Thursday was a mild improvement… although that’s not really saying much. It didn’t rain… until we actually started rehearsing, at which point there began a great deluge, flooding the valleys and drowning the plebeians.
Just kidding. No plebeains were harmed during the making of this post (although it ought to be ntoed that when I say plebeians, I do not include dancers. They could well have been goodly maimed).
So we arrived at Cumberland, and made use of the pleasant weather to warm up outside and then do some passthroughs. At which point it started raining. Thanks, water cycle. So we got us some ponchos, like the stykish kids we be, and frolicked back outside where we played and marched and became dampened. And then we went inside to practice the *numerous expletives deleted* do-si-do section.
But then came the spec dance. Oh happy day. After that we were under the COLA, singing our parts so as not to disturb the plebeians who had class (the same ones we didn’t harm). Poor sods.
Then came the horror of packing the utes. The less said about that infernal Tetris battle played against the universe, the better. Finally we were on the crazy curvy bus and on our way to spec.
Now those of you who were concentrating will note the fact that earlier I cast aspersions as to Rachel’s spelling ability re: ‘Milennium’ (sic). But it turns out that the marvelous people at the SEC agreed with her. So much so that the giant screens had our name on them for a good few hours.
But regardless, it was time to run the finale dance. Bloody ‘dancers’. It’s not that difficult to stay within the bounds of a tarqet floor. On the plus side however, there was pyrotechnics. Huzzah for fire.
We then set in for a well lengthy session of watching rehearsals. First up was Amazing Grace. Gosh I find bagpipes entertaining. I could only hope that the pipers would be kilted up for the performances. Which they were.
Then followed the special needs students dancing to Man in the Mirror along with (as for Amazing Grace) the Deaf Choir. There was however a most uninspiring keychange. I mean really. If you’re going to change keys, it may as well be rousing.
Following on from that was the lengthy process of the primary and secondary choir spacing themselves evenly amongst the banked seating. And drawn out it was. Cue eye rolling.
Thus followed the Drama ensemble, with an unexpectedly small child. They proceeded to walk around in a circle.
And then we were called for Thunderbirds. So we got out our instruments and proceeded to practice walking up and down flights of stairs with horns up. Then we waited around for AAAAAAAAGES before we were called to actually walk down the stairs on the stage. I must admit that the amazed looks from the primary school kids were well gratifying.
Then, finally, it neared the time for us to have our actual rehearsal. So we went to our regular outdoor rehearsal space… only to find it cordoned off. Great. So much to the delight of the local tourists, we set to it out in the open. Which was all fine and dandy until (that’s right, folks) it rained.
So we headed to the bank of steps where we always take the group photo and set to warming up and working on our cape flicks. This too was fine and dandy until I, in a fit of grace and poise, stacked it down about five steps with sousaphone on. It’s cool though folks – whilst both the sousa and I were banged up, nothing was broken. Thankyou fiberglass.
About 20 minutes later, we were set upon the floor (albeit impressively late) and finally ran the show and were released. And there was in and of itself a brief moment of entertainment there when Holley (sax) bemoaned the fact that she had missed the call.
Not to mention Keevers’ slushie mixed with V, which upon tasting he decided ‘tasted like brown’.
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