Wonder and Awe:
Performing Arts
Music, dance, acting, and all things involved with theater or film or any kind of performing art awes me. Watching a group of dancers jump, spin, and do who knows what else all synchronized amazes me. Just the other day I was at rehearsal for Cor Jesu’s musical and watched the dance break. One of the main dancers didn’t go to the earlier rehearsal where the dance was taught and blocked, she just went over a few of the steps very briefly a few seconds before the dance started. However, she knew the entire dance when it came time to perform it and she did a better job than any of the other dancers who had rehearsed it for six hours on Saturday.
I know someone who can sing any song she is given. She can hit basically every note on the scale and I’ve never heard her sound anything less than amazing. It comes so effortlessly to her, when she seems as if she isn’t even trying or even paying attention she is still amazing. One friend of mine even said they sat next to her during singing rehearsals and they were afraid to sing out at all because her voice commands such attention and it throws you off guard because she is so good.
There are also those who can pick up any script and read phenomenally for any character. Whether it be a change in accent, personality, volume, or even playing someone of the opposite gender (Sam King played the grandmother in The American Dream last year and I forgot it was him, I thought it was an old woman because he was so good). People who invest so deeply into their characters and who put everything going on around them behind and actually become the character they are playing amaze me. Amadeus was the best high school show I have ever had something to do with because of how invested every actor was in their part. I had the privilege of being the assistant stage manager for that show and I got to see how everyone went from good to amazing because of how they grew into their characters.