Coppélia

The 2012-2013 Boston Ballet season is over!!!

Sniff!

The season went out on a high mark, however, with another story ballet to challenge my assertion that, “I don’t like story ballets.”

Okay, maybe I like them a little bit.

I hadn’t seen Coppélia before, though I knew the story. I did not know that this was another E.T.A. Hoffmann story, though (he of Nutcracker infamy!). Here Ashley Ellis can give you a bit of a synopsis:

It’s presented in three acts. The first takes place in a village square in Galicia where we meet Swanilda, Frantz, and Dr. Coppélius. Swanilda and Frantz, of course, are our two, not-exactly-star-crossed lovers. Swanilda is a silly girl, who, if she were in the modern age would probably be one of those girls posting 15 self-portraits on Facebook each day so that her friends could write, “OMG, why are you so pretty!!!” to which she would then reply, “Tks, bby. <3!" Frantz seems to be easily distracted by shiny things… or, at the very least, life-sized dolls… I guess men haven't changed much since Hoffmann's time. I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Relax, out there!

Anyway, there's the festival (because what village square is complete without a festival?) and lots of dancing. After which both Frantz and Swanilda break into Dr. Coppélius's house/workshop to investigate this curiously stunning but rather vacant-eyed attraction.

Which brings us to the second act in which we see inside the workshop and mind of the crazy doctor. He tries to bring his doll to life using the life force of the drugged/passed-out drunk Frantz (it never pays to climb into strange girls' windows!) not noticing that his doll looks strikingly different than when he left her. Hilarity ensues and our couple finally makes up and escapes back to the village square.

Where — Act Three — we have…. you guessed it! A wedding. And they all lived happily ever after.

Okay, the story is pretty goofy, but darling good fun. If you were looking to introduce a child to ballet I would say that this one is about ten thousand times better than Nutcracker. It's got a lot of the same (slightly creepy) elements… eccentric dude with a strange obsession of bringing toys to life, racially stereotyped Chinese finger-pointing character, and a happy ending. But the plot… well, I mean, at least there is one, and it lasts the entire show. And it's a lot more funny.

Now for the dancers and the dancing.

First, let me mention that there was a pre-curtain talk that we attended. My friend was buying a t-shirt for her daughter, so we missed the very beginning, but I believe the two adults speaking were teachers at the Boston Ballet School, and they were on stage with three wonderfully poised young ladies who are students at the school and were performing in the show that evening. Two represented the two ends of the age spectrum of children in the Waltz of the Golden Hours: Delia, a 10-year-old Intermediate I student, and Hannah, a 14-year-old Pre-Professional I student. The third was Alex, a 17-year-old Pre-Professional Trainee who appeared as the doll and also as one of the villagers/friends. While I was expecting to hear from some of the pros during this talk, it was a lovely treat to hear these three (and their teachers) speak. They expressed a completely unabashed love for ballet and were obviously thrilled to appear on stage. They answered the audience's questions with such sweet candor. All three expressed a hope to dance professionally one day. The youngest talked about the challenges of learning pointe, while the 14-year-old talked about the challenges of not always appearing so serious… things I can certainly relate to. It was fun to connect with this next generation of dancers and made me actually pay attention to the children during the Waltz of the Hours at the end (when I normally would be paying them no never-mind).

As for the pros.

We had Misa Kuranaga as our Swanilda who was simply wonderful. She was silly, slightly bratty, and yet altogether endearing — a lovely actress and a fantastically energetic and light-on-her-feet dancer. As for Frantz, well, I had to restrain myself from bursting into loud applause and cheers when I realized that Jeffrey Cirio was on stage. I think he may just be my favorite BB male dancer. He looks like he simply flies when he dances, but beyond that, his characterization was wonderful. The two together had lovely chemistry and transitioned beautifully from silly, young, jealous love to a more mature interaction at the end. The only slight mar in their exquisiteness came in the third act during their pas de deux… there were some moments where the holds were a bit shaky. Totally understandable based on the amount and quality of dancing they had done throughout the show, but not quite what I wanted to see after the seemingly effortless bounding they exhibited earlier in the show.

The other dancers that stood out to me were the four automatons in the second act, which I suppose sounds ridiculous seeing as they basically just sit there on stage. But to imagine, spending a whole act remaining nearly motionless and the only times you are in motion you have to appear to be mechanical… I would imagine it’s not nearly as easy as it would seem.

