My First "Real" Performance of Giselle 8th October 2012

Paris, Jaida and Me

Tonight was our first "proper" performance.
I was very excited especially since I had a message this morning from Richard Bowman, Andrew Bowman's brother (who is also a ballet dancer), wishing me good luck.

Me being silly in the St James Theatre

Before I went up to my dressing room, I went autograph hunting and managed to track down a few dancers to sign my Giselle program.
It has become a tradition of mine and some of the other kids who have been in the Royal New Zealand Ballet's productions, to get all the dancers to sign the show's program booklet for the show that I am in.
I have got programs signed from The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and now Giselle.

The Peasant Children

I went upstairs and Mum put my make-up on me and then I got dressed into my costume.
Then Paris and Jaida came in and we had a bit of a play until we were called to go backstage.

Everything went very smoothly on stage, I had so much fun.
It's sad that I only have two more performances left to do.
I have two shows on Saturday.
I'm doing the matinee at 2.30pm and the night time show.
It's going to be a busy day as I have a RNZB master class early in the morning.

Act One which I am in but this is with the other cast with Gillian and Qi

I got changed straight away after we left the stage and me and Mum went and chatted to Lyndsay and watched the rest of Act One on the monitor in Lyndsay's little room.
Then at intermission I went to some of the dressing rooms to catch everyone for their autographs.

Salem with Andrew Bowman

I got to meet Andrew Bowman and we had a quick chat and he signed my program for me.
I was so excited to meet him and felt a bit awe-struck.
I didn't know what to say to him so Mum had to help a bit.

I went into my old dressing room from Cinderella and got all the guy's autographs.
Mac Hopper, who is new to the company, said that he had never been asked for his autograph before.

Outside the St James Theatre earlier that day

Then we dashed into the St James to get a cast list before going home.
That is another tradition of mine, to get a cast list for every show I am in.
I was recognised by some people who had been watching the performance, it was still intermission, they said hello to me.

On the train ride home, we sat with Jonte (Sir Jon Trimmer) and chatted until he got off at his stop.
I was so tired.

I can't wait until Saturday!!!!!!

First Rehearsal for Giselle

Playing with my cards in the dressing room

Ballet Diaries - Giselle
By Salem

Our First Rehearsal  2nd November 2012

Today was the first rehearsal for us kids.
We were in two groups, Daniel and two girls, one of which was in Cinderella.
I was with Paris and her little sister Jaida.
Paris and I used to be in the same ballet class last year at Paula Hunt Dance School.
Their dad is Shannon who is the RNZB Educator.

Daniel and I played with my cards making buildings and roads with my packets of cards I always bring with me.  We had to wait in our dressing room which is the rehearsal room upstairs until we were needed.

Gillian and Qi

We had a bit of a wait before Turid came to take us down to the auditorium.
We watched all the dancers rehearse Act One until it was time for Daniel's group to go up on stage.
They were told what to do and got to have a practice.

My group got to watch everything so that we knew what to do when it came to our turn.
We just got a quick run through because our practice is tomorrow.

Gillian Murphy as Giselle

Gillian Murphy was Giselle and Qi Huan was Count Albrecht at this rehearsal.
Gillian looked very lovely as Giselle.
The stage set looked so cool, there where two peasant houses, they were wooden, they would look very good in my backyard for me to have them as play huts.  I would live in them!!!!!
The scenery was sort of foresty.
It was really cool when I was up on stage.

We continued watching the rehearsal until it was time for the dancers to have a break, dinner time I think.
Then we could go home.
So it was a quick dash to get a bus to the Railway Station.

Two Performances in One Day

Ballet Diaries - Cinderella
By Salem
Two Performances in One Day 4th August 2012
After the Master Class this morning we had a bit of a relax, then we got bored so we went over to Te Papa (the National Museum).  It was good to go there again as we hadn't been there for a while and some of the exhibits had been changed and there was some new ones too.

At Te Papa

Then it was time to get ready for the afternoon matinee.  Mum did my make-up in the dressing room for a change and I just waited around in my waistcoat, not my full jacket, because the dressing room was so hot.

Daniel was well enough to do the show today which was good.

We didn't do much while we were waiting in the dressing room.  I was so hot that I kept going out into the hallway and fanned myself with my program.  It was a good way to get more autographs when the dancers came past.  I even got Gillian Murphy's autograph this time.

My performance went well, I got to all my marks on stage.  Still haven't dropped my oranges.
Afterwards I quickly got dressed and met Mum downstairs and we had yet another pot of tea at the Jimmy.
We went to Arthur's cafe to have dinner between shows.  We shared some fish fingers and fried potatoes with some yummy ginger beer to wash it down.  We were all "tea-ed" out.
Back to the St James again and we got one of the cast lists for the next performance and it had Nicholas' name on it instead of Daniels but it turned out to be a mistake thank goodness.  We thought he might have been sick again.
I got back into my costume and fixed up my make-up.  Me and Daniel did some origami. We made paper planes and Daniel started teaching me how to make a star but then we thought it was time to go downstairs to go backstage.

First we waited around a bit until I went over to see Jonte and he asked me to sit with him.  We had a bit of a chat about the ballet.  Then Rory told me it was time to get ready and man my cart.  It was another fun performance.
I quickly got changed as soon as I had finished and me and Mum had just enough time to get a taxi to the Railway Station to get the earlier train.  We were able to get home an hour earlier than usual.  I was very, very tired.