And the Mariposas Take Flight!

This afternoon, at 3:00 pm in a restaurant called Tropicoco, the Mariposa Summer Camp 2011 presented their final show. Our girls were the culmination of this show, so they went on at about 4:00 pm.

The girls arrived at Tropicoco around 2:30. As usual, there was the typical pre-show crazy. We were running around trying to create an audience-loooking formation with the chairs. Tropicoco is a restaurant, so we had to take the chairs from all the tables and arrange them in rows. It ended up looking great. The girls all meandered in and we gathered them all for a theatre group meeting off to the side. We then realized that we were missing one of our girls!! No one knew where she was, and all our girls were freaking out, because this girl has kind of a major role. Together we came up with a contingency plan, in case she did not show, but luckily, five minutes later, she arrived. We were all so relieved. We gave them a quick pep talk about having fun, going for it, all that, and they were all super nervous but excited. When we told them they were going last, they all cheered. We did our customary group cheer and sent them off to get changed into the clothes they had brought, their "costumes."

Said "costumes" were basically just whatever nice clothing the girls wanted to wear. They all looked beautiful. The show began promptly at 3:00 pm, which was totally bizarre, because we were anticipating that all the parents would show up late, pushing the show till 3:30, which was really when they intended to start. However, all the Dominicans showed up EARLY, which is the only time I have ever seen that happen. We had a pretty full house, and the crowd was quite enthusiastic. The show began with the youngest girls, in the sports group, who did this adorable gymnastics/circus presentation, all to some great music. The audience was totally into it. The next group was the Environmental group, who did a dance that involved most kids in the group, and then they spelled out "MEDIO AMBIENTE" (environment). Each girl had a sign and said their letter and an adjective that began with the same letter. The funny thing was that they spelled it backwards, so it looked more like "ETNEIBMA OIDEM". Needless to say, we all enjoyed that.

The second to last group to perform was the other bunch of older girls in the dance group. They did three short numbers, one was pure belly-dancing that involved veils and the whole bit. That was super cool. Then they morphed that into another song that mixed the belly-dancing and their own music, which was nice. The final section they did was a song of the girls' own choosing, and their own choreography. So, if you can't imagine what that looked like, just think of a Britney spears video. It was well-done and the audience got pretty into it. They love to see those girls up there shaking their hips. =)

Our group was next!! We went up there and gave the audience the title "Entre Nosotras," and I had to be onstage to run the music. I'm not going to go through every detail of the performance, but let me just say that it was magnificent. I could not, in my wildest dreams, have imagined them doing any better. Not to mention the audience was almost dead-silent and captivated. When the girls began to speak about drugs and prostitution, the room was hushed and many audience members told us afterwards how they got chills. The reception to the more serious material was incredible. The audience laughed heartily during the telenovela, rightfully so, because it was absolutely hilarious. The girls danced to their songs, laughing, smiling, and putting passion into their movements. They sang their hearts out, singing "Color Esperanza" as the audience sang along and clapped. It was really pretty magical, the connection in those final moments between the girls and the audience. I nearly cried. It was just amazing. The show ends with the girls all standing in a line, clapping and singing the final words of "Color Esperanza" ocapella, which worked better than it ever had before in the show. The audience cheered wildly at the end of the performance, and the girls just could not stop smiling. They were so proud.

My heart is full right now with love for all of the girls. This afternoon they showed just how much they have all grown during the process of creating this piece of theatre. To quote a certain play, they showed us all their heartskin today, and we couldn't be any prouder. They are an amazing group and as a group we have accomplished so much more than this wonderful piece of theatre. We are so unbelievably happy.

Our work here has culminated with a huge success, but this is a success we can feel so much more proud of, because the show was not the only thing involved here. It was only one tiny part, and their performance of it proved so much more. We can't even control our excitement.

We want to thank you all for being part of this tremendous journey, and we hope that if you have any thoughts on our experiences, you will share them with us here. We have loved making this process as interactive as possible.

All the best, and I would like to give a brief shout out to my roommate Alysia, and our dear father who is on his way down as we speak!!

Peace, love, and Mariposa. Mariposa all the way.

<3 Anna and Kelly