The sets were beautiful, as always. I particularly enjoyed Dr. Coppélius’s workshop which seemed an intriguing place to poke around in.

And, as always, the Boston Ballet Orchestra, under the direction of Jonathan McPhee performed brilliantly (though they didn’t rock the house quite as much as a couple weeks ago when they were banging out some Jack White tunes for Chroma).

All in all a wonderful finale to the season. Here’s a small taste for you (wondering if this was videoed the night I was there… looks to be the same cast!).

Now I must wait patiently until September when BB kicks off their 50th season with a free show on the Boston Common. But I’ve got my season subscription renewed (they offered it to me for the same bargain-basement price of $25 a ticket; I simply couldn’t resist!) and I’ll be ready to go when they are.

Cheers, Boston Ballet, for a spectacular 49th season. I’m honored that I had a seat for each of your pieces this year.

Not quite Swan Lake, but…

Wild Swans!

What?

Last night my e-mail was bombarded with messages from the studio… some relevant to my life, some not:

* Rehearsal schedule for the week (relevant)

* Reminder to book photo time for those wanting formal recital pics (not)

* Reminder about importance of participating in summer classes/camps/etc. (somewhat relevant)

* Parent observation week (not)

And finally a big huge relevant and a big huge happy surprise…

* The ballet company is planning a summer ballet! Woot!!!

They had done A Midsummer Night’s Dream a couple summers in a row (I was there for the second), but last year the director had a newborn, so putting on a ballet was a bit out of the question.

I hadn’t heard anything more about resuming the tradition and I know a bunch of kids are headed off to intensives and such at various points, so I figured the summer ballet concept was deader than a doornail. But… no!

And even better is that we will NOT be reprising MND. It was a fun ballet, but I think if we did it one more year in a row it would take on a very tired, Nutcracker-ish feel. I’m all for keeping things fresh.

Instead we’ll be performing The Wild Swans which is going to be a take on the Hans Christian Andersen story (I had to Google the original story… in Andersen’s there was a man with eleven sons and one daughter… seeing as we have a dearth of guys and a plethora of girls, ours shall have all daughters).

Auditions will be held less than a week after our annual recital production as we’re going to have less than two months to put the show together. Eek!

Very exciting!

Chroma!!!

Right now the show I consider to be the highlight of Boston Ballet’s 2012-2013 season is going on… Chroma!!!

Originally titled something snoozerific like “Spring Program,” Mikko Nissinen made the wise choice to retitle the bill to honor their premiere of Wayne McGregor’s incredible work. The show also featured two Balanchine works — Serenade and Symphony in C.

It was a gorgeous Saturday and the city of Boston was bustling with people alternately celebrating the food truck festival, the Kentucky Derby, and the Bruins playoff game. So lovely to see the city swarming with people. In the playbill both Nissinen and Barry Hughson (the executive director) addressed the recent tragedies in our city and spoke to the power of the arts to highlight the beauty that mankind can create and the sense of community we strengthen when we share an experience such as going to the ballet together.

Boston Strong.

The first piece was Serenade, which I saw NYCB do a couple years ago at SPAC. I thought the costuming looked familiar, though that was about all I remembered about the piece. The women are dressed in light blue leotards with a long, white, soft tulle skirt over top. I did remember seeing a tumble or two at NYCB at the hands of this costume and sadly saw one dancer slip last night on her skirt. My heart just breaks for the dancer when something like that happens! Aside from that brief moment, though, the piece was simply stunning. The dancer who stole my heart on this one was Seo Hye Han who, according to the playbill, is a member of the corps de ballet, but was a lead in this production. Her fluidity and her facial expression was so exquisite… Absolutely breathtaking. I won’t be surprised if I see that she’s been named a soloist next year.

One of the things I adore about this piece is the use of shapes and lines. His choreography for the leads is, of course, gorgeous, but the stuff the corps does is equally gorgeous. The lines they make, the interaction among the dancers, all just amazing. I found this YouTube video from NYCB with Ashley Bouder which I think sums up the piece nicely and gives you a little taste of the piece.

