Post-Performance Depression

 I'm not prone to "the blues" or depression, but I wasn't expecting the massive crash I experienced after completing the performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

A Midsummer Night's Dream

 

Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, Ballet Embody performed the locally-choreographed version of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

This was the first time I'd been on stage since college, and the first time ever dancing in a ballet. Although I had but a supporting cast role, and was on stage for only about 5 minutes, I was understandably nervous.

The first act of Midsummer is all set-up for the second and third act. Although this is a comedy, the audience was rather subdued.

Act Two opens with the Actors Troupe "rehearsal" in the woods, which is choreographed to be nearly slapstick comedy. The character of Bottom is a know-it-all pain, tormenting the troupe director. Bottom was brilliantly danced by our choreographer/director. My role as troupe director is basically the straight man in this comedy duo. This started audible chuckling from audience. When Puck transforms Bottom into a donkey, the audience started laughing. When Queen Titania, under the spell of the magic flower, swoons over Bottom the donkey, the audience lost it

Act Three resolves the mess, with Oberon and a chastised Puck putting things to right. All ends happily, of course. 

The finale begins with the dancers coming out in small groups. The "actors troupe" group started with me running out on stage and signalling for the others to follow. As each dancer reaches me she jumps, which I transform into a lift and carry to the side. All except Bottom, of course, who pulls up short as I signal "No!". We form a line for a brief dance together, during which we follow Bottom around in a circle before bowing individually. Bottom, ever the ham, continues bowing and dancing as the others leave, which I interrupt and force Bottom off the stage with a kick before leaving myself.

Then we come out in different small groups for a bow, slowly filling the stage as we accumulate. My group is second to come out, which gives us attention before we retreat to the rear of the stage. When everyone is present we do a final group dance and take a company bow before the curtain closes.

All in all, I found the experience both scary and rewarding. I'm finally able to do something with my ballet training, even though the only true ballet move I do is a soutenu turn as part of the opening to Act Two. The professional cast and the other supporting cast members were nothing less than supportive.

The other side of such an experience, of course, is introspection. It's impossible not to notice the apparent ease with which the professional dancers learn long sequences, and compare it to the difficulty I felt memorizing my own few minutes of stage time.

Dress Rehearsal

Last night was the dress rehearsal for A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

First we ran through the entire show, including the recorded introductory narratives. With that done and notes given, we ran through the 2nd and 3rd acts a second time. From my point of view things went pretty smoothly.

My role is that of the leader of the "acting troupe"; the other supporting cast members make up the rest of the troupe, with the exception of the role of "Bottom" which is danced by one of the professionals. We open Act 2, with me giving "stage direction" to the troupe, holding a book that is intended to represent a script. This is followed by my only solo balletic move: a soutenu turn. Woot! I'm ready for the big time!

I tried something new last night, holding the "script" book open to make it more obvious what it is. I close it before the turn. This didn't cause me any trouble, so I'm going to keep it tonight. 

Cast call time yesterday was 4pm (yes, on a Friday). I left home at 2:30, stopping for a quick lunch on the way. I expected to arrive 15 minutes early (it's an hour drive at a minimum), but fire trucks closed the road a couple of miles from the theatre so I ended up arriving a couple minutes late. The student company had a mandatory warm-up, which we (the supporting cast) joined, while the professionals were left to do their own thing individually. Since the theatre doesn't have any barres, we used a balcony railing overlooking the lobby.

After warm-up I changed into my performance costume. This is basically my renaissance faire costume -- a loose white shirt and a green leather suede tabard -- with grey tights and slippers. The tights are brand new Wear Moi brand, fit like Spanx, and the crotch is forever trying to work its way down to my knees. The shoes are new white Só Dança canvas that I was told would be dyed grey, but were painted instead. I've heard of fabric paint but this is my first experience with it. It's made the canvas very stiff and possibly shrunk them a bit, which is not terribly comfortable.

Since I have nothing to do during the two short contemporary pieces that precede Midsummer, nor Act 1, the supporting cast and I stood around backstage and socialized. We're an odd bunch: four young women (26, 26, 20, and 16) and me (62). I found the discussion fascinating, though for much of it I just listened.

After opening Act 2, I again had nothing to do until the finale. So I wandered around, watching from the wings and keeping out of the way. I wish I'd spent my free time sitting  watching the show from the audience seating, because it looks like it's going to be a great show. There is going to be a recording for cast members to watch later, but I can't imagine it would be as much fun as watching it live.

Our first performance is tonight.  I've got the makeup down to about 30 minutes (more on that in another post when I have time), but I'm allowing an hour in case something goes horribly wrong and I need to start over. I've basically been stalling until it's time to start getting ready, and it's about that time.

Double pirouettes

 Since returning to the ballet studios last summer I've been taking as many as 4 classes a week from three or four different instructors. Each instructor has their own specific thing they seem to focus on: one can spot a bent knee under sweatpants from across the room; another is laser-focused on core alignment, etc. Between them, I get lots of good corrections. Some of them seemingly tiny, but never without good reason.

Mid fall I started to notice a significant improvement in my balance, likely related to how often I'm taking classes now. On rare occasions I found I could sustain passe releve seemingly indefinitely. Then "rarely" became "occasionally", and then more frequently. This paid off in more consistent pirouettes. Although some of my classmates seem to prefer sloppy double pirouettes, I've been concentrating on clean singles (with varying success).

Last week, while marking a centre routine that included a pirouette en dedans, I found myself over-rotating. Just for fun, I decided to see how far around I'd get. To my surprise, I completed a fairly decent double. I'd never even attempted a double pirouette en dedans before, let alone completed one.

Monday, before we started the pirouette combination, I decided to try a double pirouette en dehors. I tried four or five and landed most of them, which really surprised me. After class the instructor commented that she'd noticed them and thought they were a good start. :-)

Of course, Wednesday I had trouble landing clean singles, let alone attempt a double. *sigh*

Something unexpected

I've often said that adult ballet students fall into one of two categories: those who are looking to improve, and those who just want to dance. I'm definitely in the first category, and I make sure to let my instructors know that I'm here for the corrections.

After receiving some subtle tweaks in body positioning during barre, I found myself having a good balance day. Later, during a centre exercise involving a mixture of pirouettes, I realized I was putting too much energy into the turns and that was causing me to rotate further than the single turn called for. Just for fun, I let an en dedans turn continue and landed a fairly clean double. I've never even tried a double en dedans pirouette before!

Naturally, I couldn't do it a second time. Trying it on the other side didn't work either, nor did attempts at double en dehor pirouettes. But, as one of my instructors observed, the first time something like this happens it's a miracle. But then the miracle happens again. And then it happens more frequently. Eventually it becomes something you try to perfect, rather than it being a miracle.

Three Weeks 'til Showtime!

I haven't been onstage in a production since my college days, some 40 years ago. But in three short weeks I'll be opening Act 2 in a locally-choreographed ballet of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the role of Peter Quince, the leader of the actors troupe.