Front row seat

Oct. 9, 2010

The dancers with Yow Dance are so critical of themselves. “I messed up.” “I was off.” “I missed my cue.”

And I’m thinking, “Huh? Did I watch the right performance?”

Given, I don’t have a trained eye. But when I watch the Yow Dance dancers perform, I see Christie’s grace, David’s exuberance, Melissa’s soul.

As the president, I get certain perks. For instance, last night, before the first Yow Dance! performance, I got a front row seat for the final run-through. And as a non-dancer, I felt super-special (and a bit voyeuristic) watching them take over the stage in their sweats yet in full makeup, give a performance meant for them only — full of giggles and yelps and whoopsies and smirks. It was like watching the Queen of England telling dirty jokes to her royal court before stepping out of the palace in full regalia.

Here is a quick little video I shot during the run-through. Unfortunately, I missed all the snickers and squeaks, but you’ll still see how good they look, even in sweatpants.

If you get a chance to see the Yow Dance! show at Trinity Prep (only tonight and tomorrow left!), please be there. Eric is premiering Blackberry Winter in this show, and it’s a real treat.

But something else you won’t get anywhere else is the excitement of seeing Amanda Plesa’s kids from In Motion Dance Project perform. Melissa J. Dixon always talks about how what’s important about dance is how it makes you feel; seeing Amanda’s teenage girls dance made me feel … like a Class A Loser. Their incredible movements and confidence at age 13 or so put me on a fast track to memory lane — to when I was 13. I was worried about a lot of things at that age (mostly to do with kissing boys, scoring cigarettes and mortifying teachers), and none of them led me down a path of self-assuredness, performance ability or talent development.

These girls have the world in front of them. You will see all of them (Kaelie Osorioz, Sophie Ludwig, Mariella Marfori and Isabella Halili) on a huge stage one day, and I plan to be on the front row.

This video is a snippet of Kaelie Osorioz performing Broken Wings. Enjoy!