So here we find ourselves, the night before own big push on the front line of the stage “in his hands” (Milne, 1918). The night before our first performance of “Sincerely Yours” and for some reason I have not been going over my lines or my dance routines as relentlessly as I normally would. Instead, I have been drawn to the letters from the First World War boys again. And despite our performance being more focused on the roles, positions and states of the women during The First World War I find myself connecting with the women in the closest way by reading the letters that the soldiers sent home to their sweethearts, family and friends.

(Vaughan, W. McMaster University Libraries)

Some talk with passion and yearning, some with hope, some accepting of their fate before they even know it and some talking seemingly about nothing of deep meaning. However, it is these letters that are most interesting and arguably say far more than those men who literally spelt out how much they missed home. These men who were “quiet” in what they were saying, often commenting on the weather, that they were well and hoped their letter recipient was the same, or that they couldn’t say much. However, the recipients of the letters could find everything the needed to know and just how their boy was doing in the rows and rows of kisses that would fill the bottom of the page.

28th May, 1918,

Dear Father,

Just a few lines in answer to your letter which I received today.

Yes I got my food alright and you can have supper if you like to go for it, and you can bet I always go for supper. I am taking your advice and eating all I can.

I will see the officer about the allowance in a day or so, as I have heard today that two or three boys mothers are receiving an allowance, but I don’t know how much.

Well, I think I will have to close now. As I haven’t anything more to say just at present. Hoping you are quite well.

From your loving son,

Ted.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS. Love to Dolly and Frank 

One of the roles that officers in the Great War had to fulfil was to read and censor every single letter sent back to England in fear that it might reveal some vital piece of information that would prove dangerous in the wrong hands. However, these rows of kisses was the one thing that would never be censored. The men and boys would expose themselves as to how much they loved the person they were sending the letter to, show their fear and longing to be reassured and generally that regardless of how little interesting content their letter had, they were alive and saying all they needed to in the rows of x’s. Some men would do kisses all over the bottoms of their letters and some even squeezing kisses up the sides of pages.

France, 24 March, 1917

My dearest Emily
Just a few lines dear to tell you I am still in the land of the living and keeping well, trusting you are the same dear, I have just received your letter dear and was very pleased to get it. It came rather more punctual this time for it only took five days. We are not in the same place dear, in fact we don’t stay in the same place very long… we are having very nice weather at present dear and I hope it continues… Fondest love and kisses from your
loving Sweetheart
Will
xxxxxxxxxxx

And a common theme would be that their fate was “out of their hands”, “in the hands of the Lord”, they could not foresee what was going to happen but “all [they could] do was put [themselves] in God’s hands for him to decide” (Earley, 1918). They knew that they had had all the training available, all the luck and well wishers hoping they prospered but it was out of their hands and what was going to be was just going to be. Upon reading these letters tonight, I have never particularly noticed this theme in the letters, but tonight of all nights, it has rung more true to our 10 girls theatre company than ever before. The show has had all the rehearsals possible, we have our families, friends and loved ones wishing us well, sending us messages of luck and belief and now it is out of our hands and tomorrow night: what will be will be.

Works Cited

Frank Earley, ‘Pray for me’ (1918).

Ted Poole, ‘Becoming a Man’ (1918).

Will Martin, ‘Forever Sweethearts’ (1917).

All above accessed on http://aggsliterature.wordpress.com/wwi-letters-home/ on Thursday 22nd May 2014.

Vaughan, W. McMaster University Libraries. Accessed on May 22 2014, http://pw20c.mcmaster.ca/case-study/socks-boys-marion-simpson-and-knitters-first-world-war

From the very first time I played some factory noises to the Birdies to the tightly choreographed scene we have today I wanted to reflect back and show just how many layers and developments the scene has taken and why.

Here are the birds after listening to real cotton mill factory sounds and responding to the material in their own way. Half way through I played Booker T and The MG’s ‘Soul Limbo’ to see how the upbeat, “salsa-ry” music would effect their mannerisms, actions and characters. Watch for how the whole mood in the room changes:

(Emily Cox, March 2014)

From this playful and spontaneous style of factory routine, as choreographer, I considered how the women who worked on the home front in the factories might have behaved and acted emotionally and physically. They had a huge amount of responsibility in the work force their jobs propelled the industrial war machine forward and were crucial to the success of those men on the front line. Consequently, I felt that by making a far more structured and military factory routine it would represent the women and their roles to much better effect.

(Lucy Brown, April 2014)

Works Cited:
Emily Cox, March 2014
Lucy Brown, April 2014

The Waltz. A dance of grace. A dance of elegance. A dance of History. The Waltz allows us to literally walk in the steps that our ancestors would have taken during the First World War, whilst also reviving that beautiful war time atmosphere on our stage in 2014; “we give history the chance to speak again” (Birds Eye View Theatre Manifesto, 2014) through the medium of dance.

