Happy Birthday Tarzan!

Hello lovely people! It's really nice of you to drop by and take the time to read my blog! I see that we have a few more members to the group :-) A big warm welcome to you all!!!

Things have been busy, busy, busy since returning to work from my visit home, hence the lack of posts! I have had a little change around with my job which means I am once again busy rehearsing and learning new material.
Normally in the show I play my one ensemble track eight shows a week.  However, due to a colleague at work being away for a little while, I have been asked to become a 'swing'. This means that I am learning the parts of all 9 ensemble men. Once I know all of the tracks I'll be able to cover the parts of other cast members if they are away due to illness, injury or vacation.
It's been really great rehearsing and my brain is definitely being challenged. I'm frantically trying to remember all of the changes with the flying material and choreography. It's a great way to make the show "fresh' for me once again! I will be kept on my toes until the new year, then I'll go back to my own ensemble track.

Over the past couple of weeks we have also had some exciting guests pay us a visit!
As you all know last weekend Leona Lewis came to watch the show and I got a sneaky picture with her, which was stupidly exciting!!!
Then this week, even bigger than Leona Lewis!! We had Mr Phil Collins pop by and hang out with us! It was in honour of our third anniversary playing Tarzan in Hamburg. We had a Birthday party with Phil Collins as guest of honour.  It was great that he could be there with us,  after all he did write all of the music for the show so it was just as much a celebration for him as it was for us.
We got to have a group picture taken and he also very kindly signed a poster for me.

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 Me and Phil.

Tarzan cast having a big group picture! I'm the monkey in the front on the very right of the picture.

It was a really great show! He even came up on stage at the end of the show, much to the delight of the cast and the audience! I'll leave you with a little video from the end of the show when he came on stage and pressed his hand into a piece of clay "Hollywood walk of fame" style!

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Fern! Baby, Fern! DIsco in-FERN-No!

Hello lovely people!
I just stumbled upon this video whilst sorting through my laptop.
It is a little video I made about two years ago, when I was working on the Dutch production of Tarzan.
For most of the show I play/dance as a monkey. However, there is a the scene in the show when Jane enters the jungle. For  this we change and become dancing flowers and plants, as if the jungle were alive. This video is of me changing from my monkey costume into my 'fern' costume. It's fun for me to look back and watch! I hope you enjoy it!

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Tarzan

Being back at work for a few days has made me realize that I'm not necessarily going to be able to blog quite as much as I wanted. Its going be a bit of 'it happens when it happens". I have some time today, so I'm making the most of it. Here goes!!!....

I Started back at work on Tuesday evening and was so excited to do the show again! (I should probably fill you all in).

I work in Hamburg as a dancer in the Disney show Tarzan.

The show is based on the animated movie with music by Phil Collins.  I've been doing the show in Hamburg for about 18 months now and am loving it!!! I'm really so proud to be part of this show and be working with such talented people. Here's a little promotional clip for the show.

For the majority of the show I play a gorilla :-) but also get to be a leopard, a dancing fern and when I first started the show I also played a moth.  The show has a very contemporary/African feel to it. This comes through in the dance styles but also the design of the set and the costumes:

Me as the Moth

As Gorilla

It was a little tuff getting back into the show after having two weeks off. I have to be honest my muscles are pretty sore today from working them all once again! The pain will go in a few days though and I'll be back to normal.

We have also been rehearsing lots this week, the Disney creative team are here from Broadway. They are here on one of many routine trips to Hamburg to look at the show, making sure it is all up to scratch. This adds an element of tension in the theatre as everybody obviously wants to put there best foot forward and make a good impression. This has been another factor in jump starting my body out of vacation mode :-)
I'm getting back on track slowly but surely! 

I haven't had too much time for anything else this week. I haven't worked on any projects in a few days! Although I'm hoping to go and get some new felt tip pens and start working on some new pictures.
Dennis bought us a new sewing machine earlier in the week!  That is definitely going to open up a many more possibilities in terms of creative lovelyness. I can't wait to try it out!!!

I hope you enjoy the little glimpse I have given you into my work and I promise to share more with you very soon.
I must run off to rehearsals! Will speak soon :-)
Until then enjoy the sunny weather!!!!

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