Is It Naptime Yet

They had been rehearsing for 3 1/2 hours with just a few breaks in between. The breaks never seemed to help. As soon as she took the first step with her bended knee, her legs felt like jelly. She tried not to keep count by mouthing the numbers, instead she counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or whatever that particular dance sequence entitled, in her mind, slipping up just a few times when she got off beat. She tried so hard to push her body. So many times her feet were not following what she wanted needed them to do. Luckily, her partner was pretty good at pushing her around, as she sometimes lagged behind.

This was the hardest and longest dance they’ve rehearsed for any of the foundations plays. That’s what the choreographers had told her, and she, she was out of shape. They were getting help from a professional ballroom dancer and she was pushing them to their limits.

Dancing wasn’t the problem as much as traveling. With the holds she took small steps as she bended her knees to get the proper up and down movement of the waltz. Traveling, now traveling was hard. She had to take large steps as she bounced up and down and bended her knees with each step. Her legs wanted to buckle and give up, but she pushed her body and continued to dance. She was so relieved to hear they were finished for the day. The rehearsal had gone long, but they all needed the practice and it paid off as they got better with each run through. It felt great to hit the lifts and spins, though they still missed a few.

Four hours. Four hours of dancing and now her feet and legs beg to be rubbed and to never do it again.

But she will, and she will love the pay-off of having a spectacular show in just 5 short weeks.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 15th, 2010 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Plays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.