Goose Lake
Recently I was invited to attend the Creative Arts Academy's production of The Goose Girl in Bountiful, Utah. This ballet was based not on the original tale but directly on my book. (FYI - you can always base a dance, play, film, etc on a book without permission if it's not for profit--i.e. admission is free, it's done in an educational environment, etc.)
I wasn't sure what kind of production this would be. It was performed in a school auditorium and done by a dance academy, so I guessed it would be small and simple. Imagine my surprise when character after character is introduced: the queen, young Selia, the aunt, young Ani, Falada, the key mistress, Talone, the king, the nursemary Caleb Loncriss and her sisters...this was a long, detailed production that included almost every scene from the book! It was amazing, and they all did such a fantastic job. We even met Ratger, Tatto, Frigart, Yulan, peace-keepers, Ideca, the little brown bird Ani hears in the Forest. The littlest girls were mostly birds, and there were pigeons, owls, swans, geese, and others (even Jok!). I understood what fun it is for some authors to see their books become movies so they can meet incarnations of their characters. Selia in the Forest with Ungolad and the guards was a terrific scene, Ani chasing the geese, Enna's dance (which Finn briefly joins). Yes, they had real boys. There were sword fights between the guards. There were romantic dances between Ani and Geric. I commended the boys--some teenage boys would no doubt think it lame to be in a ballet. But I thought these lads showed real wisdom--the girl to boy ratio was about 15 to 1. I couldn't help but wonder what backstage romances might have bloomed during rehearsals.
After when I met the cast (all 150 of them) I gave Finn a kiss on the cheek. I couldn't help it. He was so cute. Here's a photo of me with the cast we took at curtain call (you can't see all of them in this shot unfortunately--it was a massive group). They invited me up there, and then all the dancers spontaneously rushed together. It was a really fun moment. I felt guilty getting so much attention though, since putting on the ballet had been an enormous undertaking and I didn't deserve any credit for it. But they were all very sweet.