*sigh*

Ok, I've been really bad about posting and I'm so sorry. All the shows finished without a hitch. YEAH!!!!! The whole cast of Nutcracker 2010 made a huge 10ft poster for the teachers that we had all signed and we presented it to them right after the curtain fell on the last show. Jimmy kept telling us that we were part of the FIRST annual Nutcracker at TDC. Even though I've done a lot of Nutcrackers it felt cool to be apart of the first one for them. After the last show, Mommy and I went out to Denny's with a great friend of mine and her mom for desert. When we got there and started to look at the menu, real food started to look really appealing. So I got breakfast instead of ice cream. After we got home and kind of unpacked the car, I ended up crawling in bed at 11:52pm. The next day, so Thursday, we had technique class, which didn't happen. Jose, Dana, and all us students had a fun day and sat around eating cookies and watching Don Quixote for 2 and a half hours. So that's the end of that chapter for me. Here's a recap of the last couple months!!

Setting waltz of the flowers

Us girls hanging out waiting for rehearsal to start

Yes this did happen a lot!

Most of the time, this loverly Dr. kept me going

Fooling around during a break

Snow Queen, me, with my flakes

Group picture with the 10ft poster

Sugar Plum Fairy and Dew Drop Fairy.
One of my many wonderful teachers to learn from.

Fly the curtain!!

Show #1..CHECK!!

I'm so sorry, it has been forever since I last posted here. Let's see, the last I posted was Jimmy had his radar on me and blah blah blah....Oh yeah! Ok so dress rehearsal went relatively smoothly, but it was long. All the dancers had to be there at 3:15pm and we finally got done at about 10:30pm. The worst part about it was Jimmy band us from eating in the theater and in our costumes...so we didn't get a bite of food from start to end of dress! That was one big issue, one of the others was the snow. One of my parts is snow queen so during the whole snow waltz Jimmy wanted snow falling on the front of the stage. And when I say snow I'm talking little pieces of floating plastic that cause death if you step on it. So I spent the whole 1st half of dress and the 1st show trying to avoid this deathly snow. The show itself went pretty well, much better then the rest of us thought it was going to go. Here are some pics of dress rehearsal!

Snow Queen, lovingly made by Mommy

This was before dress started. Mommy wanted a good picture of me in both my costumes. Now I just need one in Dew Drop.

He's on to me...

Well today was the first day Jimmy has really gotten on my case about my dancing. I was doing dew drop and I could hear him telling Jose. "She needs to make it bigger, elongate it, stand out from the core." Jose gestures to me. "Yell at her bro." Jimmy promptly turns to me and yells, "You need to make it bigger! You're blending into the core and you're not standing out. You need to earn the spotlight and keep it." Got it Jimmy, workin' on it!!

Ay ay ay....Can I die yet?

I know I keep saying that this was/is a long day and what not, but today was officially a long day! I went to the florist to help out Brooke with an order that she got for 50 center pieces and originally I told her I had to leave by 3:30pm. Then Kathi from TDC emailed everybody and warned us that there was going to be a parade going down Old Town and Front St, the main street, was going to be closed from 4pm to 10pm. Well the way I get to the studio I have to drive part of Front St and rehearsal started at 5:30pm, so I didn't know if the part that I drive was going to be closed as well or not. So I told Brooke that I had to be out of the shop by 2pm so I could rush home, hop in the shower, inhale some food and then get up to the studio 1.5hrs early so I wouldn't get blocked out. Jimmy wouldn't be very happy with me if that happened. So, that's what I did. I came home, showered, inhaled and Ricky Racered, some of you will know what that means, up to the studio to find that they were closing the road right past the intersection where I turn. In short, I didn't need to rush at all. So having PLENTY of time, I took Dani along and we went and got a starbucks and then came back to sew up her pointes shoes. Then the rehearsal commenced, on time and I filled in for the nutcracker doll, which was kinda fun cause I got to play a guy part. After rehearsal was all through with, I was going to leave but I looked out the window at the street and the traffic was backed up to Tahiti. So I hung out with some of the other dancers for a few at the studio waiting for the traffic to subside. It finally did not long after that so I left and got home at about 10pm. Hope to get a good night sleep tonight cause Jimmy wants a full costume, full hair, full makeup runthrough tomorrow, which seems really rather pointless to me but...whatever! Hope tomorrow goes smoothly.

Dew Drop tutu!!

Dew Drop

It's still in 2 pieces but at least it can go on me.

This is my Snow Queen bodice. The tutu part is still under construction.

These are a few pics of the wonderful tutu Mommy is making for me!! Luv ya Mommy!!!

Prequel to Hell Week

Dani and I tried to catch a few and Drosselmeyer draped his cape
over us as a blanket.

4hrs into an 8hr rehearsal.

Me and Drosselmeyer

Ok, we have 2 weeks to pull Cracker of the Nut together and it's looking pretty promising. Today was a LONG day, I had rehearsal up in Temecula from 12 until 6pm but I didn't end up leaving until 7ish. After church I ran home, dropped Mommy off at home, grabbed my dance stuff, raced back out the door and drove rather speedily, not exceeding the limit of course, up to rehearsal. Stopping at Wendy's for a very healthy lunch I got to the studio a little later then what I wanted but they hadn't even gotten past the first scene yet. So I ate my lunch, changed into my dance attire and...waited. Mind you, the rehearsal started at 11, I wasn't needed until 12ish, and we finally got to my first part in snow, the end of act 1, at 3pm. I texted my mommy at about then and said 'we just started on snow, which is the end of act 1, so I won't be home on time'. So we ran through snow 4-5 times and then had a 10min break and then we started act 2. All I had to do was finale and of course they did that last. I took up my Dew Drop Fairy costume for Dana to see so that took a little extra time. So I was finally released at 7ish and am now sitting in front of the fire with a very tired body. Even though I didn't dance a lot, it wears on you just sitting down and....waiting!!

The Beginning of the End

Today was our first run through of the whole show, act 1 and act 2 put together. It was interesting! I stayed with a friend up in Temecula on Friday night after class so that I didn't have to get up quite as early the next morning and so it would save me some gas. Rehearsal started at 10am and it started at 10am on the dot. The parts I play are Snow Queen and Dew Drop Fairy who appear in snow waltz and flower waltz. Snow comes at the very end of act 1 and flowers comes at the very end of act 2, so I'm doing a lot of sitting. The first act, which consists of party scene, tree scene, battle scene and snow usually takes the longest because this act has the most amount of people in it. Parents, 3year-old munchkins, military soldiers, stinky rats, snow flakes, yeah we have quite a menagerie!! After about an hour and a half we finally got around to doing snow and stopped several times to fix things. My snow corps, affectionally known as flakes, were kinda running around willy-nilly and Jimmy was having none of that. He stopped them and cleaned them up and we did it again...and again....and again. Thankfully we all got a lunch break at 12 for 45mins, so Danielle and I headed to Starbucks and Wendy's for a very healthy dancer lunch. We brought Dana, one of my teachers, back a coffee and she was much happier. Act 2 started on time and went much smoother than the first act. In this act we only have spanish chocolate, arabian coffee, chinese tea, russian trepak and flowers running around the stage, so there's a lot less to worry about. Jose and Jimmy ran each number a few times and then we got to flowers, aka flower waltz. My flower corps are older girls so they knew a little better on where to run so it didn't look quite so chaotic. We ended pretty much on time at 2:30pm and all-in-all it ran pretty smoothly for it being the first run through on a performance they know nothing about. Next Sunday is going to be another long day, but that's ok, it's all part of the job!