Monday, January 7, 2008

dance on camera: sytycd and made memories

Tonight in class we had a special 'treat.'

A girl who sometimes takes class with us is a semi-finalist for So You Think You Can Dance and they wanted to film her in ballet class, so we had a big camera crew the whole time. They were mainly focused on the girl and on the teacher, and supposedly it's only going to be a short clip, (and I forgot to sign the video release we were required to sign...), BUT it was still kind of stressful! Haha.

It makes you work differently when there's an audience, any kind of audience, be it in person or behind a camera, and even if they're not focused on you (as in this situation, or perhaps in a corps de ballet in the background situation) you still know they can see you. It's hard work! I definitely approached class differently without meaning to...I was so tired by the end. More so than usual. 'Course I still took the class right after it too, as I usually do - and all on pointe nonetheless.

Anyways, dodging the camera men reminded me of the days at Rock School when they filmed an episode of MTV's "MADE" on us. Some kid wanted to be 'made' into a ballet dancer, so he came and took class for about 2 months and they filmed the whole thing, from barre to grande allegro to stretching and chatting before class to eating dinner in the lounge afterwards. It was certainly an experience being followed by a camera (again, not as the focus but still in the picture) and fun in some ways but annoying in others. It's interesting to be behind the scenes for a supposed "reality" tv show. Hm.

Well, tonight brought back those memories, so I thought I'd share a picture from the fake Nutcracker (I mean...um...totally real...) we did for our MADE episode back in early 2005. And then I got looking into old pictures from that year and thought I'd post a few for kicks. Enjoy :)


on the bus on the way to Delaware to film the 'performance'


Cheech! She's back in Japan :(


snow ball fight in the courtyard...it was moments like these that made living all together fun


roommates

1 comment:

Victoria said...

AHHHHHH!!! I remember Fake Nutcracker! ahahahahaaa. I think I was a flower. Gosh, my tutu was HUGE on me. That was ridiculous. We would just bourree around the stage and then they would yell CUT! I will never look at reality TV the same way again.