Scenes, And Behind The Scenes, Of "Rio".

Minna, little, teeny Minna, was on a huge stage on Saturday. 

She flapped her wings and turned to the music as Baby Blu in "Songs and Scenes From Rio."  Have you seen the movie "Rio"? I was not really into it at first but after Minna's portrayal, it's a new fave. The music is so fun.

Anyway, I loved this production because there was a huge age range of dancers, from 3 years old to adult. And, there was a lot of homemade involved. Most dancers made some part of their costume. Wings, ears, fruit head-dresses and fancy hooped frocks. Pretty neat. 

We made three props for Minna's part. Jeff made a cage from netting we found under the snow at the river. It ended up being bigger than anticipated so it couldn't be dropped from the ceiling over Minna. Luckily, there was a plan B. It was carefully placed over Baby Blu by the bird nappers. (Those bird nappers were right off stage dancing and encouraging her during opening scene.)

I made Minna a tree trunk and nest out of a garbage can. I stained the dining room floor painting it in my pajamas. It was shiny onstage under those lights. She fit in there nice and snug and her feathers poked out just so. Love those feathers. I made her wings too. Maybe more on those later.

Minna enjoyed the making and the prop testing. She thought her nest was done at this point and said it was a great nest. "Perfect Mom!" We just added a few finishing touches.

Young Linda finds Baby Blu in a shipping crate. We scavenged some cardboard boxes, deconstructed and then rebuilt them to fit Minna inside. Her feathers poked out the air holes too.

Minna also got to be a Jungle Insect with all her friends from dance class. Including, one of her besties who is moving away with her family this Summer. This experience will be a neat memory for both of them. (And their Mums.)

Take a bow, my sweet bird!

I struggled a bit with the choice to put Minna on stage, with more than one part especially. It was a lot of responsibility for a little person. I swore that we would make it stress free and fun, while enjoying the work that goes into something like this. I did not push and I knew in my heart that I wouldn't hesitate to remove her if it came to be too much. The hardest part for her was waiting backstage without me on show night. (That was the hardest for me to.) She handled it well and went on and proved how hard she did work. 


As her Dad would say, "She killed it".


Now, out here where the line between everyday wear and dress-up clothes blur quite a bit, we have a flurry of feathers and bug attire to add to the mix. Be sure to say hi to the little girl wearing the feather tutu at the grocery store.

She sure earned those lovely blue feathers.