"The show must go on..."

Those who have had many years in the performing industry are no stranger to last minute and unpredicted  changes.

Yesterday, Ballet Petite presented its first two shows of The Nutcracker at the Greenberg Theatre at American University. Despite the long day of rehearsals and shows because of an unsuspected change of rehearsal schedule, our young ballerinas got through it and did a stellar job!

In case you have not heard, this past week, Ballet Petite needed to cancel their two rehearsal days at the Greenberg Theatre to make room for an interview between President Obama and MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Despite having booked the theater space nearly a year ago, Ballet Petite quickly tried to formulate a new plan to try to accommodate rehearsal time for our dancers so that they could get the practice before the shows on Sunday.

Ballet Petite places absolutely no blame on President Obama; in reality, American University should have honored their agreement for use of the Greenberg Theatre.

Understandably, our guests were upset. I would be too. However, I applaud the attitude of our many talented dancers and their parents.

"The show must go on," they would say to me. This is very true.

In my own experience as a performer, there have been many times where a show could have been a complete bust:
- One year during a dance recital, I had to do a really quick costume change into a tuxedo for a tap dance. The curtain person was supposed to hold the curtain for an extra minute so that we could change. Well, that didn't happen. The music started, and no one came on stage. So, we all just came out at the end of the song and did a bow. We didn't even do the dance.
- When I was in the 8th grade during my dance recital, a girl in my class kicked my hand and broke my finger while we were on stage! Since it was only the beginning of the recital, I had to go through the rest of the show with a swollen, broken finger. Changing costumes and tying shoes was not so easy.
- In my senior year of high school during a choir performance, a girl in my class broke out in bright red itchy hives all over her face and arms right before her solo performance! She went out there anyway and performed like a rockstar.


Yesterday, our ballerinas did fantastic and handled everything like true professionals even though many of them had a long twelve hour day ahead of them.

Things happen. They ALWAYS do. Sometimes it is completely and totally out of our control. It may not even be our fault, but what really matters is how we take the experience and use it for our betterment.

Just like my students kept telling me last week, "The show must go on," and indeed it did.

 

 

Miss Tess

tessc@balletpetite.com