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Practice Makes Perfect |
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Dancing For Choreographer
Rhonda Stampalla |
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 What a treat!... I wanted to share some of the rehearsal experience as well
as the finished product because so much time, effort and concentration goes into this. Our choreographer RHONDA STAMPALIA staging is amazing.
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I was proud to be a guest artist alongside JANESSA
TOUCHET and OCULCAN BOROVA of THE CINCINNATI BALLET and BRIAN PALMER of SUZANNE FARRELL BALLET. It was quite an
accomplishment to bring outside people into a cast that has been rehearsing for months and make the blending...um...blend so to speak...and each NUTCRACKER has different ways of showcasing its characters.
I play THE DANCING MAID....who is shocked at all the finery she
sees coming into the party and feels like CINDERELLA without the magic wand transforming her.
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"I can fly...I can fly...." Oops! Wrong Production. |
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Everyone Likes the Maid! |
Dancing with Grandfather (Henry
Rogers) |
So
she decides...she will be a part of this party anyway and dances solo until the grandfather danced by HENRY ROGERS spots her, gets enamored and after removing herself from his presence as much as she can
...somehow ends up performing "The Grandfathers Dance." He is so overcome he gives her a big kiss on the cheek and all hell breaks loose!
Now I have heard there are versions of the
maids role where she is intoxicated, proper, comical and sometimes non-existent, but my maid conceived by both the choreographer and me has truly taken on a life of its own.... From being spotted in one of the boxes during the overture,
dusting and dancing around the chairs, being scared to death while assisting DROSSELMEIR (played to perfection by BRIAN PALMER), to mimicking the fine ladies at the party.
Think "ELIZA
DOOLITTLE wanting to be the FAIR LADY" and that's what it came down too. The audience loved the part...and I loved the audience! |
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