SO... We have some catching up to do.
Between finals, recital season, and gearing up for/going on a two week vacation to Hawaii, A Dancer's Days sadly rested on the back burner for a while there. But it's good to be back and I have some exciting material and news for everyone. For starters, I've recently been hired as a regular writer for the website Dance Advantage as well as a brand new site that just recently launched and has asked me to be one of their premier writers. Allow me to introduce to you, Dakiki. How cool is that?!
If memory serves me correctly, we left off at about the time of Cinderella when I fell victim to the Maine State Ballet plague (yes, it is a thing) and thankfully made it out alive. So let's start from there and work our way forward on the timeline.
~ Cinderella ~
As some of you may know, in Cinderella I was cast as the Fairy Godmother and the Persian Princess. Two VERY different roles requiring completely different styles. That's one of the great things about being part of a small company, you never know what kind of role you'll be cast as. The dancers don't necessarily have to be organized into individual niches, everyone gets a chance to do something different as there are roles to be filled and only so many dancers to fill them.
This was the company's first time performing FIFTEEN SHOWS in one run of a performance. Brutal? You got it.
I know, I know, many companies do plenty more shows than that. Miami City typically does 40 and some odd shows of The Nutcracker so fifteen seems like chump change. But when every single one of your dancers is performing in every show on top of the "regular people things" like school and work, it takes a serious toll.
There was a lot of rehearsing and a lot of late nights... Not to mention I was in a boot through much of it. It's always difficult to get back in the game. Rehearsing on flat for so long and getting use to a variation on demi-pointe is a favorite brainteaser, of course.
Thankfully, the boot eventually came off and we had the amazing opportunity to blow off steam from all those rehearsals with a Cinderella ball and silent auction. A night of glittering jewels and bidding, we members of the Maine State Ballet danced and sang the night away.
... And finally... We commenced a three week journey, five shows a weekend, working six days a week.
On some of those days pre-performance looked more like this:
Bronchitis and pneumonia don't make for a happy dancer.If there was one thing I learned from that experience, it is that the show must and will go on. But also that you need to know your limits and balance your time. On opening day I skipped school. I just knew that by expending the energy to go to school while being that sick, my performance would suffer and it would be brutal to be dancing until 10:00 PM. But of course, I felt okay about skipping as I was doing well in the class and had not missed any previous classes. It's important to choose your priorities wisely.
But it was a great run of shows and we all had a blast!
Next up... Recital season. Be sure to stay tuned for the new teacher's guide to their first recital and also a special guest post from Amanda Howard!
Thanks lovelies. Don't forget to LIKE A Dancer's Days on Facebook and follow by clicking the blue "Join This Site" tab below my profile.
Rhiannon -
