This week was a short one, since July 4 fell on Friday, and since I was not going to be an ogre and have us rehearse on Independence Day. The concert is shaping up nicely, and we had our Studio Dress on Thursday. This is an important rehearsal, because it give the dancers a chance to rehearse the program in costume for the first time. There is a particularly tricky costume change in "Rhapsody in Blue" when the entire cast has to change into formal evening wear, and then, most of them have to change back into their original costumes in the blink of an eye. We had a couple of disasters on Thursday, but by and large the run through went well and I was pleased.
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Last night we held our annual fundraiser, Kaleidoscope of Dance at the Hyatt Hotel downtown. About 400 guests attended, and were treated to an exciting night out on the town. Upon arrival at the "red carpet" they were met by paparazzi and a politically incorrect Joan Rivers "dishing" what they were wearing. As hors d'oeuvres were served, the guests were able to peruse the large selection items in the silent auction.
More work on Pictures this week. The sections are beginning to come together nicely. The first section is now called "Gargoyles" and has a lot of distorted shapes and lifts. We were also able to finish the double duet with Libby/Tim and Mariel/George before Mariel left for a few days off.
I hope that you all are having a great summer so far. For the first time in ten years, we are home for the summer and to celebrate we are presenting the very popular I Got Gershwin at the IRT Mainstage July 10-13. And to top it off, we are giving everyone a break from high gas and food prices, and charging only $10 a ticket! You’ll want to get your tickets early before they sell out, so call the IRT box office 635-5252 soon.
We finished learning all the steps for the Gershwin program this week, and ran two of the pieces from start to finish. It's always an accomplishment when we can do that for the first time, and extremely useful in letting the dancers know what sections fit into the structure of the whole. It was also an eye opener for our new dancers, since Rhapsody in Blue requires quite a bit of stamina to get through and they were "huffing and puffing" at the end! As we keep on running the dances their stamina will improve to the point where they will be able to dance every bit of the program with ease and aplomb, or at least the illusion of it!
Happy Valentine's Day! The concert is developing nicely. The dancers are becoming more assured in their steps and the shapes of the pieces are becoming more well defined. I watched some of Nick's rehearsal on Friday, and his piece is also progressing very well. He has captured the "separation" from his lovers in quite a wonderful way. It will be interesting to see how he develops both the attraction between them and the tension which keeps them apart.
We were back at work on Monday after a week off following the Love is... performances. I was able to get to New York to catch two performances of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, plus Billy Elliot and Hair on Broadway. In addition I was able to take a ballet class from my long-time teacher Nancy Bielski at Steps and also teach a class myself at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.
Happy Easter everyone! The welcome Spring weather has brought high spirits and an explosion of creativity to the studio. This week I was able to complete three more sections of "Pictures at an Exhibition." The "Ballet of the chicks" has turned out to be a quite funny dance for six women.
We were back to work in the studio this week after two weeks of well deserved off time. The dancers came back looking and feeling refreshed, and ready to tackle the rehearsals for I Got Gershwin which we are performing at the IRT Mainstage July 10-13. We have added two new male dancers, Tim June and Kevin Wiltz to our ranks. Both are recent graduates of The Butler University Department of Dance. Tim hails from Connecticut while Kevin is from the south side of Indy. Both are very talented dancers in their own right.
