When we were done singing (for the evening anyway) we went into a room across the hall to watch a Ben Zander movie. It was really cool - one of those personal empowering movies. I remember the concept about, ok so you can play an aria, but hear how much different it is when you feel it and play through the emotion of the notes. That and the Shinning Eyes. I remember it talking about singing through Shinning Eyes. After the video we had some wonderful HCC Rah provided by Jean and Diane and then were off to bed.
At breakfast the next morning the retreat fun continued with table numbers. Upon entering the dining room we all pick numbers so that our tables would get all mixed up and we were sure to get to know the women in our chorus better. As newbies, Steph, Sabrina, and I particularly welcomed this system and made sure that we all picked different numbers from each other to further expand our chorus circle of friends. I like this system - and was very glad that it continued to be in place for all the meals for the remainder of the weekend.
We spent our lunch and evening rehearsals making sure to sing all of our vowels in the vowel tunnel and making sure to bring joy to all the songs we sang. We started to work on a new skill set - singing supported softs. We also got a chance to have a front row pull out rehearsal and really start refining some of the more precise moments in our choreo plan. We came back into the chorus to combine our good singing with our good dancing and everything just started to feel great.
That evening for our entertainment purposes we had Jean and Diane drawing all the lucky winners from our very large Chinese auction. I walked away with a watch, some gorgeous Indian earrings, a LeSportSac makeup bag and a delightfully hideous, perfectly Sweet Adeline sequined dress that no one had bid on, but was unanimously decided that I should receive. At which point I decided that Sabrina needed to try it on - which she did to the hilarity of all. To close out the evenings festivities we were treated to vocal stylings of everyone's favorite quartet, Just 4.
The next morning Kathy really worked with us on finding the heart and the joy in our ballad. She did an exercise with using "You Are My Sunshine." First she had us sing it as if we were singing to our best friend. Then as if we were singing to a puppy dog. Then as if we were singing it to a new born baby. And then (and this was the killer) as if we were singing it to our mother and she was very sick. Well by the end of it we were all in tears, but we had got the message - you need to find that visceral emotion and sing through it. When you sing a ballad sometimes you are singing to a lover, sometimes a friend or loved one, sometimes to a dream - but whatever it is, it has to be real for you. We wrapped up the morning by running the heck outta our uptune. We glided on our new found sound and danced with joy all the way to the tag!
We left our retreat energized and excited to continue our first journey to the contest stage as the Harmony Celebration Chorus - with a renewed love for our craft. But more importantly with a bound spirit of togetherness for each other, our director, and our new friend and coach, Ms. Kathy Carmody.
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