Explorations

For the last several weeks, I've been working as the assistant to the director of [Good Times] Dance Theater.* Several days a week I've gone over to her house to help out with mailings/publicity/data entry/phone calls/et cetera. [GT]DT has a performance tomorrow that features works by six different local choreographers. I've gotten a chance to see several of the pieces that will be performed, and they are all very intriguing in different ways. I will see all of them tonight...

...at dress/tech rehearsal. I'm also doing stage-manager duty for this particular show; so in a few minutes I'm headed down to lay the the dance floor with the rest of the crew, walk through all the set/prop pre-sets, tech the dances, and then re-group for a full dress rehearsal. The performance is tomorrow night.

Speaking of tomorrow, my day is hilarious. Witness: Leave by 8 so I can teach my classes, accompany a student to a pointe-shoe fitting, race over to another rehearsal, leave, go to the theater, do the show, strike. It is going to be a very active day.

In other news: My students are doing splendidly and progressing well; all the pieces for our spring concert are done and on their way to being performance-ready. I finally(!) finished my Corelli Concerto two weeks ago. I'm very happy with how the final piece came out-- I didn't have a really clear idea of where I wanted that piece to go at the beginning of the process, so I took my time with it, explored different ideas, and made lot of little tweaks and changes. My dancers are doing a lovely job with it, and I'm a happy choreographer.

In other-other news: It's mid-April in Houston, and you know what that means-- summertime! I dragged out my Daisy Dukes for the first time all season. This means that I can probably store all my knit dance warm-ups for another year, and that I better remember to park my car in the shade unless I want to lose skin (black leather seats, Houston, summer...well, surely you get it by now).

And now, here's your moment of Zen:
"Anybody remember when cigarettes were 50 cents a pack? Nobody does, 'cause those people are dead."
~ Dave Attel

*I considered dropping the whole "using fake names for everything I'm associated with professionally" thing that I've been doing for two years now... but I figured if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Letters We're Writing

Hello, folks! It's been a while, no? Sorry, there just hasn't been a whole lot to write about--well, until this week, that is....

This blog will no longer cover my adventures with the [Awesome People] Dance Company. So, say hello to your mid-season replacement, the [Good Times] Dance Theater. If you blog-stalk me enough, you might remember that I started working with them in the fall....but then, the day we were supposed to premeier the work (on an outdoor stage), Houston actually had snow (I know, right?). The show is now re-scheduled to premier in March, and the first rehearsals of the year just started.

The great thing is that I get to dance with some great people whom I've worked with before-- including A, the great gal who played my Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors. And Frank is also working with [Good Times] Dance Theater (but in a different piece), so I saw him yesterday at rehearsal and we got a chance to chat and catch up. I miss dancing with that guy, he's wonderful.

I was really surprised at how quickly the material came back to me, and the movement seems to "flow" better in my body this time around (if that makes sense to anybody). SD made some modifications to the choreography and gave me really great feedback. I explored a few different ways of interpreting of my character, and I feel so much stronger in the role than I did last time. I can't really explain it, but the choreography seems to jive a lot better with my body, compared to two months ago. It was really, truly an awesome rehearsal.

The End of the Beginning.

Amahl and the Night Visitors opens tomorrow. In twenty-four hours, to be exact.

Lying in bed this morning, I realized that I've spent the past few days feeling the same way I did in the days leading up to Best in Ten-- a mix of excitement and anxiety; anticipation with a touch of nail-biting nerves. Sure, I've done this ballet before; sure, I love this role; sure, healing from injury has helped tremendously-- but at the same time, this is my last performance with this dance company and I want to go out on the highest note imagineable. It's the titular role, the central protagonist-- it was also the first role I performed with [Awesome People] Dance Company, and now it will be the last.

You can see why I really want this to go well.




We had our final in-studio rehearsal today. I realized, upon signing in at the theater, that I am going to kind of miss that place (I'm sure I'll be back to see shows there, though). Rehearsal itself felt good-- both yesterday's run and today's felt strong and were, well, just plain old fun. I felt myself dissolving into Amahl, full of energy and spirit and imagination. R plays Kaspar the Deaf King-- the same role he did last time around-- and he and I have really developed a strong rapport between our characters (probably doesn't hurt that he and I are buddies in real life). I love watching Melchoir, he's so beautiful and engaging as a dancer. E and Frank are so so super cute as the Shepherd Duet-- they have a wonderful connection to each other, and their combined abilities really light up the hell out the stage.



In a few hours I leave for The Theater for dress rehearsal. We perform four shows, starting tomorrow; AT and I will perform two of them (but we'll be in the theater for all four, of course. You know, just in case/God forbid). We're performing Saturday matinee and Sunday evening-- the first and the last.


Here goes.

"Have you seen a Child the color of earth, the color of dawn?"

Letters.

