Rehearsals

Rehearsals for the Wizard of Oz are the high point of my week.  I love working with our talented kids!  What excites me is their enthusiasm.  We have understudies for each of the main characters in addition to most of the parts being double cast.  However, most of the time there are at least four other dancers who are learning these parts as well.  Some of the girls and boys who are Ballet II's and III's have taken it upon themselves to learn the parts of the Heralds, Chickens, Flying Monkeys, and Crows and many seem to be learning the complicated "off to see the wizard" step.  Most of the Ballet V's have learned every part in the ballet!
This weekend's rehearsals were definitely unusual.  On Friday, both Tinmen were sick and both Lions were absent so it was a great opportunity for the understudies to jump in.  At Saturday's rehearsal, Samantha Stearns (our modern teacher) came in to film some rehearsal footage for a promo video.  Unfortunately our Wicked Witch and her understudy were both absent so the part was filled by a combination of one of our Dorothys and a Tinman.  However, the ballet is 95 % complete and we are still three weeks away from opening so we are in great shape.  Hopefully everyone will be healthy next weekend!

Costumes

Designing the costumes for Wizard of Oz has all been done by Anna Rutter.  Anna's daughter Emma came to us at age eight (she's 11 now) and her mom has been an integral part of Littleton Dance Academy and Littleton Youth Ballet ever since. Anna has been a blessing for us.  She works at the front desk, helps out as our house manager at our shows, and is also a very talented costumer in her own right.  There are 109 costumes in the show!  There are the main characters of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tinman, the Lion, Toto, Glinda, the Wicked Witch, and the Wizard.  There are also countless other parts including chickens, townspeople of Oz, crows, Munchkins, heralds, rainbows, poppies, farm hands, flying monkeys, Ozma, and Auntie Em.  Thankfully, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a whole group people to put on a show and we have some terrific volunteers who are helping out with the sewing.

Finding the Music

Music is what motivates me....I love hearing a piece of music and instantly seeing beautful steps that I can't wait to set on dancers.  For Littleton Youth Ballet's Wizard of Oz, we realized that the music will set the whole tone of the ballet.  But what to use?  We could use the original score from the Broadway musical or MGM movie but it's hard to make sure we have the right to use this music with licensing laws.  Plus, we didn't really envision ballet steps to songs with words.  I recently had ordered a few new dance CD's and I found a piece of music that was wistful and really lovely.  I looked it up and discovered it was a piece composed by Edvard Grieg, a Norwegian composer possibly most famous for The Hall of the Mountain King in Peer Gynt.  I started listening to some more music by Grieg and realized that the whole ballet was here!  Dorothy's solo with the rainbow, the Wicked Witch's theme, even the music as they were heading off down the Yellow Brick Road.  We also liked having the whole ballet come from one composer.  It seems more complete somehow.  So, with the music picked out (although I keep making weekly changes), we have a start!