The Songs

In our show, we have two songs that we sing.

Our first one is our song based on dreams called "Dreams" and the lyrics go thusly:

We all have dreams dreams dreams,
We all have dreams dreams dreams,
We all have dreams dreams dreams,
We all have dreams.

I want to fly fly fly
For no one to cry cry cry
Maybe I'll drive drive drive,
We all have dreams.

I want to be beyonce's backing dancer,
Be the greatest hip-hop master,
But most of all I want the world to be a safe environment for you and me.

Britain's Got Talent is my favourite show,
Singing every day like Jlo,
I want to be a YouTube star,
Going for a drink in my favourite bar

These are my dreams (x3) (This is also harmonised)

This song was written by Tashan and Senel and was based upon the dreams and wants that were put on the wall in our first session together and When we first sung this with our certitude friends, some of them noticed that the dreams were theirs and it made them happy and smiley, it was a very nice feeling. Some of them couldn't sing along so they just made up their own lyrics.

The song that we sing at the end is Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Technicolour Dream Coat. When we rehearsed this without the certitude group for the first time, we were split into two groups: Group 1 Sopranos (high-pitched singers) and Group 2 Tenors (low-pitched singers). I was in group 1. We were all given a script with different lines for the different vocal ranges.

This version of the song isn't ours (clearly) but the lines were shared between both groups. Below, I have a copy of the lyrics, group 1 is purple and group 2 is orange and both groups are aqua.

I close my eyes, drew back the curtain
To see for certain, what I thought I knew

Far far away, someone was weeping
But the world was sleeping
Any dream will do

I wore my coat (I wore my coat), with golden lining (Ahhh)
Bright colors shining (Ahhhh), wonderful and new

And in the east (and in the east), the dawn was breaking (Ahhh)
And the world was waking (Ahhhh)
Any dream will do

A crash of drums, a flash of light
My golden coat flew out of sight
The colors faded into darkness
I was left alone

May I return (May I return) to the beginning (Ahhh)
The light is dimming (Ahhhh), and the dream is too
The world and I (The world and I), we are still waiting (Ahhh)
Still hesitating (Ahhhh)
Any dream will do
Any dream will do
Any dream will do (harmonised)

Second Lesson

Today before our group from Certitude came, we did trust and memory games with each other. Some of the games we did were:

• Getting into partners and hugging them with your eyes closed. Whilst you're hugging them, you memorise their clothes, their back shape, their hair, everything you can about them. Then you step away from them, spin for a few s econds and you have to find your partner again. This is hard because you have no sense of direction (because your eyes are closed and you've just spun around), you can't call out to your partner and you have to be aware of other people around you too. When you find your partner, you stand still and hug them again. You repeat this a few more times but replacing the hug with a handshake and many other things that involve contact.
• Get into a group of about 6. Form a circle with one person standing in the middle. This circle should be slightly tight. The person in the middle closes their eyes stands up straight and leans to one person on the outside of the circle. This person catches them, leans back and gently passes them to someone else in the circle and that person does the same. Everyone has to have a go and the person cannot be too stiff and the people on the outside have to be ready and at a steady stance. This game was actually quite scary because naturally, you don't trust the people around you because you think you're going to get dropped but they're ready to catch you. From the outside I suppose you want the trust of the person in the middle because when they're stiff and uncomfortable, they feel heavier than when they trust you and are floppier.
• Finally, we stood in a circle, turned to our right, closed out eyes and put our hands on the person in front of us' shoulders. We felt what they were wearing and what their backs felt like, we spun around again and like the first exercise, we had to find the person's back, hold onto them and form the circle we were in before in the right order.

These exercises allowed us to concentrate on the small details of a person and taught us to remember things after moving about. This will be beneficial to us when Certitude are with us because we can remember small details about each individual as this process is too short to take the time to know each of them from the back of our hands.

