Movie O La - Bravissimo!

Earlier this month, the dance teachers at the CC where Lesley-Anne takes ballet lessons put on a full-scale concert at the Victoria Theatre. It involved every dance student at the CC, covering ballet, tap and modern. Featuring the theme "Movie O La!", it showcased music from movies and Broadway.

It was a real visual treat, from the cutesy babies to the breath-takingly elegant older girls. Lesley-Anne's item was "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story. The performance was a little personal epiphany for me. Lesley-Anne has always enjoyed ballet and it's not that I doubt her word, but I still sometimes find it difficult to reconcile the reticent introvert with the physical expression of dance. When I saw her dance that night with so much enthusiasm and heart, I almost didn’t recognise her - it’s like she’s a whole different person on stage and her passion for dance shines through. Needless to say, we're very proud of her :)

Here are some pictures of her item, by a professional photographer. In the first pic, she's the one furthest right:

We managed to take a video of her item but be prepared that the girls look like little miniatures as we were sitting far back at the Circle. She enters after the solo part under the group of four girls, left back.



The clip below is of the finale set to Jai Ho, the popular song from the movie Slumdog Millionaire. It's not really a dance item per se although it's nicely choreographed, it's for all the dancers to take their bows. I wanted to show the sheer number of students involved in this production - I was quite astounded to learn how many dance students are enrolled at just one CC!



Lesley-Anne is part of the fifth group to emerge, she's third from the right. Towards the end, you'll see a few men dressed as Robin Hood, they are actually fathers of a few of the girls and they performed a hilarious item Men in Tights that brought down the house. Very sporting and supportive, I thought! Right at the end, the three ladies in black t-shirts are the teachers at the CC.

This entire concert was put together in the space of three months. I think it's an amazing feat and you can tell from the last item how much the kids enjoyed performing for their family and friends. It wasn't perfect, there were little glitches like kids not in line or forgetting their bits, as you would expect from students. But the concert really drove home the message of what dance means to them and this is what the performing arts is all about.

Here's the ballerina with her supportive family (Kenneth behind the camera).