Ballet Portrait Sneak Peek

Last week was Picture Week at the King's Praise Ballet! Here are some of the (many) portraits of the girls (and guys) who will be dancing in "Mercy in Disguise: The Story of Joseph" next week!



Here's Joseph in his coat of many colors! Or rather, here's one of our Josephs! We actually have three guys who portray the character of Joseph at different stages of his life.

This is Joseph as the ruler over all Egypt. =)

Basic Ballet 3 will be dancing as members of Jacob's family in these lovely costumes!

Speaking of Jacob's family, here are 11 of his sons! (Also known as the Brothers.) In this picture, we have both the older and younger "Benjamin," and we're missing Joseph. =)

Wee 2 is dancing as the Brothers' sheep. These girls make the cutest lambs!

Among other things, Ballet I will be representing the "years of plenty" foretold by Pharaoh's dreams!
I love the color and detail of these costumes!

Most of Ballet V will be dancing as the caravan of Arabs (Ishmaelites) who take Joseph to Egypt.

I love Wee 3's costumes! They are so dainty and sweet!
These girls will be dancing to "Through Heaven's Eyes" (from The Prince of Egypt movie) and "Forgiveness" (by Matthew West).

The girls in Ballet IV have really matured in their dancing this year!
They are dancing as the workers and servants in Egypt. 

This year, we are excited to have the Beginning Pointe class do a dance for the presentation! Along with Basic 2, the girls en pointe will be dancing as the "sheaves of wheat" in one of Joseph's dreams.

Two sweet sisters from Basic 1!
Along with Wee 1, their class will represent the stars, sun, and moon in Joseph's second dream. Basic 1 will also be dancing to "Blessed Be Your Name" by the Newsboys.

This year, Ballet II has a costume that really matches their fun and energetic personalities! They will be dancing as (obviously) the Egyptians of Pharaoh's court!

The girls in Ballet III make the prettiest prisoners we've ever seen!
They're dancing to "Losing" by Tenth Avenue North and "Better Than I" (from the movie Joseph, King of Dreams), which both take place while Joseph is in prison.

And last, but certainly not least, is one of the dads who has courageously stepped into the role of Pharaoh!

You can see these and the rest of the girls and guys in action on Friday, April 25th at 7pm and Saturday, April 26th at 4pm at Hunter Hills Church of Christ in Prattville, AL! We're excited to see how God will continue to bring "Mercy in Disguise" together and use it to bless others and glorify His name! See you there!

Portraits from Thursday and Friday

 

Here are a few pictures from the last two days of Picture Week! Now onto Combined Classes, presentations at local nursing homes, dress rehearsal, and performances!

 

 

 

What could be better than dancing with your Daddy?

 

Sweet friends!

 

 

Half of All the King's Men and half of Ballet IV-B dancing together as Jesus' disciples and the women who followed Him.

 

Bad weather caused Ballet III-IV's class to be cancelled,

but we were able to get pictures of most of the girls anyway!

 

Picture Credit: JP Lofgren, Robyn Clement

Costume Inventions

   This semester, The King's Praise Ballet costuming department decided to do as little inventing as possible. For "Creation's Promise," we'd had the (enjoyable) challenge of dressing girls to represent plants, birds, fish, lions, and even a snake! Not only that, but 10 out of 12 classes changed costumes at some point, even the very youngest classes! For "The Promise Fulfilled," on the other hand, we have 6 1/2 classes wearing the same costume the whole time, and there are no animals, period.

    What we did not anticipate is the 15 awesome guys who volunteered to dance for us this spring as Jesus' disciples, Roman centurions, Zaccheus, Jesus, the two thieves, and more! So, the majority of this production's sewing day was spent making and altering tunics that the guys can actually dance in without tripping, along with designing capes, vests, and other cool stuff for our more manly dancers!

And this time, I came prepared with a clipboard!

As head of the "inventions," Rachael spent quality time staring at big pieces of fabric.

 

This particular collage of purple has a very important role in the spring performance, but you'll just have to come watch it to find out what that is!

 

The serger had technical difficulties early on, but LeAnn finally got it working!

 

 

Roman soldiers wouldn't be Roman soldiers without those cool leather kilts! And a (very nice) pair of leather chaps from the thrift store was only $7! Hey! How 'bout that!

 



 

Burning holes into the leather to add ornamentation...

Besides tunics and leather kilts, the other chief project was the making of six little pink skirts for our Basic 1 class.

Ms. Amy and Kaitlin got the job done!

Measuring waistbands...

... adding elastic...

... what fun!

Oh yes, and we now have two VERY long strips of black and red cloth to "billow" up and down. Again, you'll have to come to "The Promise Fulfilled" to see what they're for...!

Hmm. I'm feeling concerned and I don't know why...

It's a conspiracy!

Ready, aim.... spray paint!

After Costumes are Returned...

