Week in Review (skip down to Friday if you want to see where it starts getting good):

Monday 2/22/10: Wander about from class to class with deep feelings of guilt and shame. Unable to write research paper, pull together ballet, or have a life beyond college. (Be very thankful for Nick at this point.)

Tuesday 2/23/10: Turn in crap response paper to professor I'm trying to get to hire me. Go to appointment at CAPS where some idiot spends an hour telling me not to give up on education while I try to explain to her that I just want to explore jobs in linguistics. Spend most of day in tech rehearsal. Fear that the ballet will never actually happen. Research paper will never be written. Life will never happen even if graduation does manage to come about. Smile and put on a happy face for Lauren, because being a good roommate has got to take priority here.

Wednesday 2/24/10: Table for Coppelia. Sell exactly 7 tickets, including two to a grad student who tells us he and his friend just want to see us fall on our asses. Go to class and sound like an idiot. Meet with professor prepared to hear "sorry, but you just don't have enough experience." Instead, listen to her talk as if I already have the job. Be very, very confused. Be shuffled out of her office after only five minutes. Get home and bang out ten pages of research paper. Stare at my computer utterly stunned.

Thursday 2/25/10: Class. Tabling, sell exactly 3 tickets. Help prep for dress rehearsal instead of work on my research paper. Teach warm-up class. Watch as 25 dancers shoot daggers at me with their eyes as I apparently give the worst class they've ever taken. Endure dress rehearsal. Wait...what? Dress rehearsal went well? Give notes! Be super picky about stuff. Give lots of compliments! Go home and collapse. (Note no working on research paper due tomorrow.)

Friday 2/26/10:
11am - Skip class to table. Sell exactly 2 tickets. Do not work on research paper at all.
1:30pm - Run off to meeting at my prof's lab. Act super flustered and feel certain that I just lost any chance at this job. Talk about my interests and my computer skills. Meet Max, who I actually already met back in first-year through ballet, who is going to train me.
2:30pm - Have it suddenly dawn on me that I got the job.
3pm - Go to EC meeting. Get happiness and congratulations from everyone there (thanks, guys).
4pm - Turn in research paper that magically got done before my meeting (yes it really did!) and return home full of an unreasonable amount of excitement. Nick comes over for celebratory dinner.
6pm - Attempt nap out of happiness exhaustion.
6:15 - Nap interrupted by Ariel with "letter from NYU." Instruct him to leave it on table. He comes into my room instead. Letter is very big. Have it suddenly dawn on me that I got into NYUSteinhardt.
6:20 - Desperately try to get in touch with my parents for the remainder of the evening.

Saturday 2/27/10: Wake up with no burdensome research paper following me around, and with not only a future after graduation, but OPTIONS! Lounge about (or rather, pretend to lounge about while actually being terribly nervous) until 3:30 when it is time to head to Mandel Hall. Prep for and then proceed to run sound for Coppelia. Suddenly know what it must feel like to be a mother (Lauren I am so proud of you). Hope that feeling isn't too creepish.

Sunday 2/28/10: Coppelia again, and then tearing down everything and returning home, ballet completed. Feeling a little empty without a ballet to fuss over, and a little lost with two fantastic options to choose from for my post-college days.

Monday 3/1/10: Mazurka music stuck in my head. Do I really want to move to New York? If I stay here am I being a wimp? Suddenly I don't want options. And now that Coppelia's over, I just want to sleep!

Labels: Coppelia, grad school, jobs, nyu

"You didn't just finish a chapter from a mystery novel. You're reading the Bible. You should look bored."
-Me

That was not a very popular note. (It was to Steffi, who dances the role of "Prayer" and comes onstage reading a book, presumably the Bible.)

Anyway...
So if a bad dress rehearsal means a good opening night, we're in bad shape. Last night was great!

Tech stuff worked except for the banging of some pots and pans (yes I'm serious, it wasn't loud enough).
Pantomime was bigger, clearer, and funnier.
Large group numbers were clean and together.
Variations were smooth.
The Wedding Pas looked super strong with in-control lifts.

