I was in the ballet!

[elfs]

Lookin' Marvelous

Kouryou-chan's ballet had the first of two scheduled performances of the Nutcracker for the winter holiday, and Omaha and I somehow got shanghied into participating as human props for the party scene. They needed a bunch of adults-- it is a kids' dance studio, for the most part-- and about ten parents ponied up and said they'd do it. Omaha and I got the role of First Parents-- not the biggest roles, those are the families and the toymaker, Drosselmeyer, who's played by a fascinatingly charismatic man.

We arrived early, only to discover that about half of the stuff we needed had actually come with us. Most critically missing: Kouryou-chan's shoes. I ran back to the house, then back to the concert hall. Omaha was mostly dressed when I arrived, as was Kouryou-chan.

Dress rehearsal

The dress rehearsal was fun, and the other parents were delightful. We'd given up several Saturday mornings to practice this, including the "parents' dance" at the end, which is fairly easy and fairly formal, but still, getting everything done to the "8 measures in 4/4 time" was tricky. It was more than just standing around. We had to look like we were having fun, and chastising the boys when they became rambunctious, and fascinated with the mad scientist in our midst.

Omaha and I rocked our costumes. I think the cravat is me, don't you? I'm totally Fred.

The little old lady

Between the rehearsal and the performance, I ran out to Burger King. There was a canonical little old lady in front of me, and after I ordered she said, "That's an interesting outfit. Are you going to a party?"

In my best Jeremy Irons drawl, I said, "Ballet."

"Oooh."

Dinner and Prayer

I keep forgetting that the vast majority of the people at the ballet are Christians. At least twice we were invited to prayer circles that ended with "in Jesus' name, Amen," which the more I thought about it the odder it seemed.

We ate our Burger King relatively quickly, though, and then had a frenzied prep for the actual performance.

Don't Trip over the Wires!

We were on stage for 25 minutes. We herd our five (!) children out onto stage left, where we bow to the host family, then move upstage to the tree. We pretend to admire the tree, and greet the other guests coming in with delight. The women present gifts to the children. There's a dance of accepting the gifts, with the boys being "rambunctious" and the fathers herding them out.

A scene with the adults raising a toast, in which we freeze to have a brief "fantasy" scene of the hosts' daughter admiring a fairy. It's less than a minute long. Then the children resume playing/dancing.q

That dance ends with a confrontation between the hosts' son, Fritz, and the maid (played by one of the most delightful young women I've had the pleasure to meet), then I and another father shoo the boys backstage. Drosselmeyer enters, does a magic show for the children, then shows off his clockwork women. (I'm very disturbed by how many 19th century ballets, plays, and shows enjoyed "mechanizing" women.) The children admire the toys, and then Fritz and Clara fight over Drosselmeyer's gift of the nutcracker, which breaks. Drosselmeyer fixes it, and the dance of the lullaby, which included Kouryou-chan, began.

Omaha and I moved across the stage at this scene. Her back was bothering her a lot, and we ended stage up and right, on the settee. The settee had wires leading off-stage so it would be easy to clear mid-scene, and one of the wires got wrapped around Omaha's ankle. We got her free before the lullaby ended, which was good because then's the parents' dance.

It's a very simple dance: woman curtseys to four beats, man bows, then four steps in a circle, palms crossed, to the left, curtsey, bow, four steps right palms crossed, step forward left, step back, step forward right, step back, step right two, trailing toe heel rest, step left two, trailing toe heel rest, gallop stage right four, gallop stage left four, line up with other dancers and make a tunnel, and the maid runs through and clicks her heels, and the party's over. Then there's eight measures of four to get the children up and off stage.

Much to my surprise, I was never nervous. It was fine. I just did my part and, when it was over, walked off. I made a decent prop, all things considered. So did Omaha. Really, all of the adults, despite having a quarter of the rehearsal time of the children, did well.

Little boys can be very rude

As I was changing out of my costume, a bunch of small boys from the show were hanging out. One little boy said, "Do you shower?"

"Of course I shower," I said. "I did just before I came here."

"Then why does your face look like that?"

"Like what?"

"All dirty 'n stuff."

"I'm Italian."

"What does that mean?"

"It means my face looks like this."

It's a wrap.

After that, we stayed back in the dressing room and watched the show on the monitors. Omaha's back was bothering her a lot so we didn't move out to the main area. Kouryou-chan did the finale and there was much applause and we were exhausted so we all went home. And we'll do it again tomorrow.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Totally rockin' costumes, the both of you. You're right about the cravat.... and she looks gorgeous in the electric blue...

Further comment on people being rude in various fashions unnecessary.

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

Is that wisp of dignified gray around the temples your own?

[omahas.livejournal.com]

It is indeed! Doesn't it look awesome? I swear, dressed like that, I fully expect that he's going to be signing the Declaration of Independence. LOL

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

or perhaps inventing something dangerous...

[wendor.livejournal.com]

You both look great. And I got hilarious mental images out of having misread your post (multiple times) as "singing" instead of "signing".

[cadetstar.livejournal.com]

We're waiting for the chirp, chirp, chirp
Of an eaglet being born