The ending, in particular, makes you want to cry or, at the very least, jump out of your seat and cheer wildly. Oh, and there was also one part where the Waltz Girl (I didn’t know the girls had different roles, but now, thanks to Ashley, I do!) is on the floor and one of the other female leads and her partner come out and the other girl does an arabesque en pointe in front of the Waltz girl while her partner kneels behind and turns her in a promenade (en pointe) by spinning her at the leg. I was amazed that the audience didn’t clap for that… it looks easy, but anyone who has been en pointe knows that it isn’t… especially to perform it without a moment off-balance. Stunning. Oh, and Tchaikovsky… that music. Sigh.

First intermission.

And now for something completely different.

CHROMA!!! Originally created for the Royal Ballet. I stumbled across another YouTube video of them performing this a couple years ago and fell in love with it from that alone. This is not the entire piece, by the way, but if you go to YouTube you can find the rest of it.

I was absolutely thrilled to see that Boston Ballet was going to be performing it this year. Now the one thing about watching a video and seeing it live is that you don’t get that perfect perspective. The video shows everything straight on and can zoom in on the faces and the individual dancers. When you’re stuck up in the mezzanine everything suddenly seems painfully far away. I am considering going back and watching this again from a different seat, hopefully one on the orchestra level and closer to the stage, because I want to see more. On the plus side, when watching a video the music comes across as much less dynamic. The Boston Ballet Orchestra rocked this one out. Seriously. The music was so intense. And how did I never notice before now that a good chunk of the music is Jack White’s (formerly of the White Stripes). The Hardest Button part was perhaps my favorite… that song made orchestral gave me a total adrenaline rush, so I can only imagine what it did for the dancers.

As for the dancers, I mean… wow, to go from Serenade which is contemporary, but very pretty, flowy, ballet-ish, to Wayne McGregor’s crazy inversions and intense moves… yet another testament to the versatility today’s ballet dancer must have. BB came through, as always, in tremendous fashion. Oh, and the set… I absolutely love the set. Ours came courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada… I was wondering if they had to build their own. As you can see from the video it looks like the dancers are in a big white box with just one entrance on either side and then the square hole in the back which dancers enter and then step over onto the main stage. I really… I just… I need more Chroma, please!!!

What particularly thrilled me about this was how much the audience loved it. I know contemporary stuff can be a bit risky and some ballet-goers just don’t like it. I saw some people disappear during intermissions of All Kylián, for example. But after this the audience was on its feet, applauding and cheering loudly. They did me proud on that one!

Another intermission in which we collect ourselves and calm down to get ready for the more sedate Symphony in C.

This… perhaps my least favorite piece of the evening. Which is not meant to be negative, simply that after the gorgeousness of Serenade and the hair-raising adventure of Chroma the audience member is a bit spent and Symphony in C is a bit, hm… floofy. It’s got the more traditional looking dancers in their tutus dancing prettily. But, upon reflection, this was probably the best way to end the evening. Brings the tone back down a bit.

There are four movements in this piece with a finale that features 52 dancers on stage at the same time. Fifty-two!!! That is simply amazing and breathtaking all on its own. I believe there were some BBS students included in that, as well. It might sound crazy to say that I had a favorite dancer among 52, but Jeffrey Cirio in the third movement was mine. His jumps and leaps make him appear weightless. He lands like a cat, without a sound, and then springs back up again. The other men are terrific, as well, but he just has this quality that makes it look simply effortless and incredibly fun. All the dancers were incredible, of course. Though there was one corps dancers whose port de bras drove me batty. I realize that there are different schools of thought on the wrists and how straight they should be, but her port de bras looked perpetually broken at the wrist and it was maddeningly distracting.

After seeing two Balanchine pieces on this particular evening my respect for his choreography increased moreso. The way he uses the music is simply incredible. It’s like the score and the choreography were made to go together. The steps highlight all the right parts in the music. Being both a musician and a dancer it just seems so… right! The other thing I love is his use of technique and simplicity. I obviously respect boundary-breaking and funkiness in dance, but there’s something, too, to be said for pure, clean technique. Sometimes through the simplicity the audience can focus more on the emotion being expressed. I always think of pliés and tendus as those things you do in class because it’s good for you and it’s the basis of so much of our movement. Balanchine manages to make them dance steps that look good! All on their own. The corps doing a nice tendu en croix with port de bras is suddenly a stunning frame for the action in the center.