I was really impressed all around.

AND THE DOOR WORKED!

That last part is critical.

You probably want pictures, don't you? Yes you do!!!
Click here to see the facebook album with a whole bunch, but I give you a taste below, too.

Labels: ballet, Coppelia

Coppelia tech rehearsal was last night. Hey, Steffi and Derek, how did it go?


I agree!

So of course, I'm completely on the technical side of things this show, which basically means I'm running sounds (pressing play) and being Sheila's bitch. This is sort of awesome because Sheila knows exactly what she wants and how to get it and also is really nice. Yay for Sheila. You just have to love a competent production manager. We shall just have to see how dress goes tomorrow! Everyone will look like this the entire time:


(Thanks to Patricia for the pics.)

Labels: ballet, Coppelia

It's that time!

It's time for me to seriously start plugging Coppélia.

While the reality of the situation is that if you're reading that and you are in Chicago you are probably either actually IN Coppélia or Nick who is forced to go no matter what, I would feel empty if I didn't at least try to use my blog as a publicity outlet for this show.

SO here's the basic info:

University Ballet presents Coppélia
Saturday, February 27th, 7pm
Sunday, February 28th, 2pm
Mandel Hall | 1131 E 57th St.
$5 Students |$10 Adults
More information at http://uballet.uchicago.edu


I mean...ok the rest of the ballet is great, too. Don't get me wrong. My Czardas girls have worked their little butts off for example, and the piece is looking great. Overall, it's important to remember that this ballet is a comedy, because it definitely reads like one. Come to this show ready to laugh, because you will, and because you are supposed to! You'll also enjoy lots of beautiful dancing and hard work from about twenty-five highly motivated dancers.

Finally, I'm guessing if you've made it this far you're probably coming to the show (or wish you were!). If so, would you be interested in a free ticket? We're in desperate need of ushers for both performances. The deal is if you usher (that means sell tickets, flowers, and merchandise before and during the show) for one performance, you get a ticket to the other performance for free. You can probably also stick your head in during the performance you usher for, but no guarantees there. Let me know if you'd be interested!

Labels: Coppelia, Lauren

I just want to post something, anything, to be more recent than the post below this.

So, uh, how 'bout the weather? Pretty warm out, huh? Like the high 30s, maybe even 40. Yeah. How 'bout that?

grumblegrumblegrumbleIWantToGetIntoUTEPSoBadlygrumblegrumblegrumble

Coppelia! How about Coppelia? That's always good for a talking-about. It's going quite well, I'd say. I witnessed the Wedding Pas and I'm just in awe of how Lauren just kind of floats up to Gene's shoulder over and over again. Mazurka and Czardas are looking...ok. They need help, but they'll be fine. I actually have videos I could post of them but that would be mean, and I promised I'd keep them private.

My brain says, "Don't be so invested in one program! You're putting all your eggs in one basket!" Every other part of me says, "SHUT UP BRAIN I WANT UTEP!"

Labels: Coppelia, utep

Hey...
I don't think I took the time on Sunday to mention how awesome my roommate is. Well here it is now:
LAUREN COTE IS AWESOME.
She is going to be Swanilda in UBallet's Coppelia this February. For those of you who don't know, that means she got the lead role. It's highly awesome. I am honored to be her roommate.

Meanwhile auditions went very well. I got to teach both classes and I think both did what they were supposed to do. Then after casting (which went great) I got assigned to teach the two parts I wanted: Czardas and allllll of the pantomime for the whole show. Mwahahahaha. I am pantomime tsar and it feels good.

Because I've been enjoying ballet recently instead of despising it like usual, I decided to ransack my room for usable pointe shoes. Finding only floppy dead ones, I gave in and ordered a new pair of Capezios online. Moments later, I found a brand new pair of Capezios under my bed. Damn. I guess I'll be taking quite a few pointe classes to make use of both pairs.

***

Also, anyone know of an interesting topic in Japanese grammar I could write a five page paper on? I'm stumped.

Labels: ballet, Coppelia, Lauren