehearsing and although I love him if for it now, I loathed it at the time…. and this was whenever you are rehearsing anything; whether it be dancing, learning music, learning lines to a play (insert own hobby here) do not give up practising until you have completed this task from start to finish, with no mistakes, three times in a row. That might sound easy however I felt that Beyonce had personal vendetta against me at one point when I was playing this track over and over again and it was increasingly frustrating because the only person that was messing up was me!! Aaaarrrggghh!! However this was actually a very good tactic for me as it allowed me to retain the choreo inside out very quickly, I used the visual notes that I created, a videoing technique which allowed me to see the choreo as well as hear the verbal direction so I was aiming to hit as many learning points as possible so this would stick.
So this was the first part of my homework completed – next up was to bring back “mirroring” from my first session. Now that I was VERY well acquainted with the performance the next step was to be able to call out this verbal direction out whilst essentially mirroring my” imaginary” future excited and inebriated hens …backwards. In order to do this I called upon on the help of my trusty biro from session one and tattoo’ed a lovely scrawl of an L and R on each of my hands and on occasion maybe even feet so I was able to visualise this quickly if needed and I also enlisted the help of my dear partner to be my sassy crowd of single ladies, Thanks again for that one dear.
I used all of the tools and methods described earlier to help me learn this in the ‘mirror effect’ as I like to call it, so I watched lot of videos of myself getting frustrated whilst I got comfortable with the material however being able to see my errors and using the rule of 3 this helped my brain click! FINALLY!!!
EEEEEKKK it was time to hand in my homework and this was only 4 weeks after my initial session in the studio and I remember it was scheduled to take place after a Blue Belles rehearsal (a performance course ran at HoTB) and there was going to be myself, the lovely Kristi and her lovely mum Pam. I was really excited about the change of atmosphere and also the change in audience and I felt really prepared and excited to see how much I had developed and learnt since that initial session. The session went really well I took Kristi through everything I had created including the actual choreography and then I broke this down and taught it to her, performed it alongside side her and also observed whilst calling out direction …all without the use of a mirror, I WAS THE MIRROR! (Probably not the answer I would of given If you asked me, “what I wanted to be when I grew up’) but a mirror non the less. Pam then came to join us and this was a really valuable experience as we talked about the variations in choreography, the choreo is designed with hen parties in mind but as with everything in life, we all come with our own levels of ability and even perhaps limitations ranging from the Darcey Bussle’s of the world, to those who might just not be that interested in the movement, and are just there to have a good old giggle with their pals, therefor I created three variations of choreography to cater to everyones ability. Luckily as Pam was there I was able to try these variations for no other reason than experience for myself, so again thank you to my willing participants. The session went really well and I think I prepared a little more than Kristi had bargained for which isn’t a bad thing, however the feedback I receive at the end of each session is by far the most valuable “evaluation” if you like for me, as I really focus …almost obsess on the feedback given which is always filled with praise and good techniques to help me strengthen my development.
That was my second session at the House of Trixie Blue Training Academy – the follow up from my first initial studio session and the handing in of my homework, whilst the session was only an hour long and it might seem that I have perhaps breezed past this detail, I wanted to showcase how much time and dedication was put in by myself to be the best student I can be but also how much support Kristi and her accomplices, dedicate their time and provide support to my development on an ongoing basis and that really is priceless! Especially when I weigh up how much pressure I put on myself versus how bloody proud and accomplished I felt when I left the studio the night… and yes I may have even shed a little sparkly tear teeeehhhheeee.
Next up on my journey is teaching Beyonce to the Sexy Sapphire Whiskers – If you aren’t sure who I mean – first of all I will be shocked but they are HoTB’s professional burlesque troupe. So why not use this time to top up your glass and take a little look…. Until next time xxx
Thank you so much Niamh. Such a pleasure to have you a part of House of Trixie Blue’s Hen Party Training Academy.
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Here is our all important Hen Party website – www.houseoftrixiebluehenparties.tk
Love & Shimmies
House of Trixie Blue
xxx
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