Hana played a Tree Chopper, was in Jerusalem, Sea of Galilee, Finale, and played the Carpenter soloist role in the Sunday evening performance. Becca had all the same parts as Hana, except she was not in the Tree Chopper scene, and she played the Carpenter soloist role on the Sunday matinee performance. Charity played a Time Tapper, and danced in Finale in all the performances, but played a Sheep in the Nativity scene during the Saturday performances, and she played Mary in the Nativity scene during the Sunday performances. She was adorable! They all performed so well! We were very proud!!!
I saw this picture on Instagram on Hana, Morgan Condit, and Ashlyn Henderson's accounts. Charity and Payton are pretty funny together! I always get a kick out of their sibling type banter.
This is the Saturday cast. You'll see Sunday's cast later on in this post. All the same people, it is just that they played different roles on different days with the double casting.
Becca playing the Carpenter.
Charity playing Mary.
One of my favorite scenes: Jerusalem. Hana and Becca were in this one.
I loved the use of the scarves to make the Star of David.
The lift in the Sea of Galilee scene. I loved this scene as well.
Ian Bethany was our guest artist from Ballet Austin who played Jesus. He is such a nice guy. So kind and down to earth and I really enjoyed working with him again this year. And I love teaching professionals! It is so fun!
Garden of Gethsemane scene.
Jesus and the Cross. It was such a beautiful dance.
This show was the first show I choreographed after being certified in teaching Acro. It was really fun putting some acro elements into the show.
I loved this photo of Hana and Becca during the Finale dance.
This one is of Becca and Katelyn.
Charity and Payton doing the fish lift in Finale.
Almost the ending pose.
Our adorable mini team! Charity is 2nd from the right.
All of the Company dancers together. Becca is 2nd from the left, Hana and Charity are both second from the right on each line.
All company with Ian.
Sunday's Cast.
Entire cast Sunday.
Me standing in the audience giving my dancers my notes from watching their dress run through. My mom is in the middle of the audience. She was a huge help with this show! And I really enjoyed getting to have her by my side through it. Eden is sitting in the front row. She was also a giant help with this show! She helped with my minis a lot and she also was on the tech crew, moving set pieces on and off the stage. The man standing is Demitch, our Tech Director.
Snacking backstage and trying to get my girls to pose for photos. They were not so willing.
One set of dance parents are professional photographers, and they took a bunch of photos and video that I cannot wait to see! But they did send this one out so far.
All the flowers we came home with Sunday night! The kitchen looked and smelled like a floral shop.
Instagram edited versions of a few of my favorite photos.
I gave each dancer a copy of the Tale of the Three Trees books. And I encouraged them to have all their castmates sign their books. They loved this!
I snagged this from Morgan's Instagram. Morgan is Charity's "Big Sister". We have an "Arts Avenue Dance Company Big Sister Program" that has been super awesome.
Again, that fun acro pose I threw into the show.
And again, a photo of me giving post run through notes to the cast.
I loved doing this show so much and will always treasure the memories we made! I love my dancers so much! And I love teaching and creating. And I am so proud of my dancers and I am so proud of my daughters who have really grown as dancers and people, through all these experiences.
Now I want to include my speech from the opening announcements of the show. Because my announcements talked about some interesting things about the show. So here is that next:
__________________________________________________________
For
some perspective, I would like to tell you a little bit about how
this show came to be what it is today. Last March our Dance Company
performed their very first dance production. Several of our dancers
were beginners, and almost all of them were new to doing dance
productions all together. But we all really enjoyed that experience.
So
right after that show, I was anxious to start working on our next
one. I read some books and chose the story The Tale of the Three
Trees with a lot of excitement. There are a couple of reasons why I
was so excited about doing the Three Trees. It is such a touching
story that I loved and knew others would love as well. Also, I knew I
would be broadening our Company to have Mini dancers, and I knew that
my older dancers were really growing stronger and better as dancers
and that they would be able to do more difficult choreography. And
nothing excites me more than seeing my students get better.
For
the next couple of months I listened to many many hours of music and
developed the soundtrack, concept and idea of how I wanted to do this
show. I added new elements to the story, such as where the trees even
came from. I added a young gardener girl to the story who lovingly
planted the seeds and prayed for them to grow big and tall – to
become something great some day. I added in the Carpenter who
lovingly builds the trees into their respective objects.
So
at the end of May we had our Dance Company auditions and I cast the
show.
In
June I began choosing costumes and started choreographing.
I
spent most of the Summer choreographing. And when it came time to
teach my dancers the show, I will never forget our first day
rehearsing. I had wanted to start with the most difficult dance in
order to have the most time possible to practice it. And that was Sea
of Galilee. I wanted these dancers to look like waves of the sea by
rolling on the floor, and leaping over each other and so on. The
sequences were very tricky. And a little precarious. At first, it was
discouraging and frustrating for us. I realized that I really needed
their help to make it work. Dancers were getting bruises all over
just from rolling around on the floor. But they were such good sports
about it.
So
we spent a few days working on this dance and work-shopping it
together. I was so proud of them for how hard they worked and for
their insight and ideas and we really were in sync with each other,
jiving well. It was really amazing figuring out how to make that
dance work together! And we really bonded as a team in the
process. It was so fulfilling for all of us that I decided to
approach more of the show that way. So I scratched a couple of the
dances I had choreographed and we built them together. And I wanted
each dancer to have a little part of the show that they
choreographed. One of our dancers, (Amelia Tsering), choreographed
her own solo. And even our mini dancers were able to do that a little
in the Finale dance. And I am really proud of what they came up with.
When working on a show, the performances are typically the most
enjoyable part. But for this production, I completely enjoyed working
alongside my dancers as co-creators and equals in putting this
together. It was a fantastic experience, learning and growing
together.
The
show will begin with Kate Amason simply telling all of you the story.
It is our hope that as you hear this story, and see it played out in
the form of dance that you can understand all the beautiful symbolism
and lessons to be learned. Because there are many. Our lives can be
bigger than we imagine, dream, or even hope.
Enjoy
the show!
