jelliebeers

“I look confused”
“No you don’t”

I finally got my 1993 dance recital digitized.  The label read, Debbie McCann School of Dance “Struttin’ R’ Stuff”  May 22, 1993 — Matinee Act One.  The tape was roughly an hour and looked like someone had played a bit of it and forgot to rewind it.

The matinee included all age groups.  There were 4 year olds, preteens and teachers.  I watched eagerly and looked for myself.  I didn’t remember the songs, just the outfit.  When the camera zoomed out, everything looked really similar so it was difficult to tell.

I watched the counter on the deck reach the end of the tape.  Where was I?!  I panicked.  Was I wearing a blue outfit or something?

There was timecode on the beginning of what we had captured so I suggested that we rewind it and recapture that bit.  This time there was an introduction title card.  We hadn’t rewound the tape all the way!  The recital started with the older, more talented dancers.  They wore 1950’s inspired clothes and danced to, “We’ll Always Be Together” from Grease.

After the intro, the video goes black.  There a loud trumpet riff and the curtain rises and some dancers spread across the stage. THERE I AM!  The last time someone watched the tape they must have watched my part and turned off the VCR.

There were 14 dancers in the ensemble.   I was at the end of the line on stage left.  This act had sining and dancing to an introductory type of song (I have no idea what this song is.  A simple google search didn’t yield any results.  For once I hope to get a copy write notification from Youtube letting me know what song this is.)

“Hello!  Hello! We’re glad to see you here.”
It was a very basic dance.  Lots of kicking, some tap and a lot of arm waving.  We mostly just bounced up and down.  It looked sloppy and no one was in sync.  But I guess that to be expected from 5-6 years olds.  For a brief moment, the camera focused on me.  I kicked my leg wildly and nearly lost my balance. I really did look confused.  I kept my eyes on the girl to my right and copied her every move.
At the end of the piece we bowed and all joined hands to exit the stage.  This was around where the tape had been paused for the past 22 years or so.  This part had become distorted and it was almost like we melted off of the stage.  White and blue/purple/green lines flashed across the screen until eventually cutting to black.  It made me feel a little sad.