Altogether a lovely evening of dancing capped by a special treat after the show: one of Mikko Nissinen’s post-show talks in the lobby. He, Russell Kaiser (the assistant artistic director), and Ashley Ellis (a soloist according to the program, but, as Nissinen announced to us, now a principal dancer!) chatted with the group that remained about the program, upcoming events, and the BB 50th anniversary season coming up in a few short months. There were some great audience questions about how long it took to prepare the works and how the dancers are chosen for different pieces. It surprised me to learn that the rehearsal time is actually fairly limited. After hearing exactly how many things the group has in the works at any given time — I mean, not only do they have the home season in the works, but they’re also putting together different pieces to perform in Washington DC and in London — it amazes me that they can present everything so professionally. Of course, I imagine that for dancers who have been around a few years, much of what they do is in the rep, so when they approach it to prepare for a performance it’s not like everything coming at them is brand new. They’ve seen it before and it’s a matter of simply relearning, tidying, etc. Plus, I realize I’m looking at this from the perspective of a recreational dancer. I only get to work on pieces for an hour or two a week. They are doing many more pieces, but since it’s their job working on them day in and day out for a few weeks will yield much greater results than my sporadic practice. But still… impressive, nonetheless.

I really am seriously considering heading back for a second helping of Chroma before the run ends next weekend. If you’re in the area I suggest you get at least one dose in. You won’t regret it.

Some say I’m high maintenance…

But who can help it when one has been crowned a princess?

That’s right.

Princess Rori, comin’ atcha!

I guess there somehow ended up being an odd number of princesses in Cinderella, so I just got drafted to even out the ranks.

I do hope this means a tiara is in my future!

Oh… and, uh… I guess this means I need to stop being a slacker about pointe class. Good thing I finally got my custom Freeds sewn up!

It gives you wiiiings!!!

Did I mention that my studio is doing Cinderella for our annual recital?

We are.

And our all-adult ballet class is playing the role of Winter Fairies. In case you don’t get the drift, the Spring Fairies are little kids (6-7 year old range), the Summer Fairies are slightly older kids (10-11 or so), the Autumn Fairies are the teens en pointe, and then there’s us… the Winter Fairies, AKA the one-foot-in-the-grave fairies. Hahaha…

Of course fairies need wings.

This week we got to practice our dance wearing the wings.

Keep in mind that we have not yet received our costumes, so it was us in our normal dance attire with wings on top.

Did I also mention that this studio has a LOT of windows that face into the rest of the school?

So here we are, a bunch of “mature” ladies, rehearsing away in T-shirts, leotards, and… wings. While the other students and their parents come and go, looking in the windows as they pass, and GIGGLING!

Giggling, dear reader!!!

Now who would laugh at old ladies in wings, who?! I ask you.

Okay, it was a pretty comical sight.

One of my dance friends got too close to the mirror and got the edge of her wing stuck in the crack in the mirror mid-dance. A few of us got bopped in the heads with our flapping wings. Flying takes practice, it seems.

They do have a nice added benefit of ensuring lovely posture, however. You can’t help but keep your shoulders back when the alternative means being smacked in the face with a glittery wing.

I can’t wait to see what dancing in a shield with a hood will be like for my hip-hop Guard dance. Or dancing in an apron and mob cap with a basket in hand for our lyrical Baker dance. Thankfully our mixed teen/adult ballet Townspeople dance seems to be straightforward with no props or funky costume elements whatsoever!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

In case you were wondering how my DWTS competition went:

Yes, that is the championship trophy in my hands right there! Woohoo!!!

Okay, in all fairness, I think it was a tie between us and the other couple from our studio. That star’s table was louder. My star had more tables. The applause-o-meter was probably registering about equal. I would have been happy if either of us won. Because the mini mirror ball trophies the other couples got were trés adorable and I was a teensy bit jealous. Seriously.

But all in all a tremendous experience. And so happy for the music school we were fundraising for. They sold out and I think next year might have to find a new venue to accomodate everyone. The faces I saw were all smiles and there was a ton of buzz around. It was an honor to be part of it. The winning trophy was just the icing on the cake.

Also… I think I may have been born in the wrong era. I kind of loved my 1940s get-up.

