Friday, May 30, 2014

Peter Pan Ballet

We have been working on this ballet since February/March of this year.  The creative directors were Meg Perkins and Elizabeth Parr, ballet teachers at our dance school, Just for Kicks.

These photos are from the rehearsal that took place just prior to the curtain rising.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I loved watching the show last night.

I was backstage and in charge of scene changes.

These first nine are from the rehearsal we had prior to the show.


Marissa Hanson as Peter Pan


Addison Blair as Peter's Shadow, Marissa (Pan), Talia Ronge as Wendy


Wendy sews Peter's Shadow back on



Wendy watches as the fairies dance


Peter wants them to come with him - but they can't fly


Evyn as John - he can fly!


John can fly!


Off to Neverland!


The following photos are from the Pre-Show


Amber with her acting group.  They are doing Reader's Theatre.  Their piece was titled Dear Journal. Their acting teacher put Amber in charge, because she was the only one who consistently came to class and was prepared.



Doing her big jump in her team dance, Birthday.


Wendy has just been told she can no longer stay in the nursery because she is too old.


Weston Maples (6 years old) is Nana the dog and he was adorable!  He is greeting all the kids.


Nana did a trick for John (rolled over) and John gave him a treat.  (Evyn had a piece of chocolate with him - they had arranged it prior to the show - very cute.)


Nana finishes his dance


Peter Pan arrives in the nursery


Tinker Bell does not want to help Peter to let them fly


Typical Tink


Peter catches his Shadow


Wendy sews Peter and his Shadow together again


Peter and Shadow do a pas de deux


Little fairies come to dance in the nursery


Wendy watches the little fairies


Peter shows them how to fly


The Darling children show Peter they don't know how to fly


John tries very hard to fly, but with no luck.


Think blows pixie dust on the Darling children - John reacts to the blow of dust (Holden Maples, as Michael, sneezed - it was a good acting touch).


We can fly!


Peter!  Peter!  Watch me!  (Holden does some really good flips in the air after this photo - but I didn't catch them very well on film.)  This is where Evyn does his great jump and toe touches, which I shared earlier from dress rehearsal (but was unable to capture during the show).


Helping Michael fly!


And off they fly to Neverland



Ethan as Mr. Smee and Jonathan Lique as Captain Hook


Smee and fellow pirate (Brandon LaVigne) dance


The pirates do their dance


End of the pirate dance


In comes the crocodile (Summit Geilselman)


Captain Hook and Smee aren't to happy with the number of crocodiles in the waters


Crocodiles!


The crocodiles


The Lost Kids


Peter introduces the Darling children to the Lost Kids


John and Michael participate in the food throwing



Lagoon Mermaids


Lagoon Mermaids


Betty Paschke is a Mermaid in Amber's class.  Alas, no photo of Amber, she was on the other side.  Ian may have gotten one of her, at least I hope so.  I feel very bad about it.




Carsyn Blair, Amber's good friend from dance, was also a Mermaid.




If you look very closely you will see Amber.  (Piper Burke is in front, then Maddie Whittacker, then you can see Amber - to Amber's right is Anna Leesa Ronge.)


These girls had perfect lines!  Amber is the 4th Mermaid back, behind Anna Leesa.  Her head is tilted to the left and hidden.  Behind Amber is Sidnee Sutherland.


The first set of Indian girls dance.  This is the beginner ballet (the girls standing).


Fireflies - these girls had little lights sewn into their skirts (can you see them?).



Racoons at the Indian pow-wow camp - very cute little raccoons!


Ian as the Indian Chief


Indian Chief solo during Indian pow-wow scene


Indian Chief, pirates, John, and Michael - all these boys were in Andrew Pontious' all boy ballet class.  This piece was AMAZING!





It is soon realized the pirates have come and it's time to fight


John is ready to take on Smee


Still the boys' dance - it truly was fabulous and well choreographed and executed.  There was a LOT of applause after this piece.


The Indian Chief has his daughters line up and Tiger Lily does her solo.  Vanessa Alonzo was Tiger Lily.



Wendy joins in the dance with Tiger Lily and the other Indian princesses


Betty is also an Indian Princess


Hook and Smee make off with Tiger Lily during the pow-wow



No one seems to notice the pirates stealing away with Tiger Lily


Tiger Lily was taken away and tied up out on a rock in the water - and the Rising Tide is a threat to her.  These dancers represent the Rising Tide.




Tiger Lily tied up out on the rock



Back at the burrow, Tinkerbell is one unhappy little pixie - she doesn't care for Wendy


John enjoying the story Wendy is reading to all of them


Peter was injuring before rescuing Tiger Lily, and Wendy is taking care of him.  Peter, the Lost Kids, and Darling children are ready to drop off to sleep.


Hook sneaks in and grabs Michael in his sleep!  Meanwhile, Wendy is telling Peter he must take the medicine when he wakes up in order to get better (glass bottle in Peter's hands).



Smee grabs Wendy while she's sleeping and takes her away, too.



However, Tinkerbell notices Hook has switched out the bottle of medicine for poison and grabs it out of Peter's hands and takes it herself.  Her fairy friends come in to rescue and save her.  Amber's other good friend, Gracelyn Snedden, was one of the fairies.  You can see her center.



Tinkerbell is not doing well and is fading.


The fairies find Tinkerbell's pixie dust pouch and are going to make her better.


All the little fairies dip into Tinkerbell's pixie dust pouch ... and ...


