Kwentos

     Who knew that one of the few blogs I would ever right about would center on Nancy Sinatra.  Sooner or later I will have to admit to the fact that I am gayer than I give myself credit for.

     This all begins over a month ago when I get a call requesting the Barbary Coast Cloggers to perform These Boots Are Made For Walking with Nancy Sinatra.  It sounded like a great opportunity, but we have been having a very tight season and I was not sure I would have enough buy in from the guys to make it happen.  Fortunately, we had enough.  My main concern was that they were bringing an outside choreographer with no clogging experience.  This made me apprehensive because it ignores the artistic integrity of the company if our art is not honored.  So my bottom line was that I have time with the choreographer to collaborate on what is right for the group.  They agreed, but I felt humored at best.  So to play it safe, I prepared an entire dance to be used in our Monday night classes.  This provided me with a vocabulary of steps that fit with the song, ready to be pulled out when necessary.

     Our one rehearsal was to be the day before the show.  Our company has not learned an entire dance in such a last minute manner, however I had faith that they were capable of it.  When I arrived at the rehearsal, the choreographer (Lee Martino) from Los Angeles was nervous at my stern behavior.  I assured her that I was not in a bad mood, I just wanted to protect the integrity of the company.

     As it turns out, they wanted us to perform more of the dance than I was initially told and Lee Martino was a phenomenal human being to work with.  She had such a fantastic sense of humor and such a flexible professionalism.  She took my steps, I took her blocking, and we put it all together!

     The next hurdle were the steps themselves.  I realized that it was filled with steps that were unfamiliar to most of the group, but easy enough to learn.  With little struggle and complaint, they picked it up and we had a blast working together.  Lee loved it and called us fabulous.  Ramon (one of our dancers) mentioned it was in our contract.  What a wonderful quotable.

     The next day, we took it to Nancy Sinatra and made almost no changes at all.  She wanted to go out into the audience, so we cut out the steps during the entrance and we were done.  One of the volunteers loved our "schtick".  Cute.  Another great quotable, "Clogging- it’s our schtick."

     The final obstacle was that we were asked to wear full Santa outfits minus the padding.  They were heavy outfits and certainly did not fit well.  The beards were a horror, but we went along grudgingly.  Fortunately, this allowed us to perform our own dances in the first act without Christmas-wear.  We were the second number in the first Act.  Our bit with Nancy ended the show right before everyone comes out to sing White Christmas.

     So we get to These Boots and we come in during the second chorus, just walking out in a line then throwing candy to the audience.  It never crossed our minds that the audience did not know who we were.  Then we walked back and started clogging.  The audience reaction was phenomenal.  They just weren’t ready for 8 clogging Santas and it blew them away.  We were drawn into the audience more than we have ever been and felt so connected to something greater.  On top of that, we were dancing with an icon and held our own.  I was so proud of my guys for stepping out of their comfort zone, living up to our reputation of being wonderful to work with, and putting on a fantastic show.

     The feedback was beyond remarkable.  Donna Sachet, a San Francisco icon, called our performance "Historical!"  It could not get better than that, especially since we fully understood what she meant.  The guys were all aglow afterwards.  I don’t think I have ever seen them prouder to be a clogger, and that says a lot after performing at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this summer on the main stage right before Earl Scruggs.  Richard (another one of our dancers) even kissed me twice and I don’t think he has ever done that once before.  I think what made the evening even better for all of us was that my partner Scott and 6 other Barbary Coast "wives" had comped seats and got to share in the experience.  They were so happy to be there with us.

     But it was not until today when Brian (another one of our dancers) made it clear to me that he was so proud of all that I have done to make this happen in the way that it did that I really understood the sentiments behind the kisses.  It was the same as what I saw in my Scott’s eyes when we got home last night.  Pride.  When are we taught that it is not right to feel pride and to let our glory shine?  I don’t know, but it was a great feeling and I want to let everyone know that this whole event allowed me to feel it.  So here it is to be shared with all of you because I don’t want to forget it.

     Thanks to everyone who made it all possible.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 6:22 pm and is filed under Dance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.