Bakkhai Rolls with the Women Who Rock

IT'S ALMOST THANKSGIVING BREAK...!

There are a lot of things that I am thankful for-- like getting a break from homework!

But in all reality, I am ready to go home and see my family again.... I miss my bed, and my own bathroom, my dogs, and even, surprisingly enough, my sisters and brother.

Luckily for me though, my parents and godparents made a little surprise trip down to Lexington to see one of the final nights of Bakkhai. : )

We had a wonderful late lunch at deSha's and enjoys one of the last gorgeous of fall walking about the city.

Below are some pictures from behind the scenes and up on stage!

During the show the Bakkhant women had a favorite expression to get pumped up for the show....

Bakkhants... what is your profession? Ou-ooh Ou-Ooh Ou-Ohh!!

Okay.. so we might have borrowed it from 300... but it worked for them, and it worked for us!
The whole cast together for final bows
The women of Thebes searching for the face of Dionysus

This is Ashley, our wonderful student choreographer! In honor of all the hard work she put into the show... and how hard we all worked to keep up with her moves.. we signed my beat up dance shoe for her (which had to be fix multiple times and the holes patched )
The rebellious Dionysus and his women

We had a lot of fun back stage taking pictures and dancing along to Rocky Horror to get us relaxed before the show every night

Fall at Transy! My parents wanted to take some pictures before they left.. so I had to make faces.

Happy Early Thanksgiving!!! Be thankful for your family and all your loved ones.

Opening Weekend!

I would be lying if I said that Bakkhai practice was always my favorite part of the day.

There were a lot of days where I left practice frustrated, tired, and normally hungry. I have never been formally trained as a singer, nor formally trained as a dancer; but as a chorus girl for the rock musical "The Bakkhai" I was going to learn how.

The student choreographer, Ashley Stafford, worked all of us girls hard- making sure we looked sharp and were on step. While I'm not always particularly graceful on my feet, Ashley gave us some room for created liberty with her inventive and organic dance movements. There were a lot of times when we'd been goofing around during rehearsal warm ups and Ashley would see our silly moves and throw them into the dance. She warned us to "be careful what you do around me, if I like it, we're going to keep it." And in a way, I appreciated that. While we performed this opening weekend, having a couple of our own unique moves in the production helped us to feel like we were really part of the show.

However, this adaptable quality wasn't just present in the dance portion of the show. The student music director, Alex Yaden, was also very all encompassing as we practiced the music. If the chorus had issues with lyrics or rhythms, many times they were changed and improved upon. Alex was always super patient and encouraging when we practiced- and it was nice that he recognized that not all of the chorus girls were choir members. The number of stupid music- related questions I asked him, or the amount of extra practice or encouraging words he gave to us was unbelievable, and he really helped the cast of Bakkhic women gel as an ensemble, instead of just a group of individuals.

But, I am probably getting WAY ahead of myself.

For those of you who made it out for family weekend here on campus and came to see the show- thank you. Your support is so greatly appreciated.

For those of you whom have not see the show...

first of all, come out and see us! We perform again this upcoming weekend!

Secondly, what is the Bakkhai?

Weeeeelllll...

It is a new written modification of a greek tragedy which is originally by Euripides. It is written to a rock-opera, and it just made its debut performance to the world this past Thursday night. The story is about the god Bacchus (or Dionysus) and how he takes control of the women of Thebes in revenge for the people not having faith in his divinity. There are underlying themes of control vs. rebellion, conformity vs. individualism, gender topics, and other societal issues.

I would say more about the show, but I don't want to wreak any surprises for those of you planning to come!

However, we did have a wonderful opening weekend, and hope to see all of you next weekend.