Acute Curtain Call Addiction (Ballet Short-Short)

The maestro's reminiscences about her time in an overseas ballet company long ago.

...It seems that for many people at a regional ballet performance, it was their first time seeing ballet, and the final standing ovation continued endlessly. Even after we lowered the curtain and announced that the show was over, the audience wouldn't leave. The curtain calls were endless, too...

Ai, who was listening, was surprised.

Isn't that wonderful? It must have been a happy experience.

That night, we were scheduled to travel by bus overnight and perform two shows, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, the next day. Even though the director explained that, they kept asking us to dance again.

So what did you do?

A riot was about to break out, so to appease them, we danced for about 30 minutes. The applause just wouldn't stop. By the time we got back to the bus, the date had changed. That was a long time ago. There was an era when we were sought after like that. I wonder what will happen with Ai's generation, given the declining birthrate.

The maestro wrinkled her already wrinkled face even more.

That becomes a habit. I even developed an acute case of it, and now it has become chronic, so I find myself wishing to receive a curtain call like that once again.

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I am participating in Tara-haka-sama's project.
This week's theme is acute curtain call addiction.