The Waltz is a particularly romantic dance I wanted to use this in our performance to portray the women’s longing and love of their boys out on the front line. I’ve done this through creating a layered routine to the war song ‘Till We Meet Again’. The layers were to represent 3 types of women. 4 of the girls will be dancing with brooms thinking back before the war, 4 more girls will dance around the original 4 with empty trench coats representing an almost fantasy and dream like image of what the women wanted desperately to do and then the last 2 girls will be waltzing behind our cyc showing how life was before.

This particular dance is traditionally performed in a closed position (close hold) with a slow 3/4 time beat. The first step is a strong beat followed by two soft beats. 1, 2, 3 1, 2, 3… It is crucial to also include the fall on the strong beat and then 2 rises on the soft beats to achieve a correct and professional waltz step.

This is seen as follows:

In ‘Sincerely Yours’ I’ve been teaching the girls the basic Waltz steps;

The Waltz Box Step

(Central Home, 19th May 2014)

The Waltz Forward Progressive Step

(Central Home, 19th May 2014)

The Natural and Reverse Turn

(Ballroom Dance UK, accessed on 19th May 2014)

And finally The Whisk and Chasse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRr5m7n8rH0

(Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag, August 17 2012, accessed on 19th May 2014)

Keep an eye out for all of these steps in our big Waltz number ‘Till We Meet Again’!

Works Cited
Anton Du Beke and Erin Boag, August 17 2012, accessed on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCONA_a14_1qjbBSMMBl4CPQ on 19th May 2014.
Ballroom Dance UK, accessed on https://www.youtube.com/user/BallroomDanceUK on the 19th May 2014.
Dance Resources, accessed on http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/waltz_steps-2.htm on the 19th May 2014.

The most poignant part I have found with the process of making ‘Sincerely Yours’ is the collecting of the personal stories and accounts, especially from the local people. Taking the time out to visit the people of Lincoln, our grandparents, our relatives, our family friends and to sit down with them and a cup of tea and biscuit to hear the stories of their parents and elders during the First World War. The personal and almost autobiographical nature of our performance has many elements that link it back to the people of Lincoln, however, the key stone which everyone identifies with is the war memorial.

The war memorial is a tall, lonely figure of history, standing proud amongst the buildings of new. It was staggering to read the names on the memorial and how many lost their lives from Lincoln alone. It’s one thing seeing the memorial standing there as a figure of remembrance, however, to identify each individual name and see how many men from the same families were lost is just heart breaking. So much death and so much loss. For these names and the many more thousands of sacrifices, we remember them.

(Laurence Binyon, For The Fallen, 1914)

Works Cited
Laurence Binyon, For The Fallen, 1914. Read by Ellie Coleridge, 2014.
The Last Post, 1914.
Names from the Lincoln War Memorial, High Street, 2014.

A day in the life of the Birds Eye View Theatre Choreographer is as easy as the waltz. It’s a simple case of One, Two, Three.

09:00(ish) Awake, Two, Three.

09:30 Breakfast, Two, Three.

10:00 Shower, Two, Three.

10:45 Leave house, Two, Three.

11:00 Directors Meeting Two… to discuss how the previous week’s rehearsals went; how successful they were or how they have sparked new ideas for our devising process. Based on that discussion we progress onto what we would like to achieve in the upcoming week of rehearsals and then continue to plan each of our 5 rehearsal sessions; who is going to lead each session, the layout of that rehearsal and how it contributes to the development of our show…Three!

14:00 Lunch, Two, Three.

15:00 A Waltz ‘Reverse Turn’ of events: back to bed to write a detailed plan for the upcoming dance rehearsal. I plan every rehearsal in the same format: a fun, energetic game to start, then a good warm-up, then I introduce a new dance/movement idea e.g. basic foxtrot step, and then develop the basic step over corner to corner exercises (as one example of an exercise), next I plan for putting the cast into partners and teaching them to dance the steps they have just learnt, as a pair. Based on how quickly the cast pick up the steps and how confidently they are dancing them, I will have a routine for them to try should they be strong enough; if they are not, it will be saved for the next two, three dance rehearsals to develop further.

17:00 Break, Tea for… Two, or Three.

17:30 Find appropriate music, Two, Three. (I feel I should elaborate “appropriate music”! By this I mean if I am teaching Waltz in the session I need to find a variety of music with a strong Waltz beat, or the Foxtrot, or Castle-step etc based on which dance is being taught).

19:00 The Choreographer signs off for the day, after watching some beautiful dance films and video clips for inspiration with a cup of tea and a One, Two, Three.