Tonight's post will be short-- because let me tell you, internet, I am EXHAUSTED.

Yesterday I began rehearsals for Letters You Wrote. It's to the text of a Christmas letter written in 1961 by the wife of a minister. I'm having a great time with the character, and I already feel the movement becoming more natural in my body. It's modern-- and I'm a ballet girl-- but I'm adapting. And our choreographer is wonderful. She's got such a positive, patient, and all-around humanitarian way about her. She's so great to work with.

I'll write more later. Until then--I'm worn out. Catch you later, internet.

Edited to add: I'm really feeling for my neighbor right now. Here's the link to the KRPC news story (he came over last night and today. Poor guy!).

One Crutch, One Shoe

While was showering this morning, I thought to myself "Wow, that underarm is feeling a little tender. Huh. Must be from the crutch."

That's right folks-- it's Amahl and the Night Visitors season!

Here's how my last two days have gone down: Ballet class at 9:30, then Frank and I drive over to the theater for rehearsals with P--- a long-time James Sewell Ballet dancer who is setting the ballet on us (I love working with P, she set the ballet on us two years ago and is fourteen kinds of awesome). LP and I are sharing the role of Amahl, and two new dancers are sharing the role of the Mother. I love them all--they're so wonderful to work with. I'm already feeling a wonderful stage chemistry with A, who plays "my mom."

The only dancers not double-cast are the three wise men wise guys kings and the page. Two of the Kings I have not worked with before, but they are beautiful dancers (and one of them looks exactly like Furio Giunta. And he's so great) _{(and he looks like Furio Giunta)}. I'm slightly incredulous as to how my body remembers choreography that my brain has forgotten-- it's been two years since I last danced this ballet, but something about hearing the music and being in the space with the other dancers helps bring it back into my muscles. Not to mention? It's so fun. SO FUN. I'm starting to think that if there's one role out there that's perfect for me, it has to be this one. I just love every second of it.

So, we're two days in and I'm loving this process. I'm getting re-acquainted with the crutch, the feeling of wearing only one pointe shoe, and the sign language. I've killed two pointe shoes in two days and I don't even care-- I threw a few extra pair in my dance bag and I'm ready for round three tomorrow.

"How far? How far, my crystal star?"

Where Did You Go, Frank?

One of my friends didn't report in to work today. I'm a bit worried.

It's our final rehearsal, and he never showed up. No one has heard from him; and his cell phone is off. I hope he's okay. L kept saying "I keep expecting him to walk through the door." I did, too. We're talking about what happens if he's not here for the show tomorrow; how we'll work around his absense. Didn't this happen already? I hope you're okay, Frank; wherever you are. Sigh.

*****

Let's lighten things up a bit. Hey, remember last time we did Si Se Puede and I wrote that post about Things Overheard at Dress Rehearsals? Let's revisit that, shall we? Yes, lets (Disclaimer: Don't even ask me what the context is on half of these. I scribbled them down in my notebook during our break).

"We're supposed to be in tights. No sin of skin here." (Courtesy of L-- I laughed when she said that, and she told me I could "write that one down." So I did!)

"Oh, now, what fresh hell is THIS?"

"Where is--" "I DON'T CARE!"

"P, If we don't have Frank tomorrow, you will do his role in Zapatos, and your feet will hurt."

*****

Despite being a man short, rehearsal went well today. I'm feeling really good about things-- the only ballets I really get nervous about are Prayer for the Farm Worker and Huelga, and they felt pretty good today. Even if there are only six of us, we are "six strong" (which is what I always used to say about my dance ensemble). We're a tight-knit group, and we can pretty much get through anything together. It's one of the reasons that I love my job.

Hopefully there will be seven of us tomorrow. Come back, Frank.

Hope, Dancing, and Tacos

Today was a pretty good day.

I started off the day right-- with ballet barre at Hope Stone. I love Hope, it's like some kind of Disneyland but with more ballet. I went yesterday for barre; Jane had her two awesome dogs there, and it was LM's birthday so we all sung "Happy Birthday." When I got there today, the intern at the desk had her 14-week-old Aussie Shepherd puppy-- Translation: CUTE. And, well-- just replace the word "Kitty" with "Puppy" and you'll understand how I reacted to this:

from xkcd.com

(In other words, this was me: "YAY, PUPPY! YOU'RE SO CUTE!")

JD was also there, with her one-month old baby girl (who is adorable, by the way). JD is a total rockstar-- the baby started fussing during barre, so she picked up, held her with one arm, held the barre with the other, and did grand battements like it was the easiest thing in the world. It's pretty awesome.

I left after barre and realized I forgot to eat breakfast, so I stopped at the Awesome Taco Shack by the theater. You might as well say it's the Official Taco Place of our dance company, because we all just love their tacos. I ran into LP while I was there, so we sat and chatted until our food was ready. We got to the theater with just enough time to snarf down our tacos (bean and rice with the green hot sauce) before we kicked into action.

