Princess Information

WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE REHEARSALS

You will be dancing a lot and learning the pageant flow. You will also be costumed. 

You will learn how to curtsy and walk with your hands always out. You’ll also learn the pose, the arch formations, the different lines, and all of the logistics that  create the Pageant. 

Because the princesses work so hard to learn alllllll about the Pageant, the Participants don’t have to. They just show up and have fun. 

WHAT TO EXPECT AS FAR AS COSTUMING

The goal of the Princess Pageant is to make a very special, very magical experience for the Participants. The princesses are CRUCIAL in doing this and the Pageant Team takes the character assignments very seriously. It is incredibly challenging each year to fit each person, there is only one of two sizes of each individual costume. You will not get to choose your costume, you will be assigned based on the size of costume that fits you and what the costuming team thinks you look best in. The goal is to make the group, as a whole, look magical and every character assignment adds to this effort! 

You will be expected to wear your own underclothes and shoes. Some costumes *could* fit a girl better *if* the girl was wearing high heels. When being costumed, consider telling the costumer that you would be willing to wear heels if you are. 

You are in charge of wearing a copious amount of makeup  and styling your hair to a height that seems unnaturally huge or wearing a wig. If any of this is uncomfortable for you, this service is not a good fit. Please tell Jaron that you would like to withdraw.

WHAT TO EXPECT AS FAR AS CHOREOGRAPHY

The dancing is basic, but there is a LOT of it. Please be prepared to practice on your own time. 

WHAT TO EXPECT FOR THE TEA PARTY

The Tea Party is on Friday and you’ll come at 4 and eat dinner together. Then you’ll get into costume. You’ll greet the Participants when they arrive and they will choose a princess as their partner. You’ll help her eat her dinner (you’ve already eaten and you can’t eat in your costume). You’ll get your portrait taken with your Participant, you’ll meet with the AV specialist + your Participant’s mom to make sure her AV works for the Pageant. Then you’ll dance with your Participant – the dance you’ve learned at the rehearsals. The Participants think you’re just dancing together, but the moms and you know that this is a rehearsal for the next day. Then we have a dance party! 

WHAT TO EXPECT FOR THE PAGEANT

You’ll show up at 11 and eat, then get into costume. We’ll have a short rehearsal on the stage and then you’ll wait for your Participant to arrive. You’ll make her feel extra special! Then the Pageant begins. 

We have an excellent Backstage Manager, Crenda Lynn, who directs all of the comings and goings behind the curtain. She will be at the rehearsals and it is imperative that all the princesses listen to her and direct all of their questions to her. The Participants have fragile bodies that cannot be out for long periods of time and it is crucial that we are expedient in the execution of the pageant. We have to move quickly and with clean organization throughout the entirety of the pageant, Crenda Lynn is responsible for this and the princesses’ responsibility is to listen to her and do what she says. 

This is the Pageant flow:

Meg Johnson, Princess Pageant Founder, will speak
Meg will kill some time while we wait for any Participants who might be running late. Hopefully there are none. 

Opening Dance
This is just the Princesses and it is one of the dances you learned at rehearsals

Participant Introductions
This is the entrance line you’ve practiced

Participant Presentations
This is why you checked the AV during the Tea Party. Most Participants show a video, but some choose to sing, dance, or whatever. You need to ensure that you ask your Participant how she wants you to participate with her during this presentation. It lasts 2 minutes. The Participants alternate the sides of stage that they come in from, be aware of what is expected from you. This helps us go quickly from one to the other. If it takes 30 seconds for a Participant to get onstage… times that by 36 Participants = way too log. This is an efficient process that we learn during the rehearsals. Please take it very seriously. Also, if a Participant wants to dance and use the whole stage – awesome! That is great and we encourage that, please just enter and exit from her assigned side of the stage. 

Special Dance Number
One Participant named Emmalene will sign the words to a song with her princess (Jasmine) while we have guest dancers. This is new this  year because we’ve discovered that the princesses need some extra time to get their Participants situated in the line for the Awards Ceremony before the princesses are ready to flit back out onstage in front of the curtain. 

Awards Ceremony
Your Participants are backstage in a line, you’re in front of the curtain with the other 40+ princesses. The MC will invite you all back out and you’ll daintily flit out and get into two lines, a V shape that points toward the opening of the curtain in the center. The MC will then read an award and the curtains will open. You’ll curtsy in a grand way to the Participant and then rush into the pose. The photographer will snap a picture of the Participant with all the princesses, and she’ll be escorted off. Repeat. 

Princess and Participant Dance
You learned this during the rehearsals and you practiced once during the Tea Party. It’s beautiful. 

After the Princess and Participant dance, you’ll escort your Participant off Stage L and outside to the After Party. You will take many pictures with all the audience and congratulate all of the Participants! There is food here, but again, don’t eat in your costumes. At 4:30 pm, go change, check in your costume to Sophie, and come back out and feast on all the cotton candy your beautiful heart desires. You can go home at 5 pm. 

Then it’s over for another year.