Audition Two: The Rite of Spring

Well, Audition Two is for the local Professional Ballet's version of the The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinski.  We are told about this by a lovely woman who works with the PB's cast and also as the Children's Ballet Mistress.  We learn that the choreographer asked for "small boys" to look at as the "Sacrificial Child" but that the original "small boys" were too small - the choreography in this thing is hard and have you ever tried to count, you know, just count 1, 2, 3, 4 in parts of this musical piece?  If not, try.   So, Darling Son gets to audition.  He is auditioning with his Frenemy - a boy who is a truly lovely dancer but at times extremely difficult to get to know.  My kid is social and chatty.  I think my kid drives Frenemy Boy sortof nuts with his humor, his talkativeness and his social ease.  FB is a Serious Kid who has finally found his thing in ballet.  He is at times demeaning to my kid - calling him names and telling him "Aren't you only going to be just a Broadway dancer or something?"  FB is a better ballet dancer than my kid - but apparently the Famous Choreographer who has flown in from New York wants to see them both.

I take Darling Boy there.  We are surrounded by the Real PB company dancers.  They are HUGE. The men are like great big lion-gazelle type creatures - all are over six feet tall.  Some as tall as 6'5".  The women are lithe.  That's the total word for it:  LITHE.  And very friendly to me and to DB, as they know him from his long time status in countless other performances that the PB has done, mostly Nutcracker but other things too.  This Audition strikes me as different somehow.  In other shows, the PB directors know my kid, and they choose how and when and where to use him (as well as Frenemy Boy) in productions.  They know best. Me?  I just drive to the places they tell us and wash ballet tights.

So, the audition starts in this room and they leave the door open (which never happens).  The music starts.  I have an opportunity to sortof see what is going on.  I love this symphony so much (I am a musician and the high bassoon solo at the beginning is to die for).  The music is floating out the door.   And I am sitting on this bench.  If I scoot over five inches I can see DB.  But he can also see me.  As it is, I can see FB from the position I'm in now.   I worry that my sitting here is distracting for FB and then I get generally agitated so I start walking around.  There's not far to walk. Just up and back.  To the rest room.  I play on my phone.  DB comes out.  "Well, that was totally cool.  It's super hard to count and it's modern and hard and totally fun.  Can we go get a burger with lots of bacon on it now?"  

Today, we learn that they want DB and FB back again for three hours after school today.  I think they are either going to cast them both, or have one be an understudy.  I will drive the car and I go shopping during this time, and then I will wash the tights.  

P.S.  RE: The Potato Eaters.  He did NOT get that part.  The talent agency said they wanted "an American Family that also looks sortof ethnic" and it was unclear who ended up with it.  My kid looks like he was born in Idaho - all blonde hair and steely blue eyes and strong jaw (his Dad is Polish).   I still like potatoes though.

*** UPDATE ON RITE OF SPRING ***

He DID get the part in The Rite of Spring and apparently the Famous New York Choreographer (I am told he is famous but how would I know that, because I don't dance unless I recently sat on an ant hill) LOVED him. He is in the "A" cast apparently.  The show will open in of course, the Spring 2014.