The Who’s Who of Hong Kong nightlife rolled up en masse on Friday to check out the Circus event put on by a mish mash of HK’s hottest performers for M1NT’s 3rd Anniversary.
Hilary and Jen, two of the best teachers at Central Dance Studios (www.danceclassesinhongkong.com) in HK choreographed the 3 dance numbers performed on the night and put together the concept for the event. Also performing was Lucia Tam and me (!) – Singer Gretchell, Aerial Artists Vee, Shelley and Tessa (www.aerialartsacademy.com) and a few bar flare experts…
Dancers in Hair and Make Up
This is one of those productions that you do for love, not money – as the budget doesn’t even cover the time it took me to get my make up off – but here’s a quick glimpse at what it takes to put together a show at short notice.
Late October:
Dancers get commissioned to put together – Hilary and Jen write down routines on scraps of paper whilst they should be doing other things – we panic when we realise there’s only 3 weeks until show time and we have only 5 rehearsals….
November:
Finally get into rehearsals – the only time we can do it is after all our classes have finished, so it’s late nights for all of us for the next couple of weeks as we don’t start until 9.30pm….
Mid November:
Only just finish learning the choreography for all 3 numbers about 1 week before the show. That doesn’t give us much time to polish and do dress rehearsals . We are doing a number called ‘Jack in Box’ which involves using a Box to jump in and out of. Except we STILL don’t have the box.
You can’t choreograph the number until we get the set …. Hope it will work out ok.
3 Days before Show:
The Box arrives. It’s giant but works. We quickly find out that we need to re do a substantial part of the movement choreography.
Rehearse on stage for the first time.
Dancers in Our Box
1 Day before the show:
Remember we have to do the show in heels – panic. Haven’t done that for years! Get old heels out and nearly fall over in them. Remember I am teaching a How to Dance in Heels Workshop in a couple of weeks time and it all starts flooding back. Costumes arrive….
Day of the Show:
Rehearsals in the venue .It’s running late but going OK…UNTIL – the curtain falls down at the last minute. We staple it to the ceiling and pray we can pull it back enough to be seen. Our box collapses backstage. Some guy with a drill turns up. We hope it works out…..The ceiling decorations fall down in the middle of the singers set…. Doh!
Dancers dressed for Lion Tamers dance
Performance Time: Rocked it. All came together and looked great. All the stress is forgotten and the vibe in the club is awesome. There will be video clips up here soon – just getting permission to use them…In the meantime check out the photos of the rehearsals and our amazing hair and make up!
