Recital rehearsal

[spinbug]

Okay, I knew it would happen to me sooner or later and it does to everyone who gets on stage. (I hope that's true! ) I just blanked out on part of my dance and stood there smiling until I recognized the next part in the music. It's a pretty hard dance for me, very fast with lots of jumps and turns, but I can do it okay. I just feel yucky! I also have three other dances and two costume changes in the first act alone so I'm already feeling pretty rushed and that feeling doesn't usually bode well for me.

 

While I'm still complaining I want some input from the other adult dancers who perform and take class with students much younger than you. Do you experience any of them as having a superior attitude towards you? The one I'm speaking of is a wonderful dancer and normally pretty easy to get along with. But every once in a while and especially during recital season, she can be pretty bossy, especially when the teacher is not around. Any suggestions on how to handle this?

 

Thanks,

Spinbug

[Guest Until The End Of Time]

Get a copy of the song you are using and practice at home and keep doing until you are sure your positive you can do it and not forget it. Thats what I do. I hope that helps because I know how bad it sucks to forget your routine.

[spinbug]

Thanks for your reply Until The End Of Time. The crazy thing, I didn't forget it! I knew it already and had just rehearsed it. I just get psyched out on stage sometimes. What an interest to have when you have serious stage fright!

[Mel Johnson]

Remember, if it's a solo variation, you can always bourrée, smile and do port de bras all over the place!

[Dick]

Right Mel. I had such a blank when performing Drosselmeyer last december, with three children staring at me and expecting something to hapen. How long can 2 seconds be. Fortunatly, we picked it up at the right moment and everything went good and probably unnoticed by the majority of the spectators. What a bad feeling thow...

 

Richard

[Jaana Heino]

I take from the topic line that this happened in a rehearsal? If so, also remember, it's supposed to be good luck for the actual performance if last rehearsals go more badly than you'd expect.

 

About the bossy girl: she could be just nervous and it manifests as bossiness towards everyone. I know that's possible, as I react the same... Don't worry about it, if she's generally nice, just try to be understanding and friendly and keep calm so that she gets less nervous too. She probably feels bad about it herself, too, when the nervousness lets go.

[spinbug]

Thanks for all of your replies! I didn't know it was good luck to mess up on rehearsal. I'll have to remember to mention that to my teacher when she frowns at me today in tech rehearsal, ...or maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea

 

Well, about the girl...She is one of the best dancers in our studio and still pretty young. She has a tendency to "help" the teacher when she isn't around, even during regular class. For example, telling the rest of us not to talk and get more serious. She usually acts like she's joking but underneath I think she means just what she is saying. That's why I say she is usually "nice", she masks it as a joke. It's only at recital that she doesn't do it in a joking manner. Perhaps she is nervous, in which case I know just how she feels. However, I don't think nervousness is an excuse to be rude to others who are also feeling nervous. Mmmm....I will be patient and kind towards her but I'm seriously thinking about patiently and calmly letting her know how it makes me feel. For now, I think I will give it a little time. What do you think? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

I just love being able to talk to other "ballet" adults! For so long this topic of conversation existed only within a group of teenage girls, and then me. Bless their beautiful adolescent hearts, I love them all and really look up to them. But this...this speaks to my adult dancing soul!

 

Spinbug

[spankster]

Dick wrote:

 

I had such a blank when performing Drosselmeyer last december, with three children staring at me and expecting something to hapen. How long can 2 seconds be.

 

Seems like 200 seconds!

 

 

Spinbug,

 

Maybe it would be a good idea to talk to her. I'm thinking about it from her perspective, because it can be extremely distracting when other students are talking, pulling on the bar, doing unrelated steps inbetween combinations etc. That's no excuse for her to be rude at all, but maybe talking to her would allow you to both understand each other better. She may be hoping that you would jump in and take that role of "enforcer" as the adult in the class.

 

I know in one of my classes the students did no proper preparation or finish to the barre exercises which is terribly sloppy in my opinion. The teacher asked nicely a couple times, I got the impression it had been kind of a futile mission up to that point. It is simply my habit to do a proper prep and finish to all exercises because that is the way I was trained. After one or two classes the teacher started to get *much* more strict about it and we look much better as a group.

 

Sometimes especially if the teacher is young, they may be hesitant to really crack down on discipline in the classroom. This drives me nuts. Maybe you can be a good influence in that regard.

 

Hugs,

 

Spankster

[Garyecht]

I am the oldest person in class by about 15 years, and quite frankly I take great pride in that. I tend to group people into three age categories—high school kids, college kids, and everyone else. The high school kids are pretty much completely absorbed in their own worlds and I have exactly zero interaction with them. I’ve yet to meet anyone in the other category who I thought of as having a superior attitude though the vast majority of the people in that category are much better dancers than I am. College kids are a mish-mash. Some are old high school students while others are young others.

 

A superior attitude? Hummm, I wonder how anyone would ever know if someone did have a superior attitude. And even if that person did have a superior attitude (whatever that means), how would that affect my behavior? I would hope it wouldn’t affect my behavior at all. I hope I would just continue on with life as I ordinarily would.

