So on Tuesday night when I actually got the singing, the feet, and the rope together for the first time!!! there was much hooting and hollering to be heard from both Sara and me! Oh thank God! Now believe me, it's far from perfect... and it's one of those things that will be a crapshoot every night... but I can at least fudge my way through it now! Yee haw! So the next three weeks promises drilling, oh, and the bit about incorporating those sixteen bars into the rest of the number in which I'll have already done a bunch of singing and dancing with the kid. Oh, and the high B natural I have to hit at the end of all of it... but... never mind all that! The biggest hurdle is passed. Onward.

And so the week went: classes, rehearsals onstage and up at the studio, running the first act scenes a few times with BT (our resident director) and young Alex, just to keep us on top of things: a bit of a holding, improving, and detailing pattern. I got to do Solidarity (a twelve minute number) onstage with the ensemble for the first time. That was a treat. Having met and worked with all the young ballet girls, it was great to meet the men who play the miners and the policemen. And once again, when suddenly there are hulking six foot bodies bouree-ing beside you, where before was only space... it's a whole new ball-game. Then there's the part where I went completely ass-over-tea-kettle while learning the bows (no irony there) and nearly crushed one of the children! Sorr-eeeee.

There was a wonderful tourist capper to the week. On Sunday night I went on a cruise of the New York harbour in an eighty foot sailing ship called the Adirondack. Bobby and Andy, two of the child guardians, invited me, along with their friend Vanessa, her dog Tallulah, and Matt Trent (a new company member from Australia), and what a wonderful experience we all had. The ship cast off from the Chelsea Piers at 8:30pm and we sailed down the Hudson surrounded by the city lights of both Manhattan and New Jersey, alongside Battery Park, and out into the harbour to see the Statue of Liberty. She's pretty impressive any time, but at night she just glows against the night sky. So awesome. And Andy recited her inscription as we passed: "give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses..." a bit touching really, and a legacy worth remembering. She's a sturdy gal, with thick arms, and small breasts, but she looks really fine from the silent stillness of a ship on a warm, clear Sunday; no sound but the flapping of the sailcloth, and the bubble of conversation from the passengers. Then, it just so happened that as we were tacking back up the Hudson, there was a huge fireworks display up-river! It must have lasted for at least twenty minutes, and it felt like New York was putting it on just for me: here Kate: welcome: thought we'd put on a show...