Scrapped

I'm having fun with my item for the coming Blast concert, and that's always a good sign. By fun of course Fred the Sling-bagger doesn't refer to social interaction of any form, but the enjoyment of playing with music and choreography.

Blink of an eye; I feel like the concert is almost here, that there is little time left. I hope to give away everything I can give away. I'm taking this as my last opportunity to do so, even if it isn't.

I choreographed the item after a month-plus break from taking classes, and it was a pleasant surprise for me to see which influences arose over others.

I think at this point, the concert will with zero-doubt be decent, good. The anxiety for me is for it to be very good, awesome.

My item is a collaboration with Chun, and it took a long time for us to even agree on music. Following are three cuts of ideas that were disagreed upon, and scrapped. Following these are even more, even older ideas that were also scrapped for one reason or other.


Daft Punk, Da Funk (1995). Fatboy Slim vs. Hervé, Machines Can Do The Work (2010). This is the second cut for the original Tetris idea. Drones in a Tetris machine, halfway through transport blocks to and fro. The blocks stack up in the background, culminating in the dropping of the long block; black out. Luminous lighting like Tron. Chun wanted to do light poi and silver suits.


Daft Punk, Aerodynamic, Digital Love (both 2001). The sounds of Daft Punk's Discovery are pretty brilliant, avant-garde, especially a decade later. I tried to continue the electro theme, after refusing Chun's idea to use Commander. I think this cut left her completely lost. I guess it is weird. That's the challenge of collaboration; seeing and hearing different things. I love the tolling of the bell tower. Makes me think of gargoyles at evening-time. And I think the electric guitar is quite orgasmic. Happy house finale.


Dinah Washington, Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby (Rae & Christian Remix) (2002). Gramophonedzie, Why Don't You (2010). Learning from the previous debacle, I tried to come up with something that could incorporate Chun's flair and sass, electronica, and the housey-ness we both love. This attempt however fell on deaf ears again.


Katy Perry, Teenage Dream (2010). I originally only wanted to post about the three items that our upcoming collaboration is not, but started to reminisce other items that didn't make it in the past. I wanted to do a Wei Na-centred item for Welcome Tea last year, hoping Magnus would take the choruses. As I suspected, he only found the chorus remotely danceable. But I didn't believe in the crowd-pleasing ability of the item, and so I didn't push for it. I love, love, love, love this song.


Switchfoot, Oh! Gravity (2006). I've always wanted to do an item to rockish pop (We Used to Be Friends, Gives You Hell). And I thought Oh! Gravity could be an unusual but powerful competition piece. There are many things in the music to play with. The cast of Seriously would have been perfect for this; a bunch of rascals. But I didn't have it in me to choreo the entire thing, and I knew nobody else would know what to do with the song.


Lady Gaga, LoveGame (Space Cowboy Remix) (2009), Starstruck (feat. Space Cowboy and Flo Rida), The Fame (both 2008). This was a cut done earlier in 2009 for an all-girl item. By the time rehearsals started, I wasn't feeling it anymore, and used Kill the Lights instead.