Before the performances I see some of the girls rushing around asking if I had seen their head pieces. I see other girls jumping up and down squealing because the performance is about to start, too excited to become nervous. But, with all of the rehearsals I can not possibly be nervous because I know the choreography, and….. because I have all my friends reassuring each other that, “We got this!”
Every spring my ballet school puts on a spring performance. This year our performance included both The Little Mermaid and Paquita, a classic ballet for advanced dancers. We did two character dances as well.
In Paquita, I was in multiple core parts and a duet with a fabulous dancer.
With hours on end in rehearsals, sweat on our heads and our feet killing us, as the music come to a halt, know one on stage moves as the audiences howls with applause, I take a deep breath and my thoughts finally slow down as I only think that all my months of preparing come down to this one night and now its all over.
I also was in one of the character dances. My character was a gypsy. I was one of only three dancers so we had to be amazing! I loved the dance because you had to be entertaining to the audience at all times.
Now The Little Mermaid was a challenging role because you had to connect with the audience and describe the scene to them with the smallest of movements. I got the opportunity to dance with the 4-6 year olds who were rainbow fish and the clown fish. To hear that I was cast as Ariel’s older sister, I was grateful, but like every other person I do feel I could do better and that I have had not reached my full potential, But I grew to truly love this part. It was so fun to dance with all my friends and with two company members from the Orlando Ballet and Columbia Ballet in South Carolina. It was one of my favorite ballet performances! Hands down!
