Everything I need to know about life, I learned in dance class

Everything I need to know about life, I learned in dance class

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Theater week, school performances

Yesterday we had our two school performances. This is when everything gets real, push comes to shove, and it's now or never.

We did our warm up, caked on stage make up, strapped on pointe shoes and waiting in the wings for our turn.

And, wouldn't you know it, my toe decided to get an ingrown toenail. First time ever. I had tried the pirouette in the wings, but my feet were shaking in a weird way I've never had happen before. My brain spaced, and during the performance, I didn't turn.
At all.
Not even on demi.
I did a Releve passe while everyone else turned.
And that wasn't the only time I screwed up. It was a complete and utter mess. Even one of the other girls said "I thought I was doing bad until I saw you didn't turn." Yep. That bad.

The second show had some redemption. I did the turn, but just on demi. My body was wearing down fast and I didn't want to risk freezing again.

I thought the finale went better, but after rehearsal last night, we still got told we sucked. (Not in those words of course.) Ms Munro went over it with us, so hopefully it all sticks with us tonight.

During the rehearsal, one of the principal dancers seemed to be having a rough go at it. She and her partner missed a few lifts, and there were turn sequences she struggled through but managed to cover well. This isn't typical for her, either, so I was a little concerned. What was going on?
When the male of the due did his part, some of the other dancers were standing in the wings, joking with each other. I tried to get them to keep their voices down, but it doesn't work all too often. This is one of my biggest pet peeves; maybe it's my theater background, maybe it's that at my old studio no one was allowed to talk in the wings ever. I don't know. But when it gets to loud I get antsy. Well, the principal dancer turned to them and said, "you can hear your voices on the stage, and it's actually really distracting."
And she's not one to really say anything unless it's something. She's not one of those complain about everything types. She only speaks when it's really something.
And what did the other girls do?
Kept on talking.
I tried asking them to whisper--easy, right?  Apparently not. When I tried reiterating what was said about being able to hear them on stage, they flat out said they didn't care.
I was infuriated.

Have some simple respect. We don't need you here, this is a privilege to get to do this. Have some common courtesy and keep the noise level down.

I almost apologized to the dancer, but I felt it would be empty since my apology won't get them to keep it down. As I was leaving the theater, I saw ms munro. I told her what happened and what was said. She was a little upset she didn't know sooner to say something at critiques, but I didn't have a chance to tell her sooner. Hopefully she says something. We have been told in rehearsals before that if a principle tells you something, it goes. Hopefully today goes better than yesterday and no one is childishly bitter at me.

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