Monday, September 19, 2011

RemebeRED: Curtain Call


For this week’s memoir prompt, we’re going to let narrative take a backseat. Choose a moment from your personal history and mine it for sensory detail. Describe it to us in rich, evocative details. Let us breath the air, hear the heartbeat, the songs, feel the fabric and the touch of that moment.


Curtain Call
           It is so dark I’m afraid I’ll fall into the orchestra pit. Someone shines a flashlight from the wings to help me find center stage. My arms are covered in goose bumps and my skimpy costume is itchy where the netting is stitched to the satin. My heart is pounding like it does when I take a math test or when I go down a hill too fast on my bike.
            The lights come up and warm me. I can see the stage now—I am exactly where I’m supposed to be. The audience is still in darkness so I cannot see their faces, only the shapes of the people in the first row. My family is out there somewhere but I can’t tell where. I remind myself to smile.
            The music begins. It’s much louder than when I dance in my living room. I move to the rhythm as I’ve done a thousand times at home—standing on my toes and stretching out my arms. My racing heart begins to slow as I dance. I don’t have to force myself to smile any more. I have never felt so happy as I do at this moment. I don’t care any more that the costume is itchy. It’s black and shiny and trimmed with red sequins and white feathers.
            Too soon the song is over. The invisible audience claps. I love the sound. I curtsy deeply over the dusty stage and run into the wings. I am seven years old and this is my first curtain call.  





I'm sure any seven-year-old girl these days would consider this a very odd song choice for a dance recital. But it was "Creative Movement" class in the 70's and I loved it.

13 comments:

  1. Oh my, having had a late night at dance with my daughters last night- I know that this exactly how they feel. Pure magic, pure adored! You really captured that here!

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  2. I love this! Your post brought back memories of my first dance recital-only yours seems to have gone better. I felt like I was on stage with you!

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  3. Thanks for the nostalgia contained in that song. Red sequins and white feathers... quite a costume!

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  4. You really had me there. I was worried you'd be the deer in the headlights and not a sound would come out. Brave girl!

    Great job on sharing that moment with us. I could HEAR that audience, arranging themselves in their seats and whispering to each other, as you waited for the light to shine on you. Beautiful!

    Trish in AZ http://writinginareddress.blogspot.com/2011/09/last-day.html

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  5. I can't see the video here at work, but as a girl who loved her dance recitals as much as you obviously did, I could honestly feel every single minute of this with you. It was spectacular...your first 'Date" with the stage and it was love ...love..love.

    this was so good. :)

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  6. oh and I love the BLOG...it looks so good.

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  7. So real. I love Joe brief this is, because that moment goes so quickly, too. I remember being on stage at 7yo and wishing I could scratch that itchy tulle bit until the moment I got caught up in the routine. Lovely.

    Also: love the new look!

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  8. "love how brief"...stupid Auto-correct!

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  9. I remember those recitals so well! Thank you for sharing this sweet memory.

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  10. "My arms are covered in goose bumps and my skimpy costume is itchy where the netting is stitched to the satin" Itchy stitches and an outward display of nerves and thrill. A body prepared to perform...

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  11. You got me to travel right into this event.

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  12. I love the imagery of your "itchy" costume and the lights, etc. I remember this well since I was in dance for many years as a little girl. :)

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