"Ladies and gentlemen, the [Awesome People] Dance Company!" [cue wild applause]
****
A lot happened in the US today: Bush announced his bailout plan for the auto industry, Deep Throat died, and Obama appointed Rick Warren to do the inaugural prayer. But all of those have already been blogged to death, so allow me to take the high road and tell you about our little performance. It's a nice distraction.
We were performing in a small space, which always creates interesting scenarios. Entering from the right involved having to go outside to cross over....which was actually fantastic, being that it was an unbelievably gorgeous night. :-) The floor was hard but not slippery, which was a relief...well, to me, anyway (You may disagree, but I'd much rather be sore the next morning then have to worry about ass-skating the entire time I'm onstage. Much less embarrassing).
Song of Mary was first, and oh, such a lovely start to the evening. It's not at all literal, and I think that's what makes it so effective-- It brings the viewer into the emotions of the story, rather than the logistics. It the second time R have done the piece, this time with L and E. All were just beautiful.
Didn't get to see our director's solo (we were sweating, changing, and sweating some more), but I watched it during our pre-performance run and it was really moving. It was about the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Something about seeing it during the run-- in the space, surrounded by Christmas lights and decorations and evergreen-- added to it even more.
I just love the music for our trio, which went well... aside from the fact that my skirt wanted to run away. (it was pinned onto the leotard, but it was still too big and falling down everywhere else). Thankfully, I've developed a knack for finding unobtrusive places in choreography to discreetly fix myself when needed.
Because of the logistics of the space, the three of us went outside to change for the next piece. Oh, relax-- we were out of everybody's sight-lines and besides, we had on full tights and leotards under our dresses (didn't stop me from cracking jokes about being naked outside, though). Inside, everyone was singing "O Come O Come, Emmanuel;" and our director and I started singing along....in a spontaneous two-part harmony, because we are talented like that. It was really cool. Oh, and did I mention that it was a flawless night to be changing costumes (while singing) outside? Because it was.
The last piece was kind of a blur. All I remember is that it went off without a hitch, everyone was lovely and radiated, and at the end our little audience applauded like crazy.
Oh yeah, I kind of neglected to mention that I fell debilitatingly ill last Sunday and was out of commission most of the week. I returned to rehearsals yesterday after a barre and a few low-impact center exercises, so you can imagine I wasn't feeling up to my normal dancing speed. If you think that didn't make me nervous about performing, you are wrong.
Once I got past my nerves, however, I felt the performance on an entirely different level than normal. Initially, I figured it would be one of those small performance gigs where you're in and out-- nothing that affects you too much. But after what transpired earlier this week... well, that didn't quite happen. Not only because of the all Christianity-themed spiritual dances (which normally strike a chord with me anyway); but because I recovered from the scary events of Sunday and Monday with the help of prayers-- not just my own, but those of the chaplain at St. Cat's/family members/friends/fellow dancers (some who visited me directly, and others who called and got their friends to pray). Not to be preachy-- you all know I'm normally the queen of crude jokes over here-- but the combination of those factors made dancing tonight a particularly spiritual experience.
And that, my friends, is all. Good night, and be well.
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