Fame! I'm gonna live forever ... Saturday, March 17, 2007

North Eugene's dance team performed a "Sound of Music"-inspired routine at the state dance championships, Mar. 16-17, in Portland.

All of the teams at the OSAA state dance championships have a theme for their performance. Some are more developed than others: North Eugene's dance was based on jazzed-up tracks from The Sound of Music, and Lincoln's was all about fire. I wish I had a photo of Newberg's dancers--they looked like some kind of hippie cowboys, with flower-print bikini tops and bottoms over a white, long-fringed leotard and knee-high white boots. But it was a sixties-themed performance, including selections from Jimi Hendrix and Hair. Those were the memorable themes among the scattered selection of performances I saw yesterday and today.

Others were less clear. Hermiston, for example, was about "color and movement," or something like that. I don't want to take anything away from the dancers, who worked hard and, to my untrained eye, did a fine if unspectacular job.

I do have to wonder about their costumes, though. Women always complain about the unwearable bridesmaid dresses they get stuck with in their closets. I'm not sure whether dancers ever expect to get any additional use for a costume, but I might be bold enough to suggest that the best reuse for Hermiston's might be as an alternative energy source. Preferably in some kind of incinerator system.

Jordan Smalley (center), Stephanie Rowden, and other members of Hermiston's Stardust Dance Team perform Saturday night in the final round of the state dance championships in Portland.

One of the most challenging aspects of digital photography is accurate color reproduction. For me at least, purple seems to be the most difficult color to capture accurately. Needless to say, the dresses in the photo at right are bright purple (Hermiston's school color) with fluorescent orange trim. They added some sparkly ribbon to the orange parts and bright orange hair bands for good measure.

How did this clash happen? Perhaps orange fabric was on sale. Maybe in rural Oregon they need some safety orange on their clothes so hunters can see them. I don't think they needed pity points from the judges. Perhaps it was a calculated fashion-forward risk by the designer?

Sorry, it didn't work. Not even in 1988.