Halftime Show of the Season

The dance season has started heating up as the weather cools down this season. At four o'clock today, we had the Halloween Show. There was about fifteen dances that performed, most of them young children. It was so adorable! I mean, how many times have you seen Elsa, a skeleton, a butterfly, a pirate, and the Queen of Hearts all dance to the Ghostbusters theme song?

We didn't have an actual stage to perform on, since it was at the pumpkin patch. We only had a patch of hay to dance on. I don't know how many people have tried to dance on hay, but let me tell you, it's super hard. Not only does it move around (because hello, loose hay,) but it's also very slippery. The dancers were slipping all over the place. Now take that, and mix it with parents crowding around you. That makes for a very hard time dancing completely full-out.

I understand that parents are excited to see their children dance, especially if they are younger. But why do they feel the need to shuffle closer and closer to the "stage" after every single dance? By the time I danced, the other girls and I felt like we were going to hit not only the audience, but each other as well. But as dancers, we need to be prepared for any situation that may occur during this show. Luckily, we have performed at this pumpkin patch before, so we had an idea of what to expect.

Preparation is key to being able to adapt to varying stage dimensions. Often times, tape is used to map out how big a stage will be for performance. But even then, things might happen that could change the size of a stage. Due to this, dancers need to know the choreography well enough to where the dance is almost second nature for them (Manning). When most people have been dancing for a while, they are aware of their surroundings enough to know how to adapt to it. If they are turning and see that they are close to the edge of the stage, they will modify the choreography so they don't fall off.

Overall, I think the show went really well. The younger girls were adorable, as they always are. The older dancers, myself included, pretty much rocked it! (Can I say that?) The dances we did looked really cool. We were rolling around on the ground a lot, and the hay was flying all over the place. It made the dances look awesome. I think (and hope) that everyone was really impressed with it.

Although I had a lot of fun, I'm just excited that it's over and now we can focus solely of the Nutcracker. With that performance getting closer, it's important that we work on the dances for it so we can finish them. I just want this Nutcracker performance to be one of the best we have ever had. If we work hard from here on out, I believe that the performance will be great, but there is that inkling of fear that it'll flop. But I have to ignore that part of me, and focus on the positives. The following weeks will need it. They'll show what we've got left to do, and now it's crunch time.

Work Cited

Manning, Christie. "Adapting to Your Space." Industry Dance Magazine. N.p. 14 Dec. 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.