We open in three days, and things are pulling together. We reheared in the studio for the first few hours, then went onstage to do a dress-run of the first half of the show. The opening piece always makes me a bit nervous, but I got through it okay (I think). We're also dancing an excerpt from a piece we're performing next weekend, called Misa. For this program, we're just dancing the opening section--which involves lit candles. It's a little scary to me, Our Lady of the Accident-Prone, so this is what went through my head the entire time:

Things I did not set on fire: My hair, my costume, anyone else, the building. The flame stayed in the jar where it belonged, and I was happy. Although I must say that doing attitudes turns while holding a lit candle over your head is a bit terrifying. Try it sometime.

I got through our new piece, Huelga, without much incident. It's a tarentella, but not with tambourines-- with picket signs. It's a ballet about workers going on a strike. The movement style was hard for me to adapt to, but I'm at the point now where it's in my body enough that I can just dance through it. It's kind of fun; I love the music.

I'm grateful for my fellow dancers and the way we support each other. If someone has a "moment," the other girls are there to offer support. It happened to me last week, and today it happened to a good friend of mine. It's so nice to have that good vibe going; to know that there's always someone to offer encouragement or hugs.

It's the start of Tech Week. We have two more and then we open, baby. Stay tuned. For now, here's your moment of Zen:

"I became a performer because it was what I enjoyed doing. "
~ Richard Pryor.

Oh, for the love.

We open in eight days. Count'em. Eight. That is one more than seven. That is a week from tomorrow.

It is going to be great.

It hasn't been an easy process for me. The movement doesn't come naturally to me-- I am classically trained as all get-out, and this movement is definitely contemporary (Quick aside: You know, I wanted to be a contemporary ballet dancer because I love ballet/don't have a classical ballet body-- but it turns out that it's a huge brain block for me. Ballet? Fine. Modern? Fine. Mix them together in a way where the balance between the classical and the contemporary is quite delicate? My brain explodes and my body refuses to cooperate). So, no, has not been easy. But it's getter better, getting easier, my body is finally responding to what the choreography asks for (my brain is still AWOL, but that's old news).

You know, during times like that it's really easy to let the frustration take over and forget why you do this in the first place-- you know, for the love and joy of dancing. But there are moments where it still sneaks in, and it makes you realize that it's all worth it, no matter how difficult the process can be. For instance, the final section of a ballet that I like to call "Zappy," (not the real title) where everyones comes on in a canon, and it's fast, swirling movement, nothing but energy and momentum and the power of the entire group working together-- even during my toughest rehearsals, that always gave me such pleasure to dance. Or in our other full-company piece--the one that will close the show-- where the music is just so uplifting and light, and the movement comes naturally (even though it's contemporary), and it's just so fun that you just can't but grin the whole time. Those times-- even on the worst days, remind me that I am doing this for A Reason. I've said it before, I'll say it again-- being a dancer ain't easy. But we do it because we love it.

And now-- on a lighter note!--Here's your moment of Zen:

"Alternate versions of The Little Engine that Could: The little engine that did and then found out it was overrated and then got disillusioned with life and stopped showering."
~ From this post over at The Bloggess. There's a whole list of them and her blog is great, so check it out (Thanks for not suing me, Jenny The Bloggess!).

Reporting In!

So. We're only four days into the season. How's it been going?

First off: Rehearsals for the company started Wednesday. It was very nice. We're working on a new ballet, and we have a new dancer among us who is very lovely and nice to work with. Our new ballet involves dancing with lit candles, so I kept mumbling: "Note to self: do not light hair on fire." Because, you know, that would be kind of awkward.

Thursday I went back to teaching. My first class was Ballet 1B. We had the small studio for the first part of class. I came in early and was excited to see that the barres were already set up in Studio B, including the small barre-- my "teacher barre!" Yay! The studio has also been slightly re-decorated, which is always nice. I have 18 kids in my class (Eight. Teen. Eighteen!), but they were all very sweet, and several parents told me that "[my daughter] is really excited that you're going to be her ballet teacher!" Aww. Yay!
Remember how I was really worried about rush-hour traffic? Well, I bolted out of the studio at 5:45 (saying over my shoulder "I gotta be downtown in an hour, cross your fingers that traffic cooperates!"). Well, I made in 40 minutes... and that included the complex ordeal of Trying To Park. I even got there early enough to get my wine on and get a seat for the Dance Talks. And of course, I already told you that Manon was lovely.

Friday: Rehearsal! The Musical.

Today: Taught my "Open" ballet class (a multi-level class), which was another big class. I had a great time-- these are the kids I can really push and challenge, and they're so enthusiastic and hard-working. Our school principal came in to take pictures for a while, too. My now-second-year pointe students are now taking hour-long pointe classes (their first year of pointe is only half an hour), and they're doing well. Oh, and we're going to reprise my Skater's Waltz from last season; casting for that begins soon (My boss and I also discussed how one year ago today, we were all under water).

