Someone recently asked us our history of how we became Irish dancers. This is our story.
We were walking down the street one day, when suddenly a man from Ireland tripped over his own ghillies, fell into the street, and got hit by a car. Of course, Hannah and I rushed over and started giving him CPR. We took turns for about 30 minutes, and finally he was in the clear. We had saved his life, but of course we couldn't accept a reward for that. We were just doing our civic duty. He was very glad that we had helped him in his hour (or rather, half hour) of need, so he offered and we accepted his offer of free Irish lessons. And that's how it happened.
Showing posts with label Hannah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hannah. Show all posts
Friday, July 13, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Day Seven -- Wednesday
Hidden Talents
Natalie and I discovered a new talent today: the art of street-throwing. In the show, there is a scene where Hyrum Smith calls out the names of streets in Nauvoo to be laid, and youth come out with large, colorful fabric strips that they throw in the air (from center stage) and then run to the edges of the stage to create a map of the streets of Nauvoo on stage. Natalie and I are Granger Street. We received little given instruction, we just used my past experience and our judgment to know how to throw our street up and stretch it across the stage. We never really paid attention to the other street layers either. But today during our meeting where the directors gave us notes on last night's run-through, the director made the following statement about that scene: "Can I just say, Granger street is amazing!" One of the other directors later spoke to us individually and told us the same thing. Pretty much, Natalie and I were glowing. We now regard ourselves as master street-throwers. It was great to hear that compliment, despite how small the task. You never know when you'll uncover a hidden talent.
My Alter Ego: Jenna
Natalie and I met this kid that's on the work crew. Despite being a trombone player, he's really nice. He introduced himself and told us his name was Kevin. He asked for ours, we gave him our names, and then he apologized in advance because of his short-term memory with names. Later, Natalie came up with the idea to tell him the wrong name if he asked again what our names were. The next day (today), we saw him at our rehearsal, and he proudly greeted us: "Hi Hannah and Natalie!" -- triumphant in having remembered our names. Natalie and I looked at him with confused faces; "What did you say?," we asked. "I just said 'hi Hannah and Natalie'," he replied. "Oh, you mean Jenna!" Natalie said with a straight face. He felt bad that he had "forgotten" my name and apologized, but I reassured him that he was very close with "Hannah."
Soon, Natalie and I felt very guilty about this friendly trick we had played. At the next opportunity, we approached him, apologized, and explained that we had done it to play off of his comment about forgetting people's names. He was a very good sport about it and now cracks jokes about my name whenever we see him.
Natalie and I discovered a new talent today: the art of street-throwing. In the show, there is a scene where Hyrum Smith calls out the names of streets in Nauvoo to be laid, and youth come out with large, colorful fabric strips that they throw in the air (from center stage) and then run to the edges of the stage to create a map of the streets of Nauvoo on stage. Natalie and I are Granger Street. We received little given instruction, we just used my past experience and our judgment to know how to throw our street up and stretch it across the stage. We never really paid attention to the other street layers either. But today during our meeting where the directors gave us notes on last night's run-through, the director made the following statement about that scene: "Can I just say, Granger street is amazing!" One of the other directors later spoke to us individually and told us the same thing. Pretty much, Natalie and I were glowing. We now regard ourselves as master street-throwers. It was great to hear that compliment, despite how small the task. You never know when you'll uncover a hidden talent.
My Alter Ego: Jenna
Natalie and I met this kid that's on the work crew. Despite being a trombone player, he's really nice. He introduced himself and told us his name was Kevin. He asked for ours, we gave him our names, and then he apologized in advance because of his short-term memory with names. Later, Natalie came up with the idea to tell him the wrong name if he asked again what our names were. The next day (today), we saw him at our rehearsal, and he proudly greeted us: "Hi Hannah and Natalie!" -- triumphant in having remembered our names. Natalie and I looked at him with confused faces; "What did you say?," we asked. "I just said 'hi Hannah and Natalie'," he replied. "Oh, you mean Jenna!" Natalie said with a straight face. He felt bad that he had "forgotten" my name and apologized, but I reassured him that he was very close with "Hannah."
Soon, Natalie and I felt very guilty about this friendly trick we had played. At the next opportunity, we approached him, apologized, and explained that we had done it to play off of his comment about forgetting people's names. He was a very good sport about it and now cracks jokes about my name whenever we see him.
Day Six -- Tuesday
Emotional Confusion
I would tend to consider both Natalie and myself as generally pleasant, happy people. We are both even-tempered, and we love to laugh. And up until this point, I never thought there existed such a disease as being too happy or smiling and laughing too much (within reason). But today when Natalie and I were sitting in the chairs at the pageant site, talking and waiting for rehearsal to start, Paul (the actor who plays Parley P. Pratt) came up to us and said: "There have been complaints that you two are too happy all the time. We're in Nauvoo! Stop smiling so much, and just endure." Although I knew full well that he was teasing, this caught me by surprise. I don't remember reading cheerfulness in the list of sins. Ever. Anyway, as Parley P. Pratt greeted us during the show as we immigrated to Nauvoo, he was again compelled to remind us that smiling was prohibited.
The Man in the Trailer
Yesterday, Natalie and I borrowed a CD player from Sis. G. (a children's caretaker) so we could practice our Irish dance. This morning, we crossed the lawn to enter the other part of the building to return it. Natalie reached the door first and pulled, only to find out that it was locked. She tried again with the same result, so we decided to go around to another entrance. Then, an old man on a small trailer saw us and drove over, easily opened the door, and drove away. The door had been open the whole time! It was quite embarrassing.
Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall
Humpty Dumpty, in this instance, is not an over-sized (not to mention overdressed) egg as commonly depicted, but is the biggest moving trailer you've ever seen, filled with metal folding chairs. It all began with our cast service project: to set up thousands of chairs at the pageant site. It was an amazing scene: we quickly organized ourselves into fast-paced assembly lines, beginning with a couple men inside large trailers that were unloading chairs to us, which we would pass down the line and then set up. The phenomenon occurred when approximately half of the chairs had been emptied from the trailer. Of course, they had begun unloading chairs at the front and moved their way back. Herein lies the problem; once the trailer had been emptied halfway, the back end of the trailer was significantly heavier than the front end. All of a sudden, we heard the crash of the front end of the trailer hitting the ground, all of us knowing that the men in the trailer had also fallen the length of the vehicle. Fortunately they were just fine, which immediately switched the situation from one of horror to one of hilarity. Out whipped the camera phones, and that experience will forever be remembered among over a hundred Latter-day saints who now know that service can be a rewarding, humorous experience.
I would tend to consider both Natalie and myself as generally pleasant, happy people. We are both even-tempered, and we love to laugh. And up until this point, I never thought there existed such a disease as being too happy or smiling and laughing too much (within reason). But today when Natalie and I were sitting in the chairs at the pageant site, talking and waiting for rehearsal to start, Paul (the actor who plays Parley P. Pratt) came up to us and said: "There have been complaints that you two are too happy all the time. We're in Nauvoo! Stop smiling so much, and just endure." Although I knew full well that he was teasing, this caught me by surprise. I don't remember reading cheerfulness in the list of sins. Ever. Anyway, as Parley P. Pratt greeted us during the show as we immigrated to Nauvoo, he was again compelled to remind us that smiling was prohibited.
The Man in the Trailer
Yesterday, Natalie and I borrowed a CD player from Sis. G. (a children's caretaker) so we could practice our Irish dance. This morning, we crossed the lawn to enter the other part of the building to return it. Natalie reached the door first and pulled, only to find out that it was locked. She tried again with the same result, so we decided to go around to another entrance. Then, an old man on a small trailer saw us and drove over, easily opened the door, and drove away. The door had been open the whole time! It was quite embarrassing.
Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall
Humpty Dumpty, in this instance, is not an over-sized (not to mention overdressed) egg as commonly depicted, but is the biggest moving trailer you've ever seen, filled with metal folding chairs. It all began with our cast service project: to set up thousands of chairs at the pageant site. It was an amazing scene: we quickly organized ourselves into fast-paced assembly lines, beginning with a couple men inside large trailers that were unloading chairs to us, which we would pass down the line and then set up. The phenomenon occurred when approximately half of the chairs had been emptied from the trailer. Of course, they had begun unloading chairs at the front and moved their way back. Herein lies the problem; once the trailer had been emptied halfway, the back end of the trailer was significantly heavier than the front end. All of a sudden, we heard the crash of the front end of the trailer hitting the ground, all of us knowing that the men in the trailer had also fallen the length of the vehicle. Fortunately they were just fine, which immediately switched the situation from one of horror to one of hilarity. Out whipped the camera phones, and that experience will forever be remembered among over a hundred Latter-day saints who now know that service can be a rewarding, humorous experience.
Day 5 -- Monday
Our Friendliness and its Demise
Natalie and I have made a concerted effort here to make freinds and get to know people, despite our inherent pariahdom. We made considerable strides today by befriending Adam's fiancee (Celsey), helping Sis. Patterson with her baby, and having a friendly discussion with the people we sat by at dinner (which included a lot of laughing, believe it or not). Despite this, there are two cast members we've tried to befriend who we can't seem to connect with.
The first is Clint, a recently returned missionary and the son of the lead actor who plays Mary Ann Young. It turns out that my next door neighbor and he served in the same mission at the same time. Using this conversation-starter to break the ice, we discovered that, although he seems very shy, he is perfectly fine to talk to. As long as you're the one starting the conversation, that is. With such a promising beginning, we didn't know a friendship could be this hard to build. We purposely sat by him at a cast meeting, but he never said a word past any conversation we started. We've passed him in the halls and said "hi" with no response. What on earth are we doing wrong?
The second person will remain nameless until I have the opportunity to read his namebadge to find out what name he owns. Anyway, this kid had a shirt on with one word on the back: Bagelicious. This piqued our interests since we are both avid bagel-lovers. So I struck up a conversation with him abouit bagels and asked if Natalie and I could get a picture with the back of his shirt sometime (after all, we are in the business of taking funny pictures on this trip). He graciously agreed. . . and then we forgot to ever get the picture. I f that ends our connection with Bagel Boy, then it's our own fault, I suppose.
FHE: How it shouldn't be
The first half of our FHE this evening was very awkward. See Natalie's blog posting about this event for the details. However, after this, we went to "Sunset By the Mississippi," where we had a great time. All's well that ends well, I suppose.
Natalie and I have made a concerted effort here to make freinds and get to know people, despite our inherent pariahdom. We made considerable strides today by befriending Adam's fiancee (Celsey), helping Sis. Patterson with her baby, and having a friendly discussion with the people we sat by at dinner (which included a lot of laughing, believe it or not). Despite this, there are two cast members we've tried to befriend who we can't seem to connect with.
The first is Clint, a recently returned missionary and the son of the lead actor who plays Mary Ann Young. It turns out that my next door neighbor and he served in the same mission at the same time. Using this conversation-starter to break the ice, we discovered that, although he seems very shy, he is perfectly fine to talk to. As long as you're the one starting the conversation, that is. With such a promising beginning, we didn't know a friendship could be this hard to build. We purposely sat by him at a cast meeting, but he never said a word past any conversation we started. We've passed him in the halls and said "hi" with no response. What on earth are we doing wrong?
The second person will remain nameless until I have the opportunity to read his namebadge to find out what name he owns. Anyway, this kid had a shirt on with one word on the back: Bagelicious. This piqued our interests since we are both avid bagel-lovers. So I struck up a conversation with him abouit bagels and asked if Natalie and I could get a picture with the back of his shirt sometime (after all, we are in the business of taking funny pictures on this trip). He graciously agreed. . . and then we forgot to ever get the picture. I f that ends our connection with Bagel Boy, then it's our own fault, I suppose.
FHE: How it shouldn't be
The first half of our FHE this evening was very awkward. See Natalie's blog posting about this event for the details. However, after this, we went to "Sunset By the Mississippi," where we had a great time. All's well that ends well, I suppose.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Day 4 -- Sunday
The Tragedy of the Camera
This morning, we were taking our daily "funny face" picture -- the same face we always pull when there's a picture with both of us in it. Many of you know exactly what face this is and are probably trying to recreate it as you read this. Anyway, I was in charge of pressing the button to take it, and after, I was trying to hand it back to Natalie when her curse of dropping everything spread to me. I let go of it too soon, and it began to drop. In our futile frenzy of trying to catch the camera mid-air, we smacked it to the right, making it land even harder on the hard floor of the closet. Dropping things is a running theme for us out here.
A Friendly Joke Gone Wrong
So, we have this District Leader named Alex, a lead inthe show playing John Taylor. He's very nice and has really made an effort to get to know and talk to me and Natalie. It turns out that he and Casey (one of our friends) are really good friends and used to work together. Of course, in response to Alex's kindness, we decide to call Casey to get some inside information to use -- funny/embarrassing stories, quirks, anything really. (Side note: If you are currently thinking that getting this kind of inside information to use is "uncharacteristic" of us or if you're having a hard time believing what you're reading, then you probably fall into one of two categories: 1)You don't know us very well. 2)You are our band teacher.) Anyway, we finally mustered up the courage to go up to him and perform our pre-scripted conversation that revealed that we knew about his codename for his Space Center engineer. But just before my punchline, Alex's Nauvoo romance interruped us to ask me where I got my dress. Our plot was pretty much ruined. I made an effort to improvise, but he just laughed, and Natalie and I walked away embarrassed while Alex and Melinda played footsies. (Again.)
Pageant Discussion
Silliness aside, we had a great meeting tonight where our director spoke to us about the development of the Pageant. He spoke extensively about artistic productions and performances, whether they be music, theater, art, etc. This really stuck a chord (haha, no pun intended) with me as I prepare to embark on an educational and occupational journey centered around music, and it helped answer some of the questions I've had. So many goals popped into my head of what I need to do to be the kind of musician the Lord would have me be and who the Lord can use to do His work. The following are some of the quotes that were inspirational to me and which I want to implement as I focus my education on music:
"We are not producing something; we are living it." -- David Warner, Director of the Music and Cultural Arts division for the Church
"The reason we have not yet produced a greater heritage in art and literature and music and drama is not, I am very certain, because we have not had talented people. Some have reached great heights in their chosen fields. But few have captured the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the restoration of it in music, art, and literature. They have not, therefore, even though they were gifted, made a lasting contribution to the ongoing of the Church and kingdom of God." -- Boyd K. Packer
"The artistic giants of latter days will be those who are the great father patriarchs and noble companions and mothers of men." -- Ezra Taft Benson
"There is not greatness in us, only through us." -- Ross Boothe, adapted from a quote from President Benson
At this meeting, I was overwhelmed with the desire to be an musical artist unto the Lord. That moment, my desires were purified; I no longer want to become only a consummate performer or clarinetist, but I want to truly "capture the spirit of the gospel" through what I do, which purity and greatness in artistry will only come through becoming purified and great in character and spirituality. And ultimately, my greatest artistic contributions (according to Pres. Benson) will be in being a "noble companion" and mother.
This morning, we were taking our daily "funny face" picture -- the same face we always pull when there's a picture with both of us in it. Many of you know exactly what face this is and are probably trying to recreate it as you read this. Anyway, I was in charge of pressing the button to take it, and after, I was trying to hand it back to Natalie when her curse of dropping everything spread to me. I let go of it too soon, and it began to drop. In our futile frenzy of trying to catch the camera mid-air, we smacked it to the right, making it land even harder on the hard floor of the closet. Dropping things is a running theme for us out here.
A Friendly Joke Gone Wrong
So, we have this District Leader named Alex, a lead inthe show playing John Taylor. He's very nice and has really made an effort to get to know and talk to me and Natalie. It turns out that he and Casey (one of our friends) are really good friends and used to work together. Of course, in response to Alex's kindness, we decide to call Casey to get some inside information to use -- funny/embarrassing stories, quirks, anything really. (Side note: If you are currently thinking that getting this kind of inside information to use is "uncharacteristic" of us or if you're having a hard time believing what you're reading, then you probably fall into one of two categories: 1)You don't know us very well. 2)You are our band teacher.) Anyway, we finally mustered up the courage to go up to him and perform our pre-scripted conversation that revealed that we knew about his codename for his Space Center engineer. But just before my punchline, Alex's Nauvoo romance interruped us to ask me where I got my dress. Our plot was pretty much ruined. I made an effort to improvise, but he just laughed, and Natalie and I walked away embarrassed while Alex and Melinda played footsies. (Again.)
Pageant Discussion
Silliness aside, we had a great meeting tonight where our director spoke to us about the development of the Pageant. He spoke extensively about artistic productions and performances, whether they be music, theater, art, etc. This really stuck a chord (haha, no pun intended) with me as I prepare to embark on an educational and occupational journey centered around music, and it helped answer some of the questions I've had. So many goals popped into my head of what I need to do to be the kind of musician the Lord would have me be and who the Lord can use to do His work. The following are some of the quotes that were inspirational to me and which I want to implement as I focus my education on music:
"We are not producing something; we are living it." -- David Warner, Director of the Music and Cultural Arts division for the Church
"The reason we have not yet produced a greater heritage in art and literature and music and drama is not, I am very certain, because we have not had talented people. Some have reached great heights in their chosen fields. But few have captured the spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the restoration of it in music, art, and literature. They have not, therefore, even though they were gifted, made a lasting contribution to the ongoing of the Church and kingdom of God." -- Boyd K. Packer
"The artistic giants of latter days will be those who are the great father patriarchs and noble companions and mothers of men." -- Ezra Taft Benson
"There is not greatness in us, only through us." -- Ross Boothe, adapted from a quote from President Benson
At this meeting, I was overwhelmed with the desire to be an musical artist unto the Lord. That moment, my desires were purified; I no longer want to become only a consummate performer or clarinetist, but I want to truly "capture the spirit of the gospel" through what I do, which purity and greatness in artistry will only come through becoming purified and great in character and spirituality. And ultimately, my greatest artistic contributions (according to Pres. Benson) will be in being a "noble companion" and mother.
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