Breaking Pointe
Episode 105
“Bad Dress, Good Show”
So, we have one episode left after tonight’s airing but tonight was what we’ve been waiting to see, the opening night of these ballets and the run down on how our favorite dancers did.
Ballet is a beautiful art form filled with intricacies and difficulties that are so subtle, the untrained eye cannot make them out … mostly. It’s a credit to Adam Sklute and the dancers of Ballet West that they can make it look all so effortless and that might be the best compliment this novice can give.
But really, you want to know how everyone did, yes? Did Allison get it together on the tempos and pressure of multiple roles? Did Rex choke in his partnering with Christiana? Did Ronnie and Beckanne burst into flames of awesomeness? Did Ronald escape the cave The CW has been keeping him in? Did Katie shave her head leaving only the bangs? Did Katie C., Tom M and Chris R get cast credits even though they have had more screen-time then several other cast members? All of your answers will be answered below. Read on!
Breaking Pointe. Watch it and thank me later. (Photo Credit Erik Ostling/The CW)
Previously, the tempos suck and rehearsal is hard.
This week, its curtains up bitches! The episode begins 24 hours before opening night and Adam is giving a “don’t suck” pep talk to the troops. Inspired? Good, now go dance. AND NO FACES!
Adam does his weekly run down on where he sees the core dancers (show wise):
Ronnie ‘s dreams of being promoted to principal basically lay in his performance on opening night as the lead in Paquita, his first with Ballet West. Allison has lots of pressure bearing down on her with her lead in second cast in Emeralds and her solo in Paquita (plus two other roles that we don’t hear about, at least one of which is in Petite Mort). Rex and Christiana are the first cast leads in Emeralds and boy, Rex needs to not stink be a good partner for Christiana.
If you are wondering how superstitious dancers are … well, it runs the gamut from Ronnie who totally has a Yoda he keeps turned a specific way on dance nights (he denies having a Yoda but I think we all know, better, right?) and Beckanne who goes shopping with BFF Katie (hi Katie, nice to see you this episode!) to Christiana who eats the a croissant and egg sandwich (with one piece of cheese) before every show and brings Morena, a stuffed animal, with her to every performance for the last 17 years.
Elsewhere, Rex and Ron await the arrival of brother Ray and can I just say that the hairy gene runs strong in the Tilton family. Ray is the previously mentioned sibling that dances in the San Francisco ballet and he’s here to see his bros in action. They eat out and all agree that family is important before holding each others arms. Yes, you read that right. That really happened. Cue the fan fic.
Opening Night, First Cast. Adam is tense. Everyones is tense. Except Ronnie … natch. The Foreshadowing Fairy peeks its head around the door as Allison talks about being worried the tempos are going to mess her up in her Paquita solo. The Foreshadowing Fairy snickers and points. Oh, that can’t be good. Beckanne has some butterflies but is pretty cool, she notes that “you know Ronnie is serious when he’s not flirting with any girls and he’s not flirting” … much to Beckanne’s displeasure. This hasn’t been addressed at all but I get a vibe that Beckanne would like be Mahogonous with Ronnie in serious wood kind of way.
Paquita, First Cast. Question for the Ballet West group that I like to pretend reads these recaps, does Adam intro every performance or just opening night? Not important, moving on!
Ronnie’s solo is up first and … he nails it. Really, all of the over turning kinks we’d seen previously are gone. Beckanne’s solo and … she nails it. Yeah, pretty sure these two have punched their tickets to success at Ballet West.
Allison’s solo and … the conductor slllloooooowwwwws it down. So slow that Chris R. is freaking out backstage (and he’s not even dancing tonight). She smiles through it all but she is just breaking up. I imagine is its the equivalent of having the dream you’re naked in front of your class and then realize, “hey, I’m not dreaming.” Rex knows enough to leave her alone once she gets off stage but you can tell, its hard for him. I’m not a dancer so I couldn’t tell she was off from the music but I could tell it was slower than we’d heard before so, that kind of sucks. The Foreshadowing Fairy pirouettes out of the Capitol Theater. And scene on Paquita. Adam catches us up and says that Paquita was a test for Allison to see if she could find inside herself the technical proficiency she doesn’t know she had, but does. For Ronnie, its onward and upward. Ronnie loves the praise and its well earned. Adam has been dangling the “principal dancer” carrot all season and I think hew might finally give it up.
Emeralds, First Cast. Christiana is the lead. Chris R (her husband) knows his wife is a rock star and these two are too cute for words. I love them. Best couple on TV I’d say. After watching her performance, Adam declares her the best Emeralds lead ever.