That's all I got for now, folks. Have a great Saturday night-- I know I'm going to. :-)

Let's talk about 'Alice:' Let the Run-Throughs Commence

The show is less than two weeks away, so we're in run-through mode here in Wonderland. Here's a run-down:

Monday we ran Act One. It went really well and was over surprisingly quick: White Rabbit and The Alices were the last ones to finish, and we were done 45 minutes early!*
I have one group of itsy-bitsies-- the Clocks-- and they were the only group of baby-dancers in Act One. I was so proud of them-- not only did they do there dance very well (three times through), but the rest of the time they were so. Very. Quiet. And still! They sat "criss-crossed applesauce" on the sidelines when they weren't dancing and made not a peep. At one point I went over and sat down by them, and they all crowded around to sit close to me (awww) and whispered some questions to me "Who are those dancers?" "Who is that boy? Can boys dance, too?"
Our White Rabbit is stealing the show, y'all. All of her frantic-running, "I'm late I'm late I'm late" scenes are hysterical-- she really owns her character. I actually high-fived her at one point. My little opening-scene looks cute, too (note to self: Hey, Butterfly, next time remember to bring the props. As in, put them in your car, not on the kitchen counter). I noticed during that scene that we seem to have a Blonde Cast and a Brunette Cast, which is unique: Main-cast Alice, Little Alice, Sister, and Dinah are all blondes; yet all of their understudies are brunettes (or, in my case, really dark blonde).

Yesterday we ran Act Two, which opens with Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum and ends with the conclusion of the flower scene. The "Tweedles" dance is adorable-- a very classic, New-York- style jazz duet-- and I love their costumes (They get to wear blue sparkly propeller beanie hats. Sparkly. Beanies!). After TweedleDuo it segues right into the flower garden, comprised of four corps dances (including some demi-solo work by Little Alice). I choreographed three of them, and I feel like they went pretty well. My littlest flowers-- the Daises-- are adorable, and by gosh those kiddos are serious about knowing their choreography and placement. I told them in the previous rehearsals that they would need to be still and hold their poses while the other flowers danced; and the director gave them cues for when they would need to change poses while they were "in the background." The lot of them barely moved a muscle, moved to their new positions automatically, and one of them even knew to leave a "space" onstage for another dancer who was missing. Way to be on the ball, little ballerinas. We ran those sequences about four times through, and still got done early.

Tonight is going to be a big one, though: Act Three (The Somber Forest) is pretty involved. There are soe pretty heavy-duty ensemble pieces (Alice's Tears, the Chesire Kittens, The Caterpillar, and I bet there's one more that I'm forgetting) plus several solo scenes (Chesire Cat, White Rabbit, and Alice's variation). Plus, the Somber Forest is when Little Alice turns back into Big Alice, which means I need to be ready to dance at some point this evening, too.

*"White Rabbit and The Alices" would be a great name for a band.

Let's talk about 'Alice:' Wonderland or bust!

We've got twenty-three days to go! Final costume fittings are next week, and dances are well on their way to being ready. Here's a general a run-down on the last leg of our process:
Last night I rehearsed the initial scene between the Chesire Cat and Alice. The Chesire solo is a style of modern dance that's different from most of the modern dance choreography I've done in the past-- lots of little and quick footwork. The young lady who dances the role also danced the villain in the story ballet I worked on last year and is a great little actress. I explained to her how I wanted to set up her character and the Chesire's relationship to Alice, and she understood right away. I think it's going to be a great little scene.
This was a thirty-minute rehearsal that took place at the very end of the night. I was in the mindframe of "we've got a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it," she this was very much a "speed rehearsal:" trying to crank it out, give corrections, and run it as many times as possible. I shouted out choreography and corrections at about a mile a second, which is not unusal for me-- whenever it comes close to opening for a show that I'm working on, I go into this frantic- choreographer mode. Warm-ups are quick, we run the dance as many times as we can, and whenever I need to stop andgive notes or "clean" a section I talk like somebody who's had six too many cups of coffee. It's crunch time, folks.
I was in that mode pretty much all of last night, but we got quite a lot done and it was a productive evening. I was surprised, though, to find myself far more tired than I normally am on a Wednesday evening. I went to a friend's house afterward; I rolled in at 10pm, still in dance clothes, hair askew, reeking of sweat and marley burn (we had a nice evening after I got myself cleaned up, though; we unwound by watching a ball game and hanging out with a friend of his).
Let's discuss some of the scenes I had the opportunity to choreograph; I've been meaning to write about them for a while but I haven't had the chance (By the way, in case you were curious, my scenes are: The opening, the White Rabbit's solo variations, Alice's variation, the white rabbit's "clocks," several ensembles in the flower garden scene, The Caterpillar, the first Cheshire cat scene, the Red Queen's royal guards, the Cards, and the Roses).
A couple of weeks ago I got to choreograph the solo variations for the White Rabbit. The inital variation-- where she first appears-- was redonkulously fun to choreograph. The character's repeated catchphrase-- "I'm late! I'm late!"-- lends itself to a fast-paced and very frantic scene (and lots of really fun, really fast petite allegro). The variation is comical in tone; mixed in with a classical petite allegro are moments of rushing across the stage with arms flailing every-which-way. The dancer really delivers, too-- she's absolutely hysterical! When I initally set out to choreograph this scene, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted, but I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

That's all for now, folks!

