Friday night

7:00 and we are racing to put our nudies, makeup on, get our hair up and set up our props. It's been an exhausting week but the excitement from the prospect of showing off our talent on a stage in front of a live audience energizes us. Sitting in the dressing rooms, we giggle and laugh as we put on our make-up.
7:15 and the intercom echoes with a 15 minute warning. Almost time! We fix each others wispies, do up costumes, and a bit slap happy, we fall over ourselves as we race down three flights of stairs, a curse to anyone who has been dancing for a couple hours and has sore feet. Waiting anxiously for the announcer to announce, the curtain to go up, and the orchestra to pick up their instruments.
7:30 and we are on stage, still waiting for the curtain to go up. People are taking their time buying their tickets. We talk about whose family is holding us up, and whose bought their tickets ahead of time like smart people. A little bantering, fake pouting, and laughter floats around. We are shushed, the audience might hear us. So we giggle quieter, then shush the little girls for their screaming laughter, like we just were hushed ourselves.
7:37 and finally the music begins and the curtain goes up. A little disappointment of how many people are in the audience, a lot of excitement that those few people are going to be treated by us. Some of us watch quietly, hiding in the wings until our friends come off stage and we help them change costumes to go on again. When it's our turn to go on, we are ready at least two scenes early, anxious to show our own talent instead of watching others dance.
9:00 and it's just about finale time. Everyone gathers on stage in the way choreographed by our director, and we line up and dance the biggest and happiest we have all night. Almost crying because of the emotional story line, we grin big and leave an impression the audience will never forget. We line up to bow and the audience goes wild, we get a standing ovation. The curtain goes down and we all race to unhook our costumes and take our pointe shoes off our sore feet. We stand and listen to our director praise us, criticize us, advise us.
9:30 and we are out of our dance clothes, stage make up off and regular make up perfected, and we put on our dresses, help each other do hair, and head down to greet our friends and family who came to support us.
10:00 and we are heading home, exhausted but the most content we have been in a long time. Time to go to sleep to do the same tomorrow.