Today's story is from one of my last performances with my old dance company before moving to Norway. We were setting up The Ugly Duckling and I had gotten one of my first (and last) solo roles as the Mama Duck. I was thrilled to say the least and I loved working with all eight of my baby ducklings. After a few months of hard work, performance day rolled around. I shared the role with my best friend, she had gone the night before and everything went without a hitch. The show started with me sitting in my "faux" nest, knitting while the Storyteller introduced everyone and set the scene for the opening number after the Ugly Duckling is born. Cue music.... and dancers. So far, so good, right? Then I start to feel my pointe shoe loosening around my foot. It's turning around my foot slightly. The panic sets in at this point. I'm supposed to be up on my box, doing turns, etc and I can't get my shoe to stay on my foot. There is a point during the dance where I have to stand by and watch my baby ducklings do a short combination. I try to wedge my foot back in the shoe while standing there smiling and trying not to look like there's anything wrong. Needless to say, I can't get my shoe to stay put and now, I have to start dancing again.
After a few short moments, the shoe is now completely off of my foot and dangling around my ankle. Every time I do my pas de chat's, the box hits the floor with (to my ears) an incredibly loud clang. Thankfully, the choreography had me doing some bourree's from side to side. I do them as close to the edge of the curtain as I can, looking frantically at the choreographer. She motions to me that I have to keep going. I kind of figured that I would be getting that response, but part of me just wanted to run off stage and cry. However, I made it through the rest of the number and luckily, the last part of the dance had me leading everyone off stage so there could be a scenery change. I ran through the backstage area and straight to my mom, who was helping out backstage. I think that she thought I had fallen and broken something, I was so upset. Somehow, I was able to pull it together, put my shoe back on and emptied almost half a can of hairspray on the back of the shoe and the knot. This shoe was not going to come off again until I was ready for it to come off. I was able to finish the show and everyone later on told me what a great job I did.
So, the lesson I've learned here was in twofold:
- Always make sure your pointe shoes fit well not just o.k.
and
- Use lots of hairspray
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