Dancing in the Dark

As many people know, my life has somewhat revolved around dance. The thing with dance is that it culminates in an extravagant production of props, light and talented dancers. There are costumes and make up that brighten up each young dancer. From warm up and stretching to gossip and wreaking havoc on the rooms, plus the game of inventing excuses as to why they need to travel in packs, the excitement builds in the rooms.

The first half of the show was phased by a minor glitch when the power went out around the time that parents were to be dropping off children. However, it was back on shortly thereafter and the programme proceeded without a hitch. I can say now that I can wrap buns and bobby pin them in under a minute a piece. Who knew that would be a needed talent to develop?

I watched as they plotted and schemed and raided a seemingly bottomless vending machine. Parents, I think you don't want to know how much sugar your child consumed tonight. The vending machine itself took great pride in its accomplishment of only working five times out of every six. There was much pounding of the machine and wailing over the random theft of twoonies. They travelled in packs to the bathrooms and to the water fountain and to peer down the hall at the boys...not that they would admit to that.

Then, it happened. The theatre went dark and it wasn't on purpose. The power was out. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, it went back on 1.5 hours later. I find it interesting that it went on just minutes after a group of dancers in our room sat in a circle and prayed for the lights to come on. Talk about vindication of faith. The double dutch dancers were claiming that they energized the lights back on. All good stuff that meant a restart of the second half with the lighting in place. The first numbers had been danced under the limited lights of generator. Magic and pagentry and a very patient audience all played into a rather crazy night.

The question is...who was the lunatic that must have done something completely daft? I imagine someone drove into a power pole somewhere.

But I have to congratulate those dancers of the dark, who stayed awake and powered through a sleepy and tired audience to crank out a wonderful show. See you tomorrow when we do it all again...with the power on this time if you please!