The next stage...

Saturday was full of tutus, books, and fountains. That's sort of a strange combination, isn't it? Allow me to explain.

Part of my volunteer responsibilities with Placer Theatre Ballet is to coordinate publicity events and appearances for our dancers to promote this year's Nutcracker. I have spent several hours over the past couple of months scheduling events. It's been fun and quite rewarding. I have a total of seven publicity events on the schedule. It's going to be a busy time over the next few weeks, I guess. 

We began the morning at Barnes and Noble for a storytime event -- our very first public appearance of the season. Liesey got to read The Nutcracker aloud to a small, but captive audience of four and five-year-old children. Our dancers taught the children a few basic ballet positions, and then performed some of the dances from the ballet. We had to transport 24 costumes to these events, so that's where the tutus come in. And I guess it's pretty obvious that B&N is full of books. Right?


Ballet and BOOKS are two things that this girl loves, so it only stands to reason that books about ballet are the best -- even if they are written for young children.

Good friends are a favorite thing, too!

So where do the fountains fit into this entry? I'm slowly getting to that part.


The dancers had the opportunity to show off their fancy footwork on the community stage at the area's newest shopping center, "Fountains at Roseville."  We decided to share nine pieces from the ballet. It was 78 degrees and oh, so sunny -- perfect November weather. We had an appreciative audience, so the performers had a blast. All of these beautiful costumes got packed into my car, and are now hanging up at my house until we need them for a repeat engagement at the same venue on the 22nd.  After the performance, we shuttled a carload of ballerinas to the studio for a long afternoon of rehearsals. They were not complaining, as they all love to dance, all day long!

So what's the next stage? I will take a group of 8 dancers (all home schooled cast members who are able to skip school w/out penalty of death) to a preschool on both Thursday and Friday for similar presentations. And, yes, I'll be attending these storytime events, too! Wheee! 

"Dr. Stahlbaum" and a beautiful ballerina enjoyed the picture perfect day. And isn't that a perfect picture?  Mr. Smith served as our emcee for the show, so he dug out his cheeriest Christmas tie. He doesn't have one with a nutcracker on it, so perhaps we need to go shopping to look for one to add to his wardrobe... Nah!