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stars of tomorrow
Jun. 24th, 2007 12:03 pm.
Cathy's at ALA. I'm Mister Dad (since Friday - until Tuesday), which means the dance recital and rehearsal were on my watch. Fortunately, Cathy asked my cousin Betsy to come and see the show, so there was an adult female on hand to help Sarah change into her costume, so I didn't have to go do it myself. I expect this way was better for everyone.
On Friday, I got Sarah early and headed for West Springfield Middle School, where I drove around the perimeter until I saw a bunch of cars. We were right on time, and one of the girls we see at the dance school all the time kindly took Sarah in hand and got her changed into her costume. They did their routine ("Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini") twice, then practiced their part of the finale twice. I stood by with the camera taking 33-second silent movies from the edge of the stage. Sarah wanted to stay and watch some other numbers, and we watched until six. I wasn't sure how much she'd be able to see of the performance. We went home, wound down, and went to sleep. Sarah had some ghost-dream fears, so I let her get to sleep on Cathy's side of the bed and moved her to her own room after she'd slept a while.
Saturday, we both got up at a decent (but not hideously early) hour. Sarah started in on her main job of the morning, asking me at ever-decreasing intervals when Betsy would be here. We stayed home, except for one trip to the library, whose web page lies and says it's open on Saturday this month. I made breakfast here (partly to help use up some of the superfluous dozen eggs I got on Friday). I did little things to get the house cleaner, one small task at a time, at intervals through the morning. If I'd done it earlier in the week, it would have been messed up again already. I got the front lawn mowed, which I was rained out of doing on Friday, noting that the grass doesn't look awful any more, and from a distance looks pretty passable. Betsy showed up just before one, as planned. We socialized for a while and then went to WSMS.
Betsy checked with Sarah's teacher, and determined that Sarah could sit in the audience with us until five or six numbers after intermission. There was some good dancing, and then there was the dancing that's just so cute because they don't know what they're doing. K----, a very young girl, mostly came out and looked cute. For the youngest ones, they have a couple of older students come out and do the dance so they can follow along. K---- was doing so little, the older students tended to take her in hand and move her limbs around in an approximation of the steps. Facilitated Dancing, I calls it.
There were three brothers who are fairly talented at their moves, but have a problem with stage presence. Last year, they wore sailor suits, and after about ten seconds, the youngest went off stage and didn't come back. This year, the two older boys came out one by one, then stood looking off at stage left (audience right), as if by looking intently, they could make their brother come out. It didn't work. During a fairly quiet ballet number, I heard a noise and turned to see some guy in the audience with earphones on so loud, I could hear them through the sound system.* I was glad to see him gone before the next set. A couple of numbers before Sarah's, I moved up to an empty seat in the second row (on the aisle) that I'd had my eye on, for photographic purposes.
The dance went great. As my cousin (herself a ballet dancer) observed, Sarah was the one in her quartet who was consistently with the music. I timed my movie-taking so that I'd get the parts I'd missed before during the ten or fifteen seconds the camera is digesting the previous movie. It all went well. Sarah had complained of nervousness before we went, but that seemed to have left her with the excitement of being onstage. We cheerfully drove home, and picked up some food across the street at Sorrento's for a celebratory meal.
In other news, I didn't hear back from The Majestic, where I auditioned week before last. Maybe this is how long it takes, and maybe it'll be another slow year for me.
*The sound system sounded good sometimes, too loud sometimes, too distorted some times, and -- unforgiveably -- dropped out completely during some numbers. I gave "Five Guys Named Moe" extra applause for keeping it together through the lacunae.
.
Cathy's at ALA. I'm Mister Dad (since Friday - until Tuesday), which means the dance recital and rehearsal were on my watch. Fortunately, Cathy asked my cousin Betsy to come and see the show, so there was an adult female on hand to help Sarah change into her costume, so I didn't have to go do it myself. I expect this way was better for everyone.
On Friday, I got Sarah early and headed for West Springfield Middle School, where I drove around the perimeter until I saw a bunch of cars. We were right on time, and one of the girls we see at the dance school all the time kindly took Sarah in hand and got her changed into her costume. They did their routine ("Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini") twice, then practiced their part of the finale twice. I stood by with the camera taking 33-second silent movies from the edge of the stage. Sarah wanted to stay and watch some other numbers, and we watched until six. I wasn't sure how much she'd be able to see of the performance. We went home, wound down, and went to sleep. Sarah had some ghost-dream fears, so I let her get to sleep on Cathy's side of the bed and moved her to her own room after she'd slept a while.
Saturday, we both got up at a decent (but not hideously early) hour. Sarah started in on her main job of the morning, asking me at ever-decreasing intervals when Betsy would be here. We stayed home, except for one trip to the library, whose web page lies and says it's open on Saturday this month. I made breakfast here (partly to help use up some of the superfluous dozen eggs I got on Friday). I did little things to get the house cleaner, one small task at a time, at intervals through the morning. If I'd done it earlier in the week, it would have been messed up again already. I got the front lawn mowed, which I was rained out of doing on Friday, noting that the grass doesn't look awful any more, and from a distance looks pretty passable. Betsy showed up just before one, as planned. We socialized for a while and then went to WSMS.
Betsy checked with Sarah's teacher, and determined that Sarah could sit in the audience with us until five or six numbers after intermission. There was some good dancing, and then there was the dancing that's just so cute because they don't know what they're doing. K----, a very young girl, mostly came out and looked cute. For the youngest ones, they have a couple of older students come out and do the dance so they can follow along. K---- was doing so little, the older students tended to take her in hand and move her limbs around in an approximation of the steps. Facilitated Dancing, I calls it.
There were three brothers who are fairly talented at their moves, but have a problem with stage presence. Last year, they wore sailor suits, and after about ten seconds, the youngest went off stage and didn't come back. This year, the two older boys came out one by one, then stood looking off at stage left (audience right), as if by looking intently, they could make their brother come out. It didn't work. During a fairly quiet ballet number, I heard a noise and turned to see some guy in the audience with earphones on so loud, I could hear them through the sound system.* I was glad to see him gone before the next set. A couple of numbers before Sarah's, I moved up to an empty seat in the second row (on the aisle) that I'd had my eye on, for photographic purposes.
The dance went great. As my cousin (herself a ballet dancer) observed, Sarah was the one in her quartet who was consistently with the music. I timed my movie-taking so that I'd get the parts I'd missed before during the ten or fifteen seconds the camera is digesting the previous movie. It all went well. Sarah had complained of nervousness before we went, but that seemed to have left her with the excitement of being onstage. We cheerfully drove home, and picked up some food across the street at Sorrento's for a celebratory meal.
In other news, I didn't hear back from The Majestic, where I auditioned week before last. Maybe this is how long it takes, and maybe it'll be another slow year for me.
*The sound system sounded good sometimes, too loud sometimes, too distorted some times, and -- unforgiveably -- dropped out completely during some numbers. I gave "Five Guys Named Moe" extra applause for keeping it together through the lacunae.
.
