BEings: In Case of Emergency!

Emily Bufferd | Mar 12, 2009 | 0

BEings: 'You' - dancers Elise Sievert and Philip Northington

If you all remember my first ever blog on here (if you have not seen it, go check it out!), you may recall me saying that I was sure there would be days that left me amazed and those where I actually would hate my life.  Well, I know most of my blogs have been about the good (and believe me there has been plenty of good) but there are always going to be bad days, and this post is going to dive into one of them.

What do you do when a situation arises that causes one of your dancers to peace out the night before the show?!

Lots more after the jump!

BEings: 'You' - dancers Elise Sievert and Philip Northington

SITE Festival - Arts in Bushwick

BEings: 'You' - dancers Elise Sievert and Philip Northington

Growing up as a competition dancer taught me many a lesson (thank you Boca Dance Studio)  and most of them are real world applicable.  Being a part of that competition team taught me responsibility, teamwork, sportsmanship, etc etc â€" the list could go on for a while.  YAY competition! We are always knocking it for the aspects we do not necessarily agree with, but in very many an instance it taught me something good.  The same principles apply to being a member of a company!  Hello real dance world, what is that you say; I have to be responsible?!  Who would have thought that the lessons I learned while desperately wanting that extreme platinum (and sometimes getting it; just saying) would serve me so well now.  

When you find out your dancer is unavailable during the last minute clean up rehearsal, at 11pm the night before a show and you are standing there with their duet partner, what do you do?  Well, you frantically call your other dancers, leave a voicemail, and hope they will get the message and call you back in the next 5 minutes all while having a minor panic attack (sidenote, this may just be an Emily thing)  At this point, you have to pull it together and realize there is a show tomorrow.  Someone will be performing something!

Of course during this freakout, one of my lovely BEings dancers comes to the rescue!  One must give credit where mass amounts of credit are due.  Elise Sievert is incredible and I could speak highly of her until I go blue in the face.  Somewhere for some reason, the Dance Gods (yes, I believe there are Dance Gods) smiled down on Philip and myself.  

You must understand that while dancing for BEings and clearing her schedule as best she can, Elise is almost never free, let alone on short notice. She consistently works in this city as a dancer.  Her being able to perform the next day left Philip and myself ecstatic!

There is always a catch though and the big one here is that she does not know the piece!  Here is the part of the story that makes Elise a rockstar; she learned the piece in an hour, without Philip being there.  The part that makes them both rockstars is that they did not get to do that piece together with music until they were performing!

Truth be told, I did not expect that show to go nearly as well as it did; and I had to eat my words, so to speak, because they were beautiful!  (here is the link to the video, please go check it out BEings on YouTube!

While I certainly hope a situation like this never occurs again, this is real life; things come up, and unforeseen circumstances occur.  However, real life also includes being responsible and I will close this blog with some advice my tap teacher extraordinaire once gave me (Lynn Schwab; Steps on Broadway, another rockstar).

It is not always about being the best (while yes, being the best would certainly be nice), but you have to be responsible, reliable, kind, and likeable.  If you do not show up, it does not matter if you are the best because no one got to see you!  These are some principles I am trying hard to live by, and expect the same of my dancers; some good food for thought I think!

Be sure to check out BEings on Facebook and add us as a friend!

As always, feel free to email me at emilybufferd@danceruniverse.com.

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