Wednesday, June 16, 2010

back from Poland!

hello!

with my bag packed and my two guitars already secured by our team, which i joined in one of Brussels' railway stations in the morning, we took the train for Charleroi which was quite an uneventful trip and from there we had just missed our shuttle bus to Brussels south airport ..

we were kinda just in time to get the luggage on the plane, .. my guitars got a special treatment and was put in the special compartment where also the animals are staying on flight ...

the flight to Poland was also quite uneventful with bright weather but as we were flying in the dark there was not much to see

when we arrived in Warsaw the folks from the festival came to pick us up and drove us to the (yes yes) holiday resort full of chalets or wooden cabins and we could n't do anything more than go to sleep ..

the next day was a free day ... it dawned on me that traveling with a leader ... (as a solo band im used to being my own band leader hehe) can cause much frustration but it wasn't until after the show that i brought it up to the leader (our choreographer) ..

but anyway .. the following day, i think it was a monday .. we arrived at the big hall theather where the inauguration of the festival would be taking place ..

first up in the rehearsing time was my soundcheck .. i didn't brought an amplifier but they kindly provided one for me ... but when we checked the sound of my ULTRACURE guitar (hehe it's such a baby that one, all black with an oversized body and moon stars silver pearl inlays), well it seemed clear that we would amp the acoustic guitar also directly from the sound system and not use the amplifier ... it gave muchj more result that way ..

in the soundcheck i played some of the songs i would play anyway but as the last song i played my latest single 'to the dance' which was such a thrill to hear my evolved vocals ringing through the theather, even though there were only a few people listening ...

after the soundcheck we went through the whole dance sequences ... me getting last minute corrrections for a duo with another female dancer .. we were at maybe one hour from showtime but because we hadn't rehearsed this part too much i still had some final touches where i needed the help from my choreographer ...

after the final rehearsal we had 15 minutes for wardrobe time so i got help to get into my costume, which looks very baroque, and i got beat! ...that means they put make up on my face and when we were done it was just in time to get behind the stage while the i nauguration speech was held ...

i didn't know it but this festival was a part of the big Biƫnnale festival, a two yearly event which takes place allover Europe ...

there was TV coverage and so when i heard the applause i knew it was time to get on stage ... yes . i had to open the whole thing and took my guitar and first thing i did was something that is not done in a dance piece but i took my ULTRACURE and stepped to the microphone and gently shouted 'hello Poland' .. after which i sang and played my song 'deep' ..

if you believe that after this song other dancers would take the stage ... well hell no! ... i got backstage and made my way all the way to the other back end of the stage (in the mean time the piano player was doing something fill up the time until i was in place to once more take the stage and perform my first solo dance followed by an exhausting duo with another dancer ... so i guess the first 20 to 25 minutes of the whole piece i was feeling like a star! ..

i got nice rounds of applause everytime i did something and especially when i had just exhausted myself dancing and then just after that having to sing a song with my guitar of course .. it wa&s so funny because the peopel in the room laughed because i had to start singing while being out of breath ..but i could handle it of course ...

and so the show went on and on for like a hour and 15 minutes, or an hour and a half im not so sure ... but i had the greatest time ever ...

after the show there was a woman who could'nt speak a word of english but she came to me ... took my face in her two hands and kissed me on the mouth ...!

another girl also came to say hello and she uttered 'YOU are MAGIC!' ...

well i must say i was very pleased with all the attention from the art lovers but the day after i became quickly frustrated with the fact that i kinda felt all alone again .. i won't talk about my frustrations here in this post because it is pointless to start accusing people in public ... but the initial rush of success was over very quickly and i was intensely glmad to be home again ..

i've learned some things about being in a team and i've also learned something about having a boss on board

but the show must go on !

Light and Love

Betty Donelly