Let's talk about 'Alice:' Setting the stage.

I got the honor of choreographing the opening scene for our production of Alice.

COOL.

Last night was the first rehearsal-- Alice, Alice's sister, Dinah The Kitty Cat, and the understudies for all three. I decided to take it slow-- we had somedancers were very young and/or haven't worked with me very much.... plus we had music from a film version of Alice that wasn't easy to count. But even for "taking it slow," we got a lot done.

- - I started with the opening variation for Alice's sister, danced with a book in hand (I realized at the start of rehearsal that I also made a "book dance" for a story ballet last season. Go figure). Both dancers are young-- ages eleven and twelve-- yet they know how to work in a rehearsal. The two girls followed behind me as I demonstrated, and asked me very specific questions about counts and choreography. And when I switched over to work with Alice and Dinah, both Sisters retreated to the side of the room to continue practicing their variation. I was delighted at their strong work ethic.
- - Now: The Alice and Dinah duet. I needed a way to turn an eight-year-old ballet student into a [believable] kitten. Thankfully, I've been a cat-lady for the last fifteen years; and thankfully I've been wearing ribbons in my hair an awful lot these days. I think you know where this is going: In our version, Alice gets bored of her history lesson, takes a ribbon out of her hair, and uses it to entertain her feline friend (P.S.: Cats prefer ribbons over daisy-crowns. Take notes, Disney).
In short, it's really cute.
- - Dinah II (understudy) has worked with me for about two years and is used to being thrown around by me, so I demonstrated lifts with her (I haven't worked with the Main-Cast Dinah quite as much, and was afraid I'd freak her out if I started spinning her around upside-down right out of the gate. Which is an important consideration, because remember: we're working with kids, here). A second later, The Real Alice was catching her Dinah in mid-handstand and swirling her across the stage, broken toe at all (picture me witnessing this, biting my nails, and saying "be careful" ad nauseam), and everyone was smiling.
- - Turning back to Alice's Sister (by the way: does Alice's sister not have a name? I can't remember. Let's just call her Lorina for now), I gave the girls some choreography to do during the Alice/Kitty duet. Our time was running short, so we left Lorina's next demi-solo for the next rehearsal.
- - At the end of rehearsal we went to the large studio to show what we had to the director-- all six of us, main cast and understudies sharing the stage. Our director took a video for me, we got good feedback, I was told "it's really cute." I thanked my dancers for their work, patience, and focus.

- - Cut to: 9:30pm. I logged onto Facebook and saw that a one of the moms had posted about her "extremely happy and excited little dancer" who just couldn't stop doing her kitty-cat moves, and it made me smile in a big way.

- - On a related note: Mama Butterfly is coming to see this show, and I'm wondering how weird it will be for her to see this scene: she's heard that same music many, many times back when I was a little... and now she's seeing me make dances to it.
- - Also exciting: When I spoke to our director the other day, I told her about how I've been writing about our Alice production on my website (which she knows about), and I asked if I could possibly interview her /the other choreographers about their creative process for this ballet. She said yes! Stay tuned for more Wonderland stories.

Overheard At Dress Rehearsals:

"We better get this quick change figured out, because I don't want to be late for my saut de chat."

"Crap, I forgot to take off jewelry....well, I guess the sapphire earrings add a nice touch."(said while wearing a South-American Migrant-farmer costume)

"G, you just made my day." (said right after G dropped an S-Bomb-- something we've never heard from her before)

"Butterfly, you look like a little boy! It's cute... but not scary." (Well, damn.)

(We were writing our names on the tags of our costumes, and one of my friends wrote "Butterfly" on mine instead of my real name. Aww.)

Dancer 1: "Why is everything four sizes too big?"
Dancer 2: "Why do you think that is?"
Dancer 1: "Well..."
Dancer 2: "BECAUSE WE'RE ALL SO SHORT."

Me (referring to my shawl that had come untied): "I tied this thing while I was dancing."
E: Cool.
Me: I am a f***ing badass.

