More little ballet dolls (9 pics)

[LaFoto]

So the story is: the little village ballet school my daughter goes to is doing a special adaptation on the theme of Coppelia - giving all their dance classes a chance to be on stage at one point in time during the performance, i.e. classical ballet for adults and children, hiphop, jazz dance, MTV moves and whatever else. The piece will be called "The Dollmaker's Secret". It deals with a group of friends who meet and have fun and one of them wears the new ring of her boy-friend. They plan to get married. But that boy-friend is intrigued by the young girl who sits on the dollmaker's balcony day by day, conceited and uppity and unwilling to look down to, interact with or react in any manner to the young people in the square. One day, the dollmaker loses the key to his home and the group of girls secretly enter his place. That is where they find all sorts of dolls, which come to life when you pull them up. The girls wreak havoc in that studio and have to hide all the dolls fast when the dollmaker comes. They manage to run away save one, the young girl soon to be married. Only his favourite doll, the "girl on the balcony", is still there, and...! He chases and catches her and tries to take out her life to give life to the doll, but her friends come back in the last moment, free her and save her - and she gets married to her boy-friend in the end and the dollmaker gives them his best doll as his wedding present. OK?

Well, the following 9 pics were taken when the scene inside the dollmaker's studio was done over and again, and the youngest dancers of the school are, of course, the dolls. They go about their task as dolls VERY seriously, which includes not moving at all, not laughing, showing no mimics, nothing. And in then end, when they break, they all get pulled across the floor to form one big heap of "broken dolls", and they never even stir!

The scene had to be rehearsed with different sets of little dancers, since the piece will be performed on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and not all can be there at all times - but all had to rehearse this part, of course.

Right. Photos.

1.

2.

3. At this point they even switched off all the lights in the rehearsal room so the little ones would know that also the stage will at first be all dark when this scene will begin. Later the light will come on then.

4. +5.

Ah well, and sometimes doing the same thing all over and over again can be frightfully tiring! But... back into position:

6.

7. What? The big girls did it wrong again?????? Oh no!

8. Ah, now the dolls get carried into place to later be pulled up so they can dance (I know this one is not tack-sharp, but it does not show too badly in the print - phew, sigh of relief )

9.

For those who are interested: here are more rehearsal pics:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40433
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40509

 

[woodsac]

This started out long, with telling you what I liked or didn't about each picture. But, I erased it. Why, because what I like about the whole series, Corinna, is how wonderfully you caught kids being kids!!!!!!!!!!
I think they are all wonderful images and each one makes me smile...big :mrgreen:

 

[aprilraven]

what great shots....i love the little girls faces...

sweet shot..

 

[Arch]

What a great series, you've done well here. I epecially like the composition of number 7, with her shadow behind her. v.good :thumbup:

 

[Chiller]

Wow, Corinna... You captured some amazing moments. Something about the 6th one is really cool, with the shadows in the background.
The first shot is really neat too.:thumbup:

 

[photo gal]

Awww these are just precious!! Sweet sweet sweet! : )