Thursday, January 29, 2009

Bantam13 Learns a Dance, Part Two

This show has really been a stretch for Bantam13--as you may recall from this post. He's always been cast as one of the younger kids until this show, for one thing--but after his amazing growth spurt of the past year, he's a little kid no longer. And he's never had to learn anything as physically challenging as the swing dancing lifts and tricks! He says it's the hardest show he's ever done, but he knows the challenge is something he'll always look back on as a landmark event: "Like hiking the Grand Canyon with Dad just before I turned thirteen."

Yep--it's been that significant.

So here he is with his partner in a few light-hearted moments in their big number, the grand finale of the first act, "Gravity":

(Please ignore the ghost in the background. This was a dress rehearsal and they didn't quite have the lighting down!)


And here's the trick that he could never quite manage with his partner, so he gets a lighter girl just for this one, the "star":


(The couple in the back are an unsuccessful step behind, so you get an idea of what it takes to get her up that far!)

Then there's the square-dancing number, "Elbow Room."

(Tuck in your shirt, Bantam13! He does now.)

Finally, this shot is a little dark, but he's wearing a cape for this number, "My Hero Zero." Doesn't he look heroic?

Though all our kids have learned so much and had a great time doing this show, Bantam13 is the family hero!

***

At Wednesday night's dress rehearsal, B13 dropped his partner--twice. Once was bad enough, but twice--ouch. In more ways than one. She was not happy with him.

The next morning, on the way to the first school day performance, he asked if I could pray for him. We do that, out loud, in the car, on the way to auditions and shows and other times when the tension is high. Later on, after a flawless performance, he told me he knew that prayer had made a big difference. "Some random mom came up to me and told me that last night, she had trouble sleeping, and every time she woke up, she was praying for me. Can you believe that?" he asked me.

I met the "random mom" later on; when we were telling each other who our kids were, she said, "Oh, I was praying for your son! I didn't even know his name, but I felt so bad for him at the dress rehearsal."

How cool is that? Thank you, Lord!!

(And after the third show today--with no flubs in their performance--his partner was so happy, she hugged him!)

3 comments:

Donna Boucher said...

The excellent white balance and clarity of your stage pictures is really impressive.

Would you dear hubby look at his stats and tell me what his
ISO
Shutter speed
aperture
and white balance was set at?

Thank you!

You have a fancier camera than I do.

Do you like it? I may need a new one soon.

At A Hen's Pace said...

Hi Donna: it was ISO 800 (though I went as high as 1600 in some shots), 1/100 sec (though as slow as 1/40 on some), F/4.5 (I used the 18.0-200.0mm lens with f/3.5-5.6 range and stayed as wide as possible given the terrible lighting). White balance I think was tungsten. I ended up correcting WB in Lightroom on some of the really dark shots that had red lighting. We have the Nikon D300. I love it (PR). MH likes the results but hasn't had the time to learn all the ins and outs. It's a great camera. The D700 is more $ but lets a lot more light in. For most folks, starting with the D70 is a good way to go (not sure what the analog would be in the Canons). In most cases that camera is great and the lens is what's most important. Blessings, -PR

Hen Jen said...

your kids all look so great in the photos, it looks like such fun! What a great story about the other mom praying for B13...just wow.