First Rehearsal

I have no words - or pictures - to describe what happened this evening. I will use a bullet list, because it's 2 a.m. out here and Alan warned me not to blog at this late hour.

• we were told to wait for a rehearsal call at 3 p.m.
• at 4 p.m. we were told to wait longer.
• at 4:40 p..m. we were told to be at the venue by 5:30 p.m.
• at 5:32 Katie had a meltdown.
• at 5:40, Anna G had a meltdown.
• at 5:50, everyone was antsy, burning up from the heat of all the bulbs surrounding all the dressing tables in the fancy dressing room where they told us to wait and Hayley and I used all our ones to buy 15 bottles of water.
• at 6:10 I said, "enough of this...we are going to wait in the theatre where it's at least cool and something is happening that will divert the kids' attention from the fact that they are tired, hot and hungry."
• at 6:15, our group was seated in the 3,100 seat venue.
• at 6:20, Nigel Lithgoe and Adam Shankman introduced themselves to me, allowed our kids to introduce themselves to them and Nigel said to me, "You are the only woman who has ever made me cry...I sat in my bed and watched the video of your dance on my phone and cried like a baby."
• 6:30 - cast and Hayley took the stage to block and get cues from Jeff, the director of the show, and Nigel.
• 6:35  Peyton and Erika called a dancer huddle - all 10 kids huddled up, amidst the chaos of lighting hangs, prop cues, sound engineers and stage managers - I don't know what they said in their huddle, but I'm sure it was profound.
• 6:40 - first run through of "Change the World" - a perfect performance from the cast.
• 6:45 - Nigel sat behind me and asked questions for his script - how many kids are in your program? what made you start your program? Who are these typical kids? Do you think this is changing the typical dancers even more than its changing the dancers with special needs?
• 6:50 - Anya and Dimitri rehearsed the sexiest cha-cha ever - to which Connor responded, "Awkward!"...it was very sexy.
• 7:00 - union rep ordered the theatre closed and the stage manager told us to return at 11:15 Saturday.
• The director told us to come to rehearsal as early as we want and to bring our cameras and autograph books.
• The director told our kids that our dance piece is the definition of the word "Beautiful."
• Nigel said, "Can't wait to see you tomorrow."

I'd say, successful rehearsal!!