Sunday, November 16, 2008

A Nerve-wracking Saturday for Everyone (Posted by Rhea)


If for the outside world Satuday is a day people look forward to, we who live in the deep recesses of the CCP see Saturday as the biggest hurdle we have to face to deserve a day off. For us dancers, Saturday is the longest, most difficult day of the week.

Most of us teach ballet classes every Saturday morning, and getting up early after rehearsals til 10pm the night before is really a challenge. 

Then you have the regular Saturday soreness to deal with when class and rehearsals are underway. Saturday is simply the day you feel all the hard work of the week dawning on you. 

Yesterday was especially nerve-wracking for most of us. Our young scholars, whom we call the BP Kidz, performed a one-hour version of The Nutcracker at the Bonifacio High Street. They started the day very early (9am class despite a grueling Coppelia rehearsal til 10 the night before) and ended at almost 10 pm. In the middle of that long day, there were major organizational slip-ups that we had to adjust to, and I am proud to say, our young dancers coped very well. The performance was a success, and most of all, our scholars learned so much and enjoyed themselves immensely!

Back at the homefront, rehearsals for Coppelia continued. Because of the lack of dancers (many scholars who are part of Coppelia were also in the scholars' show in BHS), some have had to rehearse many different parts to cover for those not there. Since I was with the scholars, Nica, a guest dancer had to do my parts--which were completely opposite of what she had learned! (Thanks Nica!) 

Meantime, our Swanhildas (the lead girl in Coppelia) Kit, Candice and Carissa rehearsed their solos late into the night. I wonder how they feel... I haven't checked their Facebook status yet, but I bet it has the words "tired", "sore" and "look forward to the weekend."


2 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Saturday wasn't that bad for me too! :) I was the "lucky" one who ran Swanilda with everything that was mounted in the afternoon...and with no break after the run we proceeded to cleaning Act 3 Friends (i got a two-minute breather...thanks to Tiffany ). Evening was more of a learning rehearsal for us since we were in the BBS while Buhay was being rehearsed at the RH.
Funny thing is I felt more tired Friday night when you had Waltz in the evening and I drove through rush hour traffic than the looonnngg Saturday that we all dreaded. The stars might have been smiling at us for all our work.