Three hours of sorting and taking inventory of the costumes used this semester... But it was actually fun! Now to wash them all...

Music credit: Caylea Ingram

Lions and Scrunchies and Sashes, Oh My!

A few weeks ago, several lovely ladies helped out with the sewing, gluing, and tying of costumes. When the tulle and satin settled, we were much closer to finished costumes. And we had fun along the way!

Poor Katie got assigned the thousands of tutu scrunchies. She faithfully tied strips of tulle ribbon onto hair ties for hours!

The first shot at the lion's mane was WAY too long and poofy. But it sure made for a glamorous Statue of Liberty!

Ah... that's better!

Fish pants. =)

It takes special training to run one of these... still confuses me!

Pink satin sashes for both "Creation's Promise" and Anna's wedding!

Near the end, some of the girls helped sort the costumes we'd already assembled. This is the most costumes I think we've ever had!

Seeing a costume all together makes everything worth it!







 

Costumes in Progress!

These last several weeks have involved lots of hunting down costumes for around 100 dancers, many of whom will wear more than one costume during the Christmas recital. While we have many costumes already "in stock" from previous performances, there are many specific things that we didn't have (like the animals in Noah's Ark!). It's fun to see some of the time and effort paying off as boxes and boxes of costumes arrive!

It's like Christmas before Christmas! The sparkly pink and purple costumes are for the "fish" in a dance depicting Creation...I'm personally especially excited about them!

While we have ordered about seven gazillion tops, overlays, and other costumes, some things we have to make ourselves...to get them just so! And cheaper! I mean, where are you going to find a lion's mane made of neon yellow tulle that will not scratch little girls' faces? Or a full length snake costume that you can actually dance in? So... with the help of my wonderful mom, sisters Katherine and Abi, and friends LeAnn, Miriam, and Ms. Wendy, we bought yards and yards of satin, ribbon, netting, broadcloth...and other little accessories.

And no, not everyone will be dancing as animals. But since we've never had people representing animals (other than lambs) before, those are the ones we have to specially buy and make this time around! Now, to assemble, organize, and sew everything...

When Anna "bequeathed" the costume closet and everything related to it to my sisters and me, I didn't really understand what all that meant...starting to really appreciate how much Anna has had on her plate the last 5 years of the King's Praise Ballet! Prayers are appreciated for creativity, minimal failure and problems, and maximum joy and energy for all of us as we tackle this huge task! To God be all the glory!
                  

"Unchanging" costumes

Costumes are arriving, causing great excitement! Below are pictures from Thursday's classes. One more company needs to ship theirs to me (so the final 3 classes can get theirs) then we'll be all ready for pictures and presentations!

Ballet IV has a "poofy" costume this year, but it is so pretty and very modest - all it needed was a slip.

Beautiful young ladies, inside and out!

Ballet I/A has a sweet, flowy costume, and to their delight, it's not scratchy!

Of Bloomers and Bows

Costuming "The Coming King" proved to be a big task, with the increase of students. I also have less time year to work at home on my own this year, so I scheduled a workday last Friday with my oldest class, Ballet IV. A dance mom also saw my post on Facebook about the day, and offered to bring her daughters and come.

Everyone worked hard, and we made great progress. All-in-all, we made 10 angel shirts, 17 sparkly headbands, 8 silver headpieces, 18 scrunchies, 8 bow headbands, 10 lamb headbands, decorated 10 sunglasses, and started 4 slips and 10 bloomers.

The bloomers ended up taking the longest. I was able to work more over the weekend, with my sister helping thread elastic through the waistband and knee ruffles. Tying 20 little pink bows was fun, and hand sewing as I watched movies with the family made the time go quickly.

The ensemble turned out very cute for my little lamb dancers. :)

Costume organizing for "Esther"

Last Saturday we had our first rehearsal with costumes. Before that could happen, we had to decide what everyone would wear - no small task for a cast of 55!

So, the Saturday before, my sister and 4 other girls I lovingly call "adopted younger sisters" helped me sort through our costume supply. Because of all we've made and gathered over the years, plus some things the cast members gave us to borrow, I only ended up having to make about 6 new things, plus alter a few more.

It's always a bit overwhelming to know where to start. First we brought everything we thought we might need into the fellowship hall, and then started working through the costume book. Characters first, then through the ensemble by age...

No matter how well organized we start out, extra things always end up in a jumbled mess! But, many hands made the clean-up quick.

The costume notebook records each item for each actor, to keep things straight and know if it's property of The King's Courts, or borrowed.

Food and music were necessary for an upbeat afternoon. :)

Sometimes the girls doubled as models for the costumes. We decided that a girl trying on a guy's costume (in the above case, the one for King Xerxes) always made the costume look girlish...

After almost 5 hours, we were finally done. A lot of work, but made fun by all the good help. Thanks girls!