Picture Week!

Last Saturday the backdrop for "The Promise Fulfilled" was painted by some very talented artists who designed it to look like a sky. This week, "The King's Praise Ballet" and "All the King's Men" are getting their pictures taken in front of it! The backdrop and the costumes look beautiful together, and we wanted to share a few portraits with you as a sneak peek! There are too many to post them all, or we would... they turned out very well!

Every year, we take pictures of sisters who dance together. This year, the brothers are getting involved, too!

Twins!!

 

Simply precious!

Four sisters dancing together!

 

 

Floating in the clouds...
 

 

These costumes turned out SO dainty and angelic! The girls all look lovely in them!

The "characters" in a dance about people who found healing and freedom at Jesus' feet.

This costume has more ribbons than any other that I can remember!
And it looks so pretty when the girls twirl around!
 

There are two more days of classes left this week... stay tuned for more pictures! And don't forget to come see all these lovely (and handsome!) dancers in "The Promise Fulfilled" on April 26 at 7 PM and April 27 at 4 PM!

 

Picture credit: JP Lofgren and Katie Abbott

Dancing with the set

The set wasn't quite finished in time to start, as the cross took longer than expected... the glue wouldn't dry, so Dad and Lydia had to sew the foam panels together. So, we had to start the rehearsal as they put the last few touches on. The girls did a great job ignoring it while they dance! :)

Picture credit: JP Lofgren

Making a picture backdrop

Next week is picture week at The King's Praise Ballet! My dad takes the pictures so that we can offer them at a very affordable price for families. Wanting a more professional backdrop this time, though, I brainstormed with an artist from my church, and am excited what God brought together!

Looking online, picture backdrops cost $100 or more. Not wanting to spend that money, I instead went to the Salvation Army store and found 5 sheets for $1 each. Can't beat that! :) Then, it was to start painting.

Dad rigged up the backdrop against plastic against the side of our house. It was nice to stand and paint, but we weren't sure how to paint, and ended up wetting the sheet, which then made the paint run. So, the first attempt didn't work quite like we wanted... It also faded a lot, since we'd watered down the acrylic paint.

A few days later we set to work again, this time laying the sheet down flat on plastic on our basketball court. It worked much better, once we figured out what to do. :) It was fun smearing the paint together!

Testing out the backdrop for a picture in my room meant we couldn't spread it out fully. Plus, I'm not exactly in ballet clothes, so the actual ballet portraits will look much better!

It definitely gives the cloud effect, though! It will work quite nicely with our "nations / world" theme for this year's recital!

Building the Jericho Wall

"The Cord of Courage" has presented unique challenges in terms of set design. There's the baptistery we had to put a floor over for Rahab's house, and an 8-panel foam backdrop painted to look like a desert, painted by 2 talented ladies from Fountain of Grace and 3 cast girls. I am so blessed by the people who have given so much time to make this a reality!

The most challenging set design was the Jericho wall. Unlike an ordinary wall, this one has to fall - preferably as the audience watched. Kevin Morton undertook the challenge of coming up with a design, using garden mesh as a base and duck tapping (and later hot gluing, when the tape kept releasing) foam pieces painted to look like stones to the mesh. A multitude of hours by many volunteers has gone into building the wall, and it turned out pretty amazing.

The picture was taken before the stones were reinforced with hot glue, so there's a few missing where the tape released. ;)

Now, to see if it will actually fall... It's rigged up so that it should when we untie the clothesline at the top, but we didn't get to practice it at the first dress rehearsal, due to those untying it not hearing the cue - the rumbling sound effect was drowned out by the Israelites' shout. We'll have to work out the timing. We're all hoping that when it does fall, it won't be damaged too much, since it has to be set up and then fall for three consecutive presentations!

Wednesday Update: Half of the wall fell last night, and it looked really neat as it crumbled! The other side stayed up, because some push pins used while building it were accidentally never removed. So, it's looking good - and we're hoping it will all fall at tomorrow night's dress rehearsal!

Picture credit: Rachael Morton and Samantha Brooks

Building the set

My dad has been so amazingly generous in giving of his time to work on the set needed for "The Cord of Courage." He's spent hours planning what to do, buying materials, and constructing them at the church building. We're using the baptistery area for Rahab's house (the baptistery is almost like a balcony above the stage, facing out to the audience), so he constructed a floor to cover the baptismal pool (we don't want anyone falling in!), and yesterday he built a railing over the opening to make sure no one falls out.

I am so blessed to have wonderful help with each aspect of the production. In addition to costumes and set help, I've had enthusiastic people gathering props, a dad and daughter team up to organize publicity, a dad (and my assistant director) designing the flier, another dad brainstorming what to do for the Jericho wall, and others who step in and help wherever needed. It's truly a blessing to see the body of Christ working together in a beautiful way!

Amazed

The set for Beyond Bethlehem was pretty minimal. After all, we had many scene changes to depict varying locations. I found curtains to borrow for backdrops and used what we could easily transport on/off stage.

I never imagined it could look as well as it does now, but praise God, someone else did. On Tuesday, a family friend and grandmother of one of my dancers made some suggestions. I wasn't too sure how they would work, but was willing to give them a try. This woman had helped decorate many times before (the heavenly realms of Mary: Chosen by God being a great example), and it always turned out better than I expected.

This wasn't an exception. Mrs. Brenda suggested we enlist the help of Mrs. Susie, the main decorator at our church. Wow. I am amazed at what they came up with!

God is so good to bless me with talented women who help at no cost - simply to bless others! It is amazing to see what they come up with!

Amazing night sky...

Stable nook...

Gate leading out to the countryside of Bethlehem...

Photo Credits: Samantha Brooks