This next one took place on the stage at the end of a ballet, hushed whispers between myself and a girl who had been absent at our previous rehearsal:*
Me: "Oh, crap! We changed the ending of this. Did anyone tell you?"
Her: "No. We don't go off?"
Me: "We do, but Elspeth comes towards us and we do, like, this big whip thing.....ah.....well, you'll know in a second."
Her: "Okay, thanks."


*Thank goodness she's back, too-- I'm her understudy, and I kind of sucked at being her.

Challenging ballets and Minkus Music

I’ve had the privilege of dancing in some really truly fanfreakingtastic ballets in the last year; ballets that were all challenging in one way or another. But the ones that were the best, the ones that were the biggest honor to be cast in, the ones that were the most fun to perform….were the ones that challenged me the most during the rehearsal process.

Here’s how it goes down: I find out I’m cast in a challenging pas de deux—cool, I’m honored and super-psyched. I see the ballet that I’m going to be learning/dancing—cool, it’s really awesome. I enter into the rehearsal process—I leave many a rehearsal dragging my proverbial tail between my legs and feeling like the world’s biggest moron. Sooner or later I get my act together, the dance gets cleaned, we perform it, and again—cool, I had a wonderful time performing and I’m grinning from ear to bloody ear.

That was kind of how today went. By the way, you know your partner is awesome when you smash his groin into smithereens and he’s still cool with you afterwards. Sorry, buddy.

The first part of rehearsal was fun—enormously fun, actually—and I had a nice long mid-day break that I spent curled up in a corner of the studio reading Twilight (yes, Twilight. I finally drank the Kool-Aid). The last hour was the most challenging for me. And for my partner, for that matter; since I crushed his gehundywhatsits and all (And he said “Don’t worry about it, it’s part of the process,” but I still felt bad. I should let him give me a good falcon punch or something so that we’ll be even). I have partnered this guy in many ballets in the last season, and we do well together, so I know that in the end it’ll be fabulous. Even if I clumsily become Butterfly Bobbit in the process.

+++++++++++++++

I’ve been choreographing to the music of L. Minkus a lot lately; to the point where it’s a bit of a running joke at the studio where I teach. Mainly, I favored his stuff because I love his music…..

….. but this week I realized another reason for the L.M.-Love: It’s easy to count. I mean, a deaf person can count Minkus…while in a coma. The late-great Mister M makes it easy for us to hear the beats and find the cues, which is why it's so much fun to choreograph to (in my not-humble opinion): It takes all the guesswork out of choreographic scoring. When the music is nebulous, I have a difficult time figuring out the timing, regardless of whether I’m choreographing to it or learning someone else’s choreography. Ambient music sounds cool, but I’m a stuffy old-timer: when it comes to dance, I want the beat to be pounded into my skull with the back end of a hammer. I may be unoriginal in that regard, sure; but I’ll plead guilty on all counts of “I’m boring.”

Speaking of boring....I'm going to pour myself a drink and get back to Twilight. Yup, it's a regular party over here in Butterfly-land....

I'm not dead, but I might have killed all of your future offspring.

If I had had the time to write a post this morning, this is what it would have read:

"I just found out five minutes ago that I'm starting rehearsals for a pas de deux today, and that's awesome. Except..... I'm still out of shape from the holidays. Out of shape to the point where I can't call In Shape on my cell phone because the long-distance charges would be astronomical. I've been on my pointe shoes maybe twice in the last two weeks. Shitshitshitshitshit. If I do not post later tonight, that means I am dead. Of embarassment. At my own lame-ness. If that happens, someone please take care of my critters. I'd bequeath you my money, but... the economy = I don't have any. Check you later, wish me luck, okaythanksbye."

"Um, wow.... M. Butterfly, you're quite the Nervous Nellie aren't you?" Yeah, it's a habit. But it works for me, because here I am six hours later (clearly quite alive) after a lovely & dancey day.

I kicked things off with a ballet barre at the studio by my house (where E informed me that oh, hey, you and R and dancing a duet! Today!). M was also there, and she told me she reads this site and that it rocks. Whee! Thanks, M!

Rehearsal was cool. The first hour and a half was mostly focused on the trio, but there was still much floor-sliding and shoulder-standing and face-standing to be done (What else can you call that thing other than a "side- of- the- face stand?").
I expected pas de deux rehearsal to be ninety minutes of me being a bumbling klutz, but it went pretty well. I mean, there were Moments: You know, the kind of Moments that happen when you've been on a messed-up dancing schedule for three weeks and the kind that happen early in the process of guys + gals + the medium of contemporary pas de deux.* Allow me to elaborate thus:
Friend: "Hey, how was work?"
Me: "Oh, it was pretty cool. We're working on a new project, and I spent the last hour exploring ways to stomp on someone's Man-Junk. You?"

I'm back to dancing alldayeveryday, I completed three dances in the last four days, I'm in an awesome ballet, and I'm doing a pas that is going to be damn fun (now that I'm past my initial anxiety about my own abilities). Things are pretty sweet over here.

