Dance Away

I may already have mentioned this, but I am a dancer.  I have been dancing since I was two years old, and I love everything about it. But my favorite part of dancing is performing.  I’m not an attention-seeking weirdo or anything, but I absolutely love dancing on stage: the lights, the costumes, the loud music, I live for it.  So what has inspired this discussion of my dance life?  Orchesis.

Many of you may be scratching your head and furrowing your brow thinking, “what in God’s name is an Orchesis?”  Orchesis is the dance company at my high school, and it has been a huge part of my life for the past two months.  Every year we hold auditions in September, and we have performances in November and May, with a three-month break between seasons.  So our November showcase is next weekend.  Which means that this is the week that I go around telling everyone that they simply MUST come see the show.  Often enough, people hear the word Orchesis and ask one of two questions:

1.     “Oh, so do you, like, play the violin or something?”

2.     “Isn’t that some kind of interpretive dance… thing?”

The answer is no. No, Orchesis has nothing to do with Orchestra, and no, Orchesis is not an interpretive dance group…the idea scares me a little bit. 

So every year we start rehearsals just after auditions, in the first or second week of September.  Once you make the company, you are cast in a certain number of dances, depending on your year in school and how many seasons you have been on Orchesis.  There are several seniors each season who choreograph pieces. The rest are choreographed by Ms. Riner (the dance teacher in charge of Orchesis), other teachers, and guest choreographers.  This year, I am doing an independent study in choreography with Ms. Riner, so I choreographed a full piece and a mini solo that is in another dance.

But what I really want to talk about is tech week.  Tech week is the week before the show, and we run the entire show once or twice each day with lighting and costumes.  Tech week is also a week of traditions.  Each day, we dress up according to some ridiculous theme to advertise for the show.  Past dress-up days have included: dress like a dancer day, dress like an athlete day (which we were all made fun of, so that one didn’t stick), white t-shirt/hallway marker wars day, monochromatic day, etc.  So you get the idea.  This year is pretty exciting, because the seniors decided to bring back pajama day, which means….wait for it…drum roll please…ONESIES.  That’s right, this Tuesday I will be sporting a bubble-gum pink adult onesie complete with dogs for feet to school.  If you can’t tell, I’m kind of excited. 

Besides dress up week, we have other traditions, most of them revolving around food.  Don’t think for one second that we are those kinds of dancers who don’t eat anything.  I would venture to say that at least half of Orchesis traditions involve food.  On the Friday of the first show, we are called out of eighth period so that we can go get some food before our 4:00 pm final dress rehearsal, which means that we all pile into cars and go to get Italian ice and French fries or milk shakes.  Then, after the final dress and before the opening show, we sit in a giant circle, eat pizza, and talk.  And then there’s always the random nights during tech week that we order $80 worth of Thai food for the company to eat during the run-throughs. 

So what do I do when I have lots of costumes, dance shoes, and makeup to bring for the shows?  I throw all of it in my Tote bag, of course! For all of you dancers out there who have tons to carry around for classes and shows, and the athletes who have their own equipment, you’ll need a big bag to transport all of your goods.  Make it a tote bag. 

-Emma