Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Carmen Miranda Wants Her Moves Back

Due to my gullibility servant’s heart, I have (somehow) recently taken on the job of Children’s Choir at my church.  I’m not really sure how it all went down, or how it was decided that I was qualified to run a few minutes of choir practice every Sunday night, although I seem to recall my music minister throwing around words like “fun” and “ministry” and “God” which made it all seem totally easy and perfectly normal for me to try to wrangle a group of 18 children ranging in age from 4-12 for an hour once a week.  How it came about is still a bit of a mystery to me, but there’s no doubt it’s definitely happening.

Let me just say that, as a person who has no children of her own but was once one, Sunday nights are hard times for anyone to concentrate- the weekend is almost over and you just want to cram all the fun you can handle into those last few hours before reality sets back in.  I get it, I totally understand.  However, my understanding does not stop me from feeling that there is a slight possibility that the children in my choir are sneaking behind their parents’ backs on Sunday afternoons and eating several spoonfuls of sugar before coming to church on Sunday nights.  It’s just a sneaking suspicion, but it’s either that or they’re all just TOO EXCITED! AND HAPPY! TO BE! AT CHOIR TOGETHER!!!!  My money’s on the sugar.

Other than a slightly wired feel to each rehearsal, we have a very cute little musical all picked out and I am so excited to see it coming together.  While I personally never had much of a church choir growing up because our little church was too tiny, I have sung in many a choir in my day and the most important thing to any great show-stopping group is the perfect combination of catchy music and rockin’ dance moves.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not talking full out ‘Glee’ dance routine- including, but not limited to any combination of pyrotechnics, laser light shows and live bands.  I’m talking about a nice little choir who has mastered the art of the box step (Not that I’m encouraging dancing amongst the children, mind you).

Anyway, one of the songs in this year’s musical is called “The Fruit That Is Rooted In You” all about the fruit of the Spirit and it has been stuck in my head for two full days.  Count ‘em- TWO- 1, 2 days.  It’s a precious little song with music in the style ala Carmen Miranda:

 

SO, so good.

(Not to be confused with the musical stylings of Charo). 

The whole thing is golden, but the highlight, for me personally, begins at 1:05.

There’s so much that is so right in this video.  But, I need to pause for a moment to point out two important details: 1. What the heck kinda workout is Charo doing because I am missing out? 2. Where do you think you find men’s high-waisted pants made out of jewel-toned glitter fabric?

Let’s just say I was already dreading the costume’s and choreography we’d need in order to do our own Carmen/Charo tribute song justice when I came across this video of our song, and a little jewel in its own right:

And then it hit me.  All this time I had been worried about the costumes I should have spent worrying about the choreography.

The Good News:  Choreography?  Between Carmen, Charo and Corrie the Choreographer we should be in business.

The Bad News?  High-Waisted, Jewel-Toned Glitter Pants? Never gonna happen.

The Even Worse News?  This song is going to be stuck in my head until May.

1 comment:

  1. 1. Carmen makes me want to dye my hair black, slap on the Clinique Red Drama and put a bowl of plastic fruit on my head. And then dance around.

    2. I can almost sew in a staight line- you find me jewel-toned glitter material, and I'll find a way to make those pants happen. Would that be just the thing your kids need to wear to make this musical sparkle??!!! and shine??!! My question is, why are their sleeves shredded and hanging in tatters? Don't get me wrong, they look great on the dance floor. I'm just not sure I understand.

    3. What a sweet little song! I know the kids will do a great job! Good luck with the choreography...

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