When our friends from certitude arrived, we had to be very focused. On the previous Friday We got into small groups (on fridays it's just us, certitude folks only come on mondays) and based on their dreams, we created a piece to teach them. Me and Layla had made a small piece based on going to the moon. So for our piece, I got the astronauts ready  and then sent them off to the moon to retrieve a sample of moon rock and they came back to earth and gave it to me. We had to teach our piece to Ian and one of the workers. Ian's disability is more physical and he has to use a zimmer frame with wheels to move around and he can't be standing up for too long, he has to sit down every few minutes. He can understand everything you say as any other person would but he has a problem with speech although you can understand what he is saying if you listen to him. He's very happy and willing to work with you and quite lovable. To incorporate Ian into our piece, he sat down for the launching of the rocket and he used his zimmer frame to "drive" it and it was also used as a space buggy. He enjoyed our piece and he was comfortable doing it because it was something he was physically capable of doing.

The games we played with the adults today were more dream-like. Some of the games we played were:

• This was more of a vocal warm up/exercise. We had to make a magical island soundscape with our voices  and when we were tapped on the shoulder, we would make a noise and repeat it. These noises could be birds, wind, twinkly noises, waves crashing, tigers growling, etc. This allowed us to explore our voices and use our imaginations.
• The tribe game was a fun one to play. We were in medium-sized groups and there was a leader of the tribe who moved around the space in all different ways and the rest of the tribe had to copy them and move around the space. The leader would change and this would get interesting because so many people have different ideas and it was a spontaneous, in the moment thing. This helped us to create an atmosphere through our bodies and voices and our friends from Certitude could explore their capabilities, take charge and break out of their shells.

First Lesson

On our first lesson, we had the disabled adults come in and work with us. Before they came, we did a series of warm-up games/exercises to get to know each other (most of us didn't know each other at this point) and we had a small chat about the warm-ups we did, how we found them and if we could use them with our friends from certitude, whose physical an mental capabilities are varied. We came up with quite a few games that we found simple but fun for certitude to do, one of their favourites was to stand in a circle and pass an action to someone across the circle. That person would repeat the action in the direction of that person and then make another action directed at someone else in the circle.
They also loved singing The Grand Old Duke of York with actions. We'd reach up at "when they were up", reach down "when they were down" and reach to the middle "when they were only halfway up". We sung along to the piano and the music sped up, and we changed the actions. The adults got very excited over this and this was something they loved doing.
To help us with some stimulus for our upcoming performance, we got into groups of 4, were given two pieces of A4 paper and some post-it notes and each wrote something we liked on a post-it note and stuck it onto a piece of paper and for the other piece of paper, we wrote our dreams. We handed these to Jack and he read them out as he stuck them up on the wall. From that, we all had a vague idea of what our performance will be based on which is likes and dreams. I think it's a nice theme as we all have our individual inputs into it and there's so much you can do with dreams; you can make a land of dreams, a surreal environment and surrealism comes with unlimited boundaries, so the adults can really let go through this.

My reflection of this lesson is quite positive. We all got to know each other and even through we were quite nervous to meet the adults, we made it as comfortable of an environment as we could for them and it worked, because we got to know them and they seemed quite at ease with us. I now have a very vague idea of each of their abilities and personalities but I hope to work with each of them on more of an individual basis so I can know who I'm working with.

Introduction

This term is slightly different from the rest, instead of working in our strands, we have been mixed up into different groups so that there are different people from different strands in one group. In our groups, we are assigned to the people we will be working with and making a show with. This can be people with physical and mental disabilities, people from deprived backgrounds, recovering alcoholics, turn around centers, etc. My group are working with a small group of 8 disabled adults who have very different disabilities that hinder them in different ways.

Here is their site: http://www.certitude.org.uk/

I think that this term will be challenging for everyone because personally, this is the first time I've ever worked with people who have learning disabilities but it will surely be a learning curve. I think that when we first start working with them, we have to be as open and as laid-back as possible so we can make a comfortable environment for them to be in so they can allow themselves to be open, free and we can get to know them as individuals.