Senior Capstone Concert 2011

For my dance degree, I had to take a class called Senior Capstone. It entails all of the seniors in the dance department to come together and produce a dance concert in one semester. It was a fantastic learning experience, but one heck of a stressor during my last semester.

The other degrees (Ballet, Modern, and Dance Education) had to choreograph an 8-10 minute routine, but that is so unpractical for ballroom, so for my degree we are required to do two opposing styles, any length, any thing you really want to do, just as long as they are not the same type of dance. I started my degree with several other dancers, but by the time graduation rolled around for me, most of the dancers had gotten behind, dropped out, or changed their degree, so I was the lone ballroom graduate this year. It definitely had its pros and cons--I could do basically whatever I wanted style wise because I was the only one, but at the same time I felt an ENORMOUS amount of pressure to do a very high quality job to set a good example for my department.

Rehearsals went great all semester, with very few MAJOR stumbling blocks, but SEVEN DAYS before the concert was to open, I got a nightmare of a phone call. I had one girl in both of my pieces, and she was doing so awesome, and I was feeling great about how things were going to be at the concert the next week. That girl had a freak accident dropping her husband's laptop, and tore all the ligaments through her middle and ring fingers to past her wrist in her right hand. Her doctor told her if she was to dance, she would probably further damage her hand, and need major, major surgery and therapy to repair the damage.

I had seven days to find and teach a replacement for two completely separate pieces!!

I made some quick decisions, and found one angel girl who was available for all of the remaining rehearsals and all of the performances, but I felt very shaky about trying to teach two different people numbers in such a short amount of time...when I realized, "Hey, I choreographed it, I could fit into the other costume, I'll just dance it!"

Mind you, I was 19 weeks (About 4 1/2 months) pregnant at that point.

This is me and Abe, my partner for the foxtrot "H.R. Would Have a Fit" which was a story of a secret romance in an office setting. We had to really work hard to hide my baby bump so as to not give off an even MORE scandalous vibe...office romance with a baby on the way? Haha, no.
These are my wonderful cha-cha dancers, Caitlin, Joe, Anna, Abe, Brooke (the replacement girl, she was awesome!), and Cory. This was to "Mad World" by the 80's band Tears for Fears. I love the band, but I do NOT want to hear any of their stuff for at least 6 months, haha. The dance was titled "Trapped" and was about abusive relationships and the abusee not being able to get away from the abuser. It was a pretty intense dance, and was very challenging to do something NOT light and bubbly, which comes so much easier to me after all my years of choreographing for younger kids.

It turned out great, and I felt really awesome about how the concert went after it was all done. I had been dreading that incredibly intimidating class for basically my whole college career, and I was so relieved to have it over, and that it turned out so well!!