We had been rehearsing it for a while, and the dancers knew how important it was to make a good showing at the festival.  We drove there in two mini-vans with Katie Angel our stage manager and Laura Glover, our lighting designer/technical director, myself and eleven dancers, the entire cast of Rhapsody.  We had exactly one hour to "tech" the piece onstage, adjust lights, practice the costume changes, and run it!  We just had enough time to do this, and the dancers had a good sense of the large space and adjusted lighting.  They were nervous and excited and gave a beautiful performance that night, receiving a standing ovation from some members of the audience and many cheers. The dancers had a chance to meet and speak with dancers from other companies, and to watch the second half of the program that evening.  All in all it was a very satisfactory experience, and we drove home on Friday, tired but happy.

Today we had the first of two photo shoots with our extraordinary photographer Drew Endicott.  Drew has been taking photographs of the company since I invited him many years ago to do so (1991) and he knows exactly how to capture our dancers in motion so that we can use their images to publicize our concerts.  This year we are trying duets which is much more difficult than solo shots because both dancers have to look good at the same time!  Our couples today were Brittany with Morgan, and Mariel with Tim and the shoot went very well.

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