We arrived on Friday, did a little teching at the Oakville Performing Arts Centre. I have been suffering from this nasty little cold virus for a few days and my voice was beginning to sound a little groggy. By Saturday morning (show day) my voice was pretty much non-existant. A few squeaks was all I could muster when I woke up that morning. Now....this might not be a big issue for a dancer in most shows....but this show literally has speaking, singing or yelling - or combinations of all of the above, in EVERY PIECE.....one of which is my solo. Not good.
I called on my sister Erin (Opera singer) for advice and tools of the trade. Hot drinks, no caffeine, advil, losanges (lemon, not menthol), sleep and hydration were all necessary. Also - we looked into a few controversial things like Cortizone shots (not recommended - so we didn't go there). It was a stressful day of tech wondering whether I'd be able to squeak it out! We made a few modifications. Erin showed up with the homemade "wonder tea" that saved me. The raspy voice actually ended up working well for my rock star solo (Live From the Flash Pan) - it just sounded like a partyed too hard the night before. I made it through the rest of the show with a few modifications. Close call.
Minor glitch in my solo....the sound computer decided to reboot and my music shut off towards the end of my first song. Had to improvise once again. This piece is totally keeping me on my toes! The beauty is.....it usually seems to work alright! The audience actually liked it and thought it was deliberate. Ok - enough curve balls already.
Oakville was a warm and friendly audience! They laughed a lot - which we love. They also cried! I totally heard some sniffles during Lisa Phinney's piece (Beside Myself Gasping)! Nice! We were delighted that Paula Citron came to the show and reviewed it! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/moceans-fine-line-accessible-but-never-simple/article1530653/
Sunday was a day off for us! We headed to Toronto on the Go Train for a little shopping and visiting with sisters. Lishe's baby sister Talia and my voice saving sis Erin met up with us. Sarg (Marcel) came shopping with us and often waited near the entrance reading on his Sony Reader.....we felt a little like celebs shopping with a body guard. It was a fantastic day!
This morning we headed to St. Catharines and to our first outreach workshop at Port Colborne High School. Amazing dance students there with a fantastic dance studio right in the school! On the way back to the hotel we decided to take a quick detour into Niagra Falls! My first time there!
More to come.....
Hitting the hay for a full day of outreach and tech tomorrow
CC (Carolle)
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