This is an extremely delayed post, but the story must be told.
I was asked to dance with the company again for the Nutcracker, which had five performances: November 30, a school performance in the morning on December 12, and then three more Dec 12-14.
The part I was doing was "side tea" (perhaps the cream vessel?), along with another girl as side tea (sugar bowl? Or were we teacups?) and the main tea herself (the teapot?). It's a fine part, even though it's not a main part. It's one of those parts that is easy enough to "just do," but hard to do well. I didn't have anything else in the first act, which was actually nice because the dressing rooms were packed. And I got to help with all the quick changes!
Anyway, the November performance went well. Then there was another two weeks of rehearsals, and the proverbial excrement started to hit the fan.
Early in the week of the performances, I got an email from the director asking if I would be able to understudy Snow. Apparently there were no understudies (for 2 demisoloists, 6 first corps, and 8 second corps... and also not for the Snow Queen and King either), and one of the first corps dancers had gotten ill. It was a cold that was so bad that she was kept out of school with a fever and hacking cough. They thought it was the flu, but they went to the doctor and it wasn't.
So, I learned that part off of videos. Luckily, the dancer was able to come back to dance, though she was still obviously ill and "out of shape" (for a high schooler) from nearly a week not dancing.
Then, everybody started getting sick. Some were so sick that they couldn't even get out of bed. On Friday morning, we found out that a lieutenant mouse was out with the stomach flu, so our Dewdrop filled in for that part, as she had done it several years ago and only had to review the choreography a little. She did that part both Friday morning and afternoon. She said she was starting to feel like a cold was coming on, but it would be okay (and since she had finals coming up, she absolutely would NOT allow herself to get sick!).
Meanwhile, both Spanish female roles and the Snow Queen/Marzipan/Flowers demisoloist are clearly being affected by some chest cold or something, though they are still dancing.
Saturday I arrive at the theater for the call and everybody is abuzz because our Dewdrop is so ill that she can't even stand. And... of course... she has no understudy either. She's never missed a performance in her life until now. The director was down trying to figure out what to do. Should last year's Dewdrop do it? She really didn't want to make her, since she didn't quite remember the choreography and she was already doing Columbine, Russian, Snow, and Flowers. The two Flowers demisoloists offered to just make stuff up where it would be awkward if there wasn't someone on stage, but the director didn't like that idea.
Then she turns to me, since I have only one part, and I actually have an understudy. She says, would you be able to do this? I know it's a lot to ask, but I just can't put more pressure on [former Dewdrop with four parts this year]. All you have to do is go out in the beginning of the waltz and bow to Clara, and then in the diagonal just do the step, and for the rest of it it'll look fine if there's not someone there... so you can just run off...
We also find out that the male Spanish dancer is just half-dead on his feet and carrying around a bucket. He's also the Harlequin doll in the party scene, without an understudy (seeing a theme here?? lol), so last year's Harlequin (this year's teapot) fills in.
So the seamstress lets out the bodice for me and finds a tutu, and we figure out how exactly I'm going to do the quick change from Magic Castle to Tea (since my understudy couldn't do the actual tea variation, but only the finale). A girl in Spanish/Flowers remembers that there's a youtube video of Waltz rehearsal, so during Act I I am literally in the hallway in my tutu and bodice and learning the part via this girl's phone. I've only been back on pointe for four months at this point, so there's no way I'm doing those fouettes... figure I'll do some turns from fifth instead. Really try to learn the parts where it looks super awkward if nobody's there.
The director comes back down after the first act and asks if I'm okay, or if I need anything, and tells me how to do the bow, tells me that there's a little part in Magic Castle where someone tells me something and I tell Sugar Plum something, which I had never noticed before in all our rehearsals (oops). Then I realize that I have minor partner stuff in the finale and find the guy that I'd be doing it with to make sure I know what I'm doing. Meanwhile, chaos around me with people all hacking up lungs and pulling plastic snow out of their bodices and changing for Act II. Putting up my Tea costume so I can do the MINUTE AND A HALF fast change.
That fast change was probably the worst part of that whole performance. We nearly didn't make it, and the other two Tea dancers were panicking XD oh, other than the part where I nearly ran into the Russian dancer in the finale because I thought my entrance was eight counts earlier than it was, and then I had to kneel awkwardly early on the stage while the little rosebuds came out and did their thing (which is when I was supposed to come on... with them). The actual Dewdrop part didn't go terribly, though I did forget some of it and had to improvise. It was okay. I mostly stayed in the center and tried to not run into anyone.
The next day, I was supposed to do the part again, but the night before I had been watching the actual DVDs of the performances (the ones that I had to learn Snow) and learning the part. It went much better. I didn't have to improvise at all! And I wasn't even close to running into Russian!
- Our Harlequin/male Spanish dancer was better but still weak. He didn't need to keep a bucket backstage for this performance. Also happily, his brother did not get sick (Snow King/Marzipan)
- Various younger dancers in parts like mice and angels were getting ill
- Snow Queen/Marzipan/etc. came to warm-up feverish and dizzy (but she powered through!)
- Lieutenant soldier/party teen was ill, but he powered through too
- Both Spanish dancers still coughing, sometimes onstage during their variation (but they held that renverse in unison the last time and it was FANTASTIC)
- Tea stayed remarkably healthy, despite all of us being in the dressing room of pestilence together
- Arabian was still getting over her Cold of Death
- One of the lambs in Marzipan was ill as well (luckily, he had an understudy)
The moral of this story is to always have understudies. And to eat chicken noodle soup before performances.
