Five Foot Two
By
Jacquimac
Edited by Jonelle　

　

Part 3
　
Sneaking a peak through the curtains we saw a packed house, nerves started to get the better of until we shooed off stage when the stage manager told us that ,"All you can do is your best. I have confidence in you."

The curtain rose and the show started with a lone figure reading from a book.

The reader briefly told of culture, fashion and politics of the post WW1 or as they were called "The Roaring Twenties" for a few minutes, it might sound boring but it certainly looked like people were interested. This was followed by Alec once again Singing " Five Foot Two " and me doing a solo Charleston. followed by the rest of the 20`s dancers ,singing and dancing for about forty minutes. That ended the first part of the Show.

As the curtain fell there was a resounding applause and we knew we had performed well, the Producer came over and congratulated us.

A short time later the curtain went up and second part of the show started. The actors and dancers were in wartime uniforms and costumes singing and dancing the popular songs of the war and dancing the Jive, The Jitterbug and other dances of the period again with a short narration. This was the swing period.

The third part of the show consisted of everyone on stage dancing to Rock and Roll, partners were being thrown in air and caught, it was more like a cross between Chaos and Acrobatics but we all enjoyed ourselves.

The Curtain dropped and those that needed to changed back to their original costumes for the finale. So the 20`s dancers danced on first, followed by the the 1940`s Swingers and finally the Rock and Rollers.Each group was a bit smaller than during the show with a third of the dancers in each periods costumes.

The Jazz and Rock and Roll bands were called onto the stage and the audience once again erupted with applause, it was about 20 minutes before we managed to finally leave the stage. We had a brilliant night and we had another seven weekends of such shows all of which were sold out.
The following night was just as successful, OK it wasn`t all perfect but hell we were only kids and did the best we could, At least everyone was happy with the performance so far. If nothing else it was certainly educational.

The Roaring Twenties was time of change before the Great Depression, everyone thinks that the 1960`s were the time of Womens Lib, they couldn`t be more wrong. Womens Lib started in the 20`s, women dressed for comfort not to show they`re figures, the tried to look more boyish cutting they`re hair into a short bob and started to wear trousers,

Gone were the corset, and pantaloons on old, hemlines were raised to a couple of inches below the knees, make-up and higher heels were worn. They started to drink and smoke openly, and even tolerance was practiced to minorities.Then came the depression followed by WW2. The show taught us a fair bit about time between 1920 and 1960.

We had six more weeks of Saturday and Sunday shows and as far as we knew they were sold out. Everyone from the Director to the Floor Sweeper was extremely happy with the performance, and there was talk of even doing more shows like this in the future.

The Local press , Radio and TV stations all ran the story of the show in the local news and everywhere we went the town was buzzing. Those that had seen the opening night were telling everyone how great it was and we were getting mobbed by our peers.

The Kids on the schools sport teams were trying to find a way to knock the ground from under us, everyone of those teams had proved a failure last season ending bottom of the various leagues they were in.

Soon enough it was time to go back to school now the holidays had come to an end and during morning assembly congrtaulated the dance club and Jazz Band on their success and rubbed it in about the sports failure of last year.

I was know attending school as Kendra May McCallister and was popular with the girls and a few of the boys. Some lessons were changed. Were I used to do the boys crafts I now did the girls craft, like sewing,cookery etc and I enjoyed them.

I could already do these crafts as Gran and Mum always insisted that everybody should at least know the basics of running a home and at the very least I should be able to sew a button on a shirt. The truth was I found sewing, knitting and embroidery relaxing, they also kept the fingers supple and some of the girls were a bit put out when it turned out I was quite good at them.

The school was planning it`s yearly nativity play and the dance club were asked to perform, but this time it would be the dances that slave girls in eastern harems did, like the belly dance. One wit asked if they were going to include the dance of the Seven Veils but that was vetoed as it was too sex orientated.