LotD: 1st dance: GRYFFINDOR GROUP 1

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN..."

::A voice booms out across the darkened stage, and the audience hold their breaths in anticipation.::

"GRYFFINDOR HOUSE WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME YOU TO THEIR GROUP DANCE..."

::Smoke began to hiss its way across the stage and strobe lights began to flash haphazardly onto the still empty stage.::

"SO TAKE YOUR SEATS AND WAVE THOSE GRYFFINDOR BANNERS...::

::The lights cut out abruptly, plunging the hall into darkness.::

"AS WE ASK YOU TO LET US ENTERTAIN YOU!"

::The strobe lights came on again suddenly, moving slowly from the top of the stage area to the stage itself, as the first chords of the song began to play. Spotlights fell onto the stage, revealing the seven Gryffindor dancers. The concert was begun.::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39rULAd93Lk

::Cheery heard the words of the announcer, and then got a bit nervous. She always got nervous at that point, but she always did perfectly when she started dancing.::

::Cheery figited a bit before the music started. She knew not to, but she couldn't help her little twitches.::

::Cheery waited for the music to start.::

::As the opening music rang out, WL and the group started to walk slowly forward to the offbeat, posing so the audience could start to feel the anticipation that the music would build up.::

::The bilows of smoke that was pouring in from the sides parted slightly, revealing the ghostly figures of the Gryffindor Seven, striking gorgeous poses and waiting for the next few beats.::

::Duck followed Alge's lead and also did a pique turn, careful to keep her leg straight.

Following that, she moved to the back of the stage, making room for the next part of the dance.::

::Cheery did a pique turn with Emma, making sure that she was keeping straight with Emma and not getting too ahead on her turn. She then stepped out of her pique turn and waited for beat one again.::

::As the group finished their turns, WL turned to the next person to take the lead with the next part to start off.

The audience were amazed by the talents on stage and awestruck with the costumes that had been specially created for the dancers::

::WL smiled crazily, emitting her powerful exuberance to get the crowd to feel the beat behind the dance...the same thing that the rest of the dancers were tapping into...

::The lyrics to the song started, the strong beat pulsing through the room.

She then did a step-posée turn, the others following her into a line facing the audience. They then did a ball-change developée with a backbend into a lunge.

Duck felt exhilerated, the dance was going really well so far!

The Gryffindor's then moved from their line to form a V on the stage, and did a swift tuck-jump followed by a scissor kick, all perfectly in time with each other.::

::WL grinned as she anticipated the next move...the jumping always never failed to thrill her...she loved to fly so it made sense that she would want to stay in the air for as long as possible...::

::As they jumped, WL had the greatest idea...improvising the timing, which wasn't a problem since her music training was kicking in, she performed a non-verbal, wandless charm that she had perfected to slow down the actions of the Gryffindor Seven, to make the audience think that they were jumping in slow motion, but landing and then twirling off without skipping even a fration of a beat!!!

It was an amazing feat...and looked wicked on stage!::

::As Duck launched into the jump, she felt herself begin to slow down and knew that one of the dancers had performed a non-verbal spell.

She then moved to the left of the stage along with WL and Swift, whilst Moony, Algie and Cheery went to the right side of the stage.

Rip was left in the middle, and in time to the music she performed an arabesque followed by the splitz. She then brought her back leg around to the front so she was sitting in a pike position, and pushed up through backbend. She then cartwheeled to the back of the stage.

Duck watched in awe, Rip was very flexible!

Duck then bent down quickly and picked up the magical ribbon, similar to the type Muggle's use in rhythmic gymnastics, except it emitted sparks when used. The other Gryffindor's did the same, and they prepared for the next part of the dance.::

Gryffindor Costumes

::The Gryffindor Seven were bathed in a dim glow as the ribbons magically surrounded them, thanks to Swift's and WL's non-verbal Levitating Charm, along, of course, with Algie's and Cheery's spectacular Bring Us To Light Potion, brewed especially for the event. The audience were left to wonder at the stage presence that the seven emitted, and the noise died as the lights focused on them, the ribbons still twirling gracefully around their rigid bodies.

Swift glanced briefly at WL, and she closed her eyes, focusing entirely on bringing the ribbons down around six of them. The lights died on each of them apart from Swift, who slowly raised her head, her right arm stretched out in front of her. A wooden stick suddenly appeared in her hand, and she hit it hard onto the stage floor, where the sound resonated around the hall. She followed this with 2 stomps with her left foot, and repeated the three movements twice more, each time louder and faster.