My absolutely favorite photograph of the entire show!  I loved watching Marissa's face (Peter Pan) while this was happening.  It was the sweetest dance ever!


Tinkerbell is all better!


Looking for the Darling children.


The pirates have the children


Peter fights Hook








The crocodile is after Hook again!


The Darling children capture Smee


Victory Dance - the pirates are caught, everyone is back together again


Amber with Meg Perkins


Amber with Elizabeth Parr


Evyn, Meg Perkins, Ian, Ethan, Amber, and Elizabeth Parr


Nana and John (after the show)


Evyn really likes Weston




 The Darling children with Nana and Peter Pan

Weston, Evyn, Holden, and Talia


I guess you're never too little to play pirate!  Ian playing with Weston Maples and Shep Blair


The last few photos are the professional they shared online.  I doubt I will be able to afford them, I never can.  I don't know what he's going to charge for them.  Will have to wait and see.


Tinkerbell enters the nursery.


Andrew's all boys class - I LOVE this photo.  Evyn just dropped a little earlier than the rest. 


Ian, Evyn, Ethan, Jonathan (back row)
Summit, Holden, and Brandon (front row)


Full Cast





Sunday, April 13, 2014

Shabby Chic Pointe Shoes

Amber and I tried a new craft this past week - up cycling an old pair of pointe shoes.  Turning something very worn out into a piece of art work - this becomes Shabby Chic decor!

Samantha gave us a pair of her old pointe shoes and we set to work to turn them into individualized room decorations.

After many coats of paint and some poked fingers and a broken needle we produced what we thought were beautiful pieces of art.

Sadly, although they were intended for the Silent Auction at Spring Showcase, neither got a nibble and they came home with us.


Amber putting the first coat of paint on the Spring pointe shoe.


This is the first one I started sewing on.  I shoved the eye of the needle into my thumb a couple times, stabbed myself with a couple of those pins, and then eventually broke the eye off the needle.  I replaced the needle and dug out a thimble!

These are our finished products!



The green one we called Spring.  The pink flowers were added on with hot glue, and the sparkles on the Cinderella (or Nutcracker Clara) were added with jewelers glue.

Now, I know you are asking - smell?  Well, they weren't too stinky to begin with, but we Febreezed the insides and put a sachet in the toe of each.  They turned out lovely and are currently hanging in a doorway in our house until we sell them.  We may be adding them to the Etsy shop - we shall see.  I was going to ask Samantha if she's okay with it, as they are her donated shoes.  She's looking for her other ones to donate as well.



Friday, March 14, 2014

Pocket Pals - Special order completed!

When we lived in Iceland we had a fabulous in-home child care provider named Kristen Bieszke.  She would come before we left for work, take care of the boys all day, and then go when one of us got home.  They loved her.

She is now living in the DC/Virginia/Maryland area (after recently moving there from Japan).  She has three daughters and saw my post of Amber's Pocket Pals on Facebook and loved the little ballerina and wanted to place an order.  So, through messaging back and forth we nailed it down to what she wanted and today I completed the last of her special order.

Here is what she ordered:





I sent her a photo (the one on top) and she LOVES them!  They are currently hanging out so the last of the glue dries and then will be wrapped and packaged and sent on their merry way.  A little leprechaun is also sneaking herself into the package - courtesy of one very thankful young lady (Amber).  



Saturday, March 8, 2014

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Ugh.  Everything happens when Daryn's gone!  All this rain and we have water dripping from the room through our bathroom vent/fan … again.  This has happened on at least a handful of other occasions.  However, this time it is really coming in and the paint around the vent/fan is bubbling.  I honestly don't know what to do and I am not going to figure it out by attempting to know what I'm doing and climbing on the roof or into the closet crawl space.  Urgh!  In the meantime I have a bowl catching rainwater.  I may have to go to the largest bowl we have.

Pocket Pals

In the ever increasing attempt to raise money for dance, I think Amber and I have come up with a winner … Pocket Pals.  We have opened an Etsy shop (www.etsty.com) called DancersCraftRoom (just go to Etsy.com and type in DancersCraftRoom) and you'll see all her listings.

Now, the only items we've sold are the leprechauns, as they are the only ones we have listed to date.  Why?  Because we don't have the others ready yet.



This is the photo we use with the leprechauns on Amber's online shop. 


These are some of the little folk we have created (well, okay, I have created).  These are all the FIRST ones made - so essentially, prototypes.  All additional ones will be listed.


This young lady I created especially for Amber and her Etsy shop.  I figured, if it's called DancersCraftRoom there needed to be a dancer on there!

That being said, the weekend is now set aside for creating so we can get them listed!  


Saturday, December 21, 2013

Over the fields and through the … airports and train stations

It's only taken a month to remember to post our fabulous trip on the family blog.  I have been so remiss in keeping this up to date.

Our trip east certainly was memorable to say the least.  It started with an hour plus late departure from Seattle, the loss of a connecting flight once we landed in New Jersey, a shuttle from New Jersey to New York's Penn Station, and ultimately a trip on the train curtesy of AmTrak to Albany!


Dinner in the SeaTac airport.


Ballet dancer stretches wherever she can!  


Breakfast in New Jersey - waiting to find out how we were going to get to NY.


And waiting … at this point, no solution as to how we were going to get to NY


Entertaining himself at AmTrak while we waited for the train to arrive.


Stinking hot car - no air in it at all.  Everyone hot and all seats taken up - so lots of body heat.