Christiana in Emeralds (Erik Ostling/The CW)
Petite Mort. If you haven’t seen it, well, I hope you are comfortable with naked men in nothing but loin clothes cause, that’s all we have really. Oh, there are swords also, which they have to balance on their finger for about 3 days at the opening of the ballet. Really, the cut scenes make Petite Mort look like the sexiest ballet ever. The crowd goes wild which makes Adam happy because he was worried the staid SLC audience wouldn’t get it. And that’s a wrap on the First Cast Opening Night! Second Cast premieres tomorrow night.
Meet the DeBonas! Some (but not all) of Allison’s family is in town for her opening performances and they are convening in Este ( NY style pizza in Salt Lake City? Yum!) for lunch, the day after Opening Night, First Cast. Allison is totally in her head about last night’s Paquita disaster and is on the verge of the yips, you can tell. Daddy DeBona thought she looked like an angel and Momma DeBona tears up because she’s so proud!!! Aww, we heart the DeBona clan, especially since they are divorced and have set aside their differences to be there for Allison. Little Sisters Juliana and Delaney are mortified at their dorky dad’s very existence … as any 12 and 14 year old girl should be. By the way, Allison should have her hair down always because, gorgeous. Lunch takes a turn when the Parents take Allison to task about (ex) boyfriend Jonathan who Mom and Dad fucking love, obviously. Allison voiceovers that she hasn’t been totally honest or open about her goings on in SLC with Rexster but they know enough to know that Rex doesn’t have her heart, Jonathan does. Is Rex really the person she wants to be with, they ask? Allison stands up for herself and goes on an emotional rant that Jonathan isn’t going to be around anymore and they all need to get used to that and hey, and it kills her when they bring him up ALL THE TIME! Also, she’s tied of defining herself by a guy and she’s not going to do that anymore. She’s here to dance and do what she wants to do. Its her time dammit so step up, yo. Mom and Dad take the hint and drop the subject. Well. That took an awkward turn.
Rehearsals. Even though they are performing that night, they have normal day rehearsals/class. Which EXHAUSTING! Allison is out of sorts at class and totally blowing off Rex which surprises Rex but… really? Allison is not totally emotionally available. This is not news? Allison gets that her shutting him out raises Rex’s insecurities but girl’s trying to keep it all together right now. Katie c gets it and tells her to not blow her chance at awesomeness tonight with the Emeralds lead. Cause Katie C? Is awesome!
Katie Critchlow, can you handle how cool I am?!?! (Erik Ostling/The CW)
Opening Night, Second Cast. Adam reminds us that Ballet West is not a good first cast, also ran second cast sort of company (BW’s second cast is still very strong, Episode 2′s Title notwithstanding — he doesn’t add).
Paquita. Beckanne is doing the second cast solo also because the regular dancer got hurt. Christiana and Rex make some magic and man, I’d love to dance with Christiana for her supportive vibe if nothing else! From the scenes we see, they look great together and Christiana really is amazing to watch. For his part, Rex actually looked happy and confident. It’s a nice change.
Emeralds. Allison acknowledges that she’s not looking forward to being compared to Christiana plus she’s playing the redeem game from Paquita the night before. But no worries because she locks it down, tight! For what its worth, Allison is paired with Michael Bearden (the other principal male that’s not Chris R). Did Chris R not dance at all? Adam is pleased with Allison’s performance and new she could do it all. Rex, of course, is cheerleading and Allison is suoper psyched!
Petite Mort. Rex has the lead. Interestingly, the silk is black tonight, not white (like it was last night). Rex is nervous as the Foreshadowing Fairy returns to the theater to wreak havoc! The opening finger sword play goes well but when its time to pull the silk up, Rex, who is in the middle, falls and does an AMAZING ninja roll under the silk. Offstage, Rex is spitting fire and stalking the wings in an silent, angry rage. He tells the stage manager that he could have died. To me, it looked totally bad ass but again, TV Watcher = Not a Dancer! Rex is able to shake off his bad place long enough to bring home a great rest of the show performance. I believe his partners was Elizabeth “Liz” McGrath. After the show is over, Rex hightails it out of the theater without even speaking to Allison who had no idea about the fall at all (she was in the show, how’d she not know? Or hear?). As Allison toasts with sone friends, Rex is already dressed and gone. Oh, these two.
Next week is the season finale and below are some clips from the episode. Be there!
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