That's Classy

Hey :)
So it's been twelve days since the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo ended, and I have nothing to do with my life now until August. Maybe I could go busking, but I need friends to do that with me who have the music we need.
Anyway, this year at the Tattoo the show was about 3 hours and 15 minutes. Longer than last year for sure. Last year the longest act was 5 or 6 minutes, this year it was probably around 11-14 minutes depending on the night. My group had five acts this year instead of the two we had last year. I was part of 4 of those acts. My favourite was probably the "Limbo Scene" :) Well that's what we called it, but on the program I think it is called "Rhythm With a Twist". It was a one minute blackout scene, which basically means we are just a distraction for the audience while the act before us moved their equipment off the stage.
Basically this is the Limbo Scene: There are 6 of us dancers waiting in the VOM (backstage area thing..) and we are wearing white tops and neon shorts. There are 2 pipers and the pipe major guy is waiting with his mace infront of the VOM. After the pipers play a little bit of jingle bells, they start playing a Mexican party/limbo song and the Pipe Major moves his mace so it is like a Limbo Bar. That's when we come out, we get to act crazy and jump around after we do our Limbo. At the end Aquila goes under the bar walking on her hands and feet doing the bridge :) What probably makes this my favourite scene is that it was right after the Snow White scene, and since that scene had funny music and sound effects we would all sing the songs and get excited for the limbo scene. The only thing I didn't like about the scene was that it was just two acts after my Halifax 1812 scene (That was when I was dressed up as a sailor with a red hat and danced in a 'pub') meaning I only had 1 1/4 scene to change costumes.

The Limbo Scene was my third scene. Before it I had PD1 and Halifax 1812. I loved PD1. In that dance I was in the front part of the floor, right in front of where the VIPs sit. I had a white dress and had to do a little waltz part before the girls in the kilts came on. It was a very sharp choreography and I think we did a good transition from a Waltz to a Party :) It was defiantly a good dance to open the night for our group.

After PD1 I had 10 acts to change my hair and costume and go line up behind the stage for Halifax 1812. That was my least favourite act. We had odd costumes and no real choreography, we were just supposed to be dancing in a pub. So the whole scene was a little awkward. During the first dress rehearsal I actually ripped my pants, but I didn't think it was a big deal, because I wore black shorts under them. But then once I got put in the Limbo Scene I had to wear that costume underneath my 1812 costume so it would be easier to change, wich meant I had bright yellow shorts showing whenever I turned around in the 1812 scene. So I had to go get my pants re-sewed. And to ensure that the pants would never rip again, I didn't actually put them on until about 2 minutes before we were actually on the stage for the scene. So backstage I would walk around in yellow shorts, a blue & white stripped top, and really high blue & white stripped socks that went up to about mid thigh. Oh! And I had a beautiful red hat with a pompom at the end. The first time I saw the Snow White scene I joked about how they stole my hat from 1812 because the ones the dwarfs wore looked so much alike.

My last scene before finale was PD2. That one was also an amazing choreography that wasn't as sharp, but had lots of formations in it. There were 4 groups of nine in this dance, and we all started in a square. My square was in the back left corner of the floor. It was a pretty quick dance, because we marched on about halfway through the song the Pipes & Drums played. But still it was a great dance :) When we marched off we had to wait for the gymnastics team from Switzerland to move their mats onto the floor before leaving the backstage area, because their act was one act after ours.

Well this is getting pretty long, so I'll put the pictures of us with some of the other groups up next post :)
-Alex

Hi Guys :)
Every year, I perform in the largest indoor show in the world. It's always really fun, even if the rehearsals are super long sometimes! Anyway, I won't get into the experience in this post. Instead I'll just show you some pictures from some of the acts :) There is a lot, just warning you!)