By Jessica Van Grouw, Training Programs Intern
What does it take to organize the JKO Studio Company and Pre-Professional Spring Performance? The answer is simple, A LOT! For starters there is advertising for the event, which consisted of mailing over 4,000 postcards to American Ballet Theatre’s supporters and students. Boy, oh boy that pile of postcards and address labels seemed ten feet tall but between several of the interns, including myself, we were able to attack the task and finish it within a couple of days, there’s nothing like team work.
This year’s performance took place at PACE University and we were notified that all students needed a photo ID in order to enter the theatre — completely understandable. The only problem was we don’t have student IDs! After a run to Staples and help from fellow intern, Amelia, we created nifty photo IDs for all the students.
Another fun task I had for this event dealt with props for some of the dances. In several of the dances for this year’s Spring Performance tambourines are used, the trick with the tambourines is that pointe shoes and fists tend to find their way through the parchment on the tambourine. In order to guarantee that through all three performances there would be enough tambourines to go around, and no crisis arises during the performance, I ordered additional tambourines and got to decorate them with ribbons… love arts and crafts opportunities!
Other things such as running to the dry cleaners to pick-up costumes, researching and ordering shoes for the dancers, and packing and loading out costumes for the performance are just a few more of the fun jobs that I got to do for the show.
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