Sunday, June 5, 2011

Diggin' the Dancing Queens!




Hi! This is Kaya and Fiona, writing a post together! :-)

(The post title is from the the ABBA song "Dancing Queen," by the way.)

Kaya: So, the last two days have been our dance recital. We had our first performance Friday night, and the second tonight - Saturday.

Fiona: It went great! Everybody clapped!



Fiona: I was only in one dance. It was to "The Garland Waltz" from the ballet version of Sleeping Beauty. Thanks for helping me learn it, Kaya!

Kaya: You're welcome. :-) 

I was in five dances. Yeah, five! With five different costumes. The first was "Waltz of the Flowers" from The Nutcracker, very traditional. We also did a contemporary ballet piece to Loreena McKennitt's "Caravanserai." Then en pointe for "Danse de la Terre" - translated as "The Dancing out of the Earth" or "Dance Overcoming the Earth - from The Rite of Spring. (Yes, that is a ballet about human sacrifice of young girls. It's lovely music, though!) 


Then, on from ballet to modern! An upbeat dance to "Zephyr Song" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and then a more lyrical dance to an instrumental version of "Once Upon a December" from the cartoon movie Anastasia.


Fiona: My costume was like a village girl dress with a bodice, decorated in flowers. My sisters made it for me. It took a lot of work, but it was really pretty. I felt like a real ballerina in it.


Kaya: My costumes... well. For my first dance where I was a flower, I wore a tutu that looked like a rose. Then for "Caravanserai" - which means like an oasis where caravans would stop for water - I wore a light blue skirt and halter top, with gold jewelery and a matching blue headwrap. The costume for Rite of Spring was less literal; it was an asymmetrical filmy green skirt over earthy brown. 


For the modern stuff: My costume was a purple sparkly tank-top leotard and black dance pants for "Zephyr Song," and a white long-sleeved dance dress with a long lyrical skirt for "Once Upon a December."


Fiona: It was neat to see our names printed in the programs. Kaya's name was all over the place! And mine was in there too.


All our sisters came both nights. They brought roses! Our neighbours Inna, Maia, Summer, and Kiwi came on Friday. They brought flowers too!


Kaya: It was so great to have so much support - both from our people in the audience, and also from our blog friends who were rooting for us!


Fiona: After the recital was over, all the dancers and our families had a big party. My dance lessons are over for the summer, but there's a summer program I want to take. Kaya will have one normal class a week, and she's going to the summer program too.


Kaya: It was a great night! Now we're totally exhausted, though. Time to go to sleep...


Love,
The Dancing Queens

6 comments:

  1. It sounds like you girls had a lot of fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. We did! Thanks for stopping by, Lena! :-)

    Love,
    Kaya

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yay! Congrats on doing so well and having a blast! I bet both of you looked very beautiful on stage. Were either of you nervous? I get excited nerves when I do piano recitals.

    Emily

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is Fiona. Thanks, Emily!

    I think I was more nervous than Kaya. She's been in a lot of recitals before and I haven't. Once I got on stage I kind of forgot to be scared, though.

    (Addition from Kaya: I was nervous too! I just didn't show it. Right before the curtain goes up is the toughest.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations on your dance recital! My ballet school doesn't have recitals, but sometimes children have the opportunity to appear in our parent company's performances.

    Fiona is so lucky for being in the Garland Dance. At my school, it is for girls who are at least twelve. Someday, I'd love to be in it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kaya says:

    Sorry we're noticing this comment so late, Inky! We've enjoyed reading about your ballet adventures, too. :-)

    We don't have a professional ballet company in our city, unfortunately. I wish we did! It's so awesome that you guys sometimes get to dance with them!

    Love,
    Kaya

    ReplyDelete