Going Pro…

I mentioned some “competition” in my All Kylián post.

That needs some elaboration.

So, maybe you remember about a year or so ago I posted about being part of a flash mob. Well, the music school’s gala time has come upon us again!

This year’s theme is “1940s Dance Hall,” including….

A Dancing with the Stars competition.

I wasn’t asked to be a star (shocking, I know), but I am… a “Pro.” Ooh, I do like the sound of that!

I am not quite sure how I got roped into this. All I recall is being asked if I could show up on a certain day to rehearse and I said, “Okay!” and it’s been a whirlwind since then.

Alright, it wasn’t as mysterious as all that. My dance friend who is on the gala committee asked me and one of our other dancers to participate and, while I didn’t really know what I was getting into, I was game to give it a go.

First rehearsal was sans star. Thankfully I wasn’t responsible for choreographing the piece… our flash mob choreographer (also my lyrical teacher) took care of that. She and I worked out some of the ideas for the beginning, including our theme (which I’m keeping under wraps for the moment!). Got the general idea down and were ready to present it to our “star.”

Now let me tell you that the idea of dancing with A) a stranger and B) a non-dancer is a bit intimidating. I had no idea what I was going to be faced with. I assumed the fact that he agreed to do this meant he was — at the very least — outgoing and a good sport, but you really just don’t know. Thankfully my assumptions were spot on and he showed up with his game face on. He’s also got a competitive streak, which helps.

So we’ve been working our way through the dance for the past couple months, and teaching our star about chassées and kick-ball-changes along the way (with moderate success). I’m also grateful that the star’s daughter is a dancer and his wife does yoga, so they’ve been tutoring him in the off hours to prep him for the competition. Oh, and he’s done his part to fill the tables at the gala which will hopefully ensure lots of votes, though honestly I think his supporters will be pleasantly surprised and won’t just be voting for him out of kindness. He’s really worked hard and come a long way as a dancer.

Last night was our dress rehearsal. We didn’t get to dance on the actual floor in the actual space. Instead we were performing in a parochial school cafeteria with a highly polished linoleum floor (eek!). But the shoeless version of our dance went well. I also got to take my costume for a twirl for the first time.

Finding a costume was a bit of a headache. A local theatre was supposed to have stuff for us, but their ’40s-themed items were a bit… flashy. And our dance was meant to be a bit more demure. So I went out shopping picturing exactly in my head what I wanted (a high-waisted skirt, A-line, and a poufy, short-sleeved blouse) and found… nothing. A few shirt-dress type things that might have worked if their hemline didn’t land squarely mid-thigh. Argh. But then, an epiphany! I remembered my mom giving me a dress that one of my great-aunts knit for my grandmother, which would make it… maybe not 100% vintage 1940s, but not too far off! I found it tucked away in my closet, tried it on… et, parfait! I got a Gellish manicure last week in a bright red. Just need to get the hair and makeup and we’ll be good to go!

As for my competition… the two female stars are dancing with men from a local ballroom studio, so I don’t know anything about them. But I’m, of course, rooting for my fellow pro from our studio. Haven’t seen her piece yet, but we had the same choreographer, so I’m sure it will be adorable.

The countdown is on… check back this weekend for the results! I’m hoping for straight 10s!

Out of alignment

The topic of today’s post is only peripherally dance-related.

To segue into it, I’ll mention a thread I ran across in one of the adult ballet student forums on BT4D. An adult beginner was asking if she (and other ballet dancers who started as adults) were doomed to look “amateurish” forever. Which sparked some ever-helpful, “Well, honey, there’s a reason why the pros are pros and the non-pros are… not” along with a fair sprinkling of, “Give it time.”

But I understood what the poster was getting at… the presentation. There are those people (not necessarily pros) who manage to coordinate everything with the music and look stunning. And then there are those who study for years upon years and only persist in looking awkward.

Some commenters on the thread started bringing up how so much of presentation is phrasing and port de bras and epaulment which was accompanied by a good railing on teachers who do not teach enough of this stuff in adult classes.

Basically, the overarching theme of this part of the thread was how much of “looking like a dancer” boils down to what you’re doing with your upper body. You can have killer arches, extensions to the top of Mt. Everest, and be able to whip out 32 fouettés like it ain’t no thang, but if you don’t sell the dance with your arms and your face then it’s just gymnastics. Similarly, your feet can go entirely wrong, but if your upper body is dancing people don’t notice the foibles so much (I’m majorly paraphrasing here).

