Saturday, October 15, 2011

The Showstoppers are on double duty this week!

Congratulations to the Showstoppers Dance Team for their excellent performances this weekend!

First, they dazzled and amazed the fans at the Varsity football game Friday night. Both squads performed hip - hop choreography that they choreographed and arranged themselves. They were entirely responsible for all decision making including selecting music, movement, formations and costuming!

On Saturday afternoon they took the stage at the Columubus County Fair Grounds and, together (both squads), performed the crowd pleaser, Thriller by the late Prince of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Both performances were well received and appreciated by the crowd.

The Showstoppers at the fairgrounds Saturday shrouded in ghoulish attire!



Congratulations to SCHS's Main Attraction as well for an outstanding vocal performance! I enjoyed watching all of the choral performances from the participating schools in the county. Great work everybody!

Theater One!

This week in Theater One my students continued to develop characterization through the exploration of confrontation. The students were given confrontional scenarios to improvise (act out spontaneously). By the week's end we witnessed a teenage spat instigated by a trouble maker, someone being thrust in front of a vehicle during an argument, and a two - timing boyfriend getting caught by his sweethearts... not really, we were acting!

I had fun with this group this week!

Advanced Theater!

This week in Theater we began to prepare for play festival with formal run throughs that included load in and load out and lighting cues. We also discussed sound effects and incorporated propterties!

Great job Advanced Theater!

Advanced Dance!

This week in Advanced Dance we prepared for the performances we participated in this weekend. We also began to experiment with some computer software called Lifeforms. This software is very tricky to work with so this week we just got a feel for the basic functioning of the program. Later on down the road (when we are able to access the portable laptop lab again) we will commit to creating choreography using the software and with any luck I will post the end result of that project here on the blog. Here is a link to a more detailed description of the software.

Once again, congrats to the Showstoppers for a fantastic performing weekend!

~Mrs. Amy Jones

Sunday, October 9, 2011

What happened and what is yet to come!!!

Footloose the Movie!

Footloose the Movie Launches next weekend in most local movie theaters. This is an especially exciting event for us considering the fact that we performed this wonderful show only two years ago. Several of our cast members still walk the halls of SCHS. Apparently we are not the ones who remember our presentation fondly because I recently received a phone call from Carmike Cinemas in Myrtle Beach requesting our participation in the promotion of the new movie. This past Friday myself and several students assisted the staff at Cinemark at The Colonial Mall in promoting the movie next weekend. The movie theater gave free movie passes to any audience member who was willing to learn the choreography to Footloose and perform it. It was a fun time and we thank Cinemark for inviting us to join in their fun!



FYI - Cinemark filmed the event and entered the footage in a company contest which will be showcased on Youtube next Thursday! Be on the look out for familiar faces (who knows, the company may choose our promo video).

The Columbus County Fair!!!

Don't forget the Columbus County Fair kicks off at the Fair grounds this Tuesday, October 11th. The Arts departments county wide are participating in the fair juat as they do every year.

Band - The Band exibition kicks off Tuesday night at 6:00.

Chorus and Dance
- Several choral groups (SCHS, WCHS, Williams Township Middle, Nakina Middle, Chadbourn Middle, Tabor Middle) and the SCHS Showstoppers Dance Team will hit the stage on Saturday, October 15th from 5 PM to 6:30 PM.

Art Exibition - K12 Art work will be on display every day at the fair grounds Tuesday through Sunday.

Stallion Football!

Come out and support the Stallions Friday night for another exciting round of Varsity football. At half time kick back and relax the entertainment provided by the SCHS Showstoppers Dance Teams and the Stallion Marching Band.

Theater One!

This week in Theater One we examined how different art forms can inspire characterization. We listened to several selections of music, observed a number of paintings and learned several different styles of dance choreography. Each piece of music, painting and dance combination inspired a different character. The students were instructed to select one of the characters they created to perform in an improvisational scene.

Great work Theater One! I was very impressed with the variety and original characterization happening in class!

Advanced Theater!

Tick tock, tick tock! Time is ticking away, closer and closer to play festival. My Advanced students are going to rock-n-roll at play festival with their production of This is a Test. I really had fun directing this week in class. My students are mostly off book, props are being coordinated, some hilareous physicality is in the works AND we are making excellent progress with our production responsibilities (Load in, perform, load out).

Excellent work Advanced Theater! Look out play fest... here we come!!!

Advanced Dance!

This week in Advanced Dance we examined how different art forms can inspire choreography. We listened to a selection of music, observed a painting and read/interpreted a poem. The music, painting and poem inspired ideas for dance movement which we incorporated together into dance phrasing.

Excellent work Advanced Dance! Make sure you watch for us at the Varsity Football game Friday night (hip hop choreography by both squads) and again at the fair on Saturday where we will be performing our rendition of Thriller! by Michael Jackson.

~Mrs. Amy Jones

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The Stallion Marching Band triumphs at Clinton Band Day!

The Stallions of South Columbus High School are proud, intelligent and talented. The Stallion Marching Band proved this well known fact on Saturday, October 1, 2011 when participating in a competition at Clinton Band Day!

Here are their honors:
1st Place Color Guard
1st Place Music
2nd Place Marching
2nd Place General Effect
2nd Place Overall Class 3A


Congratulations Stallions on a job well done!!!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Latest in Theater and Dance!

Happy Homecoming Stallions!

This week was spirit week in Stallion territory. Last night the Stallions defeated the Cougars from South Brunswick! It was an excellent homecoming despite the weather as our Varsity football team brought their own kind of thunder and lightning to the field after the down-pour! Congrats to Crystal, Dawaitus and Taylor, our 2011 - 2012 reigning beauties of the Homecoming Court! Here are a few picks of some of my BRATS are gussied up for spirit day!





Theater One!

Our lovely masks!





As promised, this week in Theater One we played with our masks. The purpose of the mask was to give my students an opportunity to explore characterization. I asked them to describe their mask with three adjectives that most accurately personified their mask and then I gave them a few moments to look at themselves in the mirror while wearing their mask. This allowed them to become comfortable (because they thought is was a little strange) and to begin to consider the character they had created.

Later, I asked them how their character would walk and instructed them to explore the character further by walking like that person. We also discussed the idea of a grand gesture (a characters's dominant gesture). My students used the three adjectives they chose to decide upon a grand gesture for their character.

Through out the week the class created/performed improvisational scenes for their characters. Here are some pictures and a brief description of the final scenes on Friday.


Monkey alert!


More monkeying around!


Lousy blind date!


Class room chaos!


Snobby Girls!


Tattoo parlor!

Excellent work Theater One!

Advanced Theater!

This week in Advanced Theater we analayzed our characters (a 58 question survey about each charcter being studied/performed) and created masks for them. We continued to work on characterization while working out scenes in our plays. On Monday we will have lines testing to determine which play/s will be taken to Play Festival in November.

As Alan (This is a Test) would say, study, study, study!!!

Advanced Dance!

In Advanced Dance we discussed the similarities and differences between classical composition, Danse Macabre (french for dance of death or dance of the spirits) by Camille Saint Saens and the ever popular Thriller by the late and respected Prince of Pop, Michael Jackson.

What we discovered was that even though these songs differ greatly in style or genre the meaning behind each selection is nearly identical. Even the qualities of the music coincided. For example, in the beginning of Danse Macabre the orchestra chimes the clock ticking to midnight. Similarly, in Thriller, Michael's fancy footsteps set the scene to wake the dead.

...but don't take my word for it, see for yourself. Watch the videos and see what you think.

Midnight Dance - Animation to Danse Macabre


Thriller by Michael Jackson


~ Mrs. Amy Jones.