ballet and their absurd story lines

Well, I found out how I did at auditions yesterday evening and these are my roles:

Coppelia- Corps member
Firebird- Enchanted Princess (one of many)
Sleeping Beauty- Fairy Assistant (As Sammi pointed out, for some reason this sounds kinky when it really shouldn't.)

First of all, I had no idea I'd be assigned more than role in more than one ballet (we're doing a montage in the Spring). But what got me was that the roles aren't double cast. There are 3 nights of performances all at the end of March and well, I guess that means I'll be dancing my heart out all 3 nights. Yikes! I didn't realize this prior to signing my name in blood. Actually, it's not in blood, but there was a lengthy contract I had to read in detail and sign before accepting the parts. Good
grief! Why is show business so complicated?

I was relieved that I got to be a corps member for Coppelia, at first, that is. If you recall in my previous post, all I aspired to be was a nice cute little doll sitting on the shelf serving as human scenery. When I mentioned this, the ballet master responded with:

"Are you kidding me? You're going to be doing character work and lots of complicated point combinations ..."

Oh geeze. So, I'm not a shelf item. Apparently I'm one of them jolly towns people who break out into perfect choreography every time something significant happens like when someone buys bread or something. (Dance interludes in ballet are just as absurd as the filler songs in musicals.) They're also not particularly bright since they
can't seem to tell the difference between a cute doll with the awful name of Swanhilda and a jealous chick who pretends to be her come to life. When I hear "life size doll" I think of things that are inflatable and only used by lonesome middle-aged men. Also, why the hell would you ever name anything Swanhilda? It's the Hilda part that irritates me.

As for Firebird,I get to be one of the Enchanted Princesses. I'm guessing they're virgins and one of them has the hots for the garden variety prince. The sit around eating golden apples and whine about this evil dude who turns travelers into stone. I don't know what they're complaining about because he's ain't turning any of them to stone, but I digress. Due to the magic of the spastic
Ms.Firebird, she's able to ward off evilness with her powers and Mr. Prince Ivan snags of them broads.

Sleeping Beauty is Sleeping Beauty...we all know the story. I still have no clue what a fairy attendant does. I guess we fluff up their tutus, straighten out their wings and smile and nod every now and then. I'm not really sure and I have no idea what the choreography is like. Some of it is ridiculously hard. Case in point, the Blue Bird variation. Now, this leads me to wonder about something else. Why is it that Blue Bird, Puss and Boots and Little Red Riding Hood were all invited to Sleeping Beauty's return to life, but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were excluded? I'm sure Santa wanted to be invited too...In terms of fairies we've also got: Canary, Strawflower, Lilac, Silver, Sapphire, Diamond...and Breadcrumb. What color is breadcrumb???? That ain't a color. I would hate to be named such a mundane food item as well.

Heh. So, there you have it. Those are the 3 ballets I'm in. I'll keep y'all posted on when I'm performing. :)

dance dance dance!

Look at how tall Sammi and I look when we're standing next to each other.


In stark contrast to her and my darlin hubby:


It's still amazes me how she managed to squeeze all of that long beautiful red hair of hers under that wig. Still though, she looks damn cute and I have to say purple is very flattering on her.

The three of us danced the night away (or rather S and I thrashed about while darling hubby bought us drinks) as the bands Hipnautica and Lucid Dementia performed. It was a great show and the club Elysium was packed with lots of beautiful people. One particular beautiful person, the bassist from Hipnautica (Sandy, if you need a reference, he looked exactly like Scott but smaller...), brushed up against my hubby. We were mildly jealous of course.

There was a big burly dude who just sat right up again Sam at one point while she and Trav were taking a break. Literally, he came right up and hunkered down smooshing his hip up against hers. Good grief. Talk about subtle...versus skinny goth boy who was dancing next to me:

Dear Skinny Goth Boy,
I acknowlege that you're nice to look at, but you know what? You lost your chance 5 years ago when I smiled at you while you worked the cash register over at Cheapo's Used CDs. You could have started a conversation then. Inching into my thrash space is not gonna work. In case you didn't notice, I've got a volutous hot chick wearing a purple wig and a cute guy who looks a little like Dave Grohl and John Linnel dancing right next to me. They're with me. You...I can't figure out what the hell you're doing. Your boot is nuzzling next to mine. At least Mr. Boot knows how to make a pass. I'd like to think its a mistake except that everytime I move to the left, Mr. Boot keeps following me and at one point your arms came dangerously close to messing up my eyeliner. Don't smudge my eyeliner, boy I'm warning you. Otherwise I'm gonna go after your lipgloss!


Actually it wasn't that bad...

Now, I was having such a grand ole time that I sort of forgot that I had a ballet audition the next day. Ugh, first of all, I had a hangover when I woke up the next morning. My going away happy hour in my department was earlier that evening and I had drank a few beers and munched on too much queso. At Elysium, I downed a couple more drinks and forgot to drink water. Dancing to the goth bands that played that night included a lot of thrashing and hip action, so my back and neck were killing me. However, by far the worst thing I did to myself though was not taking a break and letting my feet rest.

By the time I arrived at the school for auditions, I discovered much to my horror that my feet had swollen so much that I could barely fit them into my pointe shoes. Even worse, the bottoms of the soles of my feet were completely blistered.


I frantically bandaged up each toe and the balls of my feet with medical tape, ripped out the toes of my tights and smooshed my feet into my shoes. Ouch. I already paid the audition fee, so I figured I'd make the best of it.

If you're wondering, I auditioned for Coppelia. Don't I reek of obnoxiously cute doll? I mean, come on...that's totally me. Just imagine me sitting on that chair wearing a tutu. It screams Cindy. Actually, I just want a small part in the corps, live a villager or something. Or, maybe I can be one of those dolls who just sorta sit on the shelf as scenery.

I didn't do great, but it was fun despite the feet that hurt. In fact, I'm sure I could have done better had I been in a more focused condition, but ah well. No biggie. It's one of those moments where you're encouraged to be a ham. :) One of the gals got really sick though and was throwing up due to not feeling well and being too nervous. I felt really bad for her and couldn't quite concentrate after she left. But, I got through it all and hopefully I'll get a small part for the spring show.

I should add that I am, according to the people at my ballet school, officialy 5'1''. I'm going gloat about that extra inch as much as I can to my other petite friends.