Those of you who know, know that I have been preparing for the last six months or so for this dance competition yesterday ("Oireachtas," pronounced "Oh-rock-tuss," roughly means "Irish dancing competition"), in which I played a part that involved not so much acting as dancing, but was still super fun.
We had a choreographer come over from England to help us out, and parents and dancers alike contributed to costumes and set and props...(my prop wasn't used...bitterbitterbitterhappyagain :P)
We did acting prep and a lot of teamwork exercises, and so we have been working on this project for six months. You know how long the performance is?
Six minutes.
Six months for six minutes.
And that's show business, kid. :P
It's the same choreography (called a dance drama, for those of you who don't know) as we did last Saturday, with a few little changes here and there...my character sort of completely revolutionized herself, because I recently discovered that when she was 10 she fell out of a hayloft...I love method acting :)
Also, we nearly didn't get the broom onstage, my hat nearly fell off, and only half of our cloth carriage stayed up. Also, the stage had about ten feet less of width than we thought it would have. Which was a problem.
Hahaha. It was so much fun.
We all did our steps really well, and we all stayed in character despite the flubs, and we walked offstage feeling great.
Then I found Carissa, Nate, Kylina, Tia, and Jackson, who had all come down to watch the competition and are therefore generally fantastic human beings. Aaaaand awards weren't going to begin for another long time. Because the Oireachtas runs on Irish time. Bleh.
Everybody left except Nate, because they had other places to be. Not Nate, though, because he hadn't met Chloe (who acted as the boy in our drama), who was very very upset that she hadn't met him at the show last Saturday; she said she would beat both me and Nate over the head with the laundry basket if I didn't introduce them at Oireachtas.
There was probably another reason he stayed for awards, but I can't really put my finger on it...
I'll spare you the suspense of waiting for them to tally everything, all of the group dances from all day and all of their various age groups...sparing sparing sparing...
WE WON!!
Heritage's other team (the Dragon drama) placed third; a California team got second; and the Jamie Freel team got FIRST PLACE AT THE WESTERN REGIONAL OIREACHTAS 2009!
No emoticon could even come CLOSE to expressing the joy this picture brings... haha w00t. We all did a victory dance. We actually practiced them earlier without knowing it...one of our acting exercises. Hahaha. Yay, Maire (our choreographer/acting coach). You're so clever.
So then we all returned to the hotel and got dressed in our normal-people clothes (I was dressed like a chubby Irish farmwoman, by the way, and the makeup was so good that nobody except Nate recognized me at first, but he cheated because he'd seen me Saturday). It was also Kelseigh's birthday, so we gave her cake and sang and generally celebrated.
WOO HOO!
Sorry.
Then Nate was a perfect gentleman and invited me over for dinner. Because I was finally hungry for more than ten minutes in a row (my stomach goes bipolar when I'm competing. o.O) I was able to enjoy a lovely chicken/pasta dish that I don't actually know what it is called...but it was muy delicious.
And then I thought my driving leg was cramping up really really badly (again!), so Nate had to drive me home (again). (Thank you Nate!) Turns out it wasn't actually a cramp, but that I probably have ...bursitis? Yes, that is how it's spelled. Where parts of your joints swell up or something...it's happened before, recently, so I won't be dancing again for a little while. *SADNESS OF DOOM*
But at least we all got through Oireachtas, and nobody killed him/herself onstage this year. Or offstage. Which is of vital importance.
Oh yeah. And we did win. That too.
Woo hoo! This week just went right, you know? :D And what a great Saturday to top it all off!
We had a choreographer come over from England to help us out, and parents and dancers alike contributed to costumes and set and props...(my prop wasn't used...bitterbitterbitterhappyagain :P)
We did acting prep and a lot of teamwork exercises, and so we have been working on this project for six months. You know how long the performance is?
Six minutes.
Six months for six minutes.
And that's show business, kid. :P
It's the same choreography (called a dance drama, for those of you who don't know) as we did last Saturday, with a few little changes here and there...my character sort of completely revolutionized herself, because I recently discovered that when she was 10 she fell out of a hayloft...I love method acting :)
Also, we nearly didn't get the broom onstage, my hat nearly fell off, and only half of our cloth carriage stayed up. Also, the stage had about ten feet less of width than we thought it would have. Which was a problem.
Hahaha. It was so much fun.
We all did our steps really well, and we all stayed in character despite the flubs, and we walked offstage feeling great.
Then I found Carissa, Nate, Kylina, Tia, and Jackson, who had all come down to watch the competition and are therefore generally fantastic human beings. Aaaaand awards weren't going to begin for another long time. Because the Oireachtas runs on Irish time. Bleh.
Everybody left except Nate, because they had other places to be. Not Nate, though, because he hadn't met Chloe (who acted as the boy in our drama), who was very very upset that she hadn't met him at the show last Saturday; she said she would beat both me and Nate over the head with the laundry basket if I didn't introduce them at Oireachtas.
There was probably another reason he stayed for awards, but I can't really put my finger on it...
I'll spare you the suspense of waiting for them to tally everything, all of the group dances from all day and all of their various age groups...sparing sparing sparing...
WE WON!!
Heritage's other team (the Dragon drama) placed third; a California team got second; and the Jamie Freel team got FIRST PLACE AT THE WESTERN REGIONAL OIREACHTAS 2009!
No emoticon could even come CLOSE to expressing the joy this picture brings... haha w00t. We all did a victory dance. We actually practiced them earlier without knowing it...one of our acting exercises. Hahaha. Yay, Maire (our choreographer/acting coach). You're so clever.
So then we all returned to the hotel and got dressed in our normal-people clothes (I was dressed like a chubby Irish farmwoman, by the way, and the makeup was so good that nobody except Nate recognized me at first, but he cheated because he'd seen me Saturday). It was also Kelseigh's birthday, so we gave her cake and sang and generally celebrated.
WOO HOO!
Sorry.
Then Nate was a perfect gentleman and invited me over for dinner. Because I was finally hungry for more than ten minutes in a row (my stomach goes bipolar when I'm competing. o.O) I was able to enjoy a lovely chicken/pasta dish that I don't actually know what it is called...but it was muy delicious.
And then I thought my driving leg was cramping up really really badly (again!), so Nate had to drive me home (again). (Thank you Nate!) Turns out it wasn't actually a cramp, but that I probably have ...bursitis? Yes, that is how it's spelled. Where parts of your joints swell up or something...it's happened before, recently, so I won't be dancing again for a little while. *SADNESS OF DOOM*
But at least we all got through Oireachtas, and nobody killed him/herself onstage this year. Or offstage. Which is of vital importance.
Oh yeah. And we did win. That too.
Woo hoo! This week just went right, you know? :D And what a great Saturday to top it all off!
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