Day Sixty Five: Billy Elliot!

PICTURE: This is not the kid I saw, but this scene was really great. That is the police picket line from the strike and Billy Elliot kept dancing in front of them and fought against their shields at the same time. It was really moving. (http://blog. livedesignonline. com/liveblog/wp- content/uploads /2009/05/ billyelliot_wideweb __470x3040 jpg.jpeg)

Average day of group projects and hilarious British Life and Culture class. Oh we had a pop presentation in that class, and I decided to wing it. I ended up talking about a boy in Canada who went hunting and got stuck on a chunk of ice with a mama polar bear and her two babies. He ended up having to shoot the mama polar bear so it didn't eat him. There you have it ladies and gentlemen, my presentation... you're right I am good at spontaneously coming up with things to say. It's a good thing I read the newspaper right before class.

After years of watching Billy Elliot alone in my room, I was finally about to see it on stage! Not only that but on a British Stage as well! For those who don't know the plot of Billy Elliot it is about a boy who grows up during the coal mining strike in Wales. He wants to be a dancer, but his father and brother are very anti their son/brother becoming a ballerina dancer for all the reasons you would guess. He ends up getting the support of his father and other coal miners in his town because it becomes his chance to get out of that dying industry. He auditions for the Royal Academy of Ballet and if you want to know if he gets in read the book, rent the movie or best of all get you butts to Broadway and watch it on stage.

It was incredible, the kids were so very talented. At first I was comparing it to the movie, which comes without the great songs written by Elton John, and that was a bad thing to do. Once I stopped the comparison in my head I saw it for the talented children that were acting, dancing and singing their hearts out. My favorite part was during the audition interview scene the little boy actor, he is about 11ish, who was playing Billy Elliot did this incredible dance number. He was doing back flips and twists threw the air. He ran up a wall and flipped over backwards. The kid was dancing from his very heart and it showed. When he finished the crowd went ballistic and we all screamed and hollered for his performance. The cheering did not die down fast either and as he stood with both arms in the air he broke character. His face lit up and he laughed, he was clearly not expecting our reaction. He looked at the man who was playing his father and just had the biggest smile on his face. It made the cheering grow to enormous proportions, and that kid was so happy. It was the most genuine and brillant scene I had ever witnessed. The excitement that kid must have felt for being on the London stage and then being about to go home and say I am really good and the people really like me. Oh, I am proud of him and I do not even know him.

Also, the play ended with coal miners doing a tap dance, so you know it was a great show. What a terrific evening. My friend Ruthie and I want to go to either Le Mis or The Phantom of the Opera next Wednesday.

Love You All!