June 2004 – The First Production Meeting

On June 4, 2004 Beth Burns, Melanie Rios, and I did initial planning for the 2005 Annual Concert.  Even though opening night was still 361 days away, a myriad of details needed to be decided on to allow budgets to be developed and to begin the process of contacting artists and musicians.

The agenda for this production meeting included the all important first task of finalizing which pieces would be performed in this retrospective concert celebrating Beth Burns’ final concert as Artistic Director.  Working from a list of seven classic dances, Melanie and Beth weighed the pros and cons of each piece and developed a plan with 5 pieces that thematically worked for each of the two planned programs.

            Program A                                                 Program B

            Dancing Into One (1993)                               Unearthing (1998)

            A Seed             (1990)                                  dreamChild (1996)

            Mi Corazon Canta (1990)                               Mi Corazon Canta (1990)

Once the program order was tentatively decided, we moved on to tackle details such as production staffing, choosing rehearsal assistants, and developing a rehearsal schedule.
From there, I took these general decisions to develop a preliminary production budget.

“This is quite a moment - passing the creative baton – in the life of Saint Joseph Ballet.
There’s so much sentiment in the air.  With tender emotions on the surface I find Melanie’s collaboration reassuring on many levels.  My bed-rock confidence says that the performances will be colorful, warm celebrations – what’s not to admire in the beauty & courage of these kids? Of course, til we get there, there will be much metaphoric nail biting (since the physical kind isn’t healthy).  Looking back at some of the old nuggets (dances) and once again, I’m buoyed by Melanie’s fresh take in re-staging dreamChild and Mi Corazon Canta. I love to see her work.”  

The next few months will be a flurry of phone calls between designers, musicians, and production staff as we begin bringing everyone onboard.  Alumni will be contacted and invited to participate in the performances of A Seed, costumes will be dusted off, and scenery will be hauled out of storage.

In November, Beth will begin casting the other four dances from our current students.  To be eligible for the concert they will need to be exceeding their minimum attendance requirement for dance classes and exemplifying our values in their daily interactions.  That being said, we expect most of our 400 students will be eligible to be cast.  Rather than holding a formal audition, Beth will be watching all the students in their regular classes, and cast them from those observations.