*I'm just saying that it's irony on a base level that "The Nutcracker" is the most widely-known ballet in the world.

Cracking nuts

I started this post on Sunday, but things got a little crazy, so....it took me a while.





Anyway. Great Russian Nutcracker, people! Rehearsal was great on Saturday. Elle and I went over our Spanish duo countless times while the younger ones were dancing, then ran it several times for the local director. By the end, we feeling pretty good about it. Sweaty....like, really sweaty...but confident nonetheless.
The most noteworthy part was when our local director, whom I'll call Ms. M, gave us the low-down on what to expect at the show. It's actually going to be a really interesting day. Think about it: These Moscow dancers have been on the road for months upon months, doing this exact same show in goodnessknowshowmany cities. To say that they can dance it in their sleep probably doesn't even begin to describe it. To those guys, performing The Nutcracker is probably about as natural as brushing their teeth. And all that has got to be beyond tough on the body (I always think of the scene in Dancemaker where Patrick Corbin talks about the painful process of getting out of bed in the morning while on tour). They travel with a massage therapist and a trainer to aide with this (plus all kinds of costume/makeup/set staff.




Now, add in the local cast: kids (plus me). Lots of kids. And while many of them have danced in GRN before, performing in a major professional production isn't exactly something these kiddos do on a routine basis. The children will spend a day in a wonderful, extravagant, unfamiliar world.... and its inhabitants, to whom their world is completely routine. Both sides of the coin, represented in a big way.





(And then you've got me, the wild card, square in the middle: an adult [who looks like a kid] professional dancer [on a much, much smaller scale and in a different genre]. Always the oddball child, I am.)





Now, here's one for ya:


Q: How many times will both groups run the show together- in the space- full out?


A: One-- the performance.





Don't get me wrong, there is a rehearsal-- one-- where the local cast runs the show and the Moscow dancers are present on stage. We are the last stop on Moscow Ballet's very-lengthy tour; those dancers do not need rehearsing. They come on stage, they stand in place so the local folks can get a feel for the spacing, they save their dancing for the show.

That day...will probably be a little on the crazy side.

I can't wait.

All in all, it was a pretty awesome day

I woke up yesterday morning to perfect weather. I spent about two hours dancing around my house to Minkus and Stravinsky and working on my new pieces. I strolled outside into the perfect 72-degree temperature, informed my neighbor that it was indeed a great day to be alive, and strolled over to rehearsal. Barre felt great, I felt very in tune with my body; full of Dance and Life and Whee Yay I Love Everybody....

.........and then I proceeded to have one of those rehearsals where somebody was constantly screwing up. And by "somebody," I mean "me." Good-bye, wind in my sails! It’s unbearably frustrating to clam up on a ballet that I’ve already danced—and not just once, either; we performed that puppy thirteen times last winter. And with me, it’s the little things that are always going awry. Developpes? Sure. Pirouettes? Let’s do some. Super-fast allegro? Bring it! That part that a retarded tortoise could do? I just messed it up for the nineteenth time. * facepalm * It’s embarrassing, but that’s the way I’ve always been. Sorry, fellow dancers. Feel free to throw things (just not really big things, if you please. Dancing + concussion = bad combination).

Thankfully, I felt a lot better in the second half of rehearsal and could actually dance --without feeling like a complete tool. That’s always a plus, right? By the time rehearsal was over, my high spirits had returned.

I had an excellent time at the studio last night: I introduced a whole bevy of new material to my modern kiddos, inducted them into the chaotic world of Trying To Count Stravinsky (they’re doing a Stravinsky piece this season--thankfully these kids can pretty much count anything), and did “stunt night” with my last group (I’ve got Big Plans for the piece they’re doing. It’s exciting). I love those kiddos, I really do.

After I got home I spent some quality time with the coolest person in town; we drank pinot grigio, we listened to excellent music, we had great conversations. We eventually decided that sleep was overrated and continued having an awesome time until the wee hours. This morning, there was much coffee—it’s time for more rehearsals, more classes, more choreography. Sleep or no sleep.

"Butterfly, where have you been all week?"

Monday: Early meeting. Rehearsal. Studio.
Tuesday: Group warm-up. Rehearsal. Studio.
Wednesday: Class. Rehearsal. Studio.
Today: Class. Rehearsal. About to go to, you guessed it, the studio.

Now you see why there hasn't been a lengthy and well-thought-out post in a couple of days. Well, that, and my internet at home has been down.

Yesterday we tried on costumes for Saturday's performance. Costuming me is typically an amusing event, because I'm very petite and everything is always big on me. This time, it went pretty smoothly, and there was only one ballet that involved me trying on multiple variations before finding a costume that fit. Yay! After that, I went to the studio and taught the longest I've ever taught in one night: five and a half hours straight (you veteran teachers out there are probably smirking at me, but until last night I've never taught more than 4.5 hours in one go. Call me a rookie if you will). It was fun! Tiring....but fun.