 

I remember several years ago after I had taken a few years of ballet, an extremely well known ballet dancer happened to be at my school. She created something of a stir with her presence. I remember just looking at her and coming to the conclusion that she just looked “snooty.” All I had to go on was her body language as observed from afar. Later that night, I had occasion to walk out with someone else who happened to know the famous ballerina and they began talking. It didn’t take long to figure out that famous ballerina wasn’t at all snooty. In fact she was very much an ordinary person. Later I realized that snooty body language that originally caught my eye was nothing more than just good ballet posture—chin up and out, sternum projected forward. She had probably worked hard to achieve that as something of a normal look, something she didn’t have to consciously think about.

 

Good example of how my perception of snooty was a creation of my own mind and not a real consequence of someone else’s behavior.

[BarreTalk]

I just blanked out on part of my dance and stood there smiling until I recognized the next part in the music.  It's a pretty hard dance for me, very fast with lots of jumps and turns, but I can do it okay.  I just feel yucky!   I also have three other dances and two costume changes in the first act alone so I'm already feeling pretty rushed and that feeling doesn't usually bode well for me.

Excessively rapid costume changes are a good recipe for stage fright and confusion for me.

 

Last spring (playing the Pasha in Le Corsaire) I was still half undressed when I heard my entrance music starting act 3. Talk about panic! I jammed my robe and hat on, grabbed my staff (which I wasn't supposed to carry in that scene) and ran onstage just as the people who were supposed to be reacting to my entrance were getting really strange looks on their faces. When I finally had time to do a costume check I found I actually looked a lot more together than I felt

 

When confronted with a fast change, it's important to enlist assistance and practice exactly what each dresser is going to do and in what order.

[spinbug]

Thanks for all of your replies. I think I need to revise some of my earlier language about the student I refered to. "Superior" probably wasn't an accurate depiction, Garyecht , maybe the term was a little critical and a byproduct of my negative feelings about my brain freeze. Her style of interraction is just a little assertive for me. But I also think I might be a little sensitive to it right now.

 

Actually, she reminds me of myself when I was younger. It was very important for me to make sure everything and everybody was in "order" around me or I couldn't deal with it. I was, and still am, a perfectionist and recognize it in others. Now I am a little older and am still learning about where my boundaries of control lie, right with myself. And believe me! Trying to keep myself in check and on the right path is definitely a full time job! (Of course this viewpoint is nill if you are supposed to be in authority, in which case I believe it is your responsibility to keep order.)

 

We actually talked about it briefly today, Spankster, and everything's fine. I know I have my own little quirks. In fact she may be writing about me on the teen forum this very minute..." that goofy old lady can't remember any of the combinations!" (The truth, my memory is horrible.) It's a tight fitting world and we just have to learn to get along!

 

Oh, today I did my solo again at rehearsal and skipped a whole section. My very patient and understanding teacher stopped the music and explained it to a very oblivious me. I went over and whispered that I was scared to death She just smiled and said I would be just fine. We started over and I did it perfect! Well, not really perfect, but pretty good. If she could just stand there and smile at me during the performance I think I'll be just fine. Maybe she could even hold my hand! Mmmmm...I don't think so.

 

Thanks for all the replies!

 

 

Spinbug

[SeaMonkey]

Someone I used to dance with stated something very wise......."When in Doubt Bouree till you remember"

 

I dance with someone sort of like who you are talking about. She's mean and critical all year round. She's already said several times she can outdance anyone in the studio and hates me because the past 2 years, I've gotten the part she told everyone she was going to get. I've never said anything to her until last night at rehearsal. The younger kids look up to us principles with a strange adoration. Sometimes, they're so in awe that they inadvertantly get in our way on and off stage. During rehearsals at the studio, its fairly packed and she pushed a kid out of the way. We made a general announcement saying if the kids are in your way, be nice to them because they look up to us, etc.

 

Well, at the theater during tech rehearsal, we have to go off, then run back on in another wing. She screamed at the kids at the top of her lungs and SHOVED 3 of them. I was totally apalled. I said something to her and then asked the backstage helper to have the kids not stand in way for that part in the dance because this girl was likely to plow them over.

 

She's screamed and ordered people around before, and we let it slide thinking it was just nervousness, but I can't deal with her screaming and pushing 7 year old kids.

[Mel Johnson]

This happened to me once as a ballet master. I saw a dancer pushing the little kids around, and when she came offstage for the last time, I cut her off in the wing and told her that it could go two ways: 1. She could pick up her severance check from Accounting in the morning, or 2. I'll turn this over to the police right now as assault upon a minor child. She took the former. Now that's what happens in the "real world", but the cops are just as real if you are a witness to child abuse!

[spinbug]

Well said Master Johnson!

 

Thankfully I'm not in that situation at all! Everyone in our studio is considerate of the little kids. In fact, we all help them during recital to make sure they get on and off stage okay.

 

Spinbug

[SeaMonkey]

I just don't get that girl. I LOVE dancing with the little kids. In fact, I'm almost 25 and I still get in trouble WITH them

 

My teachers tell me I'm a bad influence on them, but in a joking way. I still maintain it was NOT my fault all the little kids showed up to class with rolls of toliet paper.