The lights shot onto each of the group individually, all of whom were holding sticks in their hands, joining in with Swift as the lights rose on them. So far, so good, Swift thought.::[/b]

::The next part of the dance was fun. After placing their sticks upright on the floor, and walking around them slowly once, all the dancers discarded their sticks to the side of the stage.

Then, one by one, each dancer shimmied to the front of the stage. Once there, they moved into pairs: Swift with WaterLily, Algie with Cheery, Duck with Moony, and Rip was left in the middle.

Each pair then moved in time to the music so they were back to back and linked arms. In canon (one after the other), one partner flipped the over over their back, the person being flipped landing with their legs apart. Meanwhile, Rip had done a backward walkover into splitz in the centre of the stage.

As one, the Gryffindor Seven powerfully thrust their arms into the air, each forming a V-Shape on a beat in the music, and then on the off-beat, brought their arms down to their sides. They all did this up and down arm movement four times, Rip doing the same whilst residing in her splitz-position.

Duck then stood, poised as the music lingered on one note, and waited for the next part of the tune to start so they could continue with the dance.::

The Gryffindor stage:

::Cheery put on her best smile, which wasn't fake. Cheery saw Rip get up and then she lead the group to the front of the stage, making sure not to fall into the pool of water below. Everyone hit a different pose and then walked, on their toes, to the middle of the stage again.::

::Cheery was very confident about this dance. She knew that Gryffindor was doing great and couldn't wait to congratulate them.::

::Everyone was in the middle of the stage and the song was nearing its midpoint. This was the time the impressive moves began to happen.

Duck, Cheery and Algie cartwheeled to the right hand side of the stage, and WL and Moony did the same to the left. This left Swift and Rip in the center of the stage.

Simultaneously, they went into the splitz, legs and backs straight, then they did a Valdez. This consisted of them moving from the splitz into a pike position, bending one leg, placing one hand behind them and pushing over into a bridge before kicking their legs over spectacularly. This dance move was done in a matter of seconds and looked impressive.

Then, the rest of the dancers who had been at the side of the stage wiggling their hips whilst Swift and Rip did their valdez, moved back into the centre of the stage, forming a line in the middle of the stage.

Then, starting with Duck who was at the very left of the line, each member of the Gryffindor Seven windmilled their arms overhead and fell to the floor in a domino effect; Duck fell forwards, Cheery who was next in line fell backwards, and so on until WL at the other end of the line.

They were each now lying on their fronts, and then as one, they each did a forward roll then pushed up into front support, and leapt up energetically.

Duck smiled to herself, that part of the dance had gone well.::

:: On that hook jump, the song had ended, and the Gryffindor Seven made their way to the sides of the stage; three on one side, four on the other. Swift went first; she ran, did a forward flip, and finished on the other side of the stage with a double twist, landing perfectly. Then, Algie - one one side- and Cheery - on the other side - back flipped across the whole of the stage, with WL and Ducky cartwheeling into the middle. Meanwhile, Becky and Moony had conjured up ropes, which hung in mid-air. They climbed up them, pointing their toes all the way. When WL and Ducky had finished cartwheeling, they both leapt from the ropes, nailing two double backwards tucks, and landing into their formation for the next part of the song.::

::Duck landed next to WL, still smiling. She loved this next dance, it was so energetic and the song was great!

She then moved into position with the rest of the dancers, and they did a cross turn in time to the music, followed by some back switches, which is when you have one foot in front, one behind and then they are switched.

Everyone did this exactly in time with each other, which looked great.::

For this dance, Gryffindor's are dancing to Good Luck by Basement Jaxx:

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

::WL swung aroud to the beat and sung along with the music...of course, she wasn't really singing, but lip-syncing just made the dance come even more to life...she saw the rest start to do the same and beamed again. The dance was brilliant and the choreography could not be better!::

::In the four bars of music leading up to the lyrics, the Gryffindors walked/strutted into a diagonal line across the stage. The lyrics began, and as one, they all lunged to the right, also moving their right arm in a small wave motion also to the right::

::They then drew their right foot up, and slowly turned to face the left hand side, arms stretched up. They then lunged forwards, going as low as possible and on the fourth bar, they moved their right leg round on the floor into a half lying, half sitting postion::

::As the beat bagan to pick up, they all kicked their right leg towards their head, and when bringing it down, they pushed up onto their left knee. They lay down again and repeated this. All the gryffindors are now sitting on one knee, and still as one, they all rolled to the left, landing on their front. They all pushed up into front support, and did two support jumps to the right, rolled again to the left, then two support jumps to the left, again rolling to the right immediately afterwards::

::Then they jumped their feet into a crouch position, then jupmed their feet into a standing straddle pose with hands still placed on the floor, then body rolled their torso forwards to stand::