I'd say more, but I'm headed off to the studio (ballet and jazz tonight). Tomorrow I'll tell you about the ballets I'm dancing right now.

Ballet Saturday

I started off yesterday morning with a ballet class from Kim Stafford. I was so glad I went-- her class was so much fun! I took the entire class en pointe and felt great (Thought I was going to have an "off" day, but surprised myself...don't you love when that happens?). She gave me some great tips on traveling fouette turns, which was to keep spotting in the direction I was traveling instead of forward (Pirouettes and fouettes are the only turns that I spot to the front; but that caused me to "hop" in traveling fouettes)-- so much easier! M from my company was there (and is awesome at fouettes), and after class we ran to Starbucks to have a coffee and catch up. After that, I was off to ...

... the first rehearsal for Moscow's Nutcracker. There was one woman managing twenty-seven cast members, on whom she set five or six different ensemble roles in ...wait for it... under two hours. Wow! I assisted in the rehearsal for the party scene, then went to learn one of my parts (I got an extra role in Act 1 yesterday!), then went into the snowflake rehearsal (two of the little girls from the school are snowflakes). After they learned it, I got to help them rehearse while the director worked with the angels. They are an adorable group of kiddos, those snowflakes.
I could see a parent observing through the two-way glass, and after the rehearsal ended he came up and introduced himself (he has two daughters in the cast, one of whom was a snowflake). He and his wife told me that they had seen me in the audition last week and that "you looked so much taller." "Really?" "SO much taller-- I thought you were five nine!" I laughed and said that I get that a lot-- I'm often told I look taller on stage/in photos/from the observation deck.* It turns out that they were happy to see that I'm small: they're snowflake is very tiny, and I guess she was worried about being too small for dance. I told her that I learned how to "move big" so that I would look taller when dancing, and that being small is actually very useful for dance.** :-) This week I'm borrowing a DVD of the show so Elle and I can work on our part (and I can help out the younger ones if there are questions about their choreography).

While I was rehearsing, the studio company was doing a show out in Katy. I'm sorry to have missed it, but I heard that they did a wonderful job! Congratulations, girls!

And now off to Ensemble rehearsal....

* I met KraftyMommas at the Rice Harvest Festival at her awesome boutique, the Pink Zebra. She had seen my blog but told me I looked taller in my photo. By the way, the Pink Zebra? Is adorable.
** Countdown until my stalker makes a crack about my height. WAIT for it.

Rehearsal, Center Stage 2, and SOCK TANGO.

Everybody gets poli-spammed by me until the election results are announced. No one is safe. Not even this blog.

Anyway!

Yesterday's rehearsal was nothing short of awesome.
D, one of the dancers, has been dancing for J, a fellow dancer and director of Columbian Folkloric Ballet. J and I danced together in the Company last season, and he's awesome. When he found out that D also danced in my ensemble, he told her he'd love to choreograph something. So, being that most of my choreographic attention/anxiety has been centered around our very own 'Sacre,' I invited him to join me on the project. He came in yesterday and began duet for D and Doc, and...wow. Just. Wow. It's so awesome, and it's bringing a whole new dimension to the piece. The movement is very primal and earthy and the partnering work is composed of Stuff You Couldn't Imagine The Human Body Was Actually Capable Of. It is. So. Freaking. Amazing. I feel so privileged and lucky that he is here working with us.

I'd also been working on a Tarantella for the women, but my inspiration had waned and I was becoming frustrated. On a random impulse I decided to scrap the whole blah-damn thing and start from the beginning again. Yesterday, I set new 'n' improved Tarantella in hour. From start to finish. The dancers really like it, I really like it, and it's a big load off my chest. Perhaps I should follow my random impulses more often.

You may have heard that Center Stage 2: Turn It Up is out. If you're like me, maybe you didn't see it because you assumed it would be a train wreck on toast and you have rehearsal anyway and maybe somebody else will see it and fill you in. Selly over at Dance Outlook took that bullet for us and confirmed that "steaming pile of fail" doesn't even begin to describe the abysmal abomination that is Center Stage 2. When will Hollywood realize that sequels are Just Not A Good Idea? Or that Turn It Up is a really terrible, trite title? You can read Selly's review here. Check out the rest of her blog, too; it's pretty fabulous.

Lastly: Hoston folks, somebody please go take Hope Stone's "Sock Tango" class for me. I can't attend because I'll be teaching, but look at this description: "Learn to Tango...in socks...the more colorful and wild the socks the better." Seriously, how fun does that sound? It's every Monday (starting tonight!) from 8-9 pm throughout November and December. Go. Dance. Then tell me about it so I may live vicariously through you and your tango-socks.

And now, here's your moment of incredibly-random, "lolwhat" Zen: