Bossa Nova Baby

What a massive 48 hours I’ve just had over here in Sydney, Australia.  I’ve been over here taking part in a promotional video that is being produced, directed and choreographed by my granddaughter, Etana.

Etana has forged an entertainment career over here in Sydney since she moved here in 2020 and studied at Ettingshausens Pro.  Way back in March 2021, Etana performed a solo dance piece as part of her study’s assessment and now, exactly 4 years to the day, I’m taking part in the fully choreographed, made for film version of that solo piece.

The music for the piece is Bossa Nova Bay (1963) by Elvis and Etana has done a phenomenal job choreographing and directing the work.  The venue, Lazybones Lounge in Sydney’s Marrickville is absolutely amazing.  Themed around the American blues and jazz scene through the 30s and 40s, the moody red lighting made this a great venue for our filming.

To get here, it was an early morning start on Sunday morning, catching the 6am flight out of Wellington direct to Sydney.  I was travelling with my eldest son Dave who was kind enough to manage all the logistics like hotel and rental car, I think Etana designated him as the “Talents Assistant”!

Sydney, here we come!

On arrival, we grabbed the rental car and made our way to the second of two rehearsals before actual filming, which was scheduled for Monday night.  We made our way to Tripple Menace Studio in Marrickville where around half of the performers were meeting to work through the dance and timing.  This is where I got to really understand my role in the video production, which was a cameo at the beginning and then a reveal at the end, which you’ll get to see once post production is done and we have the final video.  Rehearsal was a couple of hours after which we went and checked into the hotel and grabbed some dinner with Etana.

Monday was filming day at Lazybones Lounge and we met all of the performers there, set up the bar area and sorted out the lighting.  The performers are so talented, pick up the choreography so quickly and are so professional (while having a bunch of fun).  Three hours of solid filming and we’re done!  What a fantastic opportunity and what an honour to be asked by my granddaughter to appear in her film.  She does such an amazing job and has great such vision and drive.  I can’t wait to see the final product.

All of the above pictures were taken by Dave on his iPhone, so not the official pics from the day, but to give you a small teaser, here’s a video to wet the appetite!

The team were amazing. My hat goes off to Etana for all of the hard work and then prescision execution on the night. Ben the videographer was so accomodating and professional and all the dancers, wow, such talent!! They all have such very bright futures and are beautiful humans!