and THAT's why choreography sucks!

No, I'm kidding of course! I absolutely LOVE a well-made choreography! But sometimes you're left scrambling to adjust the show when one of your performers can't make it - am I right?

That's what just happened to me and my PRISM Dancers. Two days prior to our show at Alhamraa in Charlottesville - half of which was choreographed dances, and the rest group improv bellydance - one of my dancers had to pull out because of health issues. AND, as luck would have it, since I'd planned the show around four dancers, both of our choreographed dances were duets - and now my duet partner would be missing.

So with NO time left for rehearsals, we had to figure out how to adapt the two choreographies. There were two options: take one dancer out and have ONE duet onstage; or make the remaining duet into a trio... somehow.
Now, if it hadn't been for the fact that we were going to a show out of town where people were actually coming to see ME perform, I'd have gone with the first option, and pulled myself out of the two choreographed numbers. But I didn't want to let my wonderful fans down; they're precious supporters whom I hold dear to my heart. So instead, I hung in on those two numbers and probably made them look like what my husband would call a "soup sandwhich" - a mess!
I know I could've replaced one of the dancers and she would've understood, but I wanted my performers to experience all the dancing fun possible, and not miss half the show waiting backstage.

My dancers and I have the attitude that:

1. the show WILL go on,
2. we SHALL do a good performance,
3. AND, we WILL enjoy ourselves onstage.

So, our two choreographed numbers became "trios" - of a sort! I'm sure the staging looked a wee bit messy at times, but that's how it goes. Yes, I know it was really alright - everyone enjoyed it, including us!

Yay, we had fun!

  Anthea / Kawakib
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