This May Or May Not Count as "Phoning It In."

Fun fact: My friend A and I performed together for the first time in December with Amahl and The Night Visitors, where she played "my mother." Three months later, we performed in Letters You Wrote... where I played her "mother." It's a somewhat-amusing coincidence.

Hey, you know what else? We were reviewed for Dance Source Houston by N. Wozny.

That's all I have for now, folks. Until next time, here's your moment of Zen:
"New York is the only city where you have to say things like 'Hey, that's mine; don't pee on that.'"
~ Louis CK

'Amahl' Recap is Coming, For Now:

The first day of Amahl and the Night Visitors was lovely. I'll tell you all about it in the morning; for now:

...here's a cell-phone picture of what I look like in drag. In case, you know, you ever wondered.

Congratulations, both casts of Amahl and the Night Visitors. What a fun, wonderful two day. See you tomorrow for Round Two.

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!).

So Much to Talk About, So Little To Say

OR: Things I considered writing a blog post about.

1. The Amahl process.

2. The fact that I killed four pointe shoes in three days.

3. Teaching and why I love my kiddos.

4. Skater's Waltz and the process of that; or maybe the fact that the student company was voted "Best Dance Company in Katy" by a local publication (yeah!).

5. Blisters. Lots of them.

6. How I got stuck in a massive storm on the way home from teaching; ended up waiting out the storm at a hotel with a bunch of folks my age from a travelling Mag Crew (which has nothing to do with dance, but it's a cool story).

7. Why I want to make a dance to that song "Do the Barrel Roll." (Look, I don't know, okay?)

8. The two new ballets I'm creating.

9. How pulling a ten-hour day (and getting stuck in a storm) has completely eaten my brain, rendering me completely incapable of writing a coherent blog post.

Day four of Amahl week tomorrow. We're getting close!

My Week in Fifteen: "Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies."

It's been a pretty slow week here at Upstage Left, so there's not too much to report. Let's see:

1. First off: A lot of people died. Many were killed in a DC Train Wreck; and after that Farrah Fawcett/Michael Jackson/Billy Mays all kicked the bucket in quick succession. Every news station here is covering Celebrity Death Epidemic. STOP DYING, FAMOUS PEOPLE.

2. Our company director and one of my fellow dancers may be organizing a Michael Jackson tribute sometime in the near future. Stay tuned for details on that.

3. Also, that Fellow Dancer I just mentioned? She got engaged last weekend. Hooray! Congratulations, LP. :)

4. Had several fairly-good ballet classes this week (yay!).

5. Took up jogging. Promptly became the proud owner of Really Sore Calf Muscles. Ouch.

6. Used aforementioned Sore Calves as an excuse to not do pointework all week. Am lazy, y'all.

7. Dancehunter finally joined Twitter, and the twitterites of the Houston Arts Scene were happy.

8. Several dance blogs-- including Dance Outlook , Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes, Dance Advantage, and this very blog-- are are finding our posts duplicated at Choreography Blog.

9. I wrote ChoreoBlo an e-mail, saying "Look: if you want to repost my stuff, that's fine, as long as you link me or run my byline." They're still copy-pasting my stuff, but now they're linking back to this website. I can live with that.

10. Amazingly enough, I still haven't gotten a Cease & Desist Order for this. Whee.

11. Apparently, I'm going to (finally) (Finally.) (FINALLY!) set my piece called Last Night. I've only been trying to set this dance since 2004, so YAY!

12. As I write this, I'm watching The Simpsons on TV and-- in memory of Mike Jackson/because The Simpsons is awesome-- I feel that I must encourage all of you to "do the Bartman."

13. Am I the only one who routinely dances around to The Simpsons' theme music? What? I am? Good God.

14. You know it's been a slow week when all you have to report is dead people, Twitter, blog-plagiarizing, and The Simps. Now I feel lame, so.... here's your moment of Zen:

15. "ROCKS FALL, EVERYONE DIES."

That's all she wrote, folks. Have a great week!

Let's watch movies: Michael Jackson

Oh, Jack-o. What can I say that hasn't already been said? Yes, he did a lot for our industry, should have cooled it on the plastic surgery a long time ago, was a great dancer. So rather than beat a dead horse _{(wow, that would have been a terrible pun if ever there was one)} re-hash the same things that everyone has already hashed, I'm going to show you this video. It's the famous Prison Video-- some 1,500 inmates all dancing to Thriller. It's......wow. It's wow.


And while we're on the subject of dancing to Mike-Jack's music... who could forget this?

(Drink!)

Phoning it in (again): Let's watch movies.

I could whine about how I'm moving soon, or how I woke up with a 103 fever today and have to miss work because of it and that totally sucks and blah blah blah emocakes, but I'll save it and show you a video instead. YOU'RE WELCOME.

(There will be a real post soon. Promise. Honest to blog.)

Phoning it in: A Walk Down Memory Lane

I know, I know, I totally neglected to post a Blog of the Weekend. I also haven't gotten around to writing about Friday's performance, or Ros Warby's Monumental, or my new endeavor...because I'm moving in a few days, thus the chaos level in the Butterfly household is currently mind-boggling.

I took a walk down memory lane last night in an attempt to calm my nerves, so instead of Blog of the Weekend, I offer you some Dancer/Ensemble Director Flashbacks from last year:

Peace On Earth, Good Will To Men...Or Something: Preparing for my ensemble's repertory showing after our HOPEWERKS residency. Said showing took place less than a week after we closed Amahl and The Night Visitors, so you can imagine things were bit hectic.

Christmas at Upstage Left: A Post of Epic Proportions: Describing my dance ensemble's repertory showing, celebrating dance and the holidays, and the long and drawn-out process of getting myself home in time for Christmas.

Notes from a Glorious Saturday: Recounting a lovely day of teaching; and the first rehearsal of last season's story ballet.

Tales of a Rookie Dance- Ensemble Director: After Best In Ten, I had-- once again!-- less than a week to re-group afor my dance ensemble's benefit/performance. Does anyone else see a pattern here?

Well, folks, it's been lovely, but now I have to scream get back to the grind. Stay tuned for tales of dancing and watching dance when I finally pick the pieces of my brain off the walls get settled. Happy Sunday!

Not-Wordless Wednesday: More Bob Warren

Don't worry, I'm preparing a review of a dance show and some Alice's Adventures in Wonderland stories for your amusement. I'm also dealing with a great deal of upheaval here at Upstage Left, so for right now I'm just going to have to phone it in.

See this picture? It was taken by Bob Warren, who I've mentioned before. This is a cool picture, and what makes it even cooler is not the fact that I'm in it, but that I'm wearing a dress from a performance in my junior year of high school. I think I deserve a high-five.