Five down...

... and eight to go. That's right, it's been five days since Manitoba Dance Festival started, and I've had no life since then.

It's been pretty fun so far. The adjudicators are all awesome, very different people, and I'm glad that I get the chance to hang out with them. And I've found a renewed love for ballet and a fresh interest in modern. In short, I'm antsy to get in the studio and choreograph, teach, etc... And that's basically what's going to happen this summer.

There are a few things that have really disturbed me so far in Festival, though. First off, on day one or two I witnessed a girl struggle to smile on stage. It was adjudication time, when dancers no longer have to perform and merely stand politely on stage while their dances are commented on. This particular girl continued to perform in this casual setting, and it freaked me out. She would smile the biggest, falsest smile in the world and stare relentlessly at the adjudicator in a sort of contrived admiration. Every few seconds, she would stop smiling to lick her lips, readjust her facial expression, and start again. It was like clockwork, and it looked EXHAUSTING and FAKE and altogether very very wrong.

Another bizarre thing I saw was a girl who could not control her head on stage. She would dance and her head would just flop around on her shoulders, but it seemed that she thought that this looked good, and she would milk it by doing it with a smile. Where she got this idea from, I don't want to know. But it was frustrating to see a very clean group look messy because one member decided to emulate a bobble-head doll.

There were also the usual "amateur" mistakes that stuck out to me. One girl stopped dancing a few times to fix a costume piece on her hand, and struggled to get back on track. The thing is, this girl was 10 or 11 years old, and not in a novice category! Did their teacher never say anything about costumes? Then there were the dancers who chewed gum on stage. These people were noobs, for sure.

I need to get some sleep now - early morning tomorrow. Hooray.