Warm Beginning on a Cold Day

Dancers:  Norma Fong, Yu-mien Wu,
Mayuko Hosoai, & Kelly Del Rosario

I unlock the studio door and enter the room at 8:45 am this morning.  Being the first company of the morning to use the space, I enter the dark black box theater, drapes undrawn, mirrors covered, on one of the coldest mornings we have had in a long time.  My dancers start to arrive, barely awake, all bundled up, mitten covered hands holding their early morning coffee, but in great spirits.  Not one cranky person in the bunch, they all take off their outdoor layers, relayer their dance clothing, and begin to find what is at this moment a frozen body by warming up in the oh so cold space.

As they warm-up, I begin to run through the itinerary for the rehearsal period.  There are so many things to think about.  We have two months left.  And by two months, I really mean we have an average of about 12 rehearsals left.  The past several weeks have been so hectic in and out of the studio.  There's costumes, music, artists, fliers, posters, programs, etc. to think about.

Also, what about the piece itself?  Is the concept of Moveable Feast enough to intrigue the audience?  The bigger picture seems to be interesting but if the piece itself isn't well crafted and executed, then the concept becomes nothing else but a study.  I still want to engage the audience through the piece itself.  So in contemplating about each section, I came up with what I think the "story" or feeling of the piece is to me.  If I can create a plot for myself, I am able to find my beginning, middle, and end.  Once I feel at ease with the piece, I will then be able to concentrate on the concept of the whole evening.

So by 9:15 am, my dancers are ready to move.  We go over several sections, add, edit, clean, and work out kinks.  By 10:15 am, we are pinning costumes, and taking a 5 minute water break.  A new solo is created, we run a section of the final piece, and casting is reset.

Are we in good shape?  I'm still not sure.  There is more of a semblance of a piece.  I'm still fishing for it.  But on this cold February day, we keep on plugging away.

We all say our goodbyes at 11:15 am.  Everyone seems to be in good spirits.  It's 2 hours in the life of a dancer.  The cold and the darkness we walked into didn't interrupt the work we were all there hoping to get out of the day.  It's the love of creating that we all have in common.  And from that rehearsal, we all go to our next jobs and continue to create.