And I wholly agree with this. I’ve really been concentrating on trying to dance every class. You know, practicing the tilt of the head at the barre, selling my tombé-pas-de-bourrées to whoever might be watching, etc. For the most part I feel pretty good about that stuff. It’s the thing a bit farther north that sometimes trips me up.

The face.

Now I could write a whole post about appropriate facial expressions based on stuff I’ve seen over the years, but my focus here is on the expression of joy: the good old Smile.

Smiling has long been challenging for me. It’s not that I’m unhappy, I just don’t feel the need to smile unless there’s a good reason to. Case in point… first grade school picture. Captured me with my mouth slightly open looking sort of dazed, sort of pissed off, sort of bemused. I still distinctly remember the situation. The photographer had tried the typical 6-year-old stuff on me, asking me to say something silly to get me to smile. Specifically: “Say, ‘Miss Piggy!’” To which I replied, “No.” I wasn’t trying to be snarky, I just thought it was an odd demand. We weren’t talking about Miss Piggy; why should I just randomly say her name… it was embarassing and I couldn’t believe he would make such a ridiculous request.

That was me.

I had my silly moments, but smiling for the sake of smiling was kind of lost on me.

Imagine my horror when, at age 8, I made my big stage debut in my very first dance recital. Teachers, backstage parents, other students all eagerly said, “Don’t forget to smile!” But… why? I had to remember the steps (especially seeing as most of my classmates weren’t likely to), which required Concentration and thus I had to be Serious. What is this smiling nonsense?

I did eventually grow up enough to realize there are occasions one must channel some joy (which may or may not be actually present) for the sake of appearances whether in photos or onstage or meeting a potential future boss or whatnot.

But while I figured this out I stumbled across another issue… adult teeth. In a not-particularly-large jaw.

It’s true. I’m a bit of a snaggle-tooth.

Nothing grave. Children don’t run screaming when I smile at them. I’ve had dates (and relationships). My friends tell me they don’t notice the crookedness, or they’ll tell me that they think it’s cute and gives me character (which, on good days, I don’t entirely disagree with).

But for around two decades it’s bothered me to some degree. Any time someone wants to get pictures it’s on my mind. I try to turn so that the camera will capture my “good side” and give either the closed-lip smile or bear minimal teeth. Candids are my nemesis.

Since resuming dance a couple years ago and doing performances that’s brought another aspect to my smile reticence. I need to smile on stage for a lot of my pieces. But I can’t help but feel shy, not knowing how much of the crookedness is showing.

Now one side of me says, jeez, Rori, no one cares. Let it go. But the other side says, hey, if it bothers you, fix it! I’m reaching the point of saying: it’s time.

My goal isn’t to conform to society’s arbitrary vision of beauty; I’m just tired of expending excessive mental energy worrying about my mouth. I want to smile when I feel like smiling and not feel self-conscious about it. I want to look at photos of me and focus on what’s going on in the picture rather than how much tooth is showing.

There’s a lot of stuff I can’t correct. But slightly crowded teeth… that’s pretty easy.

So earlier this week I trotted off to chat to one of the dentists in the office I go to. Her assistant talked to me for a bit and is going through treatment herself, which somehow made me feel more comfortable. Then the dentist herself came in and took a look-see. She assured me I could keep all my teeth (one of my pre-reqs… I had the wisdom teeth extracted a few years ago and those were the only chompers I was willing to part with) and said that mine was actually a very straightforward case. Which I kind of figured, but was good to hear. She estimated 8-10 months in treatment aligners, 6 months of wearing a retainer full-time, and a few years of wearing retainers to bed (or possibly getting a permanent retainer installed… not sure how I feel about that). The cost was higher than I would like (okay, anything higher than “free” is higher than I would like), but was in the range I expected.

I fully acknowledge that this is an issue of vanity. My oral health is not really impacted (though I do have a crack in my front tooth that overlaps from whacking it with the mouthpiece of my French horn one too many times). And hell, if we’re talking about vanity, I just saw something a couple weeks ago about a new trend in Japan where girls are having veneers put on their canines to create an illusion of crookedness because it’s “cute.” So who knows, maybe if I just hung on for a few more years my current grin would put me at the height of fashion.

