I had the opportunity to be in Christmas Around the World again this year. It is such an amazing show. The dance my class was doing was Hungarian. The women were doing a
botolo (bottle dance) and the men were doing a stick dance. The girls got to dance with bottles on our head, no gimicks, just balance. :) My teacher had us pull out the bottles at the beginning of October so that we could get used to balancing them before we actually had to dance with them. The bottles are big, thick, class bottles, with water in them. The first day we had them on it felt like there was no way were would ever be able to perform with them on. Eventually we got a little more used to them and by the time of the concert were were all really comfortable with them on. Our costumes were so beautiful. Mine was brand new. We were wearing accordion skirts which are really awesome when you spin but that meant we couldn't really sit-down while wearing them. This made rehearsals extra long.
One of the most amazing parts of the show for me, is the fact that on the first night (tues) of rehearsals in the Marriot Center the show is very rough, the rehearsal is incredibly long, and it seems like there is no way the show will be ready by Friday. The next-day we have tech rehearsals with costumes and lights; the show still seems very rough. Thursday night is dress rehearsal. Really it is a show because they film it so there are no re-dos. The dress rehearsal went well until the finale. . . .basically the finale (excuse my ranting) is ALWAYS utter chaos. For some reason they feel it is an awesome effect to have the whole cast run on (as fast as possible) into perfectly straight lines in one giant block on the stage.
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| yes it looks cool but it is horrible to get to as a cast member |
This is so incredible hectic especially if you have to get to the middle. All of the cast thought it was ridiculous (and yes we did something similar last year) Lucky me got to be in the middle near the front both times :p Anyway on the night of the dress rehearsal everyone ran in 8 counts too late. This confused everybody. The last 8 counts were this jazz-square step with arms in the air; when we got to that part the music stopped and so everybody slowly put their arms to the last pose. It was super funny and very awkward. So that was how we headed into our Friday matinée. Thank goodness we didn't do the finale because that show is shortened. It went really well and it is always fun to talk to the kids before hand.
Finally the Friday night performance! It is so exhilarating to perform. The anticipation, the adrenaline, the spirit of performing is just amazing. And magically, Voila! the performance works out on Friday night. I don't really know how it goes from the rough Tuesday to a full show on Friday, but it does, there really is some magic involved.
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| Opener Irish Party |
Here are some pictures one of my friends on another team took during the dress rehearsal for me.
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| My team (2RB) we had a little confusion as to if it was a funny picture or not. . .. . |
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| The boys pants looked liked skirts so they decided to be like the girls and hold them out ha ha ha |
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| My director Jeanette Geslison (a long-time family friend) |
I had the opportunity to be in Christmas Around the World again this year. It is such an amazing show. The dance my class was doing was Hungarian. The women were doing a botolo (bottle dance) and the men were doing a stick dance. The girls got to dance with bottles on our head, no gimicks, just balance. :) My teacher had us pull out the bottles at the beginning of October so that we could get used to balancing them before we actually had to dance with them. The bottles are big, thick, class bottles, with water in them. The first day we had them on it felt like there was no way were would ever be able to perform with them on. Eventually we got a little more used to them and by the time of the concert were were all really comfortable with them on. Our costumes were so beautiful. Mine was brand new. We were wearing accordion skirts which are really awesome when you spin but that meant we couldn't really sit-down while wearing them. This made rehearsals extra long.
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