I Choose To Dance

Thoughts about life as a dance and other non-categorized amblings.

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Location: Kansas City, Missouri, United States

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

City in Motion had to re-stage most of their pieces for last Saturday. Katie Alexander broke her ankle coming down from a leap during dress Friday night. I was shooting stills at the time but missed that. I was looking at the two dancers in front. Dave Burkhardt from KCPT (19) was shooting video next to me and must have missed it because he asked what happened. I guess he was also focusing on the foreground dancers. Katie was moving upstage from stage left to right and was a little past the halfway mark.

She hit and went down with a thump then must have hopped or crawled off in a near panic into the wings on stage right. We heard her sobbing and her fists hitting the floor. Dale Fellin got to her first I think. He was in the wings. Jaenae and Joanna were onstage and stopped everything to get to Katie. By the time (the short time) I got out from behind my tripod and up the stage the ice bags and wrappings were already out. Beth Byrd took her to the hospital, Baptist Memorial as Katie called parents, boy friend, etcetera who met them at the emergency room. It was especially tough on her because Katie had put in the last year preparing for this performance at the GEM. She is also one year out of the conservatory at UMKC.

In the meantime Donna Frogge was coming apart in three directions, Katie, choreography and stepping in as a dancer. It was almost too much. City in Motion is a small company and you couldn't just plug in an understudy. But they all got their professional act together, as a little pro family, and got to work to completly redo most of the pieces. Dale helped spot one of the pieces and you could see the re-arrangements working out.

At first everyone was serious and all business. After about half an hour the first laughs. They were coming back. In the meantime Andrea called Maia about possibly replacing Katie in a couple of the parts. Maia had danced this in January at the Folly performance. I got the impression that Maia Cortissozz was out of state. It was a couple of hours later that Maia called to say she couldn't make it.

Dave the camera guy from channel 19 left after about 20-30 minutes or so. I stayed a couple of hours and left. I didn't get back until after most rehearsals were done. I needed to setup a picture display at the front of the theater. I never did sell any but the silent auction did sell the "Dear Friend" piece with Katie Jenkins from Wylliams/Henry doing a leap across the back of a cello player. City in Motion got $40 for that. Glad someone sold one of mine, even if it wasn't me. Went for an okay cause anyway.

The show turned out just fine. I think if you didn't know the pieces were re-worked for one less dancer and that Donna did fill in on two of the pieces, even though she hasn't been dancing with the company for a couple of years, you never would have known. Anyway, CIM did a nice thing and dedicated the performance to Katie Alexander. Then for the final company bows they brought Katie on stage, crutches, leg brace and all, to take bows and receive one of the bouquets. I have some nice pictures of that.

I am getting ready for the ballet tomorrow night. I am shooting three of the pieces during the last dress before opening night. Video. That is thanks to Mary Pat's recommendations to Bill Whitener. I don't know that I will ever feel I know enough. The more I do this the more I realize how little I know. Probably should have remained ignorant. (ha)

I think dancers are some of the most amazing acrobats. Enormous strength and discipline combined with grace and perfect timing and they still have to get the form just right.

Anyway two of the pieces are by Bill and one is by visiting artist Robert Hill. They all look great. The first piece is really cute and a lot of fun. A hill-billy number about youth and a first kiss. Very spirited and a delight. Sometimes it is hard to believe that this is really ballet. They aren't in toe shoes for the first two numbers. I am shooting the first, third and fourth numbers. This will be at the Lyric Opera.

Haven, which is the second piece is very dark and I am a bit worried about image quality. I opens with three very narrow and piercing spikes of light on three dancers. Even when the light becomes more broad it stays pretty dim. Nicole is doing the wide shots and the Sony is better in dark than is my GL2. She should have a little more leeway. I may have to boost the GL2's gain so that means I will use it as the detail camera. The larger images should show less apparent breakup even when the gain is boosted.

This blog is only about dancing as a metaphor, although I do dance. Really that is the reason for the metaphor. The beauty of dance is in the immediate physical analogy between dance and the rest of life. Just getting up to dance is itself the act of participating in life, rather than sitting.