Day One At School

Yesterday was day one... And this morning when I went to get out of bed was a big reminder that I was in rehearsals for 8 hours yesterday.  Ouch.

So, we rehearse at an old abandoned mall called The Waccamaw.  It's basically a huge one-level mall that's been taken over by dancers.  There are rehearsal floors that have been laid down and spiked in the 4 largest rooms, and the others are filled with company management offices and wardrobe.  We have been rehearsing there for the past few years, so it's always nice to go back to somewhere familiar for torture :)  I had my first costume fitting yesterday and got 3 of my old costumes back (I like them, they fit me well!) and my old heels to use for rehearsals.  We sang first thing and then spent the rest of the day learning and cleaning "Rock and Roll".  The way the rehearsal process goes is that we learn one number a day until the show is complete.  Then, we start to piece everything together.  We learned "Rock and Roll" yesterday, but may not return to it for 3 days.  So, it's up to us to do our homework. (Hence why we call it "school"!)  We have notebooks and music folders standing by while we rehearse so we can go make choreography notes every chance we get.

The floor is marked out the same way the stage will be.  It's basically a huge grid.  Downstage (in the front) the stage is numbered from "0" to "24" on each side of the stage.  (0 being the middle, and numbering out to 24 on each side)  Then, on each side going from downstage to upstage, (front to back) the stage is lettered from "A" to "N".  There is a big blue star which marks the very center of the stage, and other miscellaneous markings.  There are also lines going from stage right to stage left, the dotted, the red, the green, the brown and the blue.  It's difficult to explain this, but when they tell us where to stand think of being in a game of battle ship.  "Alanna, you'll be toeing the green, at 5, and then you'll travel to 11 between L and M."  YIKES!  As you could imagine, very overwhelming your first year trying to understand it all!  Toeing, heeling, standing on; yes they are that specific.  And you better make it there everytime, too!  Once you learn where you're going your travels on the stage become muscle memory and there's no need to glance at the floor every 5 seconds to figure out where you're going!  I'll have to take pictures.  It's much easier to understand that way!  Time to shower and do some studying!