It's a jolly holiday choreographing Mary Poppins!

    I started choreographing for the Mansfield Youth Theatre back in 2022. We were in rehearsals for our spring production of Descendants where I was playing Evie. A guest choreographer was hired, but about three weeks before we opened, she had a family emergency and couldn't complete the job. While our director was struggling to find someone, I decided to offer myself in the case that she couldn't find someone. I had grown up dancing and creating our routines for cheer, but I never thought about pursuing choreography as a job. In the next week I not only created and taught the choreography for Descendants, but I also found one of my biggest passions. Since then, I've had the privilege of choreographing for the Mansfield Youth Theatre, MTVarts, Wynford Drama Department, Miss Greater Cleveland Scholarship Program, Miss Ohio Scholarship Program, and more. I truly found my passion for choreographing and teaching, so I will forever be grateful to the director for taking a chance on me in 2022. 

    This April, the Mansfield Youth Theatre is performing Mary Poppins at the Renaissance Theatre. Back in November I started listening to the soundtrack and thinking through different ideas for the numbers, but I couldn't officially start choreographing until I had the cast list. Now for a lot of people who choreograph they see this vision for the numbers. I have aphantasia which means I can't conjure up mental images of any sort. I don't dream and I can't visualize, so my process for choreographing looks a little different. I tend to feel the movement through my body rather than focus on its appearance to start. I initially find movements that fit the mood and beat of the song while still fitting in the plot. I try them in the dance studio with the music where I record section by section. From there I'll watch each piece to figure out what I like and what needs to be changed. After I have the movements crafted, I'll move onto formations. Whether we're in a Blackbox or proscenium style theatre, I have to not only find formations that fit the movements but also invite the audience into the excitement. Since I can't visually see the formations onstage, I draw out each formation with little "x's" to represent each actor. I constantly move people around until I see a formation that speaks to the piece itself. 

    For Mary Poppins specifically, there are a lot of characters like Mary, Bert, and Neleus that have to sing as they dance. This is something I always consider because the story needs to be conveyed first and foremost. The director and I always emphasize how the actors need to sing in rehearsal so they get used to how the movement impacts their singing because if we can't understand the lyrics the movement needs to be cut. Neleus has a lot of leaps and turns that happen throughout "Jolly Holiday," so I've run that part specifically while singing to make sure that none of the positions compromise his breathing. Once the part is taught, learned, and executed by the actor himself, I'll be able to confidently say it works, but that's where problem-solving comes into play. There are times where choreography works great on paper or with one person doing it, but it isn't working on stage. In those instances, you can't just stop rehearsal and give up. Instead, I have to send people on a five-minute break as I rechoreograph a section. During Aladdin, this fall, "High Adventure" had a lot of moving parts, but the week before tech it looked messy. While some of the kids were nailing it, there were others that still didn't know the choreography, so in an instant I stopped them and simplified some of the movements, so the entire ensemble looked good. Time will tell how many speed bumps I run into with Mary Poppins, but I'm excited for this adventure of growth and joy.