Saturday, June 11th was the Texas Ballet Theater Dallas School's annual senior recital. Katharine and I left home shortly after 8 and did not return home until almost 10:30 that night. The young dancers had dress rehearsal and two hour performance on the same day. This year the recital was at the McFarlin Auditorium, the theater of SMU (Southern Methodist University) which is located in an older part of the city of Dallas and has a very nice campus. Katharine was in a total of 13 dances, and today, two days later, the fatigue has finally set in. All the pictures below were taken at dress rehearsal. They are not in program order, but rehearsal order. I thoroughly enjoyed watching dress rehearsal. It gives you such an insight into the production and you see how everything finally comes together.
Footloose - Tap
This year was Katharine's last year of tap as she moved up to a higher level ballet class on Saturdays and there won't be any time for tap. I know her tap teacher will miss her!
Nothing but Soul - Jazz
Asturias - Modern
Radio Tune - Jazz
Parisienne - Ballet
Finale rehearsal talk from the wings
Finale - Ballet/ Pointe
Broadway Waltz - Ballet
Edge of Misery - Modern
Patria der Alma - Modern
War - Contemporary
This is an almost 10 minute long dance, Katharine had a costume change during the dance. The teacher combined two classes for this dance. Katharine was in both classes, so she got to be in the entire dance. The picture above shows the girls chatting before run through of the dance.
Facade - Ballet/Pointe
Merce Cunningham once said " You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing bat that single fleeting moment when you feel alive." - Seeing Katharine give it her all in all those dances shows so much on her face. She doesn't just dance with her body, but with her heart and soul. Here is what one of the younger girls' mom sent in an email to me today: "Katharine was so fabulous! I love how she is kind and patient no matter how crazy stressful the show must be. It make her stage presence so much more impressive."