If you missed Day 17 you can find it here.
Day 18 - The last day of school this year! We sent of the last party supplies and brought home bags of projects, thank you notes, and more. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Brent and I were sick and pulling it together with cold medicine. The big event was going to see the OKC Ballet Company's warm up class before its evening production of the Nutcracker. We already had tickets for the following day, but I really wanted to watch and M was up for it when her dance studio made it a possibility. We met the other students in the lobby and took the opportunity to do some dancing in the lobby and took a few pictures before the crowded event the next day. Love this dress and this girl.
The actual class was fascinating to watch. The dancers enter wearing maybe 4-5 layers. Some of them have on PJs (one male dancer had on full head to toe star wars PJs). There were lots of people in wind pants or slippers and everything in between. As they got warmer, they gradually peeled off layers a bit at a time. By the end about 1/2 of the ballerinas were down to tutus, but most of they guys were still in tee shirts and scrubs or wind pants. They spent the first 20 minutes at the barre and then began free work. After an hour, they still weren't jumping. It is a slow careful process. I was amazed at all the memory work as the ballet mistress would outline a series of steps every few minutes that they were to repeat together. The complexity and lengths of the series increased away from the barres. Most people kept up, but you could see the effort as she mixed sequences. I did enjoy when the piano player used "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" as one of the warm up pieces.
It was a great look behind the scenes at the training it really takes to get to the glittery big production and I'm so glad we went.
Here is the two page spread - I am as surprised as anyone how much I'm enjoying using the plaid paper in the book. No surprise about how much I like glittery stars.
The actual class was fascinating to watch. The dancers enter wearing maybe 4-5 layers. Some of them have on PJs (one male dancer had on full head to toe star wars PJs). There were lots of people in wind pants or slippers and everything in between. As they got warmer, they gradually peeled off layers a bit at a time. By the end about 1/2 of the ballerinas were down to tutus, but most of they guys were still in tee shirts and scrubs or wind pants. They spent the first 20 minutes at the barre and then began free work. After an hour, they still weren't jumping. It is a slow careful process. I was amazed at all the memory work as the ballet mistress would outline a series of steps every few minutes that they were to repeat together. The complexity and lengths of the series increased away from the barres. Most people kept up, but you could see the effort as she mixed sequences. I did enjoy when the piano player used "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" as one of the warm up pieces.
It was a great look behind the scenes at the training it really takes to get to the glittery big production and I'm so glad we went.
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