The Swords Stayed Firmly On Our Heads

The show is over! I'm so happy! I feel this enormous buoyant sensation of relief today.

It went really well. Much better than I anticipated.

Everybody showed up. Our costumes were beautiful. We didn't forget the choreography.

And above all, nobody's sword fell off their head. Repeat, the swords stayed firmly on our heads.

Even when we did drops with them. Even when we spun like dervishes while balancing them---a late addition to the choreography, but it looked so cool, so physics-defying!

And the second dance, the tribal drum solo, the one so many of us (including me) were nervous about, seemed to fall into place. Despite the mixed emotions. Despite the missing dancers at the practices. It wasn't perfect, it simply couldn't be with only a few days to learn the finished dance, but it still felt good. I was surprised at how confident I felt when the time for my solo actually came. After all, I had been still deciding exactly what I planned to do with my forty seconds of solo glory that very afternoon practicing in my living-room.

One of my fellow dancers said to me afterwards, "When I saw how much fun you looked like you were having during your solo, I immediately felt more relaxed!" Bless her for sayin' it.

It certainly helped that my good friend Emily was in the front row. I couldn't help smiling right at her.

Yes, I was allowed to smile in the second number.

In the sword dance, we all had to maintain intense expressions which is hard for me to do when I dance because I often relieve nervousness by grinning my fool head off.

My friend Sherry said that she'd never seen me look so fierce. Ah, mission accomplished.

We wore tons of dramatic eye make-up for this performance. The opening bars of the sword dance we posed with our eyes closed and on a certain beat, we all opened our eyes wide in unison. Ooh, hopefully we all looked exotic and mysterious under those hot stage lights.

It was seven intense minutes out of my life. It's amazing how much mental and physical effort (not to mention sewing) can be squeezed into a time that passed so quickly.

Aterwards, we ran upstairs to the dressing room and quaffed champagne and strawberries, giddy with adrenaline and relief.

You know, it did wonders for our confidence when we took photographs before the show and we all looked so good. We oogled ourselves quite a bit in the mirrors at Sandra's house in the hours right before the performance.

That's me (well, okay, my torso) dancing in the photo above. :)

Recognize the little chain belt you gave me, Pol?