all dressed up with a ukulele.
in Funny Stuff, Performance, there are pictures here
as breakfast, breakfast meeting, care, catwalk, courage, dear friends, event, fashion, fashion event, first meeting, heck outta, japanese man, kind, kind lady, makeup, musical sense, someone, tomorrow, uke, ukulele, Voice
I am so tired right now and I have to get up for a breakfast meeting in the morning. And then I have two shows…so, right. This post will be short.
A very kind lady did my makeup for the pre-shows fashion event tonight. “I have googled you,” she told me, upon first meeting. “It does not look like you wear much makeup–are you comfortable with me doing your makeup?”
I assured her that I was.
And she got to work.
And then a very sweet Japanese man did my hair.
It was nice to sit back and let other people take care of me, actually. And this is what they did:
They also put me in a dress. Courage B is the designer. And they let me keep it. And I totally would have, too–had someone not stolen it. Which sucks, but what are you gonna do, right? I didn’t have that dress yesterday, so not having that dress tomorrow won’t be that different, anyway.
Here’ s a picture of me playing (in case you couldn’t figure that out). Oh man. I had to walk the catwalk to get to the stool and microphone to sing. People were so kind and cheering. Plus, I didn’t fall or even trip. Added bonus.
The mic situation was trying, though. They only had one and nothing to plug my uke into, so I had to somehow use one microphone for both my voice and my uke. I hunched over like some sort of creature to get my voice and uke as close together as possible for the mic to pic it up, and then I BELTED THE HECK OUTTA THOSE SONGS.
Here’s me and my wonderful, completely lovely friend Jes.
One of the best parts of the night was that two of my dear friends came with me.
And here is me and beautiful Bets.
Oh! Also, I had an awesome rehearsal in Brooklyn today with some AMAZING musicians I am collaborating with for the Sleep No More show on Monday. I feel so lucky to play my ukulele with these guys. Their groove and vibe is just plain dreamy. In a musical sense of the word. Plus they have a HUGE STUFFED LION in their apartment, just chilling. And they call him Aslan. Um, what’s not to love about that situation?
I met a kind Italian man who spoke to me for a while tonight. Considering the music was thumpin’ and his accent was pronounced, I did a lot of smiling and nodded without totally understanding what it was, exactly, I was smiling and nodding about, unfortunately. But, there were two things that stand out from that conversation:
1). I kept thinking that maybe my Italian grandfather (who passed away before I arrived on the scene, but worked in 30 Rock as the senior VP of RCA) sounded a bit like this guy, and the thought warmed my heart.
and
2). At one point I noticed liquid pouring down the side of his pants. I was really afraid that I was witnessing him peeing during our conversation…Until, with some relief, I realized that he was just holding his bottle of beer upside down. Thank goodness that’s what it was.
let’s dance.
in Funny Stuff, Performance, photography, Thoughts and Feelings
as booty, care, care students, circle, dancing, Elementary, girl, indication, lots of fun, Miss Jessica, nichelle, nutcracker, praise dance, professional dancer, retainers, someone, time, today, Urban, urban promise
“I’m a professional dancer,” a little girl about seven or eight years old informed me quite seriously this afternoon.
“Well, I am impressed,” I said. “And very happy to get to dance with you.”
And I am, too. Every week I get to go to the Urban Promise Elementary School in Wilmington and spend some time dancing with the after care students. And if today was any indication, it is going to be hilarious. And lots of fun.
“You look strange when you smile,” one little boy said.
“Well, that might be because I have these retainers I have to wear over my teeth,” I explained. Though, to be fair, I could just plain look strange when I smile, retainers or not, I suppose.
“You look like a vampire,” he told me without missing a beat.
Awesome, I thought. “That’s not the nicest thing to say to someone,” I said.
And then he promptly left my room to go join the drum circle in another classroom. Maybe it was somebody else’s turn to be told they look like a formidable creature, I am not sure.
And then I got to watch the kids dance with their instructors, Nichelle and Michelle. And man, I loved it. “Do you know much about praise dance?” they asked me. “Not a whole lot,” I admitted. “Well, it’s when you bring the lyrics to life with your movement,” they informed me. And then I proceeded to watch them do just that.
They all asked me to please, please, please! dance for them. I hadn’t really prepared anything, but all those years of training has me at least able to do an impromptu variation from the Nutcracker, if need be. I did Arabian, which involves many splits and extensions and they all oohed and aahed very encouragingly. They might just have been one of the best audiences I have ever performed for, actually. And when I finished, they didn’t mind telling me, “You’ve got dust all over your booty, Miss Jessica!” And we had a good laugh at that one.
They wanted a picture and frankly, so did I.
They insisted that I drop into a split right in front, 8th grade cheerleader style.
And just look at them:
You would have dropped into a split, too, if you had been there.
In other news, I am choreographing a piece for the Delaware Dance Company’s spring Gala. I had my first rehearsal with the dancers yesterday, and it was a blast. I am pretty excited about this piece. It’s a duet and I love working with just two dancers. We are also using a bench, a newspaper, and an apple. When I was giving these dancers–a guy and a girl–their backstory, I realized that I was basically giving them a glimpse into my own story, without even really meaning to. Believe it or not, this is a pretty happy, quirky, and whimsical piece. Sure, it’s kind of girl meets boy, but the boy is eating an apple at one point, so it’s not your every day dance, I think.
But then again, if it was truly autobiographical I suppose I should make the girl look like a vampire. Cause apparently, that’s what I look like.
say something kind
in MP3, Performance, Thoughts and Feelings
as aerosol cans, care, Classy, hair spray, Heck, hole in the ozone, hole in the ozone layer, Jess, killer bees, kind, layer, life, ozone, redemption, song, starving children, state, swarm, time, vegetables, way
In case you forgot about the starving children in some-far-off-country who make it so that you MUST finish your vegetables. Yes, all of them. Or perhaps you haven’t recently thought about the state of the ozone layer (and seriously, why do they even MAKE aerosol cans of hair-spray anymore, now that we all know it’s [...]