I haven’t 100% decided yet, but I’m strongly leaning towards getting the aligners. It would be nice to put this issue to rest and not spend such a ridiculous amount of energy thinking about my damned teeth. Oh, and the dentist told me that she’s having a special day at the beginning of May, and if I start treatment that day (which I think means getting the dreaded impressions and photos and such) she knocks $500 off the cost and throws in a free whitening treatment. So… that might be enough to get me to commit. Though if I have to wait that long anyway I think I’ll go get a second opinion (and cost estimate) from a local, highly-experienced orthodontist.

We shall see. I’m not looking to turn this into an orthodontic blog (hence the reason I didn’t put the name of the treatment anywhere in this post), but it was something I wanted to discuss… especially since dance has played a role in pushing me over the edge of apathy to actually do something about this. If anyone happens to have experience with this topic and they want to share I’d be happy to hear them!

Nut2012 Recap

Okay, time for the nitty-gritty recap of the performances.

Or at least my performances.

One of the negatives of being part of the show is that you never actually get to SEE the show. Bits and pieces of it, of course, in rehearsal or from backstage, but for the most part there remain a fair number of mysteries. I’ll have to wait until the DVDs come in to see what all was going on when I was backstage. I heard we made some fun new additions to the opening and party scene that I can’t wait to see.

So for my dances.

First up was snow scene.

Funny, last year this was the most stressful piece for me. This year, I’d say it was the least. Not that it wasn’t still long and strenuous, but I was much more comfortable with it. I remember last year being unsure of the choreography right up until the show. This year it was pretty much all review with just a couple tweaks here and there. I felt as though I could just dance it, which is a great feeling.

And for the snow itself… Last year I was freaked the eff out about the fake flakes falling on stage. I was so terrified of slipping and landing on my arse. This year I didn’t even notice it. Okay, I didn’t notice it except for the parts where I had to stand directly in the line of fire (or, uh, the line of ice?). And those parts encompassed about the entire last minute of the scene. It’s very hard to remain beatific when trying desperately to not inhale/swallow synthetic snow. It’s also very hard not to crack up laughing at the situation. The final performance I think they were trying to use up whatever was left of the snow so it was full-force blizzarding. I was supposed to do a chassée into first arabesque and I had to push my foot through a good inch or two of accumulation. Hahaha!

Next up was the presentation of the sweets… which wasn’t really remarkable. You know, just running out, bowing to Clara, and then delivering her and the Nutcracker prince a couple cups of tea with my fellow soloist. I opted to be in charge of the teapot for that part, as the idea of holding a tray of cups seemed fraught with more potential for disaster. Easy-peasy.

Then quickly whipped off the tea costume backstage and jumped into the Spanish costume.

Hot Chocolate was probably the most fun dance of them all, though rehearsals were a bit of a comedy. First off the whole boy recruitment was the typical merry-go-round. We have a few guys we regularly call upon so that filled three of the four slots, then there was a fourth guy that we rounded up from somewhere. The first few rehearsals only two of the guys showed up. One of the others was always travelling on business and the fourth… who knows. Eventually #4 dropped out (big surprise), so we were back down to three and we were getting closer and closer to the show. Eek. Then fate did smile on us… one of the guys we used to use regularly had graduated from high school and joined the Marines, but by chance was assigned to work locally for a few months. He showed up on the doorstep one day asking if we needed him to do anything for Nut. As a matter of fact… We did some shuffling of partners as I was originally set to pair with the business traveller. But the Marine is taller. So being the tallest girl (at a whopping 5’4″!) I got paired with him and the business traveller went with the other unpaired girl. It all felt a bit last minute, but thankfully all the guys were familiar with the piece. The partnering was pretty easy stuff, but having not partnered in a couple years (and never for ballet) it was a different experience for me. Mostly just some dips and lifts. I have to say it’s hella fun to have someone lift you during an Italian pas de chat. It’s like flying. Whee! The hardest part of the partnering was actually the costumes, which consisted of velvet leotards with a Spanish skirt tacked over top. In spite of being tacked the waistband of the skirt had a tendency to travel A LOT. It’s a little frightening to be in the middle of a lift and feel that the guy was still holding the same part of the costume, but you yourself had slipped a few inches down. The guys did a great job, though, and no one got dropped. All in all a fun piece.

