1/2-Dress Rehearsal

The show is beginning to come together on stage now. I was expecting a full technical piano dress rehearsal with most of the costumes in place, but what with one thing and another, that isn't quite what happened!
It’s actually in fairly good shape despite the seeming chaos. The big problem has been the head of the ballet [Russian], issuing a different cast list to the wardrobe from the Choreographer/director [Danish]. These lists line up quite a lot of the time, but when they don't, well, costumes have been made for the wrong people, Tourists as distinct from Neapolitans, for instance.
Mmmm.
I have to be careful what I write here, [I would like to work again] - I will just say this - if you think ‘musicians in charge’ should cause you to duck, you should try dancers – they communicate best in mime!

I love these dancers sitting on the side of the stage, one darning her pointe shoes, the other with her woolly leggings under her finale costume.

The soloist in the very Bournonville pose, [look at the hands] is Teresina in her wedding dress for Act 3.

Today, heaven help me, we have a hated "dress parade", an infernal invention designed to allow all dancers and choreographers to grumble a lot and cause confusion and give notes to the wrong people. However, given the list fiasco, it is the only way anyone can think of to sort things out.