All's Well That Ends

We had our final Intimate Evening Show last night.



Yes, that means I skipped one since the last entry.

Our second weekend series went well, without a hitch.
We performed Mambomania and the Don Quixote pas de deux (both pieces that we are taking to Orange County) and more Romeo and Juliet. R & J added a sequence with masks to the ballroom scene and half of a scene in Juliet's bedroom.

The mask scene was fun to set. The bulk of it was made up of a very pretty dance for a very pretty dancer, Abby, along with two attendants. Juliet joins them and the rest of the characters sort of wander through them, not able to tell the girls apart. This is the scene where Romeo and Juliet meet each other for the first time. It took a while because each character (Tybalt, the Nurse, Romeo, Paris) had to be threaded in individually.

The bedroom scene was a bit different. I knew that it would take a while so we only presented half of it. I didn't want to push it.



This last weekend, we showed a piece to a song by Candye Kane (for possible inclusion into a ballet in the future) and I set a dance for Rachel Sebastian accompanied by her husband Josh. The rest of the show was taken up by Romeo and Juliet (since we had had two weeks to add more to it.



And that is what we will discuss next time... just how far we have gotten with the ballet.

In Studio - Intimate Evenings

We have been very busy these past two weeks. Last weekend, we had the first of our Intimate Evening series and our second is playing this weekend. As a matter of fact, I am off to speak to our patrons in about 15 minutes. But here are some pics from last week's final rehearsals.



Here I am directing Chelsy and Chris (as Juliet and Paris) in a moment from Romeo and Juliet. The show gave us a chance to show pieces that we have been working on. Here are three of the girls in the new finale to Carnival of the Animals.



And this is a restaged number from Joplinesque.



Also, on the bill were "When We Have The Stars", set to some Nat King Cole tunes and the showing of Romeo and Juliet, as a work in progress.



The balcony pas de deux had already been staged and premiered in our fall shows. This show gave me the opportunity to start working on the ballroom scene. Here are Askar and Rachel as Tybalt and Lady Capulet. This is set to what is labeled in the score as the Dance of the Knights. But it isn't ever used as that. It is probably one of the most recognizable pieces from the score. They always use it for perfume commercials.

A small prelude for Romeo and Juliet was also shown. Basically two solos that occur at the same time on stage. but it isn't a pas de deux, as the dancers are not aware of each other.

Oh well, duty calls. I'll be back later to talk about what we are actually showing tonight.