A few weeks ago, the studio where I dance hosted a fall-exhibition show on a big fancy stage. Our troupe ‘Eternal Rose’ featured prominently with four group dances overall. I myself danced my first ever solo performance, which I also choreographed.
We’ve been working up to this show all year, resurrecting old dances and learning new ones. The show opener involved fan-veils, which I have worked with before. But I had to learn the whole thing in only a few short weeks after returning from Scotland. The compressed timeline plus an otherwise unusually stressful season personally had me worried that I wasn’t going to be ready in time.
In the end it turned out very well, and I feel the endless drills paid off.
I’m often put in the front because I’m short and I’ve been dancing a long time. I’ve built up some experience and am familiar with being on stage.
The most…effortful? challenging-to-learn? dance that we performed is referred to as ‘the sword-dance’ in practice. First-time any of us have danced with a sword on our heads and you might not be too surprised to hear that it hampers movement and divides concentration quite a bit. The music is also a nightmare for picking up the count if you’ve lost your place.
To our relief several members of the audience conveyed that this lengthy-to-assemble piece was their favorite of the evening. I heard it referred to as cinematic. I had it easy in that I was front and center, often doing my own choreography.
A lot of the preparation and stress over the show went into all the costume changes! I danced in four separate costumes in a little over an hour, all of which needed to be steamed, rolled, and packed neatly in-order.
The costume for my solo performance, seen in these last few photos here, I sewed myself. I featured the big poofy bustle-belt two weeks ago on the blog. It did come out more voluminous than intended, but consensus was that it gave me a larger stage presence.
The studio where we practice has a giant pole in the middle of the room, right where a solo performer may want to stand. One of the most challenging parts of being on stage alone, was positioning myself where I intended, considering in practice, I could never be right in the middle of the floor.
