Originally Posted by DanielleHopeFan:
“
Post your favourite DS post by yourself then we will vote for the top three posts!!!
”
OK, this one is easy for me.
This is post #329 in Part 1, from March 22:
I was going to write this later, but I just realized I'm going to be out most of the rest of the day so I figured I might as well just do it now. Here goes:
Danielle In the Zone!
OK, this thought comes from when I was watching "Buenos Aires" again last night and noticed something really interesting at the end of the song (I'm not sure if this is in the YouTube clips, but if you have the full show recorded, check it out). As the song ends, Danielle and Lauren are back to back and both completely in character, and stay that way until Graham starts talking, whereupon Lauren immediately breaks her pose, but Danielle kind of slowly "wakes up", like she's been in a trance or something. Then, I remembered that comment in here earlier about her looking so focused during one part of the last mashup, and I realized something--this is the secret to Danielle's success! She goes into The Zone!
I will explain further. I myself am a more reserved person in public situations, but I have done some amateur acting and have played some leads in plays. I have found that acting is much easier for me than public speaking, because I am playing a character and can lose myself in that character. I've seen other people who are much better at that than I am, though, and I've realized that, even though she's really young, Danielle is an absolute pro at it! She seems to have such complete concentration that it actually looks somewhat like she is coming out of a trance at the end--hence, the Zone.
When Danielle is in her Zone, she doesn't really make mistakes. She has perfect concentration and energy, and is able to be a lot bolder and more expressive onstage than she is when being herself. It's like she becomes a different person. The problem comes when something happens to throw her out of her Zone. I saw this a little bit in "Could It Be Magic", possibly because she wasn't entirely comfortable with the song, but that's conjecture because I can't read her mind and I can only go by what I see, and I did see a slight loss of focus at times in that song, but she mostly held it together.
On the results show, Danielle was in her Zone more than ever on the group numbers, hence the "waking up from a dream" reaction when Buenos Aires ended and Graham started talking, snapping her out of it. Then, the sing-off happened and I think Danielle was completely caught off guard. Her body language says it--she's a bit stiff and her eyes look kind of glazed. She sings wonderfully, but it doesn't look like her heart is in it until about 2/3 of the way through the song, when she finally seems to go back into the Zone, at least to a degree, but she still doesn't seem as totally committed and focused as she has in her other songs. People talk about her not expressing emotion, but I think it's the shock and emotion of everything that threw Danielle out of her Zone.
Other actors--really good ones--go into the Zone, too, but the really experienced ones transition out of it more smoothly than Danielle did after "Buenos Aires". Look at Lauren--she is also 100% focused and holds the pose until Graham starts talking, but she breaks right out of it then. I think this might be because she is older than Danielle and a more trained actress, so she's more smooth with the transition of going in and out of the Zone. That doesn't matter one iota, though. What matters is the total concentration during the performance, where she *becomes* the character she is playing, even in the group numbers where a lot of people would think it's not as important. It seems to be important for Danielle, though, because she does this with *everything*, even the dance mission. She's in the Zone, and when she is, she shines.
So, I think the real key to this week's performance is for Danielle to get in her Zone for her song, and stay there for the whole performance. She can definitely do this, because she does it so well in almost every performance. When she's not in the Zone, things can get dicey, but when she is, she is a force to be reckoned with.
OK, now it's off to the gym for me!
