May 20, 2007
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Last night was Brianna’s dance recital.
Isn’t it the way? This year she was in FOUR dances, yet attendance numbers (of those who turned out to see her) were down. From our side of the family there was only Don and me, while fortunately more came from Jason’s side (doubtless the fact he was dancing, too, might have been a factor).
She was in a jazz, ballet, mambo-themed, and daddy-daughter dance, which explains Jason’s shaking a leg. I used my Flip Video but darned if it didn’t pick up the glare from the lights even worse than it did last weekend with Elaine’s girls.
It’s still a neat thing, but this is the last time I’m using it for recording performances on a stage like this. I can’t think how lighting that doesn’t bother the people in the audience can wash out the performers in the middle like it does when captured on the Flip Video, but it does. What really bothers me is I didn’t get any stills of Brianna on stage with my regular camera, since I can’t use both at one time (only having the one pair of hands).And wasn’t this a nuisance! I arrived good and early to snag a good seat, which I did, pretty much. The front section of seating was reserved for the dancers, and a large chunk in the middle was taken up by the official video recording people, but I did the best I could, getting a seat on the aisle, middle, left side. A man showed up a little later and sat in front of me. Well, okay, I’m not so dumb I expect the seat in front of me to be empty.
What I did not expect was that as soon as the recital began he held up his camcorder to record the dances. What was so massively annoying is that to hold it up he used both arms (he used his left to hold a button down for some reason), so there was his rather large head framed by his arms. Couldn’t see one thing. Don graciously switched with me, but became increasingly crabby himself at his inability to see around the guy. Finally, as people began leaving and seats were emptying, we moved down and over, away from Mr. Oblivious.
Utterly astounding how rude people can be!
Oh well. Here’s the video of Brianna’s ballet:
She’s the last to dance onto the stage – #7 I think – and then darned if she’s not in the middle. She glows as if she were radioactive. Here’s the “My Girl” dance, with Brianna and Jason on the far left (until towards the end, when they move to the middle and glow):
I’m waiting for the jazz dance to be ready to view; when it does I’ll let y’all know, so anyone interested can click on the “videos” link buried in the flowers up there and watch it. ;^)
Comments (9)
Both dances are super sweet but the Daddy/Daughter dance is just so precious! Jason was the only daddy in the first part to dance to the beat and I suspect his sway was the right one.
Very nice. What a memory for those little girls.
me<><
They should forbid videorecorders at a first performance, and then have a second one another day for those. Or have an official videorecorder do the job, then you can buy a copy.
I’ve often thought allowing camcorders at the dress rehearsal is the way to go.
Of course, there were signs up about “No Flash Photography” but did that stop flashes from being used?
Nooooo…….
It’s not every dad who would do that! Our sons would, in a heartbeat But Sam? Uh uh.
Nor Don.
Now Alex, I can see dancing with Hannah (and Faith, when the time comes).
LOL I’m sorry you didn’t get any good shots, but I daresay I do believe you are holding it against a man for having a large build more than anything else.
My husband is VERY tall and tries not to sit in front of those with a shorter stature, but sometimes it can’t be helped. I agree about video cameras at the dress rehearsals. However we’ve been told some places don’t even allow parents to ATTEND the dress rehearsals. 
Off to watch the video now. Thanks for sharing and have a nice day.
I see your point, truly I do, and over the years have sat behind the tall ones. (The guy wasn’t tall, BTW. Short, actually, though with sort of a large head.)
It was the weird way he held the stupid camcorder that made it so hard to see around him. I knew he’d block my vision some when he sat down, but so long as he wasn’t holding up the camcorder so that both of his arms “framed” his head…thus adding, what, six to seven inches to the “width” of the blocked area?…it wasn’t too bad, and by shifting a little to the right or left I could see the stage. As it was, unless I (or Don, once he swapped seats with me) didn’t mind blocking the people behind us, we literally could only see the curtains on either side of the stage, and none of the dancers.
I too think that not allowing private recording and allowing you to buy a professional recording is the way to go. My daughters’ dance school has always done this. They can sell the recordings pretty cheaply (assuming the school is big enough to allow them to sell enough copies to pay for the guy to show up and do the recording.) Anyone who can afford a video camera can probably spring for a DVD once a year, right?
I guess the downside is that if your child isn’t front and center on stage, she won’t be front and center on the professional recording, though you can aim the camera to make her front and center on the video. But still….
Oh, the requisite DVD’s were on sale. The videographers filming the dances for the DVD were the ones in the middle of the auditorium, snagging some good seats and blocking the view from a host of others.
I still like the “let ‘em use the camcorders at the dress rehearsal” idea, personally.