Proof that I do update the page with submissions! Okay so I got this quite some time ago from a gal who was kind enough to send it to me. Life has been crazy and I have not been able to get it up, however! ::trumpet fanfare:: It is up now! Without further ado I give you: Falling over in Riverdance
My freshman year, I was a scared little piccalo player in Derry's marching band( I am now a mellophone player in my junior year). We live in the middle of nowhere so my band director always wants to beat the neighboring town's show. You know, just a little rivalary. Well, I was not the best marcher; I had issues being on the right foot, staying in step, etc etc..just like most freshmen. We decided to do all three Riverdance songs. If anyone has ever played these, you realize they are not the easiest and of course my director made sure we didn't get the simple version. Now add a very complex drill. See the problem? Well, my first week was going great. I was getting the music down and we knew all three drills. My director assigned her assistant to go and stand on some skaffolding and film us. This is standard procredure, but since I was a freshman, I was scared. The first two songs went great. I mean, we weren't perfect but we were getting it. The third song...that was a different story. We were doing great until we hit the very middle of song, the climax. Our drill was insane, we formed 6 diamonds, each one inside the other with the smallest being centered around the 50 yard line. This diamond was composed of 4 people, one being me. What we had to do was go around the diamond shape in 16 counts, and then reverse it. From my spot, (4 off the center hash), this meant I had to go down at a diagonal 4 to the 50 then backmarch 4 diagonally to the center hash, 4 backmarch to the 50 again, and then 4 diagonally down, back to the center hash. Then I had to do it all again in the opposite direction, ending where I had started. Mind you, this was at a very fast tempo and I had to take long steps. Well I made it around the first time, not perfectly, but I did it, and I started heading back around. I made through the first 8 counts and was on my final 4, counting in my head... 5... 6...7...thud! I fell flat on my back, much to my surprise, and sent my glasses and piccalo flying. I picked myself up as fast as I could and sprinted to my next spot, hoping no one saw and knowing if I didn't move it, I would be tromped on. I ended the song right in line with everyone else, breathless, and praying my director missed it.
I wasn't so lucky. Turns out, her assistant had zoomed in on the center diamond, because we were doing so well, and caught the entire thing on tape. He was cracking up and of course, told my director. She even asked if I was okay before the entire band. I hoped we would rerun the song, anything to get my fall off the tape...but my director just had to see it. So in front of the entire band, I had to watch myself fall over, pick myself up and run. If that wasn't bad enough, we watched it probably 6 times, simply because it was truely that amusing. By the end the day, my brother, who was then a junior, pretended he didn't know me, and I was the official band clutz. Needless to say I haven't lived it down yet, and every year at the ending band banquet, one or more upperclassmen will mention it, just because they can.