Then back offstage to quick change back into the Tea costume.

Tea. Sigh. Tea. My crowning achievement was scoring a soloist role and this was it and it really didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. I struggled with this one from day one and I have no idea why. It’s not like it’s a particularly long piece (it’s actually only about a minute long) and the choreography wasn’t difficult. But I felt intimidated by it from day one and unfortunately was never able to shake the feeling. The first performance I felt went well… the second two were meh. Not bad, but I went for demi-pointe on the last few pirouettes from fifth — doesn’t affect the overall thing, but I knew I was half-assing it. I just couldn’t seem to keep my core when I did it on pointe. And of course our director didn’t watch the first show that went well and did see the other two that weren’t so stellar. I really wanted to impress her (and myself) and I felt like it was a big let-down. I’m not beating myself up over this (what’s done is done), but I really wish I could’ve gotten a do-over. Or at least channelled whatever feeling I had in the first show into the other two.

You know what it was? The first show… it didn’t feel like the show. We usually have warm-up class beforehand and we were told to do warm-up on our own and used the time to re-block the Snow scene. Without that pre-show ritual it didn’t feel real. So I just went out there and was all, whatever, blah blah. Which sounds terrible, but really? That’s where I need to be in performance. Not freaked out, not worrying about anything, just going out there and dancing… being in the moment and enjoying it.

Anyway, after Tea the stress was done… all that was left was to run back out to bow to Clara and the Nutcracker again and wave good-bye as they were pulled offstage in their sleigh. Then curtain call time!

It would have been nice to feel like there was one performance where I really nailed all of my pieces, but I ended up spreading it around. Tea was best in show one. Snow was best in show three. Hot Chocolate… show two was probably the one where I felt bounciest.

In a way it felt good to get the show behind me after the all the weeks of preparation. But I heard some Nutcracker music a couple days ago and suddenly got sad that it’s over for the year. I do have fickle emotions, don’t I?

For now I’ll enjoy the rest and recouperation time and look forward to seeing the photos and video of the show… and, of course, whatever performance comes next!

The Nutcracker Crud

Unfortunately with all the togetherness of rehearsals and such comes the sharing of the germs.

Especially with all the little kids involved.

The crud is going around.

I woke up yesterday, the day of our first two performances of the weekend, with that immediate feeling of… uh-oh.

The sneezing and runny nose is not uncommon for me in the morning, so I hoped it was just a bad case of the normal allergies. Took some allergy meds.

Then heard my GI tract making some exciting noises. Not the “feed me!” kind of exciting.

So… this is the kind of day we’re going to have.

Got to the theatre and found I was far from alone. One kid spent a good portion of her evening in the ER with respiratory symptoms. Many others were complaining of sore throats, post-nasal drip, and the like.

It’s amazing what you can will yourself to do in the moment. I was able to put aside my roiling stomach for most of the day. I managed to keep my coughing jags off-stage. And all the other dancers did, too. They might have had people holding rescue inhalers for them to grab the moment they got off stage, but they soldiered through.

Afterwards, though…

I saw Mother Ginger practically dragging a gingerbread cookie behind her after the final curtain call to the stage restroom… the cookie was ready to toss hers. After the show we apparently had two vomit incidents in both stairwells leading from the dressing area up to the main lobby.

I’m thankful that adults usually have a bit more control over their GI tracts and I was able to keep mine from causing any incidents. There were moments I worried, though.

I got home, washed off my makeup, untaped my bruised and blistered feet, and limped straight into bed.

Only to wake up today feeling… worse. Ugh. Now I feel shaky and headache-y and my throat is on fire and my GI tract is still voicing complaints. No fever, though. That’s something.

One more show to go…

I forced myself to go back to bed shortly after getting up. I had the time and figured maybe an extra hour of tossing and turning would make me feel better. It worked… sort of.

I’ve got some hot beverages over my burning throat and a steamy shower in my immediate future.

Just one more matinee performance to will myself through, then I can collapse into bed. If the fog in my brain can subside for just a few hours I’ll be happy.

Fingers crossed that we all make it through this afternoon without any major incidents.