All over!

After all that work it was over in 2 days and we were packing up the scenery and folding the costumes for another time.

The hours of effort by everyone that go into the production are a labour of love for those involved. One wonderful parent painted each bone on 14 skeletons! Others gave up their time to make dresses, capes,shirts, skirts, pants and wonderfully atmospheric costumes. All totally appreciated by me who hyper ventilates at the sight of a sewing needle.

So what will it be next year? Something a little simpler. Something that does not require mixed groups and no soloists that need to be woven through the story...the logistics of the enterprise are just too difficult with the time available unfortunately.

I have an idea.........

And then.....

Beneath the Waves

Mermaids with attitude!

Slowly the other parts came together. We added Fish (Grade 1/2)

then on dry land the Pirates met a band of Little Pirates (Prep)

who helped them on their way to find the treasure.

They had to travel through the Jungle (Teenagers Contemporary),

meet The Tinkers (Grade 2/3/4),

be introduced to the Parrots (Kinder)

who showed them the way to the Swamp (Teens again)

to be frightened by the Skeletons (Grade 2/3/4)

before finding the Jewels (Grade 5/6)

in the cave where the Treasure Chest

was hidden before they are rescued having done a Horn Pipe!

Almost there! But I felt I need one last very up dance and who better to do it than the teenagers....as if they didnt have enough do already. They came up trumps with a great fun, high energy piece, totally created by them,that many loved the most.

Shipwrecked!

Now the holidays are finally here I think it is good to catch up on the last tumultuous term and write about the process of creating our performance this year.

Sometimes the idea or theme is quite clear and almost formed in my mind but not this year.

My initial inspiration was the fact that my 5 year old grandson was very much into pirates and there was a TV commercial (what it was about I cant remember) that showed a line of youngsters on stage dressed as pirates. In the back of my mind I kept seeing a silhouette of a sailing ship in a similar vein to our previous year's performance. I knew if there was a shipwreck there could be mermaids, the sea, desert islands, jungles, bands of pirates, creepy swamps and treasure. But how to draw it all together? What subject would be appropriate for each class or group? And could it be made to last a hour?

Walking along the beach last summer I started to make up a story in 4 scenes- the sea, the jungle, the swamp and the treasure..............

Over The Moon

Big week this week. My friends huge performance in Castlemaine is this weekend. Rehearsal Friday followed by another in the morning then 4 performances over Saturday and Sunday.

I used to know many of the students from relief teaching and generally being around the studio but over the last few years have been focused much more on my own school and Edna has many people to teach for her now. With so many classes and keen to keep the performance running at about 1hr 15mins each individual dance lasts about 3mins - 2mins for the littlies.

The production values are so high that she has set a bench mark for us all. There is a constant flow of dancers on and off stage, no thumping or noise or light spill as backstage doors are opened and shut, nor fumbles with props. It takes an army of dedicated people to shepherd the dancers to the stage then keep them quiet in the foyer (the facilities back stage are extremely limited) whilst they wait for their bows.

An exhausting but inspiring time.

It was a relief to not have to worry about the dancing....just do my allocated job. But now I am back into performance mode for myself so I found one of my favourite photos